One Jackdaw Birding

Foggy Morning

2012-01-24T13:00:00.002-05:00

I've got a lot of catching up to do and since there isn't much going on birdwise locally I'm going to take a break in blogging until spring unless something exciting turns up.

Pigeon Flock

Corn Stalks

Until Spring! Cheers!

Part 2: All Kinds of Gulls on Cape Ann. Iceland Gull in Turner's Falls in MA

2012-01-17T07:42:00.000-05:00

Looking at Gulls on Niles Pond, Gloucester

I like photographing gulls in the winter because that's when they congregate and allow you to come fairly close, but when I trying to guess their ages I often just throw my hands up. Looking later at my photographs, Howell's and Dunn's Gulls of the Americas comes in handy.

They are quite fearless, taking flight only if they see a raptor in the vicinity. We saw plenty of gulls on our trip, most of them on the far side of frozen Niles Pond sleeping or preening. I took hundreds of photograph, why I am not sure, because checking the images on screen on my camera I could easily see that none were sharp enough to be of any use. Still, hope against hope, the blue sky and the warm sun made the scene look so pretty with the long row of gulls on the blue ice in front of a curtain of buff-colored reeds.

On day 2 when we revisited the site I broke up a muffin saved from breakfast and tossed the pieces on the ice. i am not good at throwing, no further than a couple of feet from the shore. At first nothing happened, then finally a gull flew overhead, saw the bread landed at a cautious distance. A few others followed. Finally a couple of Ring-billed Gulls ventured closer and picked up pieces of the muffin.

It was quite slippery and the gulls kept sliding around on the ice.

Notice the stuffed cheeks

Most of the gulls that we saw were American Herring Gulls (AHG), Ring-billed Gulls (RBG) and Great Black-backed Gulls (GBG). Here are some photos of the AHG and the GBG:

Adult AHG and two immature GBGs

Adult RBG in front and immature GBG in the back

Mixed Group on Niles Pond. Most of these were AHGs of various ages. There are two adult GBG.

I wasn't sure about the ID the gull with the pink legs and the black-tipped bill. Here is a close-up, unfortunately not very sharp:

AHG, probably 2nd winter

The bill seemed to me uncharacteristically small for an AHG. Also the dove-like head and expression did not jive with my image of an AHG. I posted the photo on the iD Forum on birdforum.net. The responses I got confirmed that this was just an immature AHG; hoping for something more interesting was just wishful thinking. Apparently there is quite a range of bill sizes among the immature AHG.

Adult AHG

First winter GBG

Adult GBG

We also saw an Iceland Gull on Niles Pond but it was too far away for my camera. This past Sunday I drove to Unity Park in Turner's Falls in MA where gulls often congregate near the shore of the CT River. I was fortunate. Among them was a first winter Iceland Gull. We usually see one or two juveniles every winter. Adults rarely travel this far south.

I love that sweet expression - typical for an immature Iceland Gulls.

First winter Iceland Gull in front on the left and a second cycle AHG on the right

These photos are of an immature Glaucous Gull on the breakwater at Gloucester harbor, were taken a couple of years ago. It's a sturdy large gull, larger than an Iceland G, and has a pink bill with a black tip.

I had taken so many photos in RAW format that I ran out of space on my 8 GB card. I went back to my car for a spare 2 GB card which I filledl. When I tried to download the photos at home however I kept getting the question whether I wanted to reformat the card. Bad sign! No photos! I remembered the software I had bought from Seagate for when I had my Seagate hard drive disaster last October. It worked - I got all my photos back! I threw out the card and put another spare one into my gear bag rather than the car where it would be exposed to such variable temperatures.

It's still freezing here! Hope it's less extreme where you are. Happy birding!

Thanks for visiting. I am always thrilled to receive your comments and welcome any corrections or suggestions.

Trip to the Coast on Cape Ann Part 1: Sea Ducks

2012-01-13T14:56:00.001-05:00

Last weekend's trip to Gloucester and Rockport on Cape Ann was both exhilarating and frustrating, exhilarating because of the knowledgeable and enthusiastic guidance of Bryan Pfeiffer of Vermont Bird Tours, a congenial group of participants and of course the beautiful warm weather, frustrating because the birds were mostly far out at sea, too far to get decent photos of, and the bright sunlight produced harsh shadows, not ideal for photography . Most photos worth keeping were taken on the second day when the sky was slightly overcast. For my next trip to the coast I will have to invest in a scope after all and learn digiscoping.

The Common Eiders were plentiful and fairly close to shore. There was a King Eider but far out and difficult to see even with a scope.

Buffleheads were also easy to see. The males were beautiful with their iridescent head and neck contrasting with the stark white patch across the nape.

A high point where the Harlequin Ducks at Andrew's Point.
Here they are perched on a rock enjoying the warm sun rising over the North Atlantic.

They are at home in turbulent water, breeding on fast flowing rivers in the summer and moving to the rocky coasts of North America and Greenland in the winter. Negotiating the surf along a rocky shore they forage in shallow water close to the coastline.

Common Loon

Red-necked Grebe

Female Black Scoter

Female Surf Scoter

I believe this is a first winter male Surf Scoter

White-winged Scoters

Male Red-breasted Merganser

American Black Ducks, male with yellow bill and female with gray bill

Male and female Gadwalls

And lastly not a sea duck:

This Peregrine Falcon. perched on top of Cloucester City Hall, has been a regular winter visitor for the past 8 years

We saw several more species, but I am not including them here since I didn't get any photos. I saw the King Eider but not well enough to count it in my life list I added the Surf Scoter and the Red-necked Grebe to my list bringing it up to 293. My next post about the trip to Cape Ann will be all about Gulls. They go through several stages of molt, while they age, making them difficult and challenging to identify, though they are some of my favorite birds to photograph.

Happy Birding!

Thank you for visiting my blog. I would very much appreciate your comment.

House Finches

2012-01-06T16:07:00.000-05:00

My feeders have been attracting large numbers of House Finches. Here are pics of the maie of the species.

This weekend I will be taking a 2 day coastal birding trip to Cape Anne led by Bryan Pfeiffer of Vermont Bird Tours, and I hope to come back with lots of pix of ocean birds!

Cheers and Happy Birding!

Pine Siskins

2012-01-02T17:21:00.000-05:00

The air was filled with twittering calls one morning a couple of days ago. It was windy and high up in the turbulent air I saw what looked small leaves floating this way and that, until they gathered into an undulating flock and settled on a tree in the wetland next to our house: a flock of Pine Siskins.

Pine Siskins are a nomadic species with a preference for conifer seeds. According to a report on winter finches, the spruce and hemlock crops are supposed to be excellent this year in the Northeast and since spruce seed crop up north in Yukon and Alaska has been average Pine Siskins are expected to show up in good numbers in the Northeast There have a number of recent sightings on the New England bird lists but nothing yet like the irruption in Jan 2009.

I got a couple of photos and, hoping they would come closer, stocked my Nyeer feeder but so far have only seen Goldfinches. This morning, New Year's Day, during a walk up Black Mountain I checked the crowns of red and white pines for cones and found almost none. So, I don't expect to see more Pine Siskins this winter.

I went back into my archive to pull out some photos I had taken during the irruption in early 2009. Back then they overwhelmed my feeders and I was kind of glad when after a few weeks they disappeared. They are a gregarious but pugnacious lot vigorously defending their spot at the feeder. Because of their small beaks they have trouble opening black oil sunflower seeds but will pick up broken pieces left behind by other birds.

This is a rare (about 1 in a 100 males) "green morph"

According to BNA: Very small percentage of male individuals have darker and more greenish coloration above, paler and less extensive streaking below, and more extensive areas of yellow on base of remiges and rectrices. This plumage has been called “green morph".

I am showing this photo in its original size because it so beautifully illustrates the colors and arrangements of feathers on the back.

To enliven the dull dark days I decided to try my hand at sketching birds from photographs that I took. These are my first efforts. It's fun and teaches me to see the bird's body underneath the feathers. I like to draw fast; an ultra fine gel roller seems to be the perfect tool - no second chances; it has to be right the first time. I added some color with pastels. As you can see I will need a lot of practice.

Pine Siskins

Turkey, Hooded Merganser, Common Merganser

Eastern Bluebirds

Eastern Bluebird

I wish you all a happy, healthy and productive New Year, and thanks for visiting!

The Bluebird of Hope and Happiness

2011-12-16T16:17:00.001-05:00

The other day I was watching a mixed Eastern Bluebird/House Sparrow flock in the trees along the West River in Brattleboro, VT. They flew off in all directions just as I was getting my camera ready. I didn't get a good picture of a male Bluebird, just got a fleeting look at one in the thicket, but a female obligingly perched on a shrub along the road for a photo shoot.

