Weekend avian visitors ...

I've been doing an abysmal job maintaining my Birdstack Dashboard (follow the link, or see my sidebar). I know I've seen some interesting birds, but I've neglected to record the observations. I've tried to make up for it by recording this weekend's visitors:

• A pair of green herons, which chased each other around the pond on Saturday evening. I'm not sure, but I think one of them might have been trying to get the other to vacate the premises. The attempt was not successful.
• A sharp-shinned hawk, first heard early Sunday morning in some kind of fracas with some crows. Later, I saw the hawk in a tree and it disappeared after swooping in on its prey.
• A ruby-throated hummingbird, which made numerous visits to the hummingbird feeder today. Sometimes he even stopped to sit on the hook holding the feeder. We only put up the feeder last weekend, and have missed most of hummingbird season. So it's nice to have this visitor before they migrate.

Now I just wish I had a super-duper camera to capture photos of all these! Sigh.

Bombay Hook Migratory Bird Festival

Raymond Pool from Observation Tower

May 17 was International Migratory Bird Day. Chris and I rose earlier than usual for a Saturday, and headed for Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge. It's hard to believe we've lived in this area for over 20 years and never visited Bombay Hook, but then again this was also the first time we made a road trip for the sole purpose of birding. We arrived early, but the serious birders were already out and about. We followed the auto tour route, stopping at points along the way to follow a trail or climb an observation tower.

At first, most of the birds we observed were ones we commonly find at home, like red-winged blackbirds and swallows. Then we came to Shearness Pool, an area of salt- and freshwater marshes. The shorebirds were out in abundance! Most were new to us; many were migrating, so we felt lucky to be there before they moved on. Our observations included: Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus), Green-winged Teal (Anas carolinensis), Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus), Red Knot (Calidris canutus), American Avocet (Recurvirostra americana), Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias), Snowy Egret (Egretta thula), and Great Egret (Ardea alba).

My tiny point-and-shoot digital camera can be handy, but proved useless in capturing everything we saw that day. More experienced wildlife photographers wisely came equipped with giant lenses and tripods. We enjoyed the sights and the trails anyway. Returning to the visitor center, we found a raptor exhibit underway, where I could get up close and personal with this cute screech owl!
By the time we returned home, the kids had only just started their day. They failed to appreciate what they'd missed! Well, back in the old days we used to go on "dinner and a movie" dates. Or maybe we'd see a concert. More and more I suspect our "dates" will involve being out in nature, early in the morning. And that's a good thing ...

Spring Growth Spurt

The garden has suddenly taken off! After some rain this week, everything is growing:

About 2 weeks after sowing, the lettuce is just peeking out of the ground. And the potatoes are producing nice leafy bunches nestled between mounds of dirt , which stand at the ready to form hills around each plant when they get a bit larger:

We have some nice rows of peas, after about 5 weeks, although the snap peas have not done as well as the shelling peas. We think that side of the bed might not get as much sunlight.

The berries, which were planted a couple of years ago, are coming along quite nicely. The fence has made a world of difference by protecting the plants from the deer. We have both strawberries and raspberries blossoming:

And here's the best surprise of all !

Just when I had resigned myself to not having goslings this year, on Monday another pair of geese turned up with four goslings in tow. I have no idea where they nested, but then this is the "magic" that's occurred almost every year now. Yea!

No magic, after all

I promised goslings. Like magic, I said. Happens every year. Sadly, there will be no goslings in 2008.

This year followed the normal pattern at first: hundreds of geese in the winter, with a pair remaining through the spring. Unlike past years, the couple chose to nest in plain view. Mama started spending her days on the nest, which was right at the edge of the pond. Papa took up sentry duty, staking his claim to the entire pond and chasing off anything that came near. The poor ducks had to make do with a few nearby puddles.

Papa was just starting to relax and allow us to pass through the area when suddenly the pair disappeared, leaving behind a nest with visible signs of disturbance.

A closer look at the lower part of the nest reveals a damaged egg:

The couple returned the next day, but one of appears to have an injured leg. A fox, perhaps? We don't know, but I'll really miss watching them raise their young this spring.

