Backyard Warblers

I am linking up with Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes

For this weeks featured bird I actually a variety of warblers that stopped by my yard for the last week or so.
 I believe I have already shown the Chestnut-sided warbler but I have a few others that I am excited about. It seems the warblers are really attracted to Pokeberries. They LOVE them.

 A fall Black-throated Green Warbler.

A fall Cape May Warbler

A Cape May Warbler at the pokeberries.

Another Chestnut-sided Warbler.

Another Chestnut-sided Warbler

This Goldfinch looking bird is really a Tennessee Warbler..The beak is one way of id-ing a warbler. 

At times I was seeing two Cape May Warblers together, but it was hard trying to focus on one bird with the pokeberries and leaves in the way. I believe I had some other warblers moving around my yard, a few times I would see a warbler disappear into our weeping cherry tree before I could id.

Looks like the warblers also found the crepe myrtle to be a favorite like the Scarlet Tanagers in my previous post.

All of these photos were taken from my deck or my dining room window. It is pretty cool to be able to see all these warblers right in my yard. I am wondering what warblers I was missing all week while I was at work. These shots were taken Friday evening, Saturday morning and some more on Sunday.  I am lucky I did not have to travel to see them, they all came to see me or more like eat our pokeberries.



Join in and post your birdies and to see more beautiful and wonderful bird photos please visit:
 Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday and Michelle's  Nature Notes.

Thanks to Stewart for hosting Wild Bird Wednesday and thanks to Michelle for hosting Nature Notes.

Thanks for stopping by and for leaving your nice comments. I always appreciate your visits.
I wish everyone a happy week ahead and Happy Birding!

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!

Weekend walk, Sept 08

  I am linking up with Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday 

September 8, 2013

I am sharing some scenes from our weekend walk and from around our yard and neighborhood. Yesterday, hubby and I tried our luck on finding some migrating warblers. We took our weekend walk at a park in Milford Mill in Baltimore County.  It is known to be a hotspot for seeing the warblers during the Spring and Fall migrations.

Just one of the warblers we saw, I believe this is a juvie fall version of the Chestnut-sided Warbler. It was hard trying to take any warbler photos the leaves kept getting in the way.

These flowers are beautiful sight seen along the park trail.

Back in our yard, a Fritillary was on the butterfly bush, the Devil's Stick berries are waiting for the warblers to chow down and the hummingbirds are still around guarding the feeders.

I am not sure why but this has been the second tractor parade down my street, there was one last month and yesterday I was able to catch more of the parade. On a neighboring street I watched a peacock hen parade down the street.

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!

Whooping Cranes

I am linking up with Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes

I am taking a break from my vacation photos and doing a post on a more recent outing.

On Aug 4th hubby and I signed up for a tour of the Whooping Crane research center at Patuxent Wildlife refuge. It was interesting learning about the Whooping Cranes, how they are being helped in their recovery and return from the brink of extinction.  Back in the 1940's fewer than 25 Whooping Cranes existed. In 1967 a research team collected 12 eggs to start a breeding colony that is now at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife research Center. Their brochure states now there are fewer than 500 wild Whooping Cranes left in the world. Photos are not the best because of the fences and distance, but it was still exciting to see the Whooping Cranes.

 Above whooping crane Mr Lonely, research center, replica of the ultralight aircraft, Sandhill Cranes



 That seems like a scary amount to me, I feel sad when I hear any bird or animal is close to extinction. I have seen flocks of bird numbers in the thousands at one time. So to hear the Whooping Cranes are so few, makes me want to help too. I thank the volunteers at the research center who give their time to take care of the Whooping cranes and their chicks.

 Mr Lonely has been separated as he is a naughty crane attacking and hurting some of other cranes.

Above is one of the Sandhill chicks. We were told sometimes they use Sandhill Cranes to help incubate eggs when there is an inexperienced Whooping Crane involved. The Sandhill Cranes make great adopted parents.

More Sandhill Cranes, we were only allowed so close to the Whooping Cranes and the Sandhill Cranes. They get over excited if anything little thing upsets their routine, we were told also to be very quiet.  The Whooping Crane chicks that are raised at the research center are actually fed by volunteers that have to wear costumes that resemble a Whooping Crane.

Mr Lonely was the closest Whooping Crane, others were further away in similar pens. At Patuxent, I believe there are close to seventy adult Whooping Cranes and there are some chicks designated to be transferred to help populate the Louisiana Whooping Crane population. Some crane chicks are trained to fly and migrate behind the ultralight aircraft. And a few chicks are retained at Patuxent to help enhance genetic diversity.

The pilot has to also wear the whooping Crane costume. There are three different Whooping Crane flocks. One migrates from the Wood Buffalo Nat'l Park to Aransas Nat'l Refuge, the other migrates from Necedah NWR to a Florida NWR and the Patuxent NWR which helps to populate the Louisiana flock.



Anyone can help the Whooping Cranes by a donating to the organization Adopt a Whooper with the Friends of Patuxent. Here is a link Adopt a Whooper.
I think it is a cool idea to donate $25 for an egg, $50 for a chick. It is just a small way to help the Whooping Cranes.

I hope you enjoyed my post, to see more beautiful birds check out Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes.
Thanks to Stewart the host of Wild Bird Wednesday and to Michelle the host of Nature Notes. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great week. Happy Birding!

Kettle of Broad Winged Hawks

For my World Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes post I am showing the Broad Winged hawks.

During my walk on Sunday at the Soldiers Delight park hubby and I were almost back to the car when I looked up and spotted the largest flock or kettle of hawks I have ever seen. They were high in the sky and there had to be fifty or more in the kettle. I was excited to see my first kettle of Hawks, a very cool sight to see for a birder.

Sorry the photos are not the clearest but I wanted to show it anyway because it shows just one little part of these hawks as they were flying along. I did not really count them, I was too excited just seeing them.

The word kettle is another word for a flock of migrating birds. Since they were high in the sky I am adding a link to wikipedia's Broad Winged hawk so you can see what they look like up close.

The Broad Winged Hawk is brown above chestnut below and a white tailband. Wings appear full but rather short and they have dark tips.

I was checking out my listserve and the Broad winged Hawks were seen in the thousands over the weekend.  According to my guide book during migration flocks of hawks can sometimes number in the thousands in eastern and central North America. I was so excited to see the kettle I saw. Apparently as the day went on more were seen flying over the same spot.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my kettle of hawks and to see more awesome birds

 check out Springman's World Bird Wednesday  and to see more wonderful nature scenes

please visit Michelle's Nature Notes  Thanks to Springman and to Michelle for hosting these fun memes.

Also, thanks for stopping by my blog and post. I appreciate all your visits and comments.