Compared to the modest attire of the female, the male looks over-the-top extravagant. I pulled these photos from my archive:

The Bluebird is beloved by many because of its gentleness and sweet song. In many cultures it is thought of as a symbol of hope and happiness. Some Native American tribes considered it sacred. It is often featured in songs and tales. So, it's an appropriate symbol for the Christmas season when we are reminded to be charitable to the neediest and lowliest among us. Looking at the bird world I would include the lowly and despised House Sparrow (HOSP), but how wrong I was! The HOSP is an aggressive and deadly competitor for nesting sites. It probably contributed to the decline of the Eastern Bluebird population after its introduction in 1851.

"don't know any Bluebird hosts who enjoy killing anything, including HOSP, but the two species are on a head on collision course and there is so much proof that the HOSP will win (and by that I mean kill) your Bluebirds eventually."
- Dave Kinneer, Bluebirding Forum, 2008

From the North American Bluebird Society FAQ

"Q: I came out to check my babies, and found several of them dead and strewn out on the ground. Others were still in the box, but looked like they had been battered on the head and eyes. HELP!"

A: House Sparrows, which are exotic pest species, will enter a box and peck the occupants to death. Clean out the box and either take steps to either eliminate the sparrows or move the box to a more suitable location. House Sparrows are found only around human dwellings, in cities and around farm buildings. To minimize competition from this aggressive predator and competitor, place your boxes where sparrows are not likely to be a problem. Please see our House Sparrow Control page for more sparrow management techniques"

So the Bluebird may well consider the House Sparrow a devilish competitor.

We are reminded this time of the year to give generously to charitable organisations. Along with mail order catalogs our mail box is stuffed with requests for money. It seems whenever we donate to an organization it soon comes back asking for more. And this is not just my impression. Here is a link to an article in the NY Times. Bill and I make a list every year and in general stick to it. The Charity Navigator is an invaluable source to help with the selection.

Good news on the home front:

According to an article in the NY Times Vermont is rebounding quickly from Hurricane Irene. Now all we need is lots and lots of top soil to replace what the flood has washed away and we also badly need snow to attract skiers to support our local economy.

And Happy Birding in 2012!

Redheads

2011-12-11T14:39:00.001-05:00

Juvenile Common Mergansers are a flamboyant lot. According to Pete Dunne they look like "overly made-up dowagers" * but to me these here look more like bright-eyed punksters.

The other day I saw three Common Mergansers in an inlet off the CT River. Of course they saw me too and paddled off. So all I got is this parting glance. I had to dive into my archive to come up with the above summer beauties.

Merry Birding and Happy Holidays!

* Pete Dunne's Essential Field Guide Companion

Thanks for visiting. Please leave a comment.

First of Season Hoodies, and Liebster Blog Award

2011-12-04T16:34:00.001-05:00

For the past couple of days a pair of Hooded Mergansers, Hoodies in short, have settled on a inactive beaver pond not for from where I live. They are very skittish and usually head back to the shore opposite the dirt road if notice any movement, even a car creeping ever so slowly along that road. These are the first of the season for me.

A female Wood Duck was skulking through the weeds at the water's edge.

Thank you so much, Ken Schneider of Rosy Finch Ramblng, for nominating me for the Liebster Blog Award! The photographs, stories and reports on your blog are always an inspiration for me, as you seem to be living your life on a larger scale than the rest of us.

What does Liebster Blog mean? The origin of this award is obscure, but it's probably German as the phrase "Liebster Blog" translates into "most favorite blog". The award is given to blogs that have less than 200 followers and deserve more recognition and encouragement.There are some guidelines that have to be followed while giving or receiving the Award.

The rules for receiving the award:

Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
Reveal your top five picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
Copy and paste the award on your blog.
Hope that the people you’ve sent the award to forward it to their five favorite bloggers and keep it going!

Good Birding!

Thanks for your visit and let me know what you think.

A SNOWY OWL in Brattleboro!

2011-12-02T19:23:00.001-05:00

Talking about a possible Snowy Owl irruption in the Northeast, great news this morning on VTBird: Hector Galbraith had sighted a Snowy Owl on the cornfield behind the Marina Restaurant on the West River in Brattleboro, just about 3 miles from my house. I dropped everything, jumped into my car and joined several birders who were already there.The owl was perched about 50 yards from the kayak shed and parking lot.

Uncropped view, about 10 AM

The owl didn't stay there.

Half hour later it flew to the opposite corner of the field and, when I returned at about 3PM, it was sitting in a tree on a slope bordering the wetland at the far edge. I took this photo from behind the stores on the Aubuchon Plaza above the field.

Shortly after the owl took off and flew to perch on a log in the West River. Just as I got there it took off again and seemed to disappear into the woods above the Retreat on the other side of the river near Rte 30. On a hunch I decided to drive to the parking lot in back of Retreat to look down on the water from above and found it again perching on some brush in the water.

it was about 4 PM. The light was fading. Maybe it will still be in the general area in morning. I will do a check and leave a message on VTBird one way or the other.

Good Birding!

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Tender Gestures

2011-11-27T12:51:00.001-05:00

The meaning of this photo is unmistakable although we know nothing about the context except that the birds are members of the same flock. It's clear that the lives of these birds are not just of struggle and strife, revolve not just around competition for food, for mates, for nest sites and territory.... but also allow unselfish tenderness.

Among Black-legged Kittiwakes trustful companionship

A featheris being passed like a gift between these two adult gannets, presumably the parents of the chick. Since it's not something edible and not used for lining a nest, does it have a symbolic meaning? Or am I perhaps overreaching? ---- Maybe he is just saying to her, "get rid of this feather" but the next photo seems to put the lie to that. Such tenderness and solicitude...

These were among a large number of photos I took during a trip in June '09 to Helgoland, a North Sea island off the coast of Germany. It was a rare opportunity to observe the communal lives of Northern Gannets, Common Murres and Black-legged Kittiwakes.

I recommend these books: "The Private Lives of Birds" by Bridget Stutchbury
"The Exultant Ark - A Pictorial Tour of Animal Pleasure"
by Jonathan Balcombe

I am thankful for having so many online birding friends. Thank you for stopping by. Please leave a comment.

Waterfowl on Plum Island

2011-11-21T11:15:00.001-05:00

My trip to Plum Island last Saturday was somewhat marred by a cold wind, sweeping down the beach and swirling up clouds of fine sand, which kept me from walking to Sandy Point, or anywhere else on the beach. In addition I had arrived at low tide, as high tide occurred too early for me, around 5 AM, and again 12 hours later in the afternoon.

Sanderlings and Dunlins were down on the beach close to the water's edge too far for my camera and lens to get a good shot. I asked a birder with a scope whether he had seen any Red Knots "No, just Sanderlings and Dunlins'' and pointing to a boat not far off shore:,"some scoters there", but since the men in the boat were hunters, I suspect those ducks scattered about the boat were most likely decoys.

The sheltered ponds and marshes behind the dunes were fairly calm.

American Coot

Green-winged Teal

Northern Pintails

Male Gadwall above, female below

The majority of ducks that I saw were American Wigeons, also call "Baldpate" for obvious reasons, or "Poacher" because, not being strong divers, they pilfer plants and roots dragged up from the bottom by other ducks. They have strong beaks which allows them also to graze on dry land like geese.

Male Wigeon

Three males and one female Wigeon

Male Wigeon

A pair of male and female Wigeons

American Wigeon summer and winter distribution (Birds of North America)

I had a quick lunch in my car while watching two American Crows and a Ring-billed Gull squabble over food.

November days are short and before you know it the afternoon light is waning. Time to drive home. A five hour round trip and $50 in gas, was it worth it? I wished I could have timed my visit for high tide, and maybe a little less wind would have been nice. But I got two lifers that made it worth it: the Wigeon and a Barnacle Goose (see previous post)

Cheers! Good Birding.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

Thanks for your visit and come by again!

Please leave a comment.

Barnacle Goose in West Newbury, MA

2011-11-20T15:35:00.001-05:00

With few local birds available, and in imminent danger of acute birding withdrawal, I decided to drive to Plum Island yesterday to check on shorebirds and waterfowl and, while there. also check out the Barnacle Goose reported to be on a dairy farm in West Newbury.

I visited Plum Island first and then drove to the farm. I found one birder already there who told me the Barnacle Goose had moved to the back over a ridge and out of sight. So all we could see on the meadow were a flock of Canada Geese. The meadow was bordered by a private residence with a lawn stretching down to a pond, right along side the meadow and past the ridge. After waiting for about a half hour and determining that there was nobody at home who I could ask for permission, I decided to walk down the lawn toward the pond. About half way down the geese became aware of me and apparently alarmed started moving uphill over the ridge toward the road, the Barnacle Goose among them.

