Early Christmas gifts

I received 2 early Christmas gifts today. The first came as I was exiting the lane to go to the PO. A beautiful Bald Eagle was soaring not too high over the woods in back of our neighbors' houses.

The second I owe to my young neighbor, Tim, who appeared at my door to tell of an owl that he had just seen. I zipped down the lane and ran across the field with him and, after a minute of scanning the tree line, spotted a Great Horned just as it flew down from its roost across the hedge row. Unfortunately I lost it due to the almost dark conditions.

However, a short time later, I spotted the same (or another) Great Horned Owl overlooking Ted and Tim's goose blind. Quite a sight, as the full moon was rising.

It's been many years since I saw a Bald Eagle and a Great Horned Owl the same day. (That would have been a World Series of Birding day). In addition, one black vulture sailed over the house and I spotted two more as I was driving today.

Psyched for a New Year's Day count in the not so distant future.

Backyard tidbits

Since I returned from an international trip (perhaps a post about the birds seen on that soon), I haven't done much birding. However, it was nice to see a Red-Breasted Nuthatch yesterday in a pine by my work place (the Wild Bird Center).

My wife and I live in an apartment complex, where we're not supposed to put up bird feeders. After talking with the landlord, they seemed ok with us putting out a little seed, so long as it wasn't drawing squirrels. Well, last year the squirrels eventually did arrive, and over the summer we stopped our feeding. However, this fall I am armed with the latest seed option: spicy salsa chips. They are sunflower chips coated in hot pepper.

I put some on the balcony a few days ago, and today the birds rediscovered it. I was really happy to have chickadees, titmice, House Sparrows, juncos, and a Carolina Wren all present today. I do hope that I'm around the first time the squirrel returns. I want to see if he is repelled or not.

First Feederwatch count is down . . . and here's the reason

I scheduled our first Feederwatch count of the season for Tuesday and Wednesday this week. We haven't been seeing many birds lately, but I diligently cleaned and filled the feeders in great anticipation of the debut of our 15th year of counting.

Although our first counting period of each season (usually in the last 2 weeks of November) yields somewhat lower species and individual counts, I was annoyed that I was not seeing any birds frequenting our feeders for most of Tuesday afternoon and then again Wed. morning.

A quick glance out the front picture window at noon revealed the reason why:

This very large Cooper's hawk (very possibly a female) had positioned herself right above our suet and Bigtop feeders and was looking for lunch!

After about ten minutes of vigilance without results, she took off for our neighbor's yard, where she again parked herself on a branch right over his feeders.

We have also seen "her" two other days, perched in our trees, soaring through the yard or hopping around our dense evergreen bushes, but so far coming up empty!

Final (sparse) count: Carolina chickadee 3

Tufted Titmouse 2

House Finch 8

Junco 3

Mourning Dove 12

WB Nuthatch 2

Downy WP 2

Red-Bellied WP 1

WThroated Sparrow 2

House Sparrow 4

Cooper's Hawk 1

It could be a long winter for Feederwatch!

Snake-ing in November

Deb and I went to Palmyra Cove this past Sunday in search of sparrows and whatever else might come our way. It being about 60 degrees and sunny, I had in the back of my mind the possibility of a snake being found, though I considered my options for species to be limited to the Garter Snake and Brown Snake, both being very good at weathering cooler weather.

We didn't find much in the way of birds. 2 migrating Bald Eagles, a few Field Sparrows, about 10 Golden Crowned Kinglets and a Hairy Woodpecker. That was about it besides the normals.

But on our way back to the parking lot. I heard those magical words..."uhhhh Matt!!!" as Deb suddenly stopped in the path. The last time one of us almost stepped on a snake it was me and a Copperhead. This time it was Deb and a very sharp looking juvenile Black Rat Snake (also called Eastern Ratsnake). The first juvenile I have ever seen, in fact.

This little guy was about 16 inches long, a far cry from the 60-90 inch snake he will become. The BR Snake is the largest (in terms of length) snake in NJ. It is in fact one of the three longest snakes in North America, with the record being 101 inches! As you can see the juvenile looks a good bit different from the adults, who are predominantly black on back and sides, and white on the belly.

This specific snake was in fact the best snake I have ever handled, being that it did not bite me, poop on me, or leave that lovely snake defensive musk smell that takes a long time to get off one's hands :)

It's a Sharp-Shinned Hawk!

One of my favorite parts in the movie The Santa Clause is a scene when some marionettes are on a miniature stage, and as the camera pans, you hear one of the voices scream, "look, it's a sharp-shinned hawk!"

