Every day on my way to work, I drive by a bunch of low-lying pastures and fields in an area that I now know is called Arcata Bottoms. (What a great descriptive name.) I didn't pay much attention to this area -- except to admire its views -- until early November when I began to occasionally glimpse a big white bird hovering over the fields as I drove past....
I really, really wanted to see one of these birds up close, so on Saturday, November 21, I brought my camera with me and drove down some side roads in the bottoms. It was a gray, overcast sort of day, but sure enough, I found the big white hunter. It's a White-tailed Kite!
White-tailed Kites (and kites in general, for that matter) are entirely new for me, and I'm super impressed by these birds. They're white raptors! And they hover! This bird ended up hovering very near my car as it looked for a furry meal in the grass below. I love those dark wing patches:
At times it was hovering almost directly above my head (boy would I not want to be a rodent with this creature lurking above):
After a few seconds of hovering, the kite would wheel and dive; gah, look at those talons:
I made a brief video of the hovering kite in action; I'm still so impressed by this gorgeous raptor's skills:
At least one of the kite's dives was successful, and it ended up perched on a fence post with a furry morsel in its grasp, giving me a new (if distant) view of this awesome creature:
Mmm, small mammal meal:
The White-tailed Kite drew me onto these back roads, but then once I started exploring the area, there turned out to be an amazing amount of wildlife here. Flocks of sparrows and blackbirds foraged in the shrubs and farmland, a tiny American Kestrel hunted from a power line, and the many small waterways were dotted with ducks and shorebirds. Two little Pied-billed Grebes were diving up and down in the water:
A large flock of Cackling Geese (like Canada Geese with strangely shrunken heads and necks) flew around calling before finding a suitable field in which to land:
And although I'm not normally a cow person (and they're hardly wildlife), I was charmed by several of these big creatures. Like this lady, who kept an eye on me the whole time I was nearby:
And this calf, who demonstrated both the definition of cuteness and the usefulness of prehensile tongues:
With all the rain we have been getting in recent weeks, waterways and pools are even more numerous in Arcata Bottoms now, and I know there are many, many birds out there. After some research on eBird, I also now know that this place has owls. I have a feeling I will be returning to Arcata Bottoms soon!
All of a sudden, it feels like winter around here. I went for a walk in Naugatuck State Forest this afternoon, and even though the sky was completely clear and the sun was bright, it was pretty darn cold!
This was my first time back in the forest since Superstorm Sandy, and there were so many fallen trees out there, mostly big conifers. Crews had already come through and cleared the trails (with big trucks, if the tracks in the mud were any indication), but I still saw a lot of strangely oriented trees on my walk:
The storm also scattered fallen branches and pine cones onto the paths, and I saw groups of chickadees, titmouses, and nuthatches actually hopping around on the ground foraging through this stuff -- that was a pretty cool and unusual sight. A few other birds were foraging low in the trees as well, including our two kinglets -- I feel like I've been seeing a lot of kinglets this fall, or maybe they've just happened to be unusually accommodating for me and my camera. This Golden-crowned Kinglet looked like a decorative ornament hanging on the bare branches:
And this Ruby-crowned Kinglet was actually showing its namesake spot of red, which I've only ever seen once before on these little birds (look closely, it's there):
On the lakes were two birds I don't often see around here. A female Bufflehead (or possibly a young male) was diving into the cold water and popping back up again every few seconds:
And a fluffy little Pied-billed Grebe floated along nearby:
As I left for home, the sun was sinking and it was getting even colder in the woods, but this trio of Mallards sure seemed comfortable in their late afternoon bath:
It's nice to know that the woods made it through the storm, albeit with several fewer trees still vertical. The chopped up fallen trees along the paths look strange and awkward right now, but I'm sure they'll blend into the normal forest scene before too long. I'm glad I got to visit the woods today to keep up to date with its changes.
After my walk with my family through the Barataria Preserve, I didn't expect to see much more in the way of wildlife on our stay in New Orleans. As it turns out, I was completely wrong! While visiting various parts of the city, we passed by rivers, lakes, and parks, all of which were teaming with life, and I got to hang out with some awesome southern birds. It's a good thing I decided to carry my camera with me everywhere!
Our hotel was only a few blocks from the Mississippi River, and while we were exploring the Riverwalk one morning, we came across two Brown Pelicans, one in the water and one on the pier:
This was my first time really looking closely at these strange creatures, and there are so many things I found to love about them -- that cool white mohawk; the scary hook at the tips of their beaks:
That oversized beak looks like it should be unwieldy, but the pelicans were not at all clumsy in preening themselves:
And look, the pelican's back is also a pillow:
The Brown Pelicans may look a little awkward on land, but they seem much more balanced on the water:
And they showed their full size and power when they took flight:
Now those are some awesome birds.
In the center of the city, away from the water, House Sparrows (unsurprisingly) were everywhere, and they were remarkably tame. I got very close to a few House Sparrows drinking and bathing in a fountain in the French Quarter:
I'm not a huge fan of House Sparrows in general, but you have to admit, these fellows are pretty darn cute:
We spent some time walking through the grounds of City Park, and there were birds everywhere. One pond near the art museum, in particular, was teeming with waterfowl, and the fact that two guys were standing there throwing whole loaves of bread into the water meant that we got to see some cool birds very close up. There were some bizarre domesticated birds, like this Muscovy Duck:
Dozens of wild birds also decided to make this pond their home, including a flock of pretty White Ibises:
And jostling for position with the gulls and ibises was a single Anghinga (if I moved any more to the right when taking this picture, I would've fallen into the water):
I think this is a simply gorgeous bird, although I do feel like its elegance is a little offset by the total goofiness of its feet:
This adorable little Pied-billed Grebe wasn't partaking in the free bread, as far as I could tell, but it also didn't swim too quickly away from us as it dove in and out of the water:
In other parts of City Park, away from the magically bread-filled pond, the birds were still abundant, but less willing to stay close to us. We watched this American Kestrel swoop from its perch high in the trees to go hunting in the field below:
And a Loggerhead Shrike perched on a wire above our heads before flying off again after its next meal:
On the last day of our visit, we drove to Lake Pontchartrain, where I snuck up close to a group of Cattle Egrets feeding on a grassy bank next to the parking lot:
These birds didn't seem to mind my presence, and I had a lot of fun taking their pictures.
Pretty birds!
So it was a pretty excellent trip. Some of these birds are ones that just don't live near my home up north, and I got to meet a bunch of cool creatures that I'd never seen before.
I have one last thing to share from the trip, although it's not technically alive. In one of the city's art galleries that we randomly wandered into, we found some wooden carvings of birds that were just phenomenal. The artist's name is Mike Bonner, and I own no rights to this work:
I still cannot believe that this is wood! That Northern Pintail looks like it's about to swim right off the shelf. And this picture doesn't at all do justice to the incredible amount of detail in every single carved feather:
It just goes to show, even in the city, and even inside buildings, you never know when you'll find beauty and nature.