This rather handsome goose breeds in the arctic north, Greenland and northern Eurasia, and winters in northern Europe and the British Isles. Occasionally a bird shows up in North America; this may be a vagrant, or possibly an escapee since the breed is popular with collectors.

Mixed in with the flock of Canada Geese were several Snow Geese, among them two adult white morphs and a juvenile, distinguished by a dark beak, and an intermediate morph, intermediate that is between a white and a dark morph.

I'll report on my visit to Plum Island in my next post. Thanks for visiting.

Happy Birding!

Anonymous comments will be removed.

Old World Sparrows

2011-11-13T14:44:00.001-05:00

It's a hard time of the year for birding. The woods, fields and meadows are mostly quiet except for the occasional cawing of crows. The other day walking along the CT River I heard the bright calls of a Winter Wren coming from a dense leafless thicket by the shore I searched for it and saw it suddenly pop out on a branch looking right at me as if to say "Well here I am. Where is your camera?" It was a life bird for me but stupidly I had left my camera at home.

Having just returned from Germany I decided to do a post on two species of old world sparrows, the lowly and despised House Sparrow, and the Eurasian Tree Sparrow. .

Most of you may be familiar with the misguided introduction into this country of the House Sparrow by European settlers in the 19th century. Here is a nice summary:

Only at the insistence of man did the House Sparrow make its way across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States. In 1850, green inch-worms were destroying trees in New York City's Central Park. Many people thought that the House Sparrow's main diet back in England consisted of these same green worms and that if sparrows were brought to New York City they would solve the worm problem in Central Park. Others thought the House Sparrow would eliminate crop pests. While others theorized that the House Sparrow would eat grain out of horse manure (which was becoming a bigger problem as the city grew and the number of horses on the city's streets increased), which would help the manure decompose more rapidly. In addition, the new wave of immigrants who were forced out of Europe in the late 1850's because of economic and agricultural failures, missed the little birds they were accustomed to seeing in their native Europe. Steve Eno (Blue Birds across Nebraska)

A quick look at the bird's beak would convince any birder that its main diet is grains and seeds, not worms or other insect, which it feeds only to its young. Due to its ubiquitous presence you'd think that the House Sparrow is the most common bird in Europe. Not true. In Great Britain it's in 4th place behind wren, chaffinch, robin and black bird. Also it has actually been declining by 60% in urban environments, such as London's city center where now it's almost absent. It's been placed on the red list

The Eurasian Tree Sparrow was less successful after its 19th century introduction in St Louis to enhance the local avifauna. Today it's mostly found in extreme eastern Missouri, west-central Illinois, and southeastern Iowa

I took these photos in the back of my grandfather's farm (now run by my cousin) in northern Germany. There the two species were strictly divided: House Sparrows in the ivy on the gable-side of the house and Tree Sparrows in the trees in back of the farm yard.

Here is a side view of the old farm. My dad, age five or six, is sitting on the horse. It's the same type of horse I learned to ride on when vacationing there in the summer. It is sad to think the people in this photo are all gone, my grandfather holding the horse that my father is sitting on, and my grandmother with my aunts, as well as a couple of other relatives that I don't recognize. That window over the door opened to a tiny guest room with two beds and a dresser, my room during my vacation. The thatched roof has been replaced with corrugated metal and the building turned into a stable and barn.

Back then....

Today....

I was just reading that John Vanderpoel of BigYear2011 started his search for the Eurasian Tree Sparrow from the Super 8 motel in Coralville, Iowa. I know that area well having spent ten years as student in Iowa City which lies directly on the other side of the Iowa River. But that was long before I did anything more than casual birdwatching.

I am ending this post on a nostalgic note. Tempus fugit. Memento mori. Time flies. Remember we must die.

Thanks for visiting and please leave a comment. Cheers!

A Matter of Laughing Gulls, and "Occupy Hamburg"

2011-11-08T07:31:00.001-05:00

Larus iribundus, a name given to the Black-headed Gull by Linnaeus in 1766, means Laughing Gull in Latin -- I saw large numbers of this gull while visiting my family in Hamburg, Germany -- and so in German, French and Spanish they are properly called "Laughing Gull". I don't know why the English didn't follow suit, naming it Black-headed Gull instead, and to add to the confusion, they stuck the name "Laughing Gull" on another unrelated gull, Larus atricilla, a gull which is common in North America.

Black-headed Gulls are a rarity along the Northeast coast, but are quite common in Europe. They are a bit larger than the Bonaparte's Gulls, but resemble them in many other respects. They are gregarious and quite tame and unlike the stand-offish Bonaparte's they come in great numbers when offered a hand-out. I took these photos with my little Canon Powershot at a canal in the city center of Hamburg (except for the two adult gulls below).

For comparison, adult Black-headed Gull above and Bonaparte's Gull below

First Cycle Black-headed Gull above

The white triangle in the outer wing is characteristic for both Black-headed and Bonaparte's Gulls. An immature Hering Gull has joined the feeding frenzy.

A Mute Swan takes center spot

Mute Swans, Black-headed Gulls and Eurasian Coots

Eurasian Coots look a little like first winter American Coots

My sister and I took a leisurely stroll through Hamburg City. The English have their afternoon tea, the Germans their afternoon coffee, which is usually taken with a piece of pastry of some sort. Stopping for such a coffee break is one of the pleasures of sight-seeing and window shopping. We first stopped at Starbuck's but finding no seats we moved on to the cosy and old-fashioned Wiener Cafe Wirth where we had had a hard time deciding among all the delectable pastries which one to pick.

Along the way we came across a small and rather puny encampment on one of the city's squares proclaiming to represent "Occupy Hamburg".

We are the 99%

Germany is a rich country with a broad well-off middle class. There the top 1% controls only about 4% of the nation's wealth, whereas here in the States the top 1% controls 37%. So "Occupy Hamburg" seems to have little appeal. You might call it a wet noodle of a protest.

Thanks for visiting. I would very much appreciate your comment.

A Lesson Learned: Backup! Backup!

2011-10-17T16:13:00.000-04:00

It was an expensive lesson. It's been several months since I last backed up my small external Seagate 500 GB drive, which contained all my photos, and it was high time that I did it again. But when I tried, the drive would not register on my computer no matter what. It was only 20 months old and had never given me any problems before. It's still under the 5 year replacement warranty but Seagate takes no responsibility for lost data. Instead it offers a data recovery software for $99, a pretty steep price I thought and it took me a while to convince myself that I really really wanted those photos back.

The software worked and I got everything back. I don't mean to let it happen again. From now on regular backups and always to two separate locations in case one of them fails. What a hassle!

A balancing act

The mallards are enjoying their new wetland pool on a cornfield

A bright wind-swept day at the nuclear power station in Vernon. i looked for A. Pipits on the adjacent cornfield but found none.

Not far from our house is the Scott Farm which grows and sells heritage apples.

It was the location for the movie "Ciderhouse Rules" based on John Irving's novel of the same name. The is the apple pickers' bunk house where much of the action takes place.

A Great Blue Heron enjoying a tranquil moment at the farm pond.

I am flying back to Germany tomorrow to see my sister and brother with their families, and my mother who will be celebrating her 100th birthday. So no posts for the next couple of weeks.

Thanks for your visit to my blog. I always love to read your comments.

Three Lifers in a Mud Puddle

2011-10-11T11:21:00.000-04:00

Yes, three life birds, all locally rare species, congregating in a puddle in a cornfield: JoAnne Russo of Vermont Green Threads alerted me to it with a message on Facebook (Thanks, JoAnne) It took me three days and three different trips though to get a good set of pictures. Lucky for me the birds stayed around. The third was my lucky day because this time the American Golden Plover, that I had missed on the first two days, showed up.

He was the star of the show, a juvenile American Golden Plover, still showing the gold speckling on his rump. He is a transient visitor migrating from the northern tundra to his wintering grounds in South America. Most migrate through the Great Plains but a a few show up in the Northeast.

Also present that day were two Black-bellied Plovers which are much more common here

The other star of the show was a Stilt Sandpiper. It too was a life bird for me; I had just missed it at Sterling Peats during fall migration last year. It was an adult in non-breeding plumage, mostly gray on top. The species breeds in subarctic areas and migrates to the interior of South America. It prefers pools or lagunes to tidal mudflats, and therefore the bird must have felt quite at home in this mud puddle.

From a distance, with their long yellowish legs, they are easily confused with Lesser Yellowlegs but for their long drooping bill.

The Dunlin was my third lifer. Here in this photo the Dunlin is on the left and Stilt Sandpiper on the right. They are very similar in size, but the Dunlin is much stockier with a thicker bill.

I had seen White-rumped Sandpipers on the coast on Plum Island before but they are not often seen inland during their long-distance migration from the Canadian Arctic to Patagonia.

