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!
This past Friday (the 23rd), while visiting with family in New Jersey for the holidays, Paul's dad and I took a trip out to the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge on the Jersey shore. This place is a haven for wintering shorebirds, including some very cool visitors from the far north (more on that later), and the trip was fantastic. We saw so many awesome things, and it was hard sometimes just to keep moving forward with all the activity around us. We saw at least 34 species of bird, including six I'd never seen before. I wasn't able to get pictures of everything, but here are some highlights from the trip! One of the main features of the refuge is an 8-mile drive through fresh- and saltwater marshes to get up close to the creatures hanging out there. But before we started on the drive, we got out of the car and poked around the shrubs and trees by the visitor's center for a little while. There were tons of small birds hanging out there, and we couldn't believe how unceasingly active they were! Along with the usual titmice, chickadees, etc., there was a particularly handsom Red-bellied Woodpecker, with more red on his face than I think I've seen before:
He even showed off his reddish-tinged belly, something I don't often get to see on these birds:
A beautiful female Eastern Towhee was scuffling in the dry leaves:
And we even saw an unusual visitor:
This Pine Warbler is supposed to be much farther south at this time of year, and it actually got flagged as "rare" and required confirmation when I reported it on eBird. (This is the first time something like that has happened to me.) It was a very active bird, and it didn't seem to care that it was a well out of its normal range.
Once we finally tore ourselves away from the songbirds and drove on into the wetlands, we were surrounded by waterfowl -- thousands of ducks and geese on every side. The Snow Geese, especially, come to this refuge in the winter in huge numbers, although these snow-white birds with black-tipped wings prefered to stay some distance away from us during this trip:
These birds spend their summers in the high arctic and their winters down here -- I'm always amazed when I think of creatures traveling so far to find suitable seasonal habitats. When our Snow Geese moved, their expansive flocks made quite an impressive sight streaming across the sky:
Some of the smaller waterfowl we saw were really cool as well. This adorable little bird is an American Coot -- it kept wiggling its tail as it paddled along:
I love the warm cinnamon patterns on these female Northern Pintails -- somehow I managed to not take any pictures of the male pintails, whose striking brown and white coloring and pointy black tails make them look like they might belong to a different species from the females:
And these Northern Shovelers look almost alien, with those monstrously oversized bills:
My favorite of the waterfowl, though, was one that we came across toward the end of the drive. A flock of about a dozen Tundra Swans, huge and white with black beaks and legs, were hanging out in the marsh with a bunch of Canada Geese and Green-winged Teal. Like the Snow Geese, the Tundra Swans spend their summers right at the very top of the continent, and it feels special to get to see them here all the way down here (even if this is their normal wintering ground). We watched a few of the Tundra Swans circle above the larger group:
And then come in for a landing:
The swans were very active, calling constantly to each other in a wonderfully musical honking/cooing sound. Here's a quick video I took -- you might need to turn the volume up a little to hear the calls clearly:
So the waterfowl was awesome, but that's not all we saw! There was a Peregrine Falcon feeding on top of a nesting platform:
And in possibly the best part of the trip, we watched two adult Bald Eagles taking part in what looked like a bonding ritual -- one eagle would bend down to the ground and then straighten up and touch beaks with the other eagle, perhaps passing it a tasty morsel:
While we watched, the eagles both startled and hopped up into the air at exactly the same time:
The two birds immediately settled back down again and continued their earlier activity. Whatever alarmed them must not have been any real threat.
The trip ended with an as-yet-unsolved mystery -- a rather large mammal swimming past us:
Its head doesn't look quite right for a mink, and I can't tell whether it might be a large rodent of some sort (a Nutria perhaps?). I'm open to suggestions if anyone has any ideas!
There were so many amazing things to see on this trip -- the reserve is well worth a visit.
After I discovered the shrubby fields at the North-Western end of Naugatuck State Forest last week, and had such an awesome time there, I decided yesterday morning that I couldn't stay away any longer. So off I went, bright and early! Once again, it was an exciting visit, with lots of new things to see.
The birds were out in abundance again, although I didn't have any super-close encounters this time. Even at a distance, though, this male Indigo Bunting was nothing short of spectacular:
He was cheeping loudly and keeping a watchful eye on a nearby female. The girls of this species are so dull compared to the guys -- basically brown without any clearly distinguishing features that I could see. The only way I could tell that these birds were a pair was because they were sharing the same trees and making the same sounds.
This is certainly the land of the towhee -- everywhere I went, these birds were flying around, calling, and scratching in the undergrowth -- and their nests must have recently emptied. This scruffy youngster flew over for a few seconds to check me out:
House Wrens are certainly not uncommon, but I'd never seen one of these birds before, so I was happy to spot a small group of them (presumably another recently-fledged family) in a tree.
House Wrens are rather plain-looking birds, but I think there's something quite attractive about the subtle patterns on its wings and tail.
