Bird 164: Northern Parula

I got out for a couple hours to bird the neighborhood this evening. Even though I walked about 3 miles, the highlight was finding a new neighborhood warbler right across the street from my house. It was a first year female Northern Parula. The bird was quite active and hard to follow with my binoculars.

Deer and Egret

Here are a couple pictures from yesterday when I was out and found the Blackpoll. I had two closer-than-usual encounters with our local White-tailed Deer on the flood plain property. Maybe I was being quieter than usual. I got this picture of one of the encounters. This doe was bedded down and took longer than usual to run off once she saw me.

There were some Snowy Egrets on the creek and I got this picture of one of them. I think these are especially elegant egrets and well-named. Their white plumage does seem snowy when it's blowing in the wind. A great way to identify egrets and herons is by their combination of bill color and leg color. Snowys have dark slender bills, dark legs, and bright yellow feet.

Bird 163: Blackpoll Warbler

For my birthday today I got up way too early and went birding in the neighborhood -- what else would I do? I wasn't sure I'd see many migrating songbirds since spring migration is tapering off now. But I was thrilled to find 9 species of warblers, mostly on the flood plain property. The bird of the day was a Blackpoll Warbler I found foraging with a Yellow Warbler in a mimosa tree. I've only rarely seen this bird before. After I got back I was surprised to learn that the Blackpoll Warbler migrates further than any other warbler -- some winter in Brazil and summer in Alaska! The last time I saw one was on a trip to Ecuador I took last year. So it was a real treat to see one in our neighborhood. It was also nice to see two beautiful male Mourning Warblers, both on the flood plain property. These are some of the later migrants, so seeing them is a signal that spring migration is in its later stages.

Storm Last Night

The thunderstorm last night was the most intense we've gotten in awhile. I'm sure lightning struck within the NASWC area several times. During spring migration storms like this can concentrate migrating birds making for fun birding afterwards. So I got up early this morning and got a couple hours of birding in before work. I was mostly on the flood plain property but I also birded Meadowheath a bit. I started by the T&C playing fields and got this photo of the sun still low in the sky. It was a beautiful cool and clear morning.

There were a few interesting birds to be found including 4 species of warbler (Tennessee, Black-throated Green, Common Yellowthroat, and at least 4 Wilson's) and a Blue-headed Vireo. There was also a Swainson's Thrush singing it's strangely harmonic fluting song. I saw a Gray Catbird carrying nesting material. It would be unusual for this species to be nesting here, so I'll have to keep a lookout for this bird in the coming weeks and months. After a long day at work I walked around the neighborhood for about 45 minutes this evening. I found one flock of Cedar Waxwings and on Stillforest I got my best look in years at a low flying Mississippi Kite. It must have been perched nearby. It was flying 10-15 feet over the tree tops. The evening sun showed it off nicely.

Birds #160 and #161: a Dove and a Flycatcher

I spent a couple hours this evening birding the neighborhood. Overall it was slow -- sometimes there is increased bird activity in the evening like there usually is in the morning, but not tonight. When I got to the intersection of Briar Hollow and Meadowheath I looked across the smaller creek and saw what appeared to be a White-winged Dove but I couldn't see the white wing patches. So I got my binoculars on it and saw a thin dark crescent on the back of its neck -- it was a Eurasian Collared-Dove, bird #160 on my neighborhood list! This is an introduced species (like starlings) that is rapidly increasing its range over the continent. I wonder if this bird is just starting to appear in our neighborhood, or if I just haven't been looking at our White-winged Doves closely enough. If anyone has seen these birds in the NASWC area before I'd love to hear about it.

From there I crossed the smaller creek and went onto the flood plain property. There was nothing very notable there until I was leaving near the end of Braeburn Glen. A medium-sized flycatcher was perched on top of a tree softly vocalizing. Through my binoculars I could see a dark head, white "saddlebags" on its back, and part of a streaky "vest" on its body. It was an Olive-sided Flycatcher, also new for my neighborhood list. This bird summers mostly in Canada and Alaska, so it's just passing through. On my way back home 12 or 13 Common Nighthawks flew over me on Braeburn Glen. It's neat to see them in big groups like that as they migrate north. As I continued home down Broadmeade and it got dark, I let my gaze widen to enjoy the fireflies.

May NASWC Bird Walk

Three of us spent a couple hours walking through the flood plain property for this month's NASWC bird walk. Spring migration is peaking right now and there are lots of interesting birds moving through the area. But the southeast winds and thick leaf coverage on the trees made finding and seeing these birds difficult. Even so, we managed to get a few good looks at some cool birds. Some highlights:

• The most cooperative bird was an Eastern Wood-Pewee that we watched flycatch from a perch in plain view. This is the bird pictured above. It even sang for us!
• Nearby we got great looks at a Common Yellowthroat foraging around in the low brush. Normally found in the reeds alongside water, right now during migration this warbler can be found away from water in all kinds of trees and bushes.
• We saw 2 male hummingbirds perched on wires. I think they were Black-chinned, but they could have been Ruby-throated.
• We got nice looks at male and female Blue-winged Teal on the creek.
• A couple Solitary Sandpipers and several Least Sandpipers were also on the creek.
  

Eastern Screech Owl

You never know when you might see an exciting wildlife event. I was getting ready to mow my backyard when I heard a couple starlings scolding. (I heard them even through the ear plugs I wear when running the lawn mower.) I walked over to them and saw a cardinal flying around also agitated. Then I looked on the ground and saw this Eastern Screech Owl. I went inside and got my camera to get this photo. (Its left eye is lit up orange because I had to use the camera's flash.) The owl was swinging its head around to look at me, then the starlings, then the cardinal. It looked like it was feeling quite harassed. But it didn't fly off even though I got pretty close. Finally I realized it was standing on another bird it had caught -- a Downy Woodpecker. I was sad to see one of my favorite neighborhood birds get eaten, but I'm glad it was eaten by another neighborhood bird.

Coincidentally I just wrote a Birding on Broadmeade article about our neighborhood owls, including this one. It's here. I've been doing a bunch of birding for the past week or so since spring migration is peaking right now. I plan on writing a summary blog entry about it soon.