Three White-rumps preening, showing their white rumps

There were several Pectoral Sandpipers in the crowd. The following two photos show the sharp pectoral demarcation that gives the sandpiper its name.

And lastly there were several Killdeer. They are so ubiquitous that it's easy to overlook them.

We have been having beautiful summer-like weather.The mud puddle is drying up, getting smaller by the day. In the morning it's been quite foggy, but it burns off by 10 AM. On a foggy field Canada Geese are fattening up before migration. Actually they don't migrate very far, flying just a little south of here to the lush golf courses in Connecticut.

Farm stores are busy selling local produce.

Cheers!

Thanks for visiting! Please leave comment.

Palm Warblers arrivals and departures

2011-10-02T16:27:00.000-04:00

Back in the spring I witnessed a Palm Warbler fallout -- a brief stop-over on their migration north to their breeding grounds.

Palm Warblers nest in remote nearly inaccessible northern bogs. They are much more easily seen during migration, particularly since unlike most other warblers they feed on the ground and are not hidden by foliage.

BNA Online: Distribution of Palm Warblers

A couple of days ago, on their return trip to their wintering grounds, I witnessed another fallout. I was walking along the West River trail with the river on one side and a corn stubble field on the other. Except for a lone Great Egret on a sandbank there wasn't much to see on the river. I decided to check the cornfield for American Pipits. I didn't see any Pipits but instead saw tiny birds rapidly moving about and foraging between the corn stalks, and the more I looked the more I saw. Taking photos was made difficult by their fast movements often obscured by dips in the ground, small plants and and a jumble of corn stalks. It was windstill. So watching for anything moving on the field was the easiest way to find them.

Sometimes a small flock would lift into the air and settle back down farther away. There was also a steady back and forth between the field and the bordering shrubs. I counted about 22 birds which was a respectable number considering that according to eBird the all time highest count in all of Vermont was 10 back in 1973. However 22 pales against neighboring NH and MA with 100 and 78 respectively.

Find Waldo - there are actually two on this picture; although one is out of focus.

What shows up here is the Eastern or Yellow race. They retain the yellow supraorbital stripe, whereas in the Western race it turns white. They have changed from their summer plumage into their winter drabs. Gone is the rusty cap, the yellow on the chest is paler and the markings less distinct.

They had left by next morning. I wish them safe journey to their wintering grounds in the southeastern and gulf coast states.

Thanks for visiting my blog. I always appreciate your comments.

Many in Vermont are still struggling with the aftermath of Hurricane Irene. Fellow Vermont birder Chris Petrak of Tails of Birding lost his entire backyard including leach field to a creek which turned into a raging river overnight. Worse yet for the Vermont economy a hard fall and winter lie ahead. Foliage season is about to start and ski season is soon to follow, but without the passable roads 'leafpeepers' and skiiers will stay away. Houses have washed away, crops are spoiled and grass for farm animals made toxic by contaminated flood waters. It's a dire situation all around for the hard-working people of Vermont.

Vermont Disaster Relief Fund

Lincoln's Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow and American Pipit

2011-09-27T09:42:00.002-04:00

Yes! Luck was with me this morning! I finally got my Lincoln's Sparrow! I had been hunting for this species for a couple of years. It's a breeder of subarctic and subalpine regions. During fall migration it's fairly common in the West, but more elusive, and secretive, in the Northeast. It usually feeds on the ground, not far from cover. And this one was not hiding at all, but perched right on top of the brush pile, sitting very patiently for a portrait.

This sparrow was named after Thomas Lincoln (1812 - 1883) a well-to-do Maine farmer who as a young man accompnied Audubon on his Labrador expedition. Audubon wrote "Chance placed my young companion, Thomas Lincoln, in a situation where he saw it alight within shot and with his usual unerring aim, he cut short its career. On seizing it, I found it to be a species I had not seen; and supposing it to be new, I named it Tom's Finch in honor of our friend Lincoln, who was a great favorite among us." Christopher W. Leahy, The Birdwatcher's Companion to North American Birdlife.

There were also several Swamp Sparrows in the same brush pile. It's easy to confuse them with the Lincoln's Sparrow unless seen side-by-side. They both have a mostly gray face and a buffy malar stripe. The best way to tell them apart is to look at the chest: fine, discrete streaks on the Lincoln's chest and blurry ones on the Swamp Sparrow's.

Just as I was about to leave I saw a slender, head-bobbing bird striding over the sandy ground, dipping in and out of the grass along the edge. As I got closer I realized it was an American Pipit.

American Pipits breed in the arctic tundra and alpine grasslands. We see them in the NE only during its fall migration to areas south of the winter snow line. They are common but easy to miss because of their earthy colors and ground-feeding habits.

It's an ancient species. Fossils have been found in Nebraska dating back to the late Pleistocene about 0.6 million years ago. It makes me realize that many species common to us are just transitory visitors with roots dating far back in time and with lives lived mostly elsewhere.

Thanks for visiting. I would very much appreciate your comments.

Trumpeter Swans at Montezuma NWR in upstate NY

2011-09-17T12:57:00.006-04:00

Bill and I were at a family gathering in Michigan, driving straight through on the way there, but taking two days driving back. We spent a night in Seneca Falls and while Bill enjoyed a leisurely muffins-and-coffee motel-style breakfast I visited the Montezuma NWR nearby, a sweeping expanse of shallow marsh land right next to the interstate. A large flock of Canada Geese were feeding on the meadow around the visitor's center, but a little further off I found a small flock of grazing white swans.

I didn't really find out what kind of swans I was seeing until I got a good look at my photos on my computer. and then decide were these four birds the rare Trumpeter Swans or the more common Tundras? Both have black bills and black leg. They look very similar, although if seen side-by-side the Trumpeter is larger.

They are distinguished only from each other by subtle differences in bill and head shape.
The culmen, the line along the upper ridge of the Trumpeter's bill, is straight whereas in the Tundra's it's concave. The Tundra's head is dome-shaped, whereas the Trumpeter's is flat. The black base of the bill envelopes the eye in the Trumpeter whereas in the Tundra it's tangential, often containing a yellow spot in the lores. The border between forehead and bill is V-shaped in the Trumpeter and U-shaped in the Tundra.

Trumpeter Swan identification from Hinterland Who's Who

The upper edge of the lower mandible has a salmon red border which makes the bird look like it's wearing lipstick.

Trumpeter Swan Call recorded by Taylor Brooks, xeno-canto Cat. Nr. XC41300

The Trumpeter Swan was common and widespread when Europeans first came to settle in North America but was then hunted almost to extinction for its skin and primary feathers. In 1935 only 69 individuals were known to exist, until isolated populations were discovered in Alaska and Canada. With conservation the population has by now expanded to 34,000 individuals according to a continent-wide survey in 2005.

BNA Online: Distribution of the Trumpeter Swan in North America.

. The Trumpeter Swan Society is a great resource for more information on this rare bird.

Regrettably I missed the spectacle of the birds taking flight as they were gone when I returned to the visitor's center after my drive around the refuge.

It was a good trip, no matter that I had my small Canon Powershot S95 and a battery pack with sync cable for our iPhone stolen from our car - total value $450. We were guests at a large party in a secluded neighborhood. Cars were parked in a long row along the curb. In the confusion one of us forgot to lock the car. Fortunately the thief did not find the Garmin GPS behind the driver's seat, with "Grapes of Wrath" on it from Audible - fantastic book, fantastic reader, about people with great grit escaping the dust bowl, the depression... Nor, more importantly, did they find my workhorse, the Nikon with the long lens, well hidden in the trunk of the car.

I am watching Craigslist and eBay, but so far nothing. It hurts! For now no landscape shots, no close-ups...

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After the Storm

2011-09-06T13:17:00.000-04:00

A Great Blue Heron looking stunned: how is a bird that hunts by sight supposed to find prey in this muddy soup?. After hurricane Irene most streams and ponds in Southern Vermont look like this, carrying suspended soil from neighbors' backyards, farms and fields, along with sewage and waste.

Vermont's road map looks like a torn spider web. The flash floods have destroyed bridges, undermined roads and broken up the asphalt into so many scrambled pieces. Most townships and villages have been affected in one way or other since many roads in a mountainous state like Vermont are built alongside streams. Many communities are still isolated and can only be reached over treacherous make-shift roads. In addition to carrying away houses and life stock the storm hit at the top of the harvest season, destroying field crops and orchards.

The Mallard Ducks seem to be making out alright.

Roadside leaves caked with silt

A lone crayfish, stranded by the receding flood, marches along a dry dirt path....

until a predator spots him.

Cheers and Good Birding!