Well, yesterday in front of the Wild Bird Center where I work, we had a true drama, as an adult Sharpie hunted the very large House Sparrow flock that hangs out in the tall ornamental grasses on one of the islands in the parking lot. The sparrow flock has been increasing since the spring, to the point where there are probably 50 at times in the area around the bird feeder.

 Yesterday, this Sharpie made a dive at the feeder but missed the first time, and landed beside the grasses in the middle of the road, probably 30 feet from the front door of our store. It proceeded to skulk through the tall bunches of grass, hopping in an out of the cover, then onto the street. I could see a group of about 10 sparrows sitting at the top of the grasses only a few feet away, and I figured it was only a matter of time for this cool carnivore to be enjoying dinner.

What was surprising to me was how unconcerned the hawk was about people nearby. One man was standing and taking pictures of the hawk probably 15 feet away. Other people were milling in the parking lot. And the hawk was in the middle of the road! Apparently he has adapted quite well to people, or is at least willing to be a bit daring when an easy meal is to be had.

The hawk did snatch a sparrow and after briefly taking it to the ground, flew off, to the delight of the customers and staff at the Wild Bird Center (except for the one lady who seemed to be disturbed by the very thought of a hawk being anywhere near her).

More finches....

I will be posting shortly about my trip to Cape May last Monday which was excellent! But in the meantime, I have had some nice feeder regulars lately. 1-3 Pine Siskins have been consistent all week, a male Purple Finch a few days (though they seem to be slowing down) and a very regular female Red Breasted Nuthatch has been visiting the feeders. As many as 28 American Goldfinches have been present. I keep adding more thistle sacks!

Also, it is interesting to see the chain of command amongst the finches. Here's what I've observed:

House Finch>Purple Finch>Pine Siskin>American Goldfinch

House Finches particularly do not care to feed next to Purple Finches. Interesting!

Now, the next bird to visit the feeders? Common Redpoll? One can only hope...

Local Sparrows

While nothing spectacular, while working from home, I enjoyed seeing a flock of 15 Dark-Eyed Juncos and 3 Chipping Sparrows scatter over the lawn below my window. First time that I've seen Chipping Sparrows in my neighborhood.

Sparrow Seven

This morning I headed out to Occoquan Bay NWR, hoping to find a good diversity of sparrows, since it's getting into prime sparrow migration time.

Find them I did! Here are the numbers of the numbers and species I found:

Field Sparrow     7
Savannah Sparrow     12
Song Sparrow     35
Lincoln's Sparrow     2
Swamp Sparrow     10
White-throated Sparrow     4
White-crowned Sparrow     3

 While sparrows may not be the most flashy of birds, they have some subtle beauty. And in the case of the White-crowned Sparrow (on left) a fairly eye-catching head pattern:

This picture, obviously not the clearest, was taken through my binoculars. If you have any tips for taking pics through binocs, let me know!

Finches, lots of finches

Today I had all 4 finch species today at the feeders! 1 Pine Siskin, 1 Purple Finch, 10 American Goldfinches, and 8 House Finches. Oh, and the first Dark Eyed Junco at the feeders this year.

Songbird Migration: Night

Most people (including myself) are surprised the first time they learn that a huge percentage of birds migrate primarily at night. While the public is used to hearing about migrating hawks that are observed by day, or perhaps seeing geese in V formations up in the clouds in the late fall, I suspect that the majority of Americans have no idea that the vast majority of migrant songbirds are doing most of their travel at night.

Considering the diet of most of these migrants, it makes perfect sense. The majority of migrants that are headed to Central and South America are going there because the colder winters in North America mean their primary food source is not available: insects. Yet they can't just take off from Massachusetts and in one long flight make it to Mexico.

If they migrated during the day and merely slept at night, these birds would have a tough time catching enough insects while en-route to provide the energy necessary to keep them going for thousands of miles. However, by migrating at night, the birds can feed during the day, storing up energy for the next leg of their trip.
On a quiet night in the fall, you can sometimes hear small chip notes of migrating warblers or thrushes overhead. And they are among the millions of songbirds passing over the East coast while we sleep.

More Purple Finches...

Last night there was 1 male and 5+ female Purple Finches on the feeders. The House Finches were bullying them.

This morning there was at least 11 female Purple Finches on the feeders, outnumbering all other birds at the feeders!

Purple Finches...

Today I woke up to 2 Purple Finches (females) on my Squirrel Buster feeder. Very cool to have these semi-regularly so far this fall. Hopefully Siskins will be here soon :)

Warbler ID: Yellow-rumped Warbler

If you are going to be birding this fall, it's time to get very well acquainted with this character. The Yellow-Rumped Warbler is by far the most numerous warbler in the Mid-Atlantic by mid-October. While most other warblers are leaving the country, the hardy Yellow-rump is showing up in huge numbers here. In fact, October is the month when you are forced to sort through the gangs of Yellow-rumps in search of another warbler that may be tucked in with them.

