Fall and Early Winter, 2023

Here's one more post wrapping up sights around our property in 2023! These past few months have been decently busy, including a good amount of traveling (sights from which I hope to share in a blog post sometime soon). But there were also plenty of interesting goings-on in our yard, meadow, and woods during this time, including our first ever glimpse of a Black Bear on the evening of November 5! We heard a strange clanging sound outside, and we turned on the floodlight to see a bear bending the bird feeder pole to the ground! The bear ran off quickly, so I don't have any pictures to share from that encounter, but yeah, now we can definitely add Black Bear to our list of yard mammals. Here's a bunch of other sights that do come with pictures, starting back in early September.

On September 4, I was admiring the array of colorful wildflowers on a slope near one of our sheds -- I didn't plant or maintain any of this, so I'm especially impressed with these balanced swathes of blooming goldenrod, Spotted Jewelweed, and a wild sunflower that I'm pretty sure is Thin-leaved Sunflower (Helianthus decapetalus):

Here's a closer view on September 8 of one of these brilliant sunflower blooms:

And here's a Spotted Jewelweed flower with a visiting bee, who accessed this flower by crawling behind that large lower lip:

Also in the above picture are the jewelweed's seedpods -- touching those pods and deploying their exploding mechanisms is one of my great joys of the summer and fall. :)

On September 11, this awkwardly patchy Gray Catbird was foraging for Pokeweed berries:

And another Gray Catbird was gulping down Gray Dogwood berries on September 23:

I'm not sure who eats these brilliant red Jack-in-the-Pulpit berries -- this big cluster was in the woods on September 23:

This juvenile Cedar Waxwing on October 1, though, was also visiting our yard to eat Pokeweed berries:

I'm really grateful that our property came with such an ample native berry supply in the summer and fall, to keep the birds hanging around!

By October 1, the Virginia Creeper vines that cover many of the Black Cherry trees on the edge of our woods had become a brilliant red -- this is one of my favorite sights here in early fall, and I can't help sharing a couple of pictures:

I love how the Virginia Creeper's leaves make a solid red core around these upper branches, and the Black Cherry's own leaves make a still-green cloud around that:

A little further along the meadow's edge on October 1, golden Wild Grape leaves intertwined with sumac leaves that revealed their silvery undersides in the wind -- so many festive colors:

We put up a large bat box in our yard in 2020, and toward the end of the summer this year we finally saw our first small signs of some visiting bats! By October 5, there was a definite smattering of droppings on the ground around the bat box's pole -- certainly not enough to indicate a colony, but I guess we had a few bats staying with us this year:

October 17 was a great day for some bird portraits in the afternoon fall sun. This Tufted Titmouse gave me a wonderfully close view as it perched on our deck railing:

And then the same or another titmouse looked especially handsome against a backdrop of late-fall meadow colors:

Likewise, if not more so, for this gorgeous Blue Jay:

I was happy to get some brief glimpses of the Ruby-crowned Kinglets that were moving through the yard:

This picture even includes a tiny bit of this bird's usually hidden ruby crown:

On the night of October 28, I tried for a picture of the full moon (not my usual type of subject!), and I was pleasantly surprised at how well this worked out -- wow, the moon is amazing:

Apparently I took very few pictures in November! We had our first sticking snow on November 1 (only a day after our first frost), and I was amazed that the Coral Honeysuckle kept blooming late enough into the year to have its flowers covered with snow:

And here's a Black-capped Chickadee checking out our roof on November 4:

On the afternoon of December 4, a fantastic rainbow appeared over our meadow:

On December 12, this Dark-eyed Junco let me approach fairly close, as long as it stayed mostly hidden in its tangle of branches and vines:

A Pileated Woodpecker came to our suet feeder for a few days in December, which was an unusual and wonderful treat. Here's this too-big bird on December 14:

And again on December 15 -- I love those pointy tail feathers (sorry about the weird coloring in these pictures; the woodpecker insisted on visiting in the morning during very poor light, and I got some strange effects when I lightened and processed these pictures):

For a size comparison, here's a Downy Woodpecker on the same feeder on December 20:

While I walked around outside on December 20, I kept seeing Downy Woodpeckers all over the place, actually. I guess this was a good day for these littlest (and cutest) of our woodpeckers! This Downy Woodpecker was working on our Shagbark Hickory tree:

Another Downy Woodpecker was hammering into the round galls on goldenrod stems in the meadow, getting at the larvae inside:

What a cool foraging strategy -- go get that bug, little woodpecker:

In the woods, Downy Woodpeckers were working over various dead trees, stark black-and-white creatures on multicolored wooden surfaces:

Also on December 20 (what an active day!), I got to see this White-breasted Nuthatch foraging among bark crevices in the woods:

This Black-capped Chickadee showing its beautifully patterned back and wings:

And this Dark-eyed Junco perched among the Redbud tree's bare branches:

And now 2023 is coming to a close, and that means a whole new year is next! I'm excited to see what sights 2024 brings, both familiar and new.