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August Day on Plum Island (2) -- Purple Martins

2011-08-31T10:22:00.000-04:00

This is going to be a short post because this weekend we were all hung up about securing the house and shop and lawn furniture for the passage of Hurricane Irene. Then we sat and waited, kept checking the storm tracking websites. The eye was getting closer and closer but nothing happened, I mean no wind, no fallen trees, no power outage, just lots and lots of rain. We only realized on Monday morning how fortunate we had been: there was major flooding in downtown Brattleboro, Vermont, and surrounding towns, and many roads and bridges were washed out...

To get back to Plum Island:

At Lot # 1 I stopped to look for Purple Martins. It seemed almost all of them had already left on their migration south. There was just one pair - two females - and a chick peeking out its nest in the wooden box.

One of the adults checked the nest and then turned back carrying a glistening white package in its beak, a neat way of removing the chick's feces..

I am going to be back in May next year when the colony is in full swing.

Please visit World Bird Wednesday to explore a whole world of terrific birding blogs!

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August Day on Plum Island (1) REVISED FORSTER'S VS COMMON TERN

2011-08-24T11:51:00.002-04:00

It's already late in the fall migration for many shore birds. So, when I went on a day-trip to Plum Island last week, I only saw small numbers. The beaches, that had been closed to protect nesting Piping Plovers, were soon to be opened, but a few vacationers had already made it into the restricted area at Lot # 1.

At the end of the day I came home with 400+ photos which needed to be sorted and put into neat piles of keepers and losers. Each one requires a trade-off between keeping too many and being overwhelmed, or being too thrifty and later regretting it. Best to sleep over it and leave the ultimate deleting for another day. It's late in the day, I am tired and have to be careful not to go on deleting binge as I have done before.

Now I know why:

According to a recent article in the New York Times Magazine about decision fatigue, each day we only have a limited supply of mental energy, and all decisions that we make will lower it bit by bit. Most decisions are not clear-cut Yes' or No's, but myriad Maybe's that sap our strength and render us unable to arrive at good choices at the end of the day.That's when we throw caution to the wind. Glucose, however, partially reverses this depletion; so taking a break with a candy bar is not all bad.

Two early morning birders

I had left at 4:30 AM because I wanted to get there by 7 AM, well before the limited parking at Sandy Point at the very tip of Plum Island was filled up. Mine was the fourth car on the lot. I packed my gear and made my way down the sandy path to the beach.

There were already a couple of birders on the beach. I ran into one, who was on his way back, and couldn't let him go by without asking, "See anything? Any Forster's?" He replied he had seen one Forster's at the very tip of the sand spit, but otherwise nothing out of the ordinary. -- I should add here that Forster's Terns forage and breed in marshes and wetlands and are not that common right on the shore.

Small flock of Semipalmated Sandpipers flying along the water's edge.

Although many shore birds had alreay left on their fall migration and were largely absent, there were many terns, both Common and Least.

There were lots of begging Common Tern juvies whose parents were trying to ignore them, often looking annoyed. Occasionally though one would bring a fish.

Least Terns were also there in good numbers, more juvies than adults.

When at home I scrutinized the shot below of two flying terns I thought they looked suspiciously like Forster's, but Forster's and Common Terns are notoriously difficult to differentiate. I turned to Birdforum.net to help with the ID. Here is the thread:

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=208882. According to one respondent, Smiths from Belgium, the left one was indeed a Forster's whereas the right one was a Common Tern.

He gave a link to a sketch that helped him nail the ID. He writes:

"Based on this, the identification of the two terns in the photo becomes clearer, even though light conditions do not seem to be ideal. The left hand bird is definitely a Forster's; note extensive dark grey on central primaries, and white wedge on outers, almost like in a Black-headed Gull. Also, note bulging white loral area above bill base, and white underparts. I am not entirely sure of the right hand bird, but it looks more like a Common Tern to me: dark grey on the primaries is much more confined to the tips, there seem to be extensive grey blotches on belly and flanks, and the white loral area is much thinner."

REVISION: This can't be a Forster's tern which should show some white in the forecrown due to molt. Here is an excellent article on molts in Forster's Terns:
http://www.birdfellow.com/journal/2009/08/19/photo_essay_forster_s_tern_plumage_sequence

It was low tide and foraging on the water-logged sandy beach was a solitary Piping Plover chick, as most adults depart on their fall migration by mid July. It had the peculiar habit of putting one foot forward and letting it tremble in the shallow water, a behavior that I had not observed on my previous visit with Piping Plovers. It repeated the trembling with each step. According to The Shorebird Guide (O’Brien et al.) this foot-trembling feeding method causes prey to move and become more conspicuous.

View toward the public beach at Lot # 1

By afternoon all parking lots were full and there was a long line of cars at the gate house waiting for to be admitted. It was time for me to pack up and drive home. But I'll show more photos in my next post. In the meantime head over to World Bird Wednesday at The Pine River Review for some terrific posts from all over the world.

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Chimney Swifts over the West River

2011-08-16T10:08:00.001-04:00

It's close to impossible to get a close-up view of a Chimney Swift. They are spending most of their lives on the wing, feeding, drinking, even copulating in midair. They roost in chimneys, or other man-built structures, using their clawed feet to cling to the walls while bracing themselves with their spiny tails. With the change in the urban landscape and loss of suitable roosting places their numbers are diminishing.

On a recent late afternoon I saw a loose, widely spaced group of Chimney Swifts, numbering perhaps thirty (see comment below), hawking for insects over the West River and surrounding fields. They were swooping and twisting overhead, cutting through the air, then rising suddenly on fluttering wings high into the sky and seeming to disappear over the trees and hills, only to reappear just as suddenly. They were changing so rapidly that I trouble focusing the camera on any particular bird. At home I had to do a lot of post-processing of the RAW images to give the birds shape and volume rather than showing them just as black silhouettes.

While soaring the bird often fans its tail

Here you get a suggestion of spikes in the tail.

A couple of months ago, standing on my deck, I was surprised by a loudly chirping trio swooping and circling and making sharp turns overhead. It only lasted for a couple of exhilarating minutes and then they were gone. Later I found out that this was probably part of a courtship display with two males chasing and courting one female.

James Audubon's wonderful painting of the Chimney Swift illustrates their hawking flight with gape wide open to catch insects. It also shows the claw-like feet, and lastly how a nest is constructed and glued to the wall with saliva, similar to the nest of a Cliff Swallow, - although swifts, contrary to expectation, are actually related to hummingbirds.

To really appreciate the beauty of this painting click to enlarge these images.

Cheers and Good Birding!

Comment on estimating numbers: It seems we are born with an innate sense of numbers:

A study -- published online in a recent issue of Developmental Science -- indicates that math ability in preschool children is strongly linked to their inborn and primitive "number sense," called an "Approximate Number System" or ANS.

The article contains a link where you can test your own sense of numbers.

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Strange Tale of Dog and Deer

2011-08-10T10:31:00.000-04:00

This is a true story:

A couple of days ago I was walking along a logging trail on a nearby mountain with my dog Chance. After a sweaty and buggy uphill climb we finally reached the top, a large clearing overgrown with weeds, brambles and small trees. As I was scanning the leaves for small disturbances indicating a bird, Chance took off into the woods. After a few minutes I heard a distant yelp. Fear or pain? I called him back with no response. I heard nothing further. While waiting for him to return I noticed two small birds in the undergrowth nearby, two foraging Ovenbirds who paid little attention to me.

Suddenly, to my relief, I saw Chance trotting through the thinning forest about 50 yards off on my right. With his white coat and large black patches he was easy to spot. As he approached the clearing I expected him to turn toward me, but instead he continued straight on.

I should say a few words about Chance: He is friendly to all creatures except small furry things. Having been bitten as a puppy by an older dog, he is timid with other dogs and, if we encounter any on our walks, he clamps his tail between his legs until they have proven to be friendly. He has not met up with larger animals such as cows or horses. He has never seen deer at close range, only at a distance running across the field next to our house.

What happened next keeps replaying in my mind as if on a stage: a few steps behind him an adult antlerless deer was keeping pace with him. Chance continued to make his slow way through the weeds and low brush, stopping at times to sniff or examine something. The deer too stopped moving and resumed his pursuit as Chance moved on. Chance, seemingly unaware to his strange escort, did not once turn around. Soon both disappeared into the woods at the opposite edge of the clearing.

A couple of minutes later I saw the deer again, standing, as if posing, straight ahead at the edge of the plateau framed by two trees with the sky as a backdrop. After a minute or so the deer walked off, stage left, and Chance reappeared from the woods on my right. Did he circle around behind me?

I had had a clear view of the entire strange spectacle but was so mesmerized by it that it never occurred to me to lift up my camera and and take a picture. So nothing to document it. I am still totally perplexed, still can't make any sense of it.

A unedited preview of the peacable kingdom?

