It's the first day of fall already! How did that happen? Here I am still getting to know the summer birds in our yard, and fall migration is now well underway, so it's hard to know who's been here all summer and who's just passing through. Eastern Bluebirds light up fence posts:
Black-capped Chickadees are all over the place (and adorable as always):
Just like at our old place in Connecticut, the Tufted Titmice were the first birds to discover the window feeders we put up:
And now the titmice and chickadees come in for seeds all day. We're up to three feeders and these guys empty them every few days! Titmice are so brave and adventuresome, I'm glad they're around to figure out that we're leaving food in these weird plastic things:
Other birds are finding food around the house as well. I loved seeing this tiny Ruby-throated Hummingbird drinking from some hosta blossoms right near a window:
And the American Goldfinches keep coming in to feast on seeds from the purple coneflowers at the front of the house:
Acrobatics are sometimes required to get these seeds, but finches are good at that sort of thing:
Mmm, seeds:
This Northern Flicker was stretching and showing off its super fancy costume the other day; those yellow shafts on its wing feathers really are amazing:
And I never noticed the Mickey Mouse silhouettes on this bird's tail before:
It's always worth admiring Flickers from below:
We have a whole host of woodpeckers besides Northern Flickers in our yard as well. Downy and Red-bellied Woodpeckers are regulars, and I was very excited to hear heavy, deliberate hammering the other day and look up to see a Pileated Woodpecker hard at work on a tree next to the house. Living in the woods is amazing!
A small flock of Swainson's Thrushes has been hanging around recently, giving me the chance to admire these lovely birds with their freckled breasts and beige spectacles:
These small thrushes (smaller than a robin, anyway) have been cleaning the berries off of a dogwood tree near the house:
Yes, I'm just watching you, bird; keep eating:
I was able to admire a Swainson's Thrush up close under very unfortunate circumstances recently, when we found a dead individual under one of our windows facing the woods. It was such a beautiful creature, so small and perfect (the feathers on its belly practically glowed, they were so white), and so horribly sad. We've put static-cling decals on the windows, to try to help the birds see the glass. No more window strikes please!
With all the bird activity around here, there are many more happy sightings than sad ones. The warblers have been moving through in their kaleidoscope of muted fall costumes, but they haven't been very cooperative for my camera. Here's a bright American Redstart tail, does that count?
Huge flocks of Common Grackles -- hundreds of birds at a time -- have been sweeping over the trees around our yard in recent days:
So many grackles!
Now that fall's officially here, I'm excited to see what other creatures will show up in the weeks to come. Ohio is quite the adventure so far!
I went back to the Bent of the River Audubon sanctuary this morning to check up on May's progress. The trees have really started to leaf out over the past few days, and the explosion of diversity is only getting more intense!
A slew of warblers were flitting around in the woods and among blooming apple trees, many of them different from the cast of characters who lit up these woods last week. A gorgeous male Magnolia Warbler came close enough for a few pictures:
He mostly hung around just over my head, but I was happy to admire his fancy costume from below:
This fellow was exhibiting some excellent hunting skills, peering under leaves and around branches for tasty bugs:
And every few seconds he came up with a morsel, often a small caterpillar:
A few whacks against a branch, and then the caterpillar was gone (yum), and it was on to the next meal:
A male Common Yellowthroat (aptly named) was hunting in these trees as well:
Blue-winged Warblers foraged in a flowering tree in the fields (this bird even has bands on its legs):
And I was happy to come across a female Black-throated Blue Warbler as she worked her way through the undergrowth:
An American Restart (yet another warbler) was fluttering around in the woods:
With all that gray and yellow, I assumed at first that this was a female redstart, but those black splotches on the face and chest make this (I believe) a second-year (i.e., one year old) male. He won't get his adult black and orange breeding costume until the fall, but apparently he might still find a mate and breed this year. Well, good luck, splotchy bird!
There were plenty of other creatures besides warblers, of course. I was surprised to see a few White-throated Sparrows still around, since I expected these birds to have left for their northern breeding territories by now:
A pair of Black-capped Chickadees were busy excavating a nest cavity in an old log, and I watched them come in and out with beaks (and faces) full of sawdust:
Digging through wood is a messy job!
One of my favorite discoveries this spring is that Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are super common at Bent of the River (whereas I see them only rarely everywhere else). This female grosbeak was selecting twigs for a nest this morning:
And I came across a male grosbeak as he puffed and preened after a late morning bath. I had no idea that Rose-breasted Grosbeaks also have rose-colored armpits, but there you go!
Shake it out, gorgeous bird!
Most of the early spring flowers have now faded in the woods, but new flowers like this Jack in the Pulpit are taking their place:
And this Black Rat Snake (so identified by its black and white checkered belly) found a cool resting spot in this nest box several feet up a tree. Could it have found a meal inside the box as well?
How exciting that -- with the Northern Black Racer of a couple weeks ago -- I've now seen Connecticut's two large black snakes in this same place. And the array of birds (especially warblers) continues to astound.
Hooray for diversity!