And then there were two ...

Our Canada Goose population has dwindled from hundreds, just a couple months ago, to two. I'm not alarmed, this happens every year, and is a harbinger of spring. What happens next is even better: by the end of April there will be goslings!

The goslings appear like magic every year. We have never seen mating behavior, or a nest. This completely surprised me four years ago, but now it has become an annual event. We suspect this pair of geese has been here before. They don't raise a fuss when we come out to the pond, and when we feed the ducks they actually walk over to grab some morsels for themselves! I wish I knew more about this pair: how old they are, whether they were born here, or if they raised young here last year. In any case, the annual cycle never ceases to amaze me.

Stay tuned ...

Just passing through ...

This morning we added a new species to our bird list: the American Wigeon. There were three males and a female, dabbling about on the pond. Their characteristic markings and blue-ish beak gave them away. We're seeing lots of interesting new visitors this time of year, like last weekend's Snow Geese and some Hooded Mergansers. They seem to be just passing through, stopping to rest and eat and then make their way to their next destination.

Photo courtesy of eNature.

Bird List

A list of birds we've seen on the property, some more often than others! Links to enature.com provide photos, sounds, and more information:
(Updated 9/15/2008)

• Hawk-like birds: Osprey, American Kestrel, Red-tailed Hawk, Black Vulture, Sharp-Shinned Hawk
• Duck-like birds: Common Merganser, Hooded Merganser, Wood Duck, Canada Goose, Snow Goose, Redhead, Mallard, Common Goldeneye, American Wigeon
• Long-legged waders: Green Heron, Great Blue Heron
• Shore birds: Killdeer
• Gull-like birds: Herring Gull
• Pigeon-like birds: Mourning Dove
• Swallow-like birds: Tree Swallow, Barn Swallow
• Tree-clinging birds: Northern Flicker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker
• Perching birds: Belted Kingfisher, Indigo Bunting, Eastern Bluebird, Red-winged Blackbird, Blue Jay, American Robin, Gray Catbird, House Finch, Purple Finch, American Goldfinch, Northern Cardinal, Mockingbird, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Kingbird, White-breasted Nuthatch, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, European Starling, Northern Oriole, American Tree Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Brown-headed Cowbird, Common Grackle, Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Weekend visit from a pair of Snow Geese

A pair of Snow Geese decided to crash this weekend's Big Goose Party. They were first spotted on Friday, strutting about about in a flock of Canada Geese. One is pure white; the other is the Blue Goose variety (located to the far left of the white goose in the photo).

Saturday morning they were back, this time on the pond. At first I thought they were our Pekin ducks, but a quick beak count proved otherwise. Eager to get a shot of something other than their posteriors, I tried stealing down to the pond for more photos, but despite my zeal failed to capture them. Either I missed the birds entirely, or the shot was an unfocused blur. Eventually I managed to scare them all off. To really show off how fine these birds are, the best I can do is this photo, courtesy of eNature's entry on the Snow Goose:

The flock has returned to the pond several times over the course of the weekend. The Snow Geese are quite beautiful!

News Flash! Heron snatches prey!

I just witnessed the most amazing thing, right from my kitchen window, and rushed to the computer to record the moment while the memory was still fresh.

This heron is a regular visitor to our pond. This morning he sat atop the duck house for hours, his feathers "fluffed up" to insulate him from the cold. Later this afternoon I looked outside and saw that he had waded some distance into the water. I'd never seen him do that before, so out came the binoculars for a closer look.

He was moving: inching along, slowly lifting one spindly leg, and then the next. Suddenly his head splashed into the water. He looked so ungainly, it could well have been an accident. Then I saw the shimmer. He had snagged a fish, and a big one, too!

Now I'm no expert at fish identification, especially when it's flapping about in a heron's beak, but this appeared to be a bluegill about 6" in diameter. It was ginormous. The heron waded over to the edge of the pond and set the fish down. He picked it up and dropped it a couple more times. The next time he picked it up, he waded back into the water. Surely he wasn't going to release it?!

