More Meadow Birds (Continued from May 12)

Yesterday morning, I visited the meadows of Naugatuck State Forest, where tons of male birds were singing and displaying and tussling and just generally being boys. (See yesterday's post.)

Not every bird, however, was claiming territory and trying to find a mate. These Tree Swallows were already at the baby-making stage!

The male spent some time fluttering around the female, swirling patterns in the air before coming back to the box. Hopefully these two will have a nest full of baby swallows soon!

Yesterday's post was super long, so I don't have too much left to add here. A few other assorted sights to round out yesterday morning's visit include adorable Field Sparrows:

A male Common Yellowthroat (skulking in the bushes and less gregarious than the other male warblers I saw):

A female Black-and-White Warbler (less stripey than the male I posted pictures of last week, but equally gorgeous):

And finally, a soaring Broad-winged Hawk, one of the less common hawks in this area, and one that I've never seen (or at least never identified) before:

Wow, we have a lot of birds around here, and so many of them are awesome. I'm glad I got the chance to see some of these creatures at their showiest. Yay, diversity!

Boys Being Boys (or: Spring Makes Birds Act Weird)

It was Bird Central at the meadows of Naugatuck State Forest this morning! In the week since my last visit, a new flood of migrants have arrived in Connecticut, and pretty much all of our summer birds are now here and getting ready to breed. And boy are they ever ready. The theme of this morning's visit was Male Birds Showing Off; there were bright colors everywhere, lots of singing, and I saw quite a few behaviors I'd never seen before. I've got a lot to share, so here we go!

Most of the male birds I saw this morning were showing off in your standard way: Wear a fancy costume, get up to a high perch, and sing your heart out. There were quite a few Yellow Warblers doing this in various parts of the fields:
 

These birds have a fairly plain costume, but it's so shockingly bright, and I love that subtle orange barring on these guys' chests:
 

A male American Redstart (another warbler) was singing from waaay up in the trees, his stark black and orange outfit standing out among new yellow-green leaves:
 

A male Rose-breasted Grosbeak was similarly striking on his own new-leaf stage:
 

(Hehe, birds look kind of funny when they sing.)
 

Other birds were using special tricks to be extra fancy. A male Eastern Towhee was flying from branch to branch with his tail fanned out for maximum fanciness:
 

This male Baltimore Oriole was certainly eye-catching already in his brilliant orange and black:
 

But then he fluffed out the feathers on his back so they covered his wings.... So much orange! (I don't actually know for sure that this is a display tactic, but it sure looked fancy to me!)
 

The smallest bird in these fields also made one of the most gregarious displays. I kept seeing male Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (perhaps the same individual, or maybe more than one) throughout my visit, a tiny fluffy dot perched on low bushes:
 

Or in the branches above my head:
 

But at one point, I watched a male hummingbird do a whole big aerial dance right at eye-level. This tiny bird was like a bouncing ball (or a swinging pendulum), zooming up, and down, and up again, in repetitive U-shaped arcs above the field, and buzzing the whole time. I've read that this is a courtship display, so maybe there was a female hiding somewhere in those bushes. I didn't really have a hope of recording this weird dance, so here's a blurry picture of the little guy zooming down from one of his upward spikes:
 

Tension was high in another part of the field, where Blue-winged Warblers were chasing each other back and forth between two clumps of trees. These birds were so obsessed with each other that they didn't seem to care about my presence at all. I got stuck in that field, actually, just standing there for several minutes with these bright yellow-and-gray darts sweeping past at waist height, sometimes so close that I could have reached out and touched them. (It was pretty thrilling.) These birds only landed for a few seconds at a time, but it was enough to grab a few pictures from closer to these pretty creatures than I've ever been:

Blue-winged Warblers are definitely sleek, and I love that thin black mask:

One of the birds landed so close to me at one point that I was having trouble keeping him in the frame. Pardon me, partially-cut-off bird, while I admire your pristine yellow and white belly for a moment:

It was an interesting experience, seeing these cool birds so close in seconds-long bursts over and over again. I'll take it!
 

I was wondering at the time whether I was seeing some sort of Blue-winged Warbler courtship ritual, but I'm pretty sure now that these were male warblers in the middle of an intense territory dispute. There was a lot of singing from all birds interspersed with the chasing, and even some physical tussles. Just before I left, two of the birds tangled together and fell to the ground near me. There are two tails sticking up out of the leaves in this next picture, and I'm pretty sure the one on the right (and hence the bird it's attached to) is upsidedown:
 

I took a few steps closer, and the birds popped up again -- I guess they just caught their breath:
 

Both birds flew off immediately (back to chasing) and seemed to be fine. One of the last things I expected to see when I went to the woods this morning was an avian wresting match!