The Rest of 2022, Part III: More Birds

We're continuing an account of sightings on our property in 2022. In addition to the birds who took up residence and raised families here this year -- which I wrote about in a previous post -- we had several other birds visiting our property. Here's a sampling!

This bright male Yellow-rumped Warbler stopped by the small pond in our woods on April 30, presumably on his way to northern breeding areas:

I enjoyed watching these American Goldfinches munching on Daisy Fleabane flowers near the house on July 7:

On August 18, an especially unusual bird showed up in the yard. I'd never seen a Blue-winged Warbler x Golden-winged Warbler hybrid before, but this bird's combination of yellow cap, black eyeline, pale throat and breast, and yellow wingbars were all the right marks; this particular hybrid is apparently common enough to have its own name -- Brewster's Warbler -- although it's not a distinct species. Here are a couple of very poor (but identifiable) pictures of this fancy bird:

 

Also on August 18, some young Rose-breasted Grosbeaks perched on plant stakes on the deck:

Although this next picture is very blurry, I'm sharing it because I love seeing the fancy marks on these birds' wings, including surprising rosy patches:

This Chestnut-sided Warbler looked adorable under a Purple-flowering Raspberry leaf on September 3:

A bunch of young and/or female Ruby-throated Hummingbirds visited the potted zinnias on our deck in late August and early September. Here's one of these handsome birds perching on a stake on September 4:

I love that these flowers are big enough for the hummingbirds to put a little of their weight on the petals:

Here's another hummingbird practically perching on the petals as it drank on September 7:

 This Black-throated Green Warbler stopped on our deck on September 11:

And I love seeing Gray Catbirds (perhaps one of our residents or else another bird passing through) with Pokeweed berries; this picture is also from September 11:

On September 18, I happened to be outside while a bunch of hawks were wheeling overhead, flying together in numbers and heading south. This one picture includes three Broad-winged Hawks and what I think is a Cooper's Hawk; there were at least a dozen more hawks in the air, and soon they all moved on:

Other bird highlights this year -- without pictures -- included two new bird species for the yard: #112 was a female Common Merganser who flew overhead on May 15; #113 was a Green Heron who perched in one of the trees next to the meadow on July 16. Also, thanks to help from the amazing Merlin app's Sound ID feature, I was able to learn that I frequently hear a Northern Waterthrush calling during the summer at the back edge of our woods, which means this species probably breeds somewhere near our property.

It's always exciting to see and learn new things! I have one more batch of sights to share from 2022 before this year is over. Up next: flowers and insects!

The Rest of 2022, Part I: Breeding Birds

Here we are, on the very last day of 2022 (happy almost-new-year!), and it's finally time to catch up with this year's sightings that have been gathering on my computer since March. I took fewer pictures than usual this year, mostly because my beloved camera -- which has seen a ton of use since I got it in 2011 -- simply hasn't been working very well anymore. A new camera is now waiting in the wings, ready to take over in 2023, and I'm super excited to make good use of this new toy. For this year, though, I've made do with my declining SLR camera and the less-than-ideal camera on my phone. Even so! There were a lot of really cool animals and plants on our property this year, and I'm happy to be able to share some highlights from 2022. We had a great deal of activity from our resident summer birds, so I'll start there!

Eastern Phoebes are some of my favorite yearly neighbors, and they were back and raising babies again this year. This was the first year since we moved into this house in 2017, though, that the phoebes didn't build a nest above our front door, and I very much missed having these wonderful birds so close by. (I wonder if the female who usually built the nest at that location is no longer alive....) Instead, the phoebes re-used a nest they built a couple of years ago in the rafters of an old shed on our property, and they raised two broods this year in that nest. Well, almost two broods. The first smooth-white Eastern Phoebe egg appeared in the nest on April 24, and on April 26 there was a speckled Brown-headed Cowbird egg in the nest, too. This is the second year I've seen one of our phoebe nests parasitized by cowbirds, and cowbirds need to live, too. I mean, really, it's pretty amazing that this is their method for raising young; that is, leave it to someone else. In any case, this situation didn't work out well for the phoebes this year. On May 12, the cowbird chick hatched while the phoebes were still in their eggs:

And on May 16, the cowbird chick was huge compared to the one phoebe chick that hatched:

As far as I could tell, the cowbird chick grew up successfully, and no phoebe chicks made it out of that brood. Pretty much immediately after the cowbird fledged, though, the phoebe parents got to work with a new batch of eggs in the same nest. By June 19, they had a nice second brood of phoebe babies:

All of that second brood fledged successfully, so that's a few new Eastern Phoebes in the world, at least!