Fall migration brings an ever-changing cast of characters through the trees outside our apartment's windows, and I love it! In the past week, we've had several cool and unusual visitors stop by, many of them warblers that I only rarely get to see. Here are some highlights!
A few American Redstarts (a species of warbler) have appeared to flutter and forage in our trees, including one fancy black-and-orange male (who was too quick for a picture). Mostly, these birds have been females and young males in their more subdued (but still quite pretty) outfits:
A camera-shy Northern Parula (another warbler) has stopped by a couple of times, sporting patches of yellow/green both on its chest and on its back:
And a dainty Black-throated Green Warbler brought some bright color to one of our recent gray days:
(Male Black-throated Green Warblers have black throats in the spring, although I'm not sure where the "green" part of the name comes from.)
My favorite warbler so far, though, has been this lovely Cape May Warbler (a totally new bird for me):
How pretty is this bird? (So pretty.) The subtle brown/gray/yellow patterning on its face makes me think of fall (the leaves are starting to change now!), and its yellow-and-black chest is just too cool:
That's one bright yellow chin!
Along with the warblers, a Red-eyed Vireo has come through as well:
And even though they're not new or fancy, I still can't help admiring our local Black-capped Chickadees. This one had an intense grooming session near our window recently, cleaning its fluffy underarms:
And preening each of its long primary feathers, one at a time:
(You seem to be standing on your wing feathers there, bird. Does that help with the grooming process?)
There's been so much variety already, and there's still a lot of migration to come! I wonder what the next week will bring. :)
It was Bird Central at the meadows of Naugatuck State Forest this morning! In the week since my last visit, a new flood of migrants have arrived in Connecticut, and pretty much all of our summer birds are now here and getting ready to breed. And boy are they ever ready. The theme of this morning's visit was Male Birds Showing Off; there were bright colors everywhere, lots of singing, and I saw quite a few behaviors I'd never seen before. I've got a lot to share, so here we go!
Most of the male birds I saw this morning were showing off in your standard way: Wear a fancy costume, get up to a high perch, and sing your heart out. There were quite a few Yellow Warblers doing this in various parts of the fields:
These birds have a fairly plain costume, but it's so shockingly bright, and I love that subtle orange barring on these guys' chests:
A male American Redstart (another warbler) was singing from waaay up in the trees, his stark black and orange outfit standing out among new yellow-green leaves:
A male Rose-breasted Grosbeak was similarly striking on his own new-leaf stage:
(Hehe, birds look kind of funny when they sing.)
Other birds were using special tricks to be extra fancy. A male Eastern Towhee was flying from branch to branch with his tail fanned out for maximum fanciness:
This male Baltimore Oriole was certainly eye-catching already in his brilliant orange and black:
But then he fluffed out the feathers on his back so they covered his wings.... So much orange! (I don't actually know for sure that this is a display tactic, but it sure looked fancy to me!)
The smallest bird in these fields also made one of the most gregarious displays. I kept seeing male Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (perhaps the same individual, or maybe more than one) throughout my visit, a tiny fluffy dot perched on low bushes:
Or in the branches above my head:
But at one point, I watched a male hummingbird do a whole big aerial dance right at eye-level. This tiny bird was like a bouncing ball (or a swinging pendulum), zooming up, and down, and up again, in repetitive U-shaped arcs above the field, and buzzing the whole time. I've read that this is a courtship display, so maybe there was a female hiding somewhere in those bushes. I didn't really have a hope of recording this weird dance, so here's a blurry picture of the little guy zooming down from one of his upward spikes:
Tension was high in another part of the field, where Blue-winged Warblers were chasing each other back and forth between two clumps of trees. These birds were so obsessed with each other that they didn't seem to care about my presence at all. I got stuck in that field, actually, just standing there for several minutes with these bright yellow-and-gray darts sweeping past at waist height, sometimes so close that I could have reached out and touched them. (It was pretty thrilling.) These birds only landed for a few seconds at a time, but it was enough to grab a few pictures from closer to these pretty creatures than I've ever been:
Blue-winged Warblers are definitely sleek, and I love that thin black mask:
One of the birds landed so close to me at one point that I was having trouble keeping him in the frame. Pardon me, partially-cut-off bird, while I admire your pristine yellow and white belly for a moment:
It was an interesting experience, seeing these cool birds so close in seconds-long bursts over and over again. I'll take it!
I was wondering at the time whether I was seeing some sort of Blue-winged Warbler courtship ritual, but I'm pretty sure now that these were male warblers in the middle of an intense territory dispute. There was a lot of singing from all birds interspersed with the chasing, and even some physical tussles. Just before I left, two of the birds tangled together and fell to the ground near me. There are two tails sticking up out of the leaves in this next picture, and I'm pretty sure the one on the right (and hence the bird it's attached to) is upsidedown:
I took a few steps closer, and the birds popped up again -- I guess they just caught their breath:
Both birds flew off immediately (back to chasing) and seemed to be fine. One of the last things I expected to see when I went to the woods this morning was an avian wresting match!
I have a few more sights to share from this morning's walk (more birds), but this post is getting quite long enough. Look for a follow-up post soon!
