After nearly two weeks away, I was feeling some serious woods withdrawal when I made a trip back to Naugatuck State Forest yesterday morning. Ah, spring in the woods!
It was a little chilly when I arrived, and many of the wildflowers that I had been looking forward to seeing were still closed, but there were still plenty of blooms around. These tiny Dwarf Ginseng flowers made puffy umbrellas a couple of inches above the forest floor:
The Wild Strawberries were blossoming on a sunny bank:
And a little Jack-in-the-Pulpit flower was taking shape (before this plant and its neighbors had even unfurled their leaves):
These lovely little violets were growing in clumps in the marshy areas and along the path. I think I identified them as Small White Violets (Viola macloskeyi) when I found them here last year, but I'm happy to be corrected if I'm wrong! (Violets are tricky.)
The blooms on this small bush look an awful lot like Serviceberry (a.k.a. Juneberry, Shadbush, etc.), but I feel like I would've noticed if there were Serviceberries here (and munched on them) last summer. I love Serviceberries. Is this something else, instead, or could I have just missed the berries last year?
The Trout Lilies weren't quite ready to open their petals yet, but the closed flowers were quite pretty nonetheless:
And the Mayapples were sprouting up, building their own mini forest -- I think I see some buds on that one on the left!
Next to the Mayapples, a couple of Red Trilliums were nodding their green buds, not quite ready to open yet. I think these are some of the prettiest flowers ever (that color!), so I'll be eagerly watching for their arrival.
There was quite a bit of bird activity in the woods as well, especially on the lakes. A pair of Common Mergansers was vying for space with a pair of Mallards on the smaller lake, and I watched the Merganser drake chasing the Mallard drake. (I think it looks like the Mallard is sticking his tongue out at the Merganser in this picture. Boys!)
Once the Mallards had moved on, the Merganser pair sailed around for a bit, enjoying their territory:
But of course they flew off to another lake soon afterwards. (Why were you chasing the other ducks off, if you were just going to leave anyway?)
And I happened across something I haven't seen at these woods before -- a Canada Goose on her nest:
She's trying so hard not to be seen, with her neck all flattened down like that. And it worked pretty well, too -- I was standing there for several minutes before I noticed her at all. I wonder if there will be babies on this lake in a few weeks....
I don't think I knew a Snipe was a real bird the first time I watched the Pixar movie Up!, but I've since learned differently! They're not big and flashy birds like Kevin in the movie... instead, they're small, dumpy shorebirds. But they're still pretty cool!
I was down at Silver Sands State Park today, doing my Piping Plover survey thing (still no plovers yet), and about 19 Wilson's Snipes were foraging in the mud in one of the marshes there. These birds are kind of ridiculous looking, with their long, long beaks:
And they stick that beak all the way down into the mud, probing around for food with its movable tip:
Once I got used to their strange proportions, though, I started to think that these birds are really quite pretty -- I love the complex stripey pattern of those feathers.
Here's a video I took of the Wilson's Snipe nearest to me, putting that beak to good use!
I'm thoroughly enjoying my weekly visits to the beach so far, since I get to see new animals and visit with familiar ones. A Yellow-crowned Night Heron was in the same marsh where I saw one last week -- could it be the same bird?
And did you know that Great Egrets vocalize with low croaking sounds? Thanks to a hawk, now I do! These big birds got quite agitated when that hawk was swooping down on their pond, but I also got to watch them earlier as they sailed by me on calmer pursuits:
I like the beach, but I'm itching to get back into the woods.... I think there's a woods walk in store for me in the very near future!
Have I mentioned recently how much I love the Red Cedar tree right outside our apartment's office window?
This afternoon, a Pine Warbler passed through our yard and gave this tree a good going-over, allowing me to see this bird really up close. It's not the most dazzling of the spring warblers, but a very pretty little bird nonetheless:
I love that soft wash of yellow. Most of the pictures of male Palm Warblers I've seen have been brighter in color, so perhaps this was a female bird? She (or he -- I'm still not sure) was flitting quickly from branch to branch, looking all over for a meal. See anything good up there?
