It's migration time

  I am linking up with Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday 

 September 15, 2014

I know all my blogging friends and readers are not addicted to birds like I am, so I appreciate everyone stopping by to see my post. Migration time is an exciting time if you are a birder. It is time to see birds you may not see all year, the birds are moving from their breeding grounds to their wintering grounds. And if you are in the right place at the right time you may see these birds stopping to refuel along their flyways.

On Saturday, I was home hearing a lot of bird activity in my yard. I noticed a lot of movement in our Crepe Myrtle bush tree.

I was flipping back and forth on my id. My first thought was a juvenile Scarlet Tanager. I saw the dark wings and I was trying to get a photo of the bill facing in a direction that would help my id. If you look in a guide book, the Orchard Oriole is the same color and dark wings . The only difference to me is the shape of the bill.  They are the Scarlet Tanagers with big thanks for a confirmation from another Maryland birder on facebook.

Above is what my Crepe Myrtle bush tree looked like on August 24. It is growing straight up and is very tall now. We planting the Crepe Myrtle because we love the pretty colorful blooms not knowing the the birds love them too.

Fall time is a confusing time, the fall birds and juveniles can look totally different than the adults that you are use to seeing. The juvenile male Scarlet Tanager is yellow with dark wings like the female but the adult male is a bright red with black wings.  Back on the subject, migration is timed primarily by the changes in day length. Migrating birds navigate using celestial cues from the sun and stars. The availability of food and the changes of habitat and weather also have an effect on migration.

Scarlet Tanagers everywhere..very cool!

I never seen birds eating the flowers off of a plant I thought maybe they eat seeds and bugs off of the flowers. I was watched as they ate some of the flowers. After they left most of the Crepe Myrtle flowers were gone, just like the birds. Not to be seen again till next spring.

I am used to seeing the Scarlet Tanagers one or maybe two at a time but, there had to be close to 15 Scarlet Tanagers in our Crepe Myrtle tree. In my next post I will share some of the Warblers that also stopped by on Saturday. I loved that I was able to see all these birds in our yard and not have to travel to see them.
It was a great birdie day and exciting sight to see, I wish you could have been here with me to see it in person.

As always, I hope you enjoy my post and thanks for visiting my blog. I always appreciate your comments.

Join in on the fun and for more wonderful photos please visit  Mosaic Monday and more
 from  Our World Tuesday

 Thanks to our host: Mary our host of Mosaic Monday and to the hosting group of Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia, Sandy and Jennifer.  I wish everyone a happy week!