An Uncommon Experience
It’s amazing how time flies! As promised, I’ve got a bunch to catch you up on from this past winter. About a month ago, I took a drive down to Pennsylvania to join up with a couple of colleagues and friends to adventure into the national forest to check up on some “eagle cams.” It was a cool morning when we jumped into the truck and drove down a number of muddy forest roads to our first destination. As we drove down the road, the tree line dissipated as we neared a clearing. As we crept up to the opening, a sudden take-off of several large birds ensued. One of which I...
Read MoreDay Moon
We tend to think of migration as a nightly event as we enter the spring – watching birds pass in front of the moon on a clear evening, catching them on radar, hearing flight calls in the darkness or finding new faces have joined us in our yards and patches when we wake up in the morning. While we often ignore the moon shining in the bright blue sky all day we also ignore the fact many birds are flying over us then, too. Yes, we see geese and certainly are aware of hawk watches and the many raptors that use thermals, but shorebirds might be migrating nonstop over the continent, while...
Read MoreSanderling
Here we have a Sanderling (Calidris alba), a bird that spends its winter on our sandy beaches before heading to the High Arctic for the nesting season. They are often misidentified as Piping Plovers during migratory periods as both small, white shorebirds (in nonbreeding plumage for the Sanderling anyway) feed along the water like this. A rufous breeding plumage pattern takes over where the gray is, and by May these birds look unique and spectacular. So much change in so little time…and so much flight distance covered before they nest and head back to us later in the summer. If that...
Read MorePine Warbler
Spring Pine Warblers males are stunning little beacons of light on bright mornings, especially when in a pine tree! Have you seen or heard any yet this April? The warblers are coming…
Read MoreBlue-winged Teals
During this strange weather – spring in winter, winter in spring, and a mix of both back and forth – we still have birds fighting their way to the north. On days with a strong southerly flow there is plenty of migration occurring, and while we will soon have yards full of brightly colored songbirds, there are some wonderful waterfowl species coming through, too. The drake Blue-winged Teal (Anas discors) featured in these two distant photos was in the company of a hen and one other pair, all four swimming, preening and resting in a pond among American Black Ducks.
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