Only one of our two nest boxes got used this year, first by a family of Tree Swallows -- I'm so happy to see these birds returning to nest in our meadow every year -- and then by a family of House Wrens after the Tree Swallows vacated the box and I cleared out their nest. Here's the lovely collection of Tree Swallow eggs in their feather-lined nest on May 14:

On May 10, I watched a Black-capped Chickadee gathering big beakfuls of moss in the woods and bringing them to a likely nesting spot in a hollowed-out tree right next to the path:

So much moss for such a little bird!

A hole in the chosen tree was fairly well overflowing with moss:

Here's the chickadee perched above the moss-filled hole on May 12 (and it looks like there's some fur in there, too):

I don't know whether the chickadees successfully raised a family in that nesting spot, but it was really cool to see part of the building process, at least.

The Northern Cardinals were super on top of the nesting process, and by May 15 they already had awkward fledglings inching out of their nest in the big fir tree in our back yard:

Wow, baby cardinals look weird! Both of the cardinal parents were on high alert in nearby trees while I was at all in the area. Here's the male cardinal keeping a close watch on me, and looking especially bright against this Shagbark Hickory's newly grown leaves:

On June 19, the cardinals' used nest fell out of its tree, so I got to see this neat construction up close:

Here's the underside of the nest, with wide bark strips from the non-native Beauty Bush (Linnaea amabilis) that grows nearby in the yard:

The same fir tree that hosted the Northern Cardinals in April and May turned out to be quite a popular nesting spot this year, with both Chipping Sparrows and House Finches raising families there later in the summer.

I happened across two Song Sparrow nests on the ground in the meadow this year. I'm not sure whether either of the specific nests I saw were successful, but I saw Song Sparrow fledglings hanging out with their parents in the summer, so something somewhere must have worked out. Here's one bunch of Song Sparrow eggs in their nest on May 25:

A pair of Dark-eyed Juncos had a nest on the narrow strip of sloping ground between our driveway and the road, and somehow they must have managed to protect their nest from the chipmunks and snakes that I often see around here, because on June 4 a couple of baby juncos were hopping around next to our driveway with the anxious parents in close attendance. Here's one of the new babies with its wacky hairdo and tiny stubby tail:

And here's one of the adult juncos foraging a few feet away:

Also near the driveway, the Gray Catbirds built a nest in a tangle of chokecherry shrubs and wild grape vines. The nest was well concealed, so my biggest clue that babies were nearby was the scolding parents. Here's one of the parent catbirds carrying a plump meal to its babies on June 22, and pausing at the top of our arbor (newly added above our front path this year) to yell at me:

This is the best angle I could find to get a glimpse at the catbird babies, and it's not exactly clear, but you can see the bright yellow beak and emerging feathers on one young bird at least; this picture is from June 23:

Those are all the nests I knew about for sure -- and 11 species with confirmed nests on our property is great! Some other birds also made it very clear that our yard was part of their territory, and I hoped that this meant they had families and nests somewhere nearby. The mid-sized apple tree behind our house ended up with a lot of bare branches this year, which made it a great spot to easily see birds. This male Common Yellowthroat sang his somewhat unusual song (with four parts instead of three) from this tree frequently during the summer; here he is on June 23:

I also got used to seeing a male Ruby-throated Hummingbird perched at the very tip of one of this tree's branches pretty much any time I looked at this tree this summer. I don't know for sure that this was always the same individual bird, but this seemed like such consistent behavior that I'm guessing it was a single male. I find it so strange and charming to see such a tiny bird perched so prominently. Here are a few pictures from June 22 and 23:

In this mid-stretch pose, he looks almost ferocious, but adorably so:

Another picture in somewhat better lighting:

I couldn't get enough of this bold little guy:

And here's one more picture of perhaps the same male hummingbird on June 20, because I also love seeing these tiny birds perched on comparatively huge power lines, another common sight in our yard this summer:

On July 17, a Blue-winged Warbler brought its fledglings to our yard while it hunted for caterpillars -- I'm not sure where this family had its nest, but I was glad to see them, since this was my first confirmation that this species breeds somewhere in our neighborhood:

I'm happy that I got to see so much activity from our summer resident birds this year, and I'm also sure that I missed a lot. Why can't I just be outside all the time? In any case, that was 2022's breeding bird highlights! I still have plenty of other sights to share from this year, so keep reading in the next post.