I'm starting to figure out that April, May, and June are some of the busiest months of the year around here! Between work (especially in April and early May), gardening (yay!), and other time-sensitive outdoors tasks (the Garlic Mustard battle continues...), this is the third year in a row when I've let nature sightings accumulate on my computer for most of these months, which means I end up making a big summarizing blog post after spring has finished. So here we go!
After three years living on this property, I'm getting a pretty good sense of what's normal around here in terms of wildlife. So instead of providing a comprehensive summary this year, I'll share some highlights of especially exciting or new-to-me sightings in our yard, meadow, and woods. There have been a lot of wonderful surprises in the past few months! (Even with just the highlights, this is going to have to be two posts!)
Mammals
The trail camera has continued to provide an amazing glimpse into the goings-on in our woods, including views of several mammals that we almost never (or actually never!) get to see otherwise. One of the coolest results from the trail camera this spring was the first confirmation that we do indeed have Bobcats in our woods! It's so exciting to see a wild feline up close (even remotely) as it traveled our trails, and the wild canines (Coyote and Gray Fox) that also made close-up appearances on the trail camera are super amazing, too. Sightings of a Virginia Opossum and a troupe of Raccoons were nice bonuses. :) Here are some cool mammal video clips, all from April and May:
Birds
Several birds have made their homes on our property this year, and there's been plenty of nesting drama. Our Eastern Phoebe pair is going for two broods again (same as last year), and they're doing a fantastic job so far. After starting a mossy/muddy foundation for a nest above our front door in April, the female Phoebe changed her mind and built a nest in the rafters of an old shed on our property instead. Here she is bringing nesting material to her construction site on April 24:
This shed is pretty run-down, and it's not really weather-proof, but I suppose it keeps enough of the rain away to protect a nest. We were worried about birds hitting the windows in this shed, so we hung up some branches and other random items to block the glass, and that seems to have worked. It was cool to see the phoebes swooping through this doorway, making themselves at home -- I'm glad someone's making good use of this old building!
The first Phoebe egg appeared on May 3, and by June 8 the five (or so) babies were looking alert and just about ready to leave the nest:
While the first brood was still in the shed, the female phoebe went ahead and built her second nest over our front door. Feeding and incubating two broods simultaneously must be a lot of work, and these two birds sure seem to make a great team! Here's one of the parents (probably the male) feeding two still-needy youngsters from their first brood on June 27 on top of a trellis in my garden:
And here are the new arrivals in the second nest on July 3 (that third egg hatched sometime after I took this picture):
Yay, phoebes! A pair of Black-capped Chickadees claimed one of our nest boxes (which are theoretically for bluebirds) and built a lovely nest of moss, grass, and fur by the end of April. Here's one of the prospective chickadee parents peering out of the box on April 24:
But then in early May, a male House Wren arrived and pulled apart the chickadees' nest, emptying out the box for his own use. Sigh, poor chickadees. I saw chickadees working on nests in a couple of spots in tree limbs around the property later on, but I don't know if any of those other spots have been successful either. Being a cavity-nester seems like a really rough time! Here's a chickadee at one possible nest hole in the woods on May 10:
I wasn't especially happy about the male House Wren's arrival, even apart from his destruction of the chickadees' nest. House Wrens are native birds, and they're really cute and gregarious (plus, they're a species that I hadn't seen breeding on our property yet)... but I've also read that House Wrens are very aggressive, and they sometimes attack other birds' nests in their territory, even when they already have a nesting spot of their own. I was worried that the House Wren would hurt the Tree Swallows who were starting to nest in the other box right nearby. Here's the male House Wren depositing tiny sticks into the now-empty nest box on May 17 -- I love how these birds always approached the nest hole from above, swinging down over the rim of the roof:
For several days, I tried to deter the male House Wren -- or at least keep him busy -- by removing the twigs he kept bringing to the box. But he was very persistent, and soon a female House Wren joined him, and then an egg appeared in the box, and that was it, the box was definitely theirs. They ended up with eight little speckled eggs in their nest:
On June 19, those little eggs started producing tiny proto-birds:
And here's the whole fuzzy family at four days old, on June 22:
The adult House Wrens always kept a very close (and noisy) watch whenever I checked their nest box:
Close enough for a portrait, even:
Meanwhile, the Tree Swallow pair built their lovely feather-lined nest and raised their babies in the other box. Here's the male keeping watch while the female brings nesting material to the box on May 17:
