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.

May and June, 2021

In the last post, I shared some highlights from our property in March and April of this year, and now it's time to catch up with May and June!

I couldn't have asked for a better start to May than this close-up view of a male Chestnut-sided Warbler (I love these birds!) who was foraging and singing in the back corner of our meadow on May 2:

Swelling apple blossoms made a pretty stage for this Song Sparrow on May 10:

Eastern Phoebes started this season the same way as last year, with a successful nest in the rafters of an old, barely-weather-proof shed on our property. The phoebes' first egg appeared on April 30, and the five babies fledged by June 7. (I don't have any pictures of that brood to share, because the light in that shed is so poor.) Hooray for more phoebes in the world! Meanwhile, an American Robin built her nest just outside the same shed, on top of a broken picnic table we had leaned up against the shed wall. Here's the robin on her neat mud-rimmed nest on May 13:

Robin babies aren't exactly pretty! Here are the little monsters on May 20:

By May 26, the young robins were covered with mottled feathers and looking just about ready to leave the nest. How nice of a parent to pose here for a family portrait:

I was careful to give these robins plenty of space, but as I walked into the meadow to avoid the very alert robins, I nearly stepped on a Song Sparrow's nest on the ground! I never would have seen the hidden nest if the adult sparrow hadn't rocketed up suddenly when I got close. I took a quick picture of the lovely speckled eggs (as best as I could get without touching the surrounding plants), and then I moved on.... I have no idea how this nest fared after our close encounter. And then a week or two later, I accidentally startled another Song Sparrow from her nest in the opposite end of the meadow. I've learned that I need to avoid straying from the paths in the meadow as much as possible during nesting season! In any case, here's a glimpse of the first Song Sparrow nest from May 26:

This Gray Catbird was putting on quite a concert on the edge of our meadow on May 13 -- I absolutely love this bird's pose with his fluffed-out butt:

 Here's the same bird looking somewhat sleeker from a different angle:

The same as last year, we have a family of House Wrens and a family of Tree Swallows in our two nest boxes (although the birds swapped boxes compared to last year). Here's the male House Wren on May 13, bringing a spider egg sac into the box that he'd already stuffed full of twigs and egg sacs (that's a stick overflowing out of the entrance hole):

The House Wrens' nest must have been somewhere deep inside all those twigs, because I heard noisy babies eventually, but I was never able to actually see the eggs or chicks. I'm pretty sure the brood has fledged by now, but the adults are still visiting the box (perhaps gearing up for brood #2?).

The Tree Swallows and House Wrens seem to have been fairly amicable next-door neighbors, although the Tree Swallows were a little pushy sometimes (which is probably a good thing, keeping the House Wrens in their place). Here's the male Tree Swallow keeping watch from the top of the House Wrens' box on May 21:

At the same time, the female Tree Swallow gathered bits of grass for their nest; it was strange to see a swallow perched on the ground, but very cool to get to see this lady at work:

The finished Tree Swallow nest was perfectly padded with a variety of feathers. Here are the eggs in their nest on June 13:

And the very next day, the eggs had turned into a batch of tiny, brand new swallows:

I saw the nestlings peering out of the nest box hole today, which means the whole swallow family will probably leave us soon. The female Tree Swallow has gotten especially defensive in the past few days, and she's been dive-bombing me when she sees me in the garden or meadow. I will very much miss having the Tree Swallows as a constant feature in the yard, but I suppose it will be nice to not have a bird occasionally swooping angrily past my head.

Indigo Buntings are likely nesting somewhere around here, because I hear a male singing fairly frequently. Here's a male Indigo Bunting (here to stay, or passing through?) surrounded by apple blossoms on May 18:

On May 20, I was surprised and thrilled to see a female Hooded Warbler adding large dried leaves onto a nest right near the path in our woods:

Here's the leaf-covered nest, set in a low Multiflora Rose bush -- I never did see eggs or other activity in this nest, so I suppose this placement didn't work out, but it was still very cool to see this delicate nest-building process, and to have proof that Hooded Warblers breed in our woods:

Our woods were practically dripping with Veeries this spring! I hear and see these lovely thrushes in our woods every year, but they have seemed to be especially numerous this year, with multiple birds singing and calling nearly constantly. Fantastically, the fallen log that our trail camera was watching happened to be something of a Veery stage in late May: the camera captured multiple videos of a male Veery perched on the log and singing, and two nearly identical videos (on different days) of Veeries mating! Here's a compiled video with (1) a Veery singing, (2) Veeries mating, (3) a very wobbly baby White-tailed Deer and its mom (oops, sorry about the typo in the video), and (4) an Ovenbird (often heard in our woods but rarely seen) walking along the log:

May was a wonderful time for flowers (of course), and here are a few highlights from May 20 and 21. Here's Red Baneberry (Actaea rubra), a new plant for me, whose flowers appeared along our woods path (the later red berries on this plant helped me confirm this ID and distinguish it from White Baneberry, which also grows in our woods):

Here's a nice pair of Jack-in-the-Pulpit flowers:

And a perfect Starflower bloom, lit up by some sunlight:

And I was so happy to see this thriving patch of Foamflower in our front yard:

On June 4, a somewhat tattered but still beautiful female Promethea Moth appeared on our deck:

On the morning of June 8, the Spicebush Swallowtail chrysalis that I kept over the winter in our unheated mudroom turned into a butterfly! I had neglected to give the creature a suitable perch in its enclosure (I know better now), so I provided myself as a perch and kept watch over this new and very damp butterfly while it worked on expanding its wings:

After about 20 minutes, it was looking pristine and perfect. Soon after this next picture was taken, I transferred the butterfly to a sheltered leaf to finish drying off, and it stayed there for a while and then presumably left when it was ready:

 

Also on June 8, the largest Brown Snake (Storeria dekayi) I've seen (they're not a very big species) got stuck while trying to fit through the small mesh fence around my garden; I pulled it backward to free it, and then I got to marvel at how soft and docile this lovely creature was:

This Red Eft (a juvenile Red-spotted Newt) was super photogenic in our yard on June 21:

And finally (back to nesting birds again), the Eastern Phoebes are currently well into their second brood in their traditional nesting spot over our front door. I really love having these birds as neighbors, and I'm so glad they decided to nest in this spot again. Here are the eggs in their moss-and-grass nest on June 25:

Here's to a wonderful spring and beginning of summer!