As always, there were insects aplenty. Several of these large dragonflies -- Twelve-spotted Skimmers -- patrolled the area. This one is a young male, with beautiful white spots in addition to the black on its wings, but not yet old enough to develop the white tail that males of this species usually have:
This Little Wood Satyr was showing off its impressive eye-spots (here's a picture of the less-dramatic tops of this butterfly's wings):
I just love the little orange tips on this butterfly's antennae, and is that a horn on its head? "Satyr", indeed.
A plant stem was the stage for this interesting animal behavior:
These ants are tending their herd of aphids. As the aphids suck juices from the plant, they secrete a sweet sticky liquid, called "honeydew," which the ants then eat. So both species benefit from this relationship: the ants get a source of food, and the aphids get watchful protectors. The plants don't really get anything out of the deal, however.
There were all sorts of flowers in bloom, including the brilliantly orange Butterfly Weed that I noticed last week. Here's a closer picture of these blooms, actually even brighter in real life than they look here:
This large Bull Thistle -- introduced from Europe -- was a several-feet-tall mass of sprawling thorns, although its flowers were quite pretty:
The goldenrods were just starting to open their sprays of delicate flowers. I think this might be Early Goldenrod, although I'll be happy if someone corrects me:
Finally, I was entranced by this beautiful yellow flower, but I'm a bit stumped. It looks similar to Black-eyed Susan, but its center isn't particularly dark, and the petals don't look quite right. Does anyone reading this have any ideas as to what it might be?
I'm finding it harder to go for walks with all the intense heat we've been having, and even the early mornings are just barely temperate now. Here's hoping for a break in the weather, and soon!
This morning I ventured into a new part of the Naugatuck State Forest. Here, there were wide expanses of fields, bursting with wildflowers and dotted with small shrubs (perfect for birds to perch on and hide in), and surrounded by the deep forest. It was a very different sort of place from the ponds and woods I usually visit, and I have to say, aside from the couple dozen ticks I brushed off of my pant legs over the course of the walk, it was a pretty fantastic experience.
The first thing I noticed when I arrived were all the colors.
Everywhere I looked, there was yellow Black-eyed Susan, white yarrow and fleabane, and scattered brilliant orange Butterfly Weed, a member of the milkweed family (which the butterflies seem to love).
I love Black-eyed Susans. Pretty, pretty.
So yes, I saw tons of flowers, and more on that later. But right now, I have to take a quick turn to talk about birds, because I saw some things here that I've never seen before.
Namely, American Woodcocks. These birds are soooo cool, and even though I knew they lived in this area, and that this field/forest combo was the perfect habitat for them, I never actually expected to see any. Yet as I was walking along the forest edge, I happened to look down and see a dumpy figure nestled in the dead leaves just a few feet from the path:
Can you see the bird in the middle there? That's some pretty amazing camouflage -- like I said, I never expected to see one of these guys. And it wasn't until I was going through my pictures that I realized that there are actually two woodcocks here! Hello out-of-focus bird in the bottom left corner!
I would've loved to maneuver around and get a better picture (silly tree branches), but after only a couple camera clicks, the woodcocks sprang up and flew (noisily!) off into another part of the wood. I did get a picture of a fluffed-up woodcock tail as they were on their way out, though!
Seriously, though, these birds are awesome. Do a Google image search so you can better see the bizarre shape of their beaks and heads. Apparently their long beak is just perfect for hunting underground worms, and it even has a flexible tip that the bird can control. Crazy!
So that was my favorite part of the trip, but I had plenty of other fun bird encounters as well. There were Eastern Towhees everywhere, the males singing from the tops of small trees ("drink your tee-ee-ea"). One dashing fellow even set up shop fairly close to where I was standing:
I spent a little while playing hide-and-seek with a very bold male Common Yellowthroat (a type of warbler) in the understory of some bushes right next to the path. He was so close, but he insisted on hopping behind branches and leaves -- thank goodness for my camera's manual focus option!
Peek-a-boo!
A plainer female yellowthroat was hanging around, too -- possibly his mate -- but she wasn't really interested in a close-up photo shoot:
OK, I can go back to the wildflowers now. Since this was such a different habitat from what I'm used to, there were plenty of flowers here that I'd never seen before. There was pretty Spreading Dogbane:
Fringed Loosestrife (I'm quickly deciding that I'm a loosestrife fan; these flowers are just so appealing to me):
Narrow-leaved Mountain-mint:
Showy Tick-trefoil (does it have to have "tick" in its name?):
And Seedbox:
And where there are flowers, there are insects. I love the colors on this inchworm caterpillar (some sort of moth species, possibly of the genus Eupithecia), so perfectly matched to the yarrow flower it's made its home:
And I don't usually like to be any closer to wasps than I have to be, but that's what zoom lenses are for! This impressively big creature is a Great Golden Digger Wasp (Sphex ichneumoneus):
Call me crazy, but I actually think she's kind of cute (and no, I don't know for sure that this is a female):
The next time I feel up to braving the ticks, I will definitely be back here again. It was quite the adventure!