I have a few more sights to share from this morning's walk (more birds), but this post is getting quite long enough. Look for a follow-up post soon!

A Few Bright Meadow Birds

I started the day this morning with a trip to the meadows of Naugatuck State Forest, where the usual spring explosion of extra-colorful birds is well underway. It was great to see (and hear) the Eastern Towhees back for a new season, and nearly every nest box had a pair of pristine Tree Swallow in residence:

I think these birds are extremely pretty, and I'm always glad to see them when they return from their winters away:
 

Several warblers were hanging around as well, including this male Blue-winged Warbler, who paused every few seconds while foraging among pale pink (apple?) blossoms to sing his wheezy-breath song:
 

In the woods, a male Black-and-White Warbler was also alternating between foraging and singing. I think this guy has one of the coolest bird outfits around:
 

So many stripes! And you gotta love that nuthatch-like trunk-creeping action:
 

Those stripes look cool from any angle, and I think they make for kind of an intense face:
 

Both of these warblers nest in Connecticut, so maybe they'll stop their journey here and make a family in these woods. If not, here's wishing them luck on the rest of their migration! I'll be on the lookout for more creatures passing through in the busy (fun) weeks to come. :)

Aaaaahhhh (Big Spider)

OK, I'm not usually one to freak out about spiders, but it's hard not to freak out a little when you walk into your bathroom (as I did tonight) and find a monster like this on the floor:

Normal-sized quarter. Jumbo-sized spider.

My first thought was actually that this was some sort of prank. Surely we don't get wolf spiders this size in Connecticut, do we? Well, apparently we do. [Update: One of my readers pointed out that this is probably actually a fishing spider, genus Dolomedes, rather than a wolf spider, and I think that looks right! Thanks, David!]

The freak-out factor with this creature wasn't just about size. (After all, we had even bigger cellar spiders in our house last year, and I was fine with those.) Well, size was part of it, but this was also one hefty spider, and fast. When it moved, I could hear its legs tapping on the ground. I do not like it when I can hear all those legs in motion. And I know that this spider probably wouldn't lunge at me and bite me, but part of my mind kept bringing up the possibility.

Anyway, freaky or not, I dutifully got a cup and relocated the creature. (Paul flatly refused to go near it.... and I supposed I owed him, anyway, since he caught and released a large wasp that flew into our apartment earlier in the day. I will not deal with wasps, and Paul will not deal with spiders, which I guess makes us a good team?) And now that a few hours have passed, I think this spider is pretty darn cool. But I'd be happier if it just stays outside, OK?

American Oystercatcher and Barn Swallow

Happy May! Today was yet another gorgeous spring day (keep 'em coming!) and I was happy to spend the morning wandering the beaches of Silver Sands State Park, where I volunteer once a week to monitor for Piping Plovers and other shorebirds. I didn't see any plovers today -- none of these little birds nested at this beach last year, so we'll have to wait and see if this year will be any different -- but I did see another bird that is of special conservation concern in Connecticut: an American Oystercatcher.
 

What a fancy bird! I love that impressive orange beak -- both pretty and useful, great for stabbing oysters, mussels, and other bivalves -- and it looks especially cool back-lit as it is in the above picture (it's practically glowing). American Oystercatchers are listed as threatened in Connecticut, and they're running into some of the same problems around here as Piping Plovers: These birds nest on nice sandy beaches, which, first, are getting harder to come by, and, second, happen to be where people like to hang out, too, so well-camouflaged eggs and chicks get accidentally disturbed and trampled. If I find a plover or oystercatcher nest on my monitoring rounds, it'll get a protective fence and watchful eyes to help give the babies a greater chance of survival.

No sign of a mate or a nest for this morning's oystercatcher, but I had fun watching him or her prowling the low-tide sands:
 

I caught up with this bird again later, when it had settled down among some sun-warmed rocks to rest. I have to say, this shorebird is quite startling in color and shape, but I think it's very handsome overall:
 

Stick around for a while, fancy oystercatcher. If you find a mate and settle down here, I'll help protect your babies!

Later during my walk, I had way too much fun trying to take pictures of the Barn Swallows zipping by only a foot or so above the sand:
 

I love that super-pointy swallow-tail, both on the bird and on its shadow:
 

Thanks, spring, for bringing all these cool creatures back here again!