Since warblers are my absolute favorite type of bird, I thought I might give a few tips on identification, beginning with the Yellow-rumped. First of all, this species is well-named: it's most obvious plumage characteristic in the fall is its bright yellow rump, visible while perched or flying. While there are other warblers that have yellowish rump areas, none are as bright and in as sharp of a contrast to the surrounding feathers as in Yellow-rumped. Besides that bright spot of yellow, the Yellow-rumped is a rather drab warbler in fall. Brownish overall, with streaking on the sides and flanks.

Another extremely useful field mark that is easily overlooked are the small white crescents above and below the eye. While not a full eye ring, these marks are nearly always apparent, and with a decent look at the face of a yellow-rump (seeing the white throat contrasting with the brown ear patch), that's about all you need to identify this species. (Side note: if you want to learn warbler identification, learn the faces. You can identify 90% of warblers with just a good view of the head).

If you're new to warblers, it make take some time to recognize that the Yellow-rumped is a large warbler, that moves fairly slowly, though it often flies out from a tree to catch an insect, only to swoop back to that same tree. They are active, but not particularly fast movers. And compared to many other warblers, they actually seem like they could use a few days at the gym. Perhaps their size makes them more suited to handling the colder temperatures of the Northeast in fall and even winter.

Many times, Yellow-rumped Warblers can easily be identified without even seeing the bird, however! This bird has a distinctive hard "chek" note that it gives when in flight (listen to it here). Knowing this note is really helpful when trying to sort through a group of warblers to find something different.

People who seek to find counterfeit dollar bills do it by being extremely familiar with the real thing. If you become really familiar with the Yellow-rumped Warbler, it will make it 10X easier to find other species in the mixed species flocks of fall.

The Warbler Tree

I find it interesting that tonight when I walked around my apartment complex, just about the only birds I saw were located in the same tree as three days ago. Tonight (around 6 pm--late in the day to expect much) the warbler tree held about 6 Yellow-Rumped Warblers, 1 Nashville Warbler, and Kinglets of both species. I've never given much thought to how long individual birds spend in one place while in the midst of migration, but I would definitely put a bet down to say that the Nashville I saw tonight was the same one I observed four days ago.

My Sicklerville Big Day (sorry so long!)

So my big sit was today in the backyard. I only made it 6 hours (8-2) because my eyes were in pain. So i decided to turn my big yard sit into a Sicklerville-style World Series of Birding. I stayed within my zipcode and tried to find as much as I could. I actually didn't bird the whole 6 hours at home (included a nap, lunch, eye breaks, etc). But here's how I did.

My first photo op were these two female Northern Cardinals fighting for the feeder:
And then the Wild Turkey clan (5) came along to clean me out of cracked corn:

Petunias are still strong here in October!

My first major highlights were 2 Northern Harriers (yard bird #103) and 54 Double Crested Cormorants, all migrants flying very high! But then the day hit a screeching halt and all I really saw was the following:
Oh, and:

But then as the afternoon approached some local hawks started to fly. 1 Cooper's Hawk, 1 Sharp Shinned Hawk, 3 Red Tailed Hawks, 2 Black Vultures, and a bunch of Turkey Vultures.

That followed with a few high migrant hawks (2 Cooper's Hawks, 1 SS Hawk)

So I ate lunch with Dad and tallied another brand new yard bird, a Red Breasted Nuthatch (#104) and then headed off to Lake George and Donio Park.

Lake George had a very pleasant surprise: the early arrival of 50-60 diving ducks (all Ruddy Ducks and Ring Necked Ducks). 2 weeks early for that local gang. Also, picked up Belted Kingfisher and Mute Swan there.

Then I went to Donio Park for shorebirds, swallows, and ducks to add to the list. I got Killdeer, L Yellowlegs, and Solitary Sandpiper, N Rough Winged and Tree Swallows, and a Merlin! But, the real highlight was the songbird group feasting on bugs.

Mainly consisting of dozens of Yellow Rumped Warblers, I was hoping for Palm Warbler, and I managed two of them, a "western" and a "yellow" subspecies. Poorly pictured here :)

I also had a diverse group of sparrows. 4 total sparrows, all different species! Chipping, Field, Savannah, and Song. Here's a Chipping Sparrow with a YR Warbler:

And a Field Sparrow with a Yellow Rumped Warbler:

And a Savannah Sparrow with the Chipping Sparrow (sorry bout all the pics, I thought it was cool all the sparrow diversity mixed with YRW's)

Here's a pair of Yellow Rumpeds (nickname "Butterbutt" makes sense)

So I was thrilled with my successes there and the fact I added about a dozen birds (including both Kinglets on the way out, and Eastern Bluebird).

