Yellow Birds, and Other Assorted Beach Sights

Today was my day to monitor for Piping Plovers and other shorebirds at Silver Sands State Park, so I spent my morning wandering on the beach. No plovers showed up, but as always, there were plenty of other things to see.

There was this Greater Yellowlegs, for instance, a funky shorebird that I'd never seen before:
 

And this cute little Savannah Sparrow foraging in the grass:
 

I learned recently that the Savannah Sparrow is a state-listed species in Connecticut (it's of "special concern"), so I was glad to see this little guy hopping around. Plus, how about that cool yellow eyeshadow?

Speaking of yellow, I watched this male American Goldfinch singing boldly from a tree near one of the paths:

I thought this guy was pretty bright, but he paled (literally) in comparison to one of his fellows in the tree next door:

Not every bird I encountered had yellow on it, of course (although I was doing pretty well there, wasn't I). A Downy Woodpecker was drilling into some dried reeds in the marsh (not where I'd expect to see a woodpecker!), and producing a weird clacking sound as the stems knocked together:

I wonder what tasty morsels she was finding in there.

A few male Red-winged Blackbirds made it quite clear that the park's boardwalk is part of their territory:

These birds are extremely active now, with the males flying around everywhere, calling and flashing their brilliant red shoulder patches. And the boardwalk's posts do make a great place to show off.

OK, OK, we get the message!

It wasn't just birds who were active, either. I think it must have been rush hour for the colony of Fiddler Crabs below the boardwalk -- the crabs were wandering all over the mud, picking up food, and stealing each others burrows. (Usually when I see these little creatures, they're basically just sitting there.) Several male crabs were squaring off in pairs, for what looked like brief but intense contests of who-has-the-bigger-claw:
 

(I just noticed that the two male crabs in this picture have their large claws on opposing sides. I wonder why some crabs might have a large left claw, and others a large right one....)

There's always something interesting going on at the beach!

Red Cedar Alien

The two Red Cedar trees next to our house not only serve to draw in birds passing through our yard, they also play host (literally) to some very interesting organisms. This morning, I looked out our office window and saw this:

Ahhh, it's an alien! Well, no, not really. It's actually a gall, caused by the fungus Gymnosporangium juniperi-virginianae. Galls appear when an insect or fungus feeds off of a plant and somehow changes the plant's structure, causing it to produce abnormal growths, inside of which the insect or fungus then lives. (For the tree, then, I guess this might actually count as an alien invasion.) Each gall-making creature has its own preferred host plant, and each causes a distinctive abnormal growth.

During the winter, these galls on our Red Cedar trees just looked like brownish balls -- they could have been windblown pinecones at first glance -- and it wasn't until recently that they sprouted these weird orange tentacles. (I only noticed them today.)

Those "tentacles" are actually the spore-producing appendages of the fungus inside the gall. According to this fascinating information sheet on cedar-apple rust (the "disease" caused by this fungus, so-called because the fungus actually needs to live on both cedar trees and apple trees in different stages of its life cycle), the tentacles (i.e., "telial horns") enlarge during periods of rainy weather, and indeed, with today's constant rain, the fungus was looking spectacularly goopy by the end of the day. (The gall in this next picture is the same one from the previous picture, but several hours later.)

I can see five of these galls from our window, and who knows how many more there are higher up in the trees. The fungus won't do lasting harm to the Red Cedars (these orange appendages mark the end of their life cycle), so our trees should be around for a while yet. Who knows what strange and interesting things these trees will show us next!

Backyard Surprise

Look what I found this afternoon in the rhododendron bush next to our porch:

American Robin eggs! Robins built a nest in this same bush last year, and that old nest is still there, if a little worn down. The new nest is neat and tightly woven (at least on the inside), and it also features some fancy plastic in its construction:
 

The nest is just above my eye level, so I had to hold my camera up high and point it at random to get pictures into the nest. This picture doesn't exactly focus on what I meant it to, but I think it looks kind of cool:
 

Good luck raising your family, robins! I hope to hear chirping sounds coming from this bush before too long!

Meadow Birds and Flowers

Late this afternoon, I drove over to the meadows in Naugatuck State Forest to see what's going on there -- I'm eagerly anticipating the arrival of our more colorful migrating warblers (which might be any day now), and this seemed like a good place to check in case they'd started showing up already. There were no warblers there today (not even Palm or Pine, which I saw in the woods last week), but there were plenty of other things to see.

The fields were covered with Trout Lilies, a plant I didn't expect to find there, and they were already past their prime -- I seemed to have missed seeing the Trout Lilies in full bloom this year, unfortunately. Other flowers made up for that lack, though, including big patches of tiny Bluets:

And these brilliant Ragweed blossoms (I didn't think to check the shape of the basal leaves on these plants, so I don't know exactly what species they are):

These are such cheery little flowers, and perhaps aside from the Goldfinches, they were the brightest things around:

A few Chipping Sparrows were around and in very high spirits (they even got into a big fight at one point). These birds only recently returned to Connecticut from their winter homes, and I'm happy to see them again!

I also got to hang out with a pack of very puffy, very active Black-capped Chickadees as they foraged and preened in the low shrubs:

And just look at all the little leaves on that tree! Oh, spring!

Please Don't Burn Down the Pine Barrens

Paul and I were in New Jersey this past weekend for some belated Easter family celebrations, which meant a chance to explore the Pine Barrens some more.

On Sunday morning, Paul's dad and I drove out to look for birds, and we went by a huge area of the woods (1,000 acres) that burned in a wildfire just last week. (Paul's dad is actually the mayor of their town, so I felt a bit like I was on an official trip to survey the damage.) The Pine Barrens are usually, well, barren... but not like this:
 

They do controlled burns in the Pine Barrens sometimes, to help keep everything healthy, but this was not one of those times. Apparently, the cause of this fire was almost certainly human, and the word "arson" kept coming up. Why would anyone intentionally set a fire loose in the Pine Barrens? Even scarier, we drove by a bunch of houses where the fire actually burned all the way up to and around the edges of the peoples' yards -- I can't even imagine being in that situation, with flames raging just feet from my home.

Fortunately, the firefighters got control of the situation, and nobody was hurt. And these woods won't stay blackened for long. We watched a lone Wild Turkey wandering through the burnt area, and I'm sure more life will soon follow suit:
 

Back in the ash-free areas of the Pine Barrens, there were plenty of living things to see. Later, while we were out walking the dogs, we startled this shockingly green Six-spotted Tiger Beetle (Cicindela sexguttata) from its hiding place near the path:
 

And a little further down the road, I became enchanted by a patch of gorgeous Birdsfoot Violets (Viola pedata), a new wildflower for me:
 

What pretty flowers! Paul says it looks like they're sticking their tongues out:
 

In conclusion, the Pine Barrens are awesome, so please don't burn them down.