Jan Bruegel "Paradise" ca. 1620

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Walking on Water

2011-08-02T12:46:00.000-04:00

The Wilson's Storm-petrel is one of the most abundant birds on earth, but is rarely seen since it spends all its life on the ocean, coming to shore along the Antarctic coast only to breed. To escape the Antarctic winter it migrates to the northern hemisphere, summering on the North Atlantic, less commonly the Pacific.

On a pelagic trip off the coast of Massachusetts we saw them in large floating rafts which would disperse rapidly upon our approach. Pattering with raised wings over the ocean surface foraging on plankton the birds looks like they are dancing.

When growing up I always dreamed of living close to the sea, of looking into the distance where water meets sky, and imagine far-away lands beckoning with strange lives and magical adventures. Well, here I am in land-locked Vermont... I still love to visit the coast, walk along the beach, looking out over the ocean swell, watching the waves come in and dissipate in the sand.

I love the sounds the waves make.

When the noise around me gets too much I listen to a recording of ocean swells inside a rocky cave. Here is a snippet of End of the Cavern. The mp3 file is available here.

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Green Heron hunting

2011-07-26T08:46:00.000-04:00

I was watching a Green Heron hunting in the Allen Brothers marsh in Bellows Falls. It would stand motionless for minutes at a time and then suddenly stretch its neck forward, flap its wings and come up with a small fish in its beak. It caught two fish during the twenty minutes I was there.

Stalking slowly on the thick vegetation in the shallow water it caught another fish.

The fish slid down the hatch....

It's been reported that sometimes Green Herons use bait to lure fish. They may drop a worm or insect into the water and wait for hungry fish to swarm to the object and then pounce on them with their beak. BNA Online: "One bird dug earthworms from mud and used them as bait, and twice birds broke pieces of stick to make bait, an example of tool-making." Authors: Davis, Jr., W. E., and J. A. Kushlan

Good Birding! For more birding blogs from all over the world visit World Bird Wednesday.

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ARCTIC TERN

2011-07-19T07:06:00.002-04:00

As an antidote to the oppressive heat smothering much of the country I retrieved photos of an Arctic Tern from my web gallery.

I took them 3 years ago on a perfect early summer day during a trip to the North Sea coast when visiting my family in northern Germany. We were relaxing on a bench facing a small fishing harbor when I noticed an Arctic Tern coursing over the water. I grabbed my camera and, running along the wharf, chased after the bird for the next half hour .

Per BNA Online, the Arctic Tern is a global traveler, covering an annual round trip of 40,000 km from pole to pole. It breeds around the Arctic Ocean during the northern hemispheric summer, staying for about 2 to 3 months, and then migrates to the opposite pole, the open waters around Antarctica, spending the southern hemispheric summer there, thus accumulating more daylight hours than any other bird. It is pelagic during much of its lifetime and is rarely seen from shore. Its potential life span of 34 years or more is commensurate with the long distances it has to travel.

Sterna paradisaea, distribution migration, red: breeding, blue: winter, green: migration

Author: Andreas Trepte Wikipedia -- Creative Commons License

Arctic and Common Terns are easily confused. Even James Audubon apparently wasn't quite clear about the distinction. In his painting of the Arctic Tern everything looks right except the bill. His bill is red with a black tip which is typical for the the Common Tern bill whereas the Arctic Tern's bill is entirely red.

By chance there was an article on July 18th in 10,000 Birds by Corey on the Arctic Terns found on Long Island, with a link to an article by Shai Mitra discussing the distinction between Common and Arctic Terns.

This my contribution to this week's World Bird Wednesday. Good Birding!

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Birds of Black Mountain, a deadly mushroom and a harmless snake

2011-07-12T13:39:00.001-04:00

One of my favorite walks is going up the trail to the top of Black Mountain. It's an easy walk of just about 20 minutes.

The trail runs on smooth ground as it first traverses deciduous forest, then makes a sharp uphill turn into rocky terrain of white pines and hemlocks. Mountain Laurel thrives on the acidic soil under the dappled shade of these trees. Toward the top the forest lightens. Crooked Pitch Pines and low brush of Bear Oak, growing between the fractured sheets of granite, take over. It looks like Sierra Nevada in miniature.

The needles grow directly from the trunk allowing the Pitch Pine to recover and regrow rapidly after a fire. Its pitch was formerly used in ship building and the wood was favored for rail road ties since the abundance of resin makes it very resistant to decay

The warm granite polished smooth by glaciers in the ice age feels good under bare feet. You can still see where those glaciers, pushing big boulders along, ground the edges into the surface. These semi-circular indentations show the direction of the glaciers' travel.

Yellow-rumped Warbler foraging in a Pitch Pine.

A couple of days ago I heard Black-throated Blue Warblers singing at the lower level where the deciduous and the coniferous forests overlap.

But they are mostly occupied with finding food for their young.

As I was approaching the top I could hear a solitary Pine Warbler sing its rapid trilling song. At first I thought it was a Chipping Sparrow or Junco, but the location wasn't right.

My dog Chance, of course, loves these walks. He is a good dog, sticks mostly to the path and does not go off hunting unless he sees a squirrel, though he often gets bored during my slow stop-and-start progress, as I listen and look for birds, and heads back to wait for me at the car. .

After a good look around on top we headed back down and found on the way

a couple of deadly Amanita mushrooms. The color of Amanitas range from pure white (the "Angel of Death") over buff to bright red. They are fairly easy to recognize by the warts on their cap and the bulbous bottom of the stem.

We also encountered a harmless Garter Snake. It apparently felt threatened as it flickered its long tongue every time I moved my foot.

I am going to stay inside today in front of a fan with the drapes closed, as it's just too hot and humid outside, and read Kenn Kaufman's "The Kingbird Highway, the Biggest Year in the Life of an Extreme Birder" on my iPod. It's a GREAT book, inspired and inspiring. I would love to travel to the many places he is writing about, particularly Gambell Island in the Bering Sea.

Cheers! Now head over to World Bird Wednesday for a fantastic variety of birding blogs from all over the world!

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Common Yellowthroats and a Black Bear

2011-07-05T17:21:00.000-04:00

This holiday weekend I took a walk through a wildlife management area belonging to a local college. The campus was deserted. I walked along a field of wild grasses and weeds redolent with the scent of flowering milkweed. Overgrown sumac formed a hedge along the other side of the path. On the far side, the field was bordered by a swamp and a wood with cathedral-tall trees. Prime birding habitat, and yet it was oddly quiet. Most birds were probably tending to their young, no longer needing to defend their territory against migrating males.The only birds I saw were a pair of Common Yellowthroats.. .

In contrast, my backyard was noisy and busy every morning after I had scattered seeds along the wooden porch railing, The home crowd was waiting; first the Chickadees, then a pair of Tufted Titmice with a bunch of begging juveniles, a pair of Northern Cardinals with the male occasionally passing seeds to the female, a Red-bellied Woodpecker and his youngster, and, never far away, a crowd of Blue Jays. Soon chipmunks would appear to vacuum up the remaining seeds. Young squirrels were chasing each other, bouncing along and shaking the limbs and leaves of the tall trees surrounding our yard. High in the crown a couple of juvenile Crows were crying and wailing whenever their parents were near, sounding uncannily like human infants.

I had to take the feeders down because a young bear is roaming in the neighborhood and has come around our place several times now. The first time he stopped at the porch steps but moved on to the stonewall upon hearing our dogs bark. I managed to get picture just as he was about to scramble over the stonewall into the adjacent field.

He came by again two days ago, this time not stopping at the porch but heading straight to stonewall as if this was a route he had travel many times before.

It's probably a yearling male evicted by his mother and trying to find his place in the world. Our neighborhood of fields and fragmented woods is not good bear habitat. So far he has not caused any trouble and none of the neighbors have called the game warden whose only recourse then would be to shoot him since he lacks the equipment to tranquilize and move him out of the area. I hope though that eventually the bear will find a more suitable home.

Happy Birding!

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Does singing make birds feel happy?

2011-06-29T14:24:00.000-04:00

Yesterday afternoon after the rain stopped I went for a walk in the woods. Along the path I was surrounded by the Ovenbird's emphatic "teacher, teacher, teacher". This was late into the breeding season when most of the other warblers were quietly foraging for food for their offspring.

Birds do look happy when they sing.

We know that birds live on a very tight energy budget. No wasted motions. Everything has to have a purpose for furthering survival and procreation, and this holds true for emotions also. We sense a bird's anxiety when a predator approaches a nest or the anger when for example the Robin in my backyard keeps chasing a Blue Jay through the trees away from her nest. But a feeling of happiness? Is it a luxury? Or a reward for a behavior that serves a purpose in promoting survival? Birds sing to attract mates or defend their territory. But does the act of singing cause the bird to feel pleasure, or put in another way, does it make the bird feel happy?