So I had to get my car cleaned , filtered, and vacuumed today so I went home and figured I might manage a few more species to meet my yard bird goal of 40 for the day (needed 3). Tree Swallow was #38, a female Purple Finch was #39, and a very nice "Yellow" Palm Warbler was #40! It was also yard bird #105! He hung around for 90 minutes feeding in the grass in the backyard!

So I totaled 40 for the yard, 55 for Sicklerville and I really look forward to doing another Sicklerville Big Day next month!

White Crowned Sparrow Picture

Here's a pic of one of the White Crowned Sparrows from the other day....

Also only things of note today, my first October Chimney Swift at Dambly's, a few Osprey around, and my first 2010 Camden County Red Breasted Nuthatch with some Kinglets today at Penbryn Pond.

More Local Migrants

This afternoon I took another late-day walk around my apartment complex, and once again warblers were clustered in the same couple trees at the end of my street (wish I knew more types of trees to identify it!). In the course of my walk I came up with the following counts of warblers:

40 Yellow-Rumped
1 Nashville
1 Tennessee
1 Black-throated Green
1 Magnolia

The number of kinglets was probably over 20 total, including both species. And grackles were definitely on the move. Look out local bird feeders!

Local notes

Went to Paintworks (Silver Lake) and Green Acres in Gibbsboro with Deb today.

Coincidentally, we had another Northern Water Snake being eaten by a Great Blue Heron.
At Green Acres, we had a small "classic October" flock consisting of 2 Brown Creepers, 6 Golden Crowned Kinglets, a solo Pine Warbler and a bunch of Chickadees.

Also had a Hairy Woodpecker, a Green Heron, and a Eastern Towhee.

At home, nothing overly exciting so far today. The local Turkeys were in the backyard today for the first time this month though.

It is possible I will be doing my very own "Big Sit" in the backyard on Wednesday (while I do some yard work). So that should be fun!

I knew I spent tons of money for a reason...

Though my investment was quite large in the garden, it is exceding my expectations at this point in what I created it for! It's interesting to see how much water, food source, and cover play a great part in attracting warblers. This morning I had my first October male Common Yellowthroat scurrying along the ground, dashing in and out of shrubs but allowing excellent looks with a little help from some pishing. Ha. So far, I've been actually keeping track of warblers that are physically in my garden (not including woods or other areas of yard, strictly the garden. Here's the warbler list:
(2) Nashville Warbler
(1) Northern Parula
(1) Magnolia Warbler
(20+) Yellow Rumped Warbler
(1) Black Throated Green Warbler
(1) Blackpoll Warbler
(6) American Redstart
(1) Northern Waterthrush
(7) Common Yellowthroat

The warblers do seem to favor certain shrubs I have in the yard. The Butterfly Bushes are by far the most popular, but they are definitely big fans of the grapes and the viburnums as well. The Bayberry is also often included in many of their routes. I am probably going to do some warbler research and see if I can plug in a few more warbler favorites around the garden. The Cedar trees, Blue Spruces, Magnolia tree, and tall Oak that are along the border of the left side of my backyard are definitely a benefit as well. The warblers truly love the cedars.

Nothing else too exciting today in the backyard. 2 White Throated Sparrows were nice, lots of American Goldfinches today.

A Walk Around the Block

When I was like 8 years old, I used to flip through my old Peterson bird guide and marvel at the numbers of mysterious bird species. I was familiar with the feeder birds, but sections of warblers and vireos were all unknowns to me. I couldn't imagine seeing them nearby.

Over the years I've realized that in nearly any location with a decent number of trees, you are likely to have migrants passing through. And that includes my apartment complex inside the Washington D.C. Beltway. The biggest setback to birding here is that you have to deal with people driving by all the time, probably wondering what in the world this guy with binoculars is doing staring up towards apartment buildings!

Yesterday, Lisa and I took a walk around the complex for a while and there wasn't a bird in sight for like 15 minutes. Very strange. But then at the end of our stroll, we came upon a nice little group of fall migrants: 3 Ruby Crowned Kinglets, 4 Golden-crowned Kinglets, a Magnolia Warbler, and 2 Tennessee Warblers. It's interesting because in a week of birding Cape May earlier this fall, I managed one Tennessee Warbler. Yet here are two that show up within 100 yards of my home inside a huge metro area.