I love having Tree Swallows as a consistent presence in the yard while they're nesting. Also on May 17, I was able to grab some pictures of these beautiful birds while they hunted for flying insects (and kept an eye on me) against blue skies over the meadow:
Everything seems to have turned out OK, and the House Wrens and Tree Swallows have all fledged successfully. I'm glad these two bird families were able to be amicable neighbors, and I'm happy that our nest boxes helped to add a dozen or so insect-eating birds into the world this spring. The Tree Swallows have now departed, but the male House Wren is still hanging around and singing, even though his nest is empty.... I wonder if there's still time for a second brood this year. (Going into next year, I'll need to decide whether I'm going to try to deter House Wrens from using our nest boxes again. There are a few other things I can try, so we'll see how it goes.) This spring's nesting season has brought a couple of other complete surprises as well. Field Sparrows usually pass through our property every spring, but this year a pair of these little birds stuck around and raised a nest of babies somewhere under the vegetation in the meadow. I never saw the nest, but I saw the adults carrying food and acting agitated when I was nearby. I've read that Field Sparrows usually avoid nesting in areas near human habitation, so I feel super lucky that these two birds chose our little meadow for their family. Here's one of the adult Field Sparrows on May 16:
And, wonderfully, a pair of Great-crested Flycatchers decided to build a nest in a cavity in the old apple tree next to our driveway. Again, these are birds who have passed through our yard only occasionally in past years -- usually at treetop level -- so it was amazing to see them around nearly constantly, hunting in my garden, and so on. Here's the female flycatcher with a beakful of nesting material, ready to deposit it into the cavity on June 17:
And here's her mate keeping watch:
These seem to be tough birds. On June 27, I saw one of the flycatchers sitting on a power line in the rain, and a Mourning Dove landed practically on top of the flycatcher. There was a tussle, and the flycatcher came away with one of the dove's feathers:
Tough as they are, though, the flycatchers' nesting attempt didn't work. On July 1, I watched as a chipmunk emerged from the flycatchers' cavity and dropped an egg to the ground. Ugh. Nesting in cavities really seems to be a rough situation, and incredibly risky. Honestly, though, I'm surprised the flycatchers made it so far into their nesting attempt in the first place, since I see chipmunks and squirrels in that tree so frequently. The Great-crested Flycatchers left our yard after that. I hope they're able to find a new and better nesting cavity somewhere else. :/
There's more to share, but that's enough for one post! More coming soon.
This past weekend was full of adventures as Paul and I visited family and friends up and down the east coast. Our first stop was a visit with Paul's parents, who live right in the middle of the New Jersey Pine Barrens. On Sunday morning, Paul's dad and I headed out to explore the nearby Franklin Parker Preserve, a former cranberry farm that is now being reverted to natural wetlands and woods. We saw tons of interesting things on our walk, including several plants and creatures that were totally new to me. The Pine Barrens is such a strange and amazing place!
Our walk took us around wet (and lush!) bogs and lakes, but the ground we were walking on was dry and sandy, typical for the Pine Barrens. A lot of the plants growing in this sandy soil seemed especially adapted to their harsh environment; put another way, there were some weird plants here! What looked like clumps of spiky moss and misplaced white flowers turned out to be a little plant called Pine Barren Stitchwort (Minuartia caroliniana):
How cool that such a tough-looking plant produces such delicate flowers:
The tiny yellow flowers of Pineweed (Hypericum gentianoides) were also decorating the sandy path; these apparently leafless plants almost look like some sort of succulent to me, but they're actually a type of St. Johnswort:
The wetlands were also brimming with flowers. I didn't see any orchids (alas), but I was impressed by these pretty and abundant Meadow Beauty (genus Rhexia) flowers:
A Painted Turtle watched us from the water among floating bladderwort blooms:
And a wonderfully pudgy Fowler's Toad hopped across our path:
We have Fowler's Toads in Connecticut as well, but I've only ever seen American Toads before. What a lovely sandy creature.
Several bushes along the path (I neglected to ID these plants) were host to these intense Azalea Caterpillars (Datana major), who curled around to show their spiky red legs when we got too close:
A Field Sparrow popped up with a well-caught mantis meal:
Not shown beyond the right-hand edge of the above picture: a hummingbird that I really should have tried harder to photograph. All we were able to figure out in the few moments it buzzed around us was that it wasn't a Ruby-throated Hummingbird (it was bigger, rufous and green and white, and with black stripes down the sides of its face), and since Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are the only hummingbirds in this area, that pretty much means it was some far-wandering individual from Mexico or another exotic place.... So yeah, no picture, which means no ID (since neither of us are familiar with non-local hummingbirds) and no lasting evidence of the strange visitor to New Jersey. Ah well, it was a cool and unique sight nonetheless.