Several years ago I observed a Mockingbird perched on a tall post singing his heart out. While singing he would jump up, flap his wings and rise up several feet, drop back down, and do so again and again - a picture of pure exuberance! He seemed to be jumping for joy - so much happiness! That this was part of part of the male's courtship display did not diminish it.

I unearthed an interesting study addressing the question of happiness. Any pleasurable action in animals, mammals as well as birds, is associated with a release of dopamine in the brain. A study of Zebra Finches has shown that singing increases dopamine release, but only while courting a female. Undirected singing does not. So a male bird that sings incessantly to keep out competing males is probably more likely to have an elevated level of the cortisol, not dopamine, and feels stress rather than pleasure.

Happy Birding!

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Wood Warbler Season

2011-06-19T16:25:00.004-04:00

My first thought is, when waking up in the morning, where am I going to bird today. I can't wait to get up and get going. I am fortunate not to have to travel very far to arrive at great birding spots. They are all around me. I just have to make up my mind whether it's going to be a pine forest, a second growth terrain, a grassy field, a swamp, pond or river...

This weekend with warblers on my mind I hiked up Hogback Mountain to the top of the Tower Trail where last year I had seen my first Blackburnian Warbler astonishing me with his bright orange chest. And I saw him again, on the same moss-covered weather-beaten conifer, with the morning sun reflected in the blazing orange of his throat and chest.

Eventually he dropped down into a spruce to forage.

He found a fat spider...

...which he promptly swallowed. Last to go were the spider's legs.

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Photographing warblers, such as the Black-throated Blue Warbler above or the Black-throated Green Warbler below, who are at home in the shady understory of a forest, present a special challenge. What's needed is a lens with a wide aperture to let in enough light, but the best I can do with mine is an aperture of 6.3, which means I have to use a slow shutter speed and high ISO to get anything at all. So usually I end up with grainy underexposed photos that require a lot of post processing work.

Black-throated Green Warbler

I found this Chestnut-sided Warbler in a power line cut. He was in bright sunlight but didn't want to sit still in his pursuit of insects through the brush until he finally flew into a distant tree to rest for a few minutes.

Cheers and happy birding!

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The Curious Behavior of two Brown Creepers

2011-06-17T10:26:00.000-04:00

During one of my walks through the woods I observed two Brown Creepers rapidly flying back and forth between several tree trunks as if playing musical chairs. Most of the time they were on different trees, but occasionally on the same one, but without obvious interaction. They were moving so rapidly up and down, spiraling around, that I may have missed that part I thought maybe it was a parent with a youngster following it, but I never saw any begging behavior.

Is that a tick attached underneath the beak?

When I looked at the photos at home I saw that one of the two was carrying a bug in its beak and it seemed to be holding on to it, not passing it on to the other during the entire time that I was watching. They were totally oblivious to me following them with my camera.

Does it look like a doubled-over ant?

.... or perhaps a beetle?

The behavior seemed very odd. So I checked the article on Brown Creepers on BNA Online and found this as a possible explanation:

High-pitched call given, followed by a silent chase in which pair, about 1–3 m apart, spiraled around tree trunks with white undersides prominent, and landed on a tree trunk, one above the other. Wing-fluttering, rapid beating of wings held above the body, often occurred after a chase. This display often followed by another chase. Courtship feeding often occurred after these displays and continued throughout the nesting cycle until eggs hatched, male usually feeding female. Female wing-flutters and gapes similar to the begging of young birds; male lands above her, turns sideways, and places food item in female’s throat. Copulation not observed during these displays. Authors: Hejl, S. J., K. R. Newlon, M. E. Mcfadzen, J. S. Young, and C. K. Ghalambor

So maybe what I was witnessing was part of their courtship behavior?

More Birding on Mt. Washington, NH

2011-06-10T14:15:00.000-04:00

Putting the episode of the misidentified thrush behind me, I am returning to our trip to Mt Washington three days ago. Besides the Bicknell's Thrush we also saw a number of Blackpoll Warblers.

Interesting fact: According to BNA Online, the Blackpolls undertake the longest migration of any warbler. Part of their fall migratory route is over the Atlantic Ocean from the northeastern United States to Puerto Rico, the Lesser Antilles, or northern South America. This route averages 3,000 km over water, necessitating a potentially nonstop flight of up to 88 hours.

A Yellow-rumped Warbler was stopping to drink from one of the refill stations for radiator water at a "brake stop" along the way.

Another familiar bird was the White-throated Sparrow, heard more than seen. It was startling to find this common winter backyard feeder dwell in this subalpine boreal forest. It gave me an altogether new three-dimensional view of this species.

After our return from the guided tour, which had turned around at midway, we (my husband and I) got into our Subaru Outback to drive to the very top of the mountain. The final 2000 feet or so of the 6000+ feet drive on the narrow auto route were hair-raising: sheer drop on the downhill side and deep ruts on the uphill one. I kept my eyes peeled to the center. Fortunately it was very early with no oncoming traffic, but we pictured this road on a weekend with bumper to bumper traffic both ways, imagining big SUV's shouldering smaller cars aside.... We were glad though to have escaped the clouds of black flies that had emerged at the lower level as the day warmed up.

Arriving at the top, I looked and listened for any birds in this rock-strewn wasteland and indeed heard one. I traced it to a Junco singing from one of the boulders lining the parking lot:

To find a Junco at this level with no tree in sight, just thin patchy low ground vegetation between the rocks, was a surprise. It was the only Junco though and no others responded to his song, nor did we see any other birds, no Ravens or Bald Eagles...

With still no oncoming traffic, driving down was a piece of cake, because of the much broader, long-distance view going downhill. We made our leisurely way along the scenic Kancamagus Highway home to Brattleboro, VT, glad that we had bought mosquito head nets that kept the black flies out, but frustrating too because it' s near impossible to use them with binoculars.

Cheers and Happy Birding!

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Gray-cheeked Thrush NOT - Revised

2011-06-09T14:53:00.001-04:00

Revision: I should have said to my self, "Calm down, calm down; don't rush to judgement ..." Well the judgement is in: it's a Hermit Thrush. I made the id by going back to same location, found the same bird calling insistently, although this time I did not get a good look at it - too much shade and too fleeting - and compared the call to the Hermit's. Bingo! :-(

Well, I still had two experts agreeing with me that it looked like GCT, so I am not quite red-faced. But I had retract my sighting on eBird and send out corrections.

Original: There is one thrush that looks exactly like the Bicknell's Thrush pictured in my last post. According to my reading they can only be told apart by voice.. Well, this morning I walked along a path skirting a marshy pond on one side and a mature deciduous forest on the other side. I heard a bird calling close by. At first I thought it was a Veery but the call was much less musical. The bird was perched on a tree branch about 10 ft off the ground.

The bird;s call sounded like the call of the Gray-cheeked Thrush in Sibley's on my iPod. Yet it would be very unusual to find one in Brattleboro, but it's also hard to imagine it could be anything else. I would appreciate any comments.

Bicknell's Thrush - a most threatened species

2011-06-08T09:10:00.001-04:00

A once in life-time experience: Yesterday I joined a group of birders on a van tour up Mt. Washington, the highest mountain in New Hampshire, to see Bicknell's Thrush. We left at 5:30 in the morning and stopped midway at about 3000 ft where the landscape turned into a stunted forest of mostly balsam fir with lesser amounts of spruce, white birch and mountain ash.

We scanned the tree tops and after a while found a BT on a distant tree bathing in the morning sun - too far for the lens on my camera.

We then heard two males chasing each other a short distance down hill from us. Suddenly one of them appeared in a tree very close to us. He wasn't shy at all.

He began singing, asserting that this territory was his.

Because of its fragmented breeding range in remote inhospitable forests at high elevations in the Northeast it is one of the least known bird species in North America. It also one of the rarest and possibly most threatened.

Distribution of Bicknell’s Thrush (BNA)

There may not be more than 50,000 individuals. Its winter range is even more restricted ; it regularly only occurs on four islands in the Greater Antilles where its habitat is threatened by deforestation.

Reference: Birds of North America Online and Jeffrey Wells' Birders Conservation Handbook

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A Pair of Sandhill Cranes

2011-06-01T11:35:00.001-04:00

Sandhill Cranes put in a very spotty appearance here in Vermont, and so I was excited to read of two cranes having been sighted just a few miles from where I live. I got there early this morning and had no trouble locating them foraging near the road around a large puddle in a field as they were slowly making their way from the muddy back edge to the vegetation in front. I got out and used my car as a blind.