Sleek and graceful from some angles, and a little puffball from others -- aren't warblers great?
I'm always happy to get visitors in our tree, and it was a joy to have this inquisitive creature around for a few minutes before it moved on. Feel free to come back again any time, little bird!
So this year, I decided to do something crazy and new: I volunteered to be a Piping Plover monitor for the US Fish and Wildlife Service!
Piping Plovers are a federally threatened species (not quite endangered, but still, they're in trouble) that nests on sandy beaches scattered along the Connecticut coast, and every year, the USFWS, the Connecticut DEEP, and the Audubon Society get together to ask for volunteers to go out onto the beaches and look for these birds so we can try to protect them (with fences, signs, etc.). About a month ago, I went to a training session and filled out an official government form, they gave me a fancy USFWS hat and ID card, and now on Wednesday afternoons for the rest of the spring and summer, I am in charge of surveying Silver Sands State Park for these little birds. (And I'm supposed to tell the Powers That Be about other species-of-interest that I see as well.) So basically, I get an excuse to go walk on the beach every week and do something that I like to do anyway, and it actually might help our coastal birds. It's kind of a great deal!
Anyway, yesterday was my first afternoon "on the job," and I had a great time and saw lots of cool creatures. No Piping Plovers -- no one's seen them at this park yet this year, actually, and they might not even show up at all -- but now that migration is in full swing, a bunch of interesting birds are streaming back into the area, herons chief among them.
This Yellow-crowned Night Heron -- a new bird for me -- was hunting at the edge of one of the marshes between the parking lot and the beach:
I'm liking that mask! Although I can't help thinking this bird's rat-tail hairdo looks a little silly from the back:
I happened to arrive at the beach as the tide was going out, so I took the chance to walk across the magically-appearing sandbar to Charles Island. In a month, the island will be closed off to the public to protect the herons and egrets that will be nesting there, and some birds were already starting to set up shop! The trees in the center of the island were dotted with big white shapes, like this pair of Great Egrets:
It's difficult to see in this picture (just think how much harder it'll be when the trees leaf out!), but these egrets were decked out in their breeding finery: long flowing feathers and bright green markings on their faces.
I think you can just make out the red eyes of this pair of Black-crowned Night Herons, similarly shrouded in the branches of another tree -- the two were touching beaks and acting all lovey-dovey while I was there:
The herons and egrets weren't the only birds thinking about nesting on Charles Island, either. Several pairs of Canada Geese were honking and flapping (and hissing!) at me, making sure I didn't come too close. (I wasn't about to try!) And one pair of geese had something interesting to show:
I reported my sightings of these two birds at reportband.gov, and I'm waiting to see if I get a response -- people band wild birds for all sorts of studies and things (yay science!), and sometimes, you get to learn the history of the banded bird when you report it. (Or so I've been told.) I'll update this post if I hear anything!
Update (4/7/12): I got two emails yesterday with some information about these birds. C255 is a boy, and C274 is a girl, and they were both banded on the same day right around this same area (near Milford) last summer. I've read that Canada Geese are monogamous, and it's kind of cool to see some evidence for that myself. And I actually think it's sweet that these two are still together (through a banding process and everything). I hope you have a nice family this summer, geese!
Before I move on, I just have to share one more picture of these geese. I just think this picture looks cool, but Paul thinks it looks like a goose with two heads:
I wish all the birds nesting on Charles Island the best of luck this year!
Back on the mainland, there were more birds to see, including two Ospreys (also recently-returned migrants) swooping overhead and calling to each other. One even came low enough for a picture (gosh, what a bird!):
The Herring Gulls were fighting over crabs -- these two youngsters stole a meal from the adult screaming in the back:
And even a regular old American Robin caught my eye yesterday, with its rusty orange breast glowing in the afternoon sun as it foraged with its fellows:
So I'll be back at the beach next week, and every week for the foreseeable future. It'll be an interesting change for me, since I'm still so much more used to woods than ocean. Who knows what will turn up next time!
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!