The heron stood in the water for a few minutes, the fish's body glinting in the afternoon sun. Then the heron slowly extended his neck, pointing his beak high in the air. The fish disappeared, all in one piece. The heron remained in the water for a while but didn't catch anything else.

Wow!

Mysterious Big Goose Party

No one knows who they were, or what they were doing...but their legacy remains...

"Stonehenge," from This is Spinal Tap.

I know many people consider Canada Geese a nuisance, but since arriving in droves on our pond last week, I have been fascinated by their comings and goings. During the week, my observations were limited to nighttime, so I could only hear them: usually a muffled clucking as we drifted off to sleep, or as I was getting ready for work. This morning I was able to enjoy a prolonged period of goose-watching while we had breakfast and tackled a few chores. The population looked to be about the same size as we started with last weekend, but of course a precise census was impossible. At about 8:30 the geese began flying off in groups of 10-20, and within 30 minutes they were gone. A little mental arithmetic suggests there were initially as many as 200 birds on the pond.

I'm fascinated by their behavior. I can understand the attraction of our pond. But when they fly away, where do they go? What prompts them to return? Are they one big flock, or several smaller ones? Is there a hierarchy or social order? Do they have families, jobs, chores? OK, maybe not that last part.

Our own ducks had been patiently waiting their turn, and were able to enjoy their pond again for a while. Around 10:30, the geese returned. I didn't see or hear them arrive, but suddenly there they were. And not only were they swimming about on the pond, but a sizeable phalanx was marching up onto land. The Normandy invasion came to mind, until I hit on a more pleasant image: the treetop dog party in the classic children's book by P.D. Eastman, Go, Dog. Go! But lower to the ground. And without the party hats.

Where else can you go from Spinal Tap to Go, Dog. Go! in one blog post?

Incoming!

The geese were late this year. Because our pond is spring-fed, it never completely freezes. So every winter, large groups of geese come to visit. This usually happens around Christmas. Today I noticed a larger than usual number on the pond, and decided to take a picture. My timing couldn't have been better:

First, there were a few geese on the pond:

Then, I heard them coming ...

... in for a landing!

Then it looked like the Jersey shore in July!

A few hours later, many of the geese have moved on. But I know we'll be seeing more of them over the next month. Come spring, we'll be down to just one or two couples who will raise their young here until summertime. We often wonder if any of last year's goslings are in the crowd now. I like to think they are ....

Christmas Birding Bonus

I love weekend (and holiday!) mornings, when I can take as much time as I like to sit at the kitchen table, sipping coffee and watching the birds outside. The winter months bring lots of birds to our feeders, of course: sparrows, finches, cardinals, woodpeckers, bluejays and the like. But it's the pond that tends to draw the more unique species.

Take yesterday, for instance. A white, duck-like bird was swimming about, & diving down for 30 seconds or more at a time. A quick perusal of the Audobon guide led me to identify it as a Common Merganser, but I didn't have much time to spend watching it. This morning, there he was again, as Chris and I were doing the leisurely coffee-sipping thing. "I don't think it's a Merganser," said Chris, citing its dark beak (Merganser beaks are orange). Out came the bird books and binoculars. Just as we'd get a good look at him, the little guy would dive underwater, and emerge elsewhere. We eventually trained the telescope on him (oddly enough, we use it much more for bird-watching than star-gazing!), and identified the trademark that gives the Common Goldeneye its name. This is a new addition to our Bird List! Meanwhile, as all this was unfolding, not one, but two Great Blue Herons paid us a visit as well. Revelling in our good fortune, we watched the pond for a while and then the Goldeneye suddenly took off, flying over the fields. The herons left a bit later.

Lately we've also been seeing a lot of the Eastern Bluebird, especially along the path leading back to the pasture. And not long ago, we welcomed another addition to our Bird List: the Common Grackle. They are very common indeed; I'm surprised we hadn't spotted one before. I wasn't moved to post about them at the time, but might as well acknowledge the Common Grackle here as part of our Christmas Birding Bonus!