About the rusty discoloration of their plumage I found this in Birds of North America Online:
"Plumage becomes colored adventitiously from water, vegetation, and mud; additionally, Sandhill Cranes intentionally rub their plumage with soil, all of which causes variations in the plumage color ranging from drab-clay to cinnamon-rufous. Stained feathers occur anywhere below the mid-neck but are particularly apparent among the primary and secondary wing coverts and upper breast feathers." Authors Tacha, T. C., S. A. Nesbitt, and P. A. Voh

One showed darker discoloration than the other.

Sandhill Cranes are long-lived - up to 20 year - are monogamous, and stay together as a pair.

One of them ventured too close to a Red-winged Blackbird's nest and had to fend off an attack.

Stretching of wings but not taking off - just yet. I thought I had taken enough pics and had sat back down in the car, thus missing the dramatic end to the show as the pair took off, their clamor filling the the air with hoarse honking and loud swooshing of wings. They flew low and settled again at the far end of the field, well out of my lens' range.

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More Warblers and a Bobolink

2011-05-29T15:50:00.000-04:00

Finally no rain! An immature American Redstart male was singing in a low tree by the kayak landing on the West River. Rictal bristles, stiff feathers that project over the gape from above, are present in many insectivorous species, presumably helping in the capture of insects.

This inconspicuous female was foraging along the river bank

After many attempts I finally managed to get some decent images of the Prairie Warbler returning every year to breed in an untended area of low trees and brush in a commercial part of our town.

These views show the red streaking on the back

Several years ago I saw a Waterthrush in some trees along the edge of the West River. Ever since, when walking along the river, I have been on the look-out for one foraging along the bank. I finally saw one, a small bird, difficult to see against a backdrop of gray mud and river debris. Because of the yellow wash and the streaked throat I asssume this is a Northern rather than a Louisiana Waterthrush. Also the location, a stagnant side arm of the river, is in favor of the NW as the LW prefers fast flowing water.

Bobolinks build their nests on the ground near the base of a large forb (broad-leaved herbaceous plant other than grass) providing dense cover. To thrive they need a large undisturbed area and their survival is globally threatened by loss of grassland. Unfortunately grass cut late in the season which allows the nestlings to fledge loses much of its nutrient value for farm animals.

Several male Bobolinks were flying, singing and displaying on a high meadow next to a rarely occupied second home near me. I found this male perched on the top of one of the decorative crab apple trees by the house.

They feed mostly on seeds, grains and insects but apparently, given the opportunity, will also eat fruit.

Bobolinks begin singing early in the morning before dawn and continue with little interruption until mid morning when it becomes more sporadic.

Happy Birding!

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With Warblers patience, patience, patience...

2011-05-16T11:27:00.002-04:00

I took a break - no birding, blogging or commenting - while my camera was being repaired. I was afraid I was going to miss all of the spring warbler season and was getting pretty morose, but I got the camera back just in time.

Warblers don't sit still for a photo shoot. It takes patience, patience and more patience. Most of my photos ended up just showing leaves and bird-shaped shadows. So I am going back for another try at that elusive Prairie Warbler, or the Black-throated Green Warbler, the Black-throated Blue Warbler....

This Canada Warbler was flitting through dark moist undergrowth on a neighbor's wood lot.

A Chestnut-sided Warbler was singing high up in a tree.

A Common Yellowthroat scolding me, but then calmed down.

Yellow Warblers always have such an innocently sweet expression, but they are ferocious predators of invertebrates!

Not a warbler but a Warbling Vireo

My time waiting for my camera wasn't all wasted. I got to go shopping for some sorely needed spring clothing, caught up with my emails with friends and relatives and got to read a couple of books. It actually turned out to be a nice respite from bird-centered activities - just too bad it had to be during peak warbler migration.

Must check out: amazing distribution maps for many species in the "State of the Birds 2011" report with much of the information collected by eBird -- shows how important it is to submit your sightings.

Cheers and good birding!

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Spring Migrant Fallout along the CT River

2011-04-24T13:15:00.001-04:00

I had been house-bound for a week with a bad bronchitis, just having enough energy to fill the feeders for the new backyard arrivals, the White-throated Sparrows and Purple Finches, and the still present Juncos and year around Goldfinches. But mid week I finally felt well enough for a trip to the trail along the CT River in Hinsdale, NH. It was a blustery day with white caps on the river and fallen leaves swirling through the air. This had not however kept the spring migrants from moving in. A mixed flock of Yellow-rumped Warblers (Myrtle subspecies) and Palm Warblers (Yellow Eastern subspecies) was foraging in the gravel potholes on the path. Most birds were keeping low to the ground, rising only at the approach of my car.

Along the path Ruby-crowned Kinglets were singing and flitting through the dense brush.

Today, Easter morning, the sun was out as were my fellow birders with their binoculars and cameras. Yellow-rumped Warblers, and Palm Warblers, swooping Tree Sparrows and Barn Sparrows put on a joyful show. After a long winter it was a day to celebrate the renewal of life.

Good Birding!

Glossy Ibis

2011-04-14T11:23:00.000-04:00

This morning at 8:30 AM while checking the ditch next to Cornwell Dr off Krif Rd in Keene for waterfowl I saw a Glossy Ibis foraging next to two Canada Geese. I managed to take a couple of admittedly lousy photos, partially fogged up due to a bad angle with my side view mirror getting in the way. As I was inching up into a better position a big truck drove by and flushed the Ibis. It flew off toward Krif Rd and disappeared. I checked along Krif Rd but was unable to locate it again.

I checked on eBird but couldn't find any other record of a Glossy Ibis in this area. I didn't see any waterfowl, other than the two Canada Geese, or snipe in the immediate surroundings.

Good Birding!

Belted Kingfisher

2011-04-12T12:11:00.000-04:00

A couple of days ago I was walking along a wooded river front when I saw what appeared to be a fairly large bird flying by. I could just make it out through the bare trees and pines before it disappeared. My presence seemed to have alarmed it as it gave off a sharp rattle by which I recognized it as a Belted Kingfisher (see snippet below)

They usually don't let you get very close. I took these photos of a female from a blind in the Audubon Refuge on Cape Cod:

Belted Kingfisher by Robin Carter, SC xeno-canto XC1363 (cc)

The bird will usually sit quietly watchful on a perch by a stream or pond, then rise suddenly, hover briefly and plunge-dive into the water to retrieve a small fish or similar prey.

If you want to know more about Belted Kingfishers, how they dig a deep burrow in a steep bank on the water, excavate a chamber for their nest.... how they eventually coax their young with fish in their bills out for the first time .... here is a terrific article.

This is my contribution to this week's World Bird Wednesday hosted by Springman of The Pine River Review. It's featuring birding posts from around the world, well worth a visit!

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American Woodcock revisited

2011-04-06T11:00:00.001-04:00

Last night at 7:40 PM (I timed it) male Woodcocks came out to their staging grounds to woo the local females. From where I stood I heard four males singing, sounding more like insects or frogs than birds. In the gloaming darkness I could make out one of the birds on a path of short weeds turning slowly in all four directions while vocalizing. He then suddenly rose straight up, too high for me to see, filling the air with the sounds his wings were making during the circular ascent, followed by chirping as he descended.

I wasn't able to get any photos, but I thought I repost the ones I took last year.

I had managed to get a recording of the song.

When you listen carefully you'll hear the following sequence: the thin nasal buzzy "peent" call preceded by a barely audible "tuko" sound, the twittering made by the wings during sharp turns, and the vocal chirping during aerial flight which becomes louder as the bird descends. The last part of the descent is silent. Then a soft fluttering of the wings as the bird lands.

Here is a snippet of the spectrogram. and wave pattern.

It was raining yesterday, a soft spring rain. During the course of the day I had a migrating flock of Juncos drop in for a visit foraging in the yard. Song Sparrows were scratching underneath the feeder for dropped seeds. A Yellow-bellied Sapsucker landed briefly on a tree by the stonewall. The field next to it was studded with Robins hopping and listening. I listened to the buzzy song of an Eastern Phoebe. A Carolina Wren sang loudly from high up in a tree somewhere In the evening I heard the first Spring Peepers in the wetland next to the house. Spring is surely here. Time to get the hummingbird feeders ready...

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A Cryptic Bird

2011-03-28T13:56:00.002-04:00

It was an uneventful weekend, cold and blustery; no spring migrants in sight. I was refilling my bird feeder when I noticed this small brown nondescript bird running up the trunk and limb of a nearby crab apple tree, frequently vanishing from sight then popping out again higher up. From there it would drop down to the base of the tree and then run up again, repeating this several times until flying off to another tree: a Brown Creeper.

They are not rare, but easy to overlook as the pattern of their back almost matches that of the bark of the tree. They are year around residents feeding on a variety of small invertebrates that they glean from cracks in the bark.

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I am submitting this post to World Bird Wednesday. Check out the link to see submissions from around the world!

Good Birding!