A subtly-marked (presumably female) Black-and-White Warbler foraged up and down pine trunks while a Pine Warbler family searched for food in the trees' branches:
Acrobatic maneuvers and grappling-hook claws sure do make hunting on tree trunks easier:
As we were leaving, another creature showed off its pine-trunk climbing skills as well. I saw a quick scuttle in the sand and then Paul's dad spotted this creature heading up a neighboring tree. An Eastern Fence Lizard!
I've never seen a fence lizard before, and New Jersey is right on the northern border of this species' range. It's so cool to be in a place where lizards scurry up trees! I suspect that this individual is a female because of the dark wavy lines on her back. What a lovely spiky face she has:
The lizard shimmied around to the other side of the tree after a bit. Such amazing camouflage!
Tiny spots of blue showed under this creature's chin, which I think is also consistent with female fence lizards' patterning; males have huge swathes of blue on their chins and sides during breeding season:
I'm always glad for a chance to explore the Pine Barrens. This place never ceases to amaze!
Yesterday morning, I visited the meadows of Naugatuck State Forest, where tons of male birds were singing and displaying and tussling and just generally being boys. (See yesterday's post.)
Not every bird, however,
was claiming territory and trying to find a mate. These Tree Swallows
were already at the baby-making stage!
The male spent some time fluttering around the female, swirling patterns in the air before coming back to the box. Hopefully these two will have a nest full of baby swallows soon!
Yesterday's post was super long, so I don't have too much left to add here. A few other assorted sights to round out yesterday morning's visit include adorable Field Sparrows:
A male Common Yellowthroat (skulking in the bushes and less gregarious than the other male warblers I saw):
A female Black-and-White Warbler (less stripey than the male I posted pictures of last week, but equally gorgeous):
And finally, a soaring
Broad-winged Hawk, one of the less common hawks in this area, and one
that I've never seen (or at least never identified) before:
Wow, we have a lot of birds around here, and so many of them are awesome. I'm glad I got the chance to see some of these creatures at their showiest. Yay, diversity!
The meadows at Naugatuck State Forest were looking surprisingly different when I took a trip there this morning:
Whenever I've been to this area of the forest before (the last time I was here was a few months ago), these wide meadows have been filled with tall grasses and dotted with sturdy shrubs, but this morning, everything -- bushes and all -- was mown down to a uniform stubble. I'm sure this must be part of the forest's management process -- if the shrubs get too big and turn into trees, then this won't be a field anymore -- but it was still quite a shock. I was starting to wonder, actually, if this meant there would be less bird life here this year, since the birds last year seemed to enjoy the cover of all those low shrubs so much. But if today's abundant winged activity was any indication, I don't think there's anything to worry about. There were birds everywhere this morning, and the low bushes around the edges of the fields still provided plenty of close view of these creatures.
One of the birds I can pretty much count on seeing when I'm in these meadows (and which I don't often see at my other haunts) is the Field Sparrow. I think these little birds are just darling, with their bright white eye-rings and dippy pink beaks:
This Field Sparrow was singing his (or her, but probably his) little heart out from his perch near the path -- gosh, I just can't get over the cuteness of that beak!
These fields are well-populated with nest boxes, and two pairs of Tree Swallows were checking them out while I was there. Most of the time, these striking birds kept their distance from me, chatting in bubbling tones to each other:
But as I was leaving, one of the pairs swooped up to a box right near me, and I got what I'm pretty sure was my first really good look at these birds, ever. In my opinion, that's just about the most beautiful color of blue/teal there is, and what a wonderful contrast it makes with those luminous white undersides! And I'm really liking those black masks, too:
There was a pair of Eastern Bluebirds exploring the boxes as well -- I wonder what the nesting population will look like this year.
A big flock of American Robins was foraging on the ground, and one of the robins looked a little different from the others:
Those white feathers in its wings mark this robin (I'm pretty sure) as partially leucistic. Basically, for whatever reason (probably genetic), this particular bird is missing pigmentation in those feathers. It's not albinism (which Wikipedia tells me specifically has to do with melanin, whereas leucism deals with skin pigments in general), and it's not the whole bird, just a small part. I actually think it's a pretty cool-looking effect on this bird.
Speaking of birds with white spots (although normal this time), this White-throated Sparrow stared me down for a bit:
These birds will be heading north to breed in the next month or so, along with the juncos. So I'll enjoy their painted faces while I still can!
I tried to look for wildflowers while I was walking in the meadows and the surrounding woods, but I didn't find much. The only blossoms I saw, in fact, were on this tiny (and cute) sedge (species unknown):
I'm sure I'll be back in these meadows again soon -- I'm especially looking forward to visiting in a month or so, when the warblers really start to stream in. In the mean time, I'll continue to explore my other woodsy places whenever I have time. I also have something of a beach adventure coming up later this week.... More details to come!