Connecting the (birding) dots this week

On Sunday, I topped up our bird feeders as usual. Yesterday I made a mental note that the feeder closer to the pond was nearly empty again. And I thought it odd that the feeders hanging outside the kitchen windows were still nearly full. I didn't spend much time dwelling on it, and went on about my business.

This morning at breakfast, Chris pointed to a tree outside and said, "There's that bird again! I saw it the other day and couldn't figure out what it was." We started rifling through our bird books, eventually identifying a Sharp-shinned Hawk (a new sighting, added to our Bird List!).

Reading on, I suddenly understood why the bird feeders had gone quiet this week:

• The Audobon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: The Sharp-shin preys on small birds such as sparrows and warblers...
• eNature: The smallest and most numerous of the accipiters, the Sharp-shinned Hawk feeds mainly on birds, which it catches in sudden and swift attacks.
• National Audobon Society Field Guide to the Mid-Atlantic States: Expert at capturing small birds, often at feeders.

Keeping my fingers crossed for our "regulars," that the Sharp-shin gets bored and moves on!

What's wrong with this feeder?

Back in July, in a burst of birding enthusiasm, I decided we needed more feeders. I wanted to bring more birds to the windows outside our kitchen, and make it such that a feeder could be seen from any place at the kitchen table. Also, I'd noticed the cardinals didn't particularly care for the small perches on the tube feeders, preferring to pick up leftover bits that fell onto the grass below.

I bought two different feeders that I thought might be more to their liking: a tube with a circular perch and seed tray, and "The Lodge," with ample perching space.



Initially I placed the two new feeders side by side. "The Lodge" was an instant hit with the cardinals. The other feeder was completely ignored by all birds, even when the rest of the feeders were empty. Meanwhile, on the other side of the kitchen, our traditional tube feeder was getting lots of visitors. So I swapped the tube feeder and the "circular perch" feeder, but the birds kept visiting only the lodge and the tube feeder. After a while, I remembered that the seed I had used at first was a little old, so I tried fresh seed. This hasn't had any noticeable effect either. This poor, unpopular feeder sees only an occasional visitor. I know this might be part of the problem:


However, I don't think that explains everything ... birds frequented the tube feeder in that location (whenever it was cat-free, that is!)


Why don't the birds like the circular perch feeder?

Birding Meme

Wren over at Wrenaissance Reflections tagged me for this birding meme. OK, here goes!

1. What is the coolest bird you have seen from your home?
Definitely the great blue heron, who visits our pond fairly frequently.

2. If you compose lists of bird species seen, what is your favourite list and why?
The only list I have is one of birds seen on our property, which is right here on this blog!

3. What sparked your interest in birds?
I'd been interested in wildlife for many years. When we were newly married, Chris and I watched just about every wildlife show on PBS. And we loved going to zoos. Then, about 20 years ago we bought our first house, a city rowhouse with a tiny patch of yard. The previous owners had done a nice job with landscaping, and we set out some birdfeeders. We loved the birds that would visit, even though they were classic "city birds" like starlings and pigeons. We've kept bird feeders in every house since.

4. If you could only bird in one place for the rest of your life, where would it be and why?
Not having "birded" anywhere but my own back yard, I don't have a favorite place (yet). I enjoy visiting new places and if I have the chance to see local birds, that's great.

5. Do you have a jinx bird? What is it and why is it jinxed?
Not sure I get this one. That must mean I don't have a jinx bird!

6. Who is your favourite birder and why?
Again, I'm no expert on this subject. But I do like the blogs, 10,000 birds and Monarch's Nature Blog.

7. Do you tell non-birders you are a birder? What do they say to you when they find out?
Well, I have to say it hasn't come up in conversation. And I guess I'm kind of keeping it to myself...


Now, I know I'm supposed to "tag" others with this meme. But I'm relatively new to this blogging community (I spend more time with books, reading, and my litblog). So if you happen to come across this, thanks for visiting and consider yourself tagged!