Artwork--Palm and Chestnut-sided warblers

 So many trips, so little time!! So many birds! So many exciting things going on!

Life around here has been absolutely nuts, and I have not found time to do any blogging. Spring is always busy as we get ready for the show season as well as cleaning up the place after a long winter. This winter was of course longer than most. We had snow on the ground until late April, and there is STILL ice on Lake Superior.

I have managed to get a good number of pieces done this year. I have such a backlog of images to wade through! I want to do some waterfowl--I get a lot of requests for ducks--but I decided to do a few "quickies" instead and picked some warblers (anything that involves water is NOT quick).  As I've broadened my birding experience, I wanted to also broaden the subject matter I do. It's a bit of a risk--my most popular pieces are the ones that depict birds and animals people know well, and warblers aren't really known to anyone but a birder. That said, birding is huge in this country, and getting huger every day, so it's worth the risk.

The Chestnut-sided warbler is one I photographed at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in June of 2012. We were hiking through a marsh when I heard him singing. He was not hard to locate, perched atop a white cedar right out in the open. I couldn't decide to do one of him singing or not, but I liked this pose best.

"Chestnut-sided"  8 x 10, framed to 11 x 14

The Palm warbler is a bird I saw in our front meadow last spring. I spotted him when I was walking the dogs. What caught my eye was his constant tail pumping--I knew right away it was not a common bird for us, just by that motion. I ran the dogs back and got my camera. He was still there, working over the previous year's wild bergamot, gleaning insects and spiders. This was the 84th species to be identified on our property.

"Eighty-four"  10 x 8, framed to 14 x 11

So it is going to be a while before I get to write again. I am headed to Alaska tomorrow with my mom and her sister for a 10-day guided birding trip! We will spend 3 days in Nome, several days down in Kenai NWR and will sail on Resurrection Bay, then a few days in Denali. I can't even imagine how many images I'm going to return from this trip with--I'm going to need a week at the computer just to sort through all the photos I keep taking, going back to our trip to Theo Roosevelt last August. It's kind of embarrassing, but I guess it's a good problem to have!

Palm Warbler--Bird #84

Spring migration has begun in earnest. My eBird email is loaded with reports of warblers and wading birds. We have an outing planned in May to head up to Tawas State Park for a weekend of birding, and I am hoping to make two trips this week to area hot spots to see what I can add to my list.

Closer to home--on our own five acres, actually--we are seeing summer residents return nearly every day. Just this morning Lori spotted a Baltimore oriole on the balcony. I had been thinking right before then that it was about time to put our new oriole feeder out, which I did after the sighting, with fruit jelly (no high fructose corn syrup crap for our birds!) and a sliced organic orange. That sounds so yummy I might go out for a nibble myself!

We've been keeping a list ever since we moved here in 2006, noting the first-time species as well as the regulars. We've been doing a New Year's Day count for three years now, to get the list started with the winter residents, who I would otherwise forget to write down each year. We've been right around 55 species for the past several years, and have logged 83 total species--these include birds that we see on the property, hear on or near the property, or fly over the the property. As long as our feet are on our five acres and we are certain of its ID, it counts.  As the years go by it's harder and harder to log new species, but as we have been doing some restoration work here I am hoping to attract a wider variety birds.

Saturday morning around 7:30 I was walking the dogs along the trail, and I happened to notice a small brownish bird in the front meadow, gleaning insects from last year's wild bergamot stalks. This is not behavior common to any birds we normally see here. I also noticed it's tail bobbed up and down a lot. I stopped in my tracks and held the dogs back, squinting in the dim dawn light to try to make it out. I thought I saw a rusty cap and yellow bib, and knew right away it was a palm warbler. I ran back to the house to get my camera, leaving the dogs perplexed as to why we hadn't finished our walk.

Male palm warbler on wild bergamot stalks.

I have photographed this bird before, both here in Michigan and in Florida--I got some great shots of a female at my grandma's house just this past January (see the post here). But this was a first for our home, and I was very excited to be able to log species #84!

What a poser!

He was at least 30 feet away, so I am really pleased to have been able to get a handful of decent shots at that distance. These are cropped quite a bit.

He was flitting from stalk to stalk, snatching spiders from the undersides of the dry flower heads.

Mmmm, breakfast!

Down the hatch!

He was so quick about his business it was hard to keep up!

Palm Warbler in the Backyard

I have to back up for a moment, to before our walk at Ulumay. I was sitting on the back deck talking with my grandma while my mother took a nap. As we chatted I noticed movement in the live oak behind Andree. My mind immediately left the conversation as my eyes focused in on the little bird. What is that? I wondered. Not something familiar, and that was my cue to grab my camera.

Had to look up this little lady in Sibley's--a female palm warbler.

 I followed the little palm warbler through the branches as she looked carefully for insects.

Such a trim little bill, perfect for plucking bugs from tiny places.

Unlike the osprey, who nabs a big meal then eats at its leisure, these little birds have to work constantly to eat enough of their tiny prey to make a meal. I watched as she stretched out to reach for...an ant?

 

What a treat to have her right there in the backyard. 

Up next: morning on the beach

Birds on the Beach Pt. 1

As with any birding festival, there were lots of tours and things to chose from. Many of them took place at Tawas Point, a little spit of land that juts out into the Saginaw Bay in Lake Huron. For those of you unfamiliar with the area, here is a map of Northern Michigan...



...and a closer map of the Tawas area. The tip of the peninsula is a state park, and I had decided to camp there rather than incur the additional expense of staying in a hotel. Therefore, I didn't sign up for any of the tours at the park, figuring I would have time to explore it on my own.


The Tawas peninsula is a perfect stop-over spot for the birds who move up the Lake Huron shoreline and then fly across the Saginaw Bay. During the festival this year, 174 birds species were recorded at Tawas Point and surrounding area--this in just a four day period!


After the bus tour along the Au Sable I had dinner with a couple I'd met on the tour, then went back to the park, grabbed my gear and hit the trail.

The section of trail that leads to the lighthouse is paved. As I walked along it I could hear scores of birds in the trees and shrubs around me.



To my left I heard a bird singing and stopped to watch. I saw this bird in a pine tree and was so excited, certain it was a new bird to me. I realized later, looking through Sibley's, that it was a young Baltimore oriole, his head not yet all black. Ah well, a girl can dream, right?



I never did make it as far as the lighthouse. The birds calling from the trees on my right drew me in. The habitat was open and grassy in places, treed in others. I knew there'd be lots of birds here!



While I stood under the trees and watched, trying to figure out what birds were making all the noise, a male Yellow warbler flew into view.



After watching for some time I realized the birds making the most racket were Eastern kingbirds. This one posed nicely on a twig out on the beach.



As I watched the kingbird, movement caught my eye among the short willows on the beach. I was amazed to see a male Ruby-throated hummingbird feeding on the blossoms. I had never seen a hummer outside a garden or sugar water feeder. There were three or four of them nearby, filling up on nectar.



The sun peaked through a gap in the clouds and I spotted this little fellow hunting bugs on the sand.


What gorgeous colors! I had seen a Palm warbler last year in Florida but I had not gotten this good of a look at it. I am not sure how it got its name since there are clearly no palm trees here, but I guess the same can be said for all sorts of birds--Baltimore oriole, Nashville warbler.... Perhaps the first person to see one--well, the first white Western European, anyway--saw it in a palm tree.



Whatever the case, it's a lovely little bird and I enjoyed watching it.



Next: dance of the swallows

Pelican Island NWR

Florida 2010 posts continued....

When I had been researching Florida's middle east coast for hiking opportunities I came across Pelican Island, near the little town of Sebastian. I learned that this national wildlife refuge was the first ever created, when in 1903 Teddy Roosevelt set aside 5.5 acres to protect the Brown pelican. Since then the refuge has grown to over 5,000 acres, and is home to more than 100 bird species. The refuge is part of the same Indian River Lagoon/barrier island system that Archie Carr NWR encompasses.

After my hike at the Barrier Island Center I drove farther down the coast to Pelican Island. It felt good to be out exploring! I must confess however that I was a bit disappointed, at least initially, with Pelican Island, not because it wasn't a cool place but because it was so quiet.



It's a very nice park with an easy walkway and boardwalk that leads out over the flats. The boardwalk is neat, displaying the names of all the national wildlife refuges in order of their inception.


But other than the pretty view from the observation deck, there was not much to see--no birds, certainly no pelicans. Bummer.


So I walked back to the parking lot, thinking about heading back up to my grandma's, when I heard the call of a bird I did not recognize. I am no expert when it comes to bird calls--I know very few, in fact. But this was distinctly different that anything I'd heard before. I stopped in my tracks and scanned the trees. Finally, I spotted the source, near the top of a small snag.



I couldn't believe what I was seeing. For whatever reason, before I left home, I told the girls I wanted to see a Loggerhead shrike. I had never seen a shrike, and I thought they were striking birds. Well, here it was, in a dead tree at the edge of the parking lot, a couple hundred feet from my car.


I snapped away, taking a picture every time the bird twitched. I was nearly giddy with excitement! (These images are of course cropped.)


I do think this is a gorgeous bird, with its bold markings. Very dapper.


The shrike finally flew away, and I walked along the edge of the lot, where I heard more soft twitterings in the shrubbery. I spotted this Yellow-rumped warbler. I had seen a male once back in Michigan, but this was my first female.


As I looked more closely I realized that there was another warbler here too, one I had not seen before. I checked my book and identified a palm warbler. Yeehaw, two new birds in one day!!


So what started as a bit of a disappointment ended with a small bonanza of new birds. It was a good lesson, to never give up, and always pay attention, because otherwise you may miss what is right in front of you.

On another note: I was awakened last night to the calls of coyotes behind the house. I got up and opened a window, and was met with the chorus of two or three 'yotes not more than 100 feet from the house. They stopped their singing soon after, but I could hear them walking around, crunching in the snow. It could be courtship, or perhaps they caught a rabbit or feral cat. I had a hard time going back to sleep....


Next: Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.