birds – Page 42 – A Thousand Acres of Silphiums

Mondays Are For The Birds – Scarlet Tanager

I have a challenge for myself that I have not yet built up the courage to try. I want to one day go into a wooded lot and only feed on insects or other invertebrates I find in the trees, shrubs and forest floor. Have you ever watched an insect-eating song bird closely as the scavenge about for bugs? It is truly amazing how often they are able to find and capture prey items. Often they seem to pick them out nowhere, gulp them down and continue on the hunt. The photo below pictures a southern-bound, female Scarlet Tanager as it eats a larvae of some kind that it just pulled from inside a small branch.

“Autumn Scarlet Tanager”

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF400mm f/5.6L USM lens, ISO 800, f/5.6, 1/320 sec

Mondays Are For The Birds – Red-shouldered Hawks

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Although I still have quite a few images from this year’s nest in my “to process” list, this one may be my favorite pic for the year. In this image the smallest chick, who was always the last to be fed, is looking up at mom and seeming to wonder where her share of the latest kill was. Mom is taking a break after tearing apart and passing out the meat. She has a look around before taking again to the wind to find more. While watching the nest I was always excited to see this small one be able to swallow down a large piece of meat and I was always prompted to send the camera’s mirror flapping.

“Hungry Eyes”

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF400mm f/5.6L USM lens, ISO 400, f/6.3, 1/160 sec

Mondays Are For The Birds – American Redstart

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It is late summer/early autumn and the warblers and other songbirds are moving en masse south to their tropical wintering grounds. Bring your binoculars to one of several wooded lots in the St. Louis metropolitan area this time of year and you’re almost sure to find one of the birds pictured here, the American Redstart. I am calling this particular bird a mature female, although it is possible this may be an immature female or first year male. Females and young males have yellow where adult males are always dressed for Halloween in reddish orange and dark browns. This observation has prompted many a birder to call these guys the “American Yellowstart” .

This is one of the easiest warblers for new birders to identify, not only for its flashy coloration and pattern but for its particular behaviors as well. These guys will usually position their wings low and drooped when sitting still and almost always are fanning their flashy tail feathers. These birds are quite active and display a lot of “flycatching” behavior and will actually hover-preen. Watching them hunt is a treat and as they catch flying insects you can literally hear these little guys snapping their beaks shut. They can be quite responsive to pishing.

As mentioned above, this bird is heading south where it will over winter somewhere between northern Mexico and northern South America. It has an extremely large breeding range, nesting anywhere between the gulf states and Alaska where it can find deciduous or mixed deciduous/coniferous forests. These guys will also readily nest in secondary woodlands and forests, making them one of the few species who has not been altogether troubled by logging.

I wish this guy the best in her/his long journey south. I am getting quite addicted to shooting these guys just when they are heading out. I’m already looking forward to the spring.

“American Yellowstart”

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF400mm f/5.6L USM lens, ISO 640, f/5.6, 1/100 sec

Mondays Are For The Birds – Red-shouldered Hawks

birds, Mondays Are For The Birds

Monday greetings, human. Another great day at work instead of taking pictures of birds. I heard the migratory songbird fallout was quite nice around the St. Louis area today. Good thing I was at work. One or two days a week being able to do what I want just doesn’t seem to be enough anymore. I will have a week’s vacation coming up next month, but that seems a long way off.

Anyway, I’m finally getting around to processing some photos of the Red-shouldered Hawk nest I photographed over several weeks this past May. Here, this little one is showing off one of those innate behaviors. I’m sure those of you with human babies wish they could do something like this a lot earlier than they do. Have a great week.

“Red-shouldered Hawk Nest”

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF400mm f/5.6L USM lens, ISO 640, f/6.3, 1/250 sec

Mondays Are For The Birds – Red-Eyed Vireo

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Hello again. Today I am starting a new blog series that I am calling “Mondays Are For The Birds” and today’s first spotlight bird is this Red-eyed Vireo. For anyone fool-hardy enough to do some summer hiking in the deciduous woodlands and forests of the Missouri Ozarks, the Red-eyed Vireo shouldn’t be new to you. When almost all other songbirds have given up claims to their nesting grounds and quit vocalizing for the season, the REVI is just warming up. In the middle of a sweltering summer’s day one will still hear the questions this guy’s song seems to ask. “Who are you, who am I, Here I am, Look at me, In this tree!”

This photo was taken recently during the fall migration. This species along with other vireos and warblers will eat primarily caterpillars and other arthropods during spring migration and throughout the summer breeding season, but in fall will switch to a diet primarily consisting of berries, such as those found on the wild grape.

Thanks for visiting today. I hope you like the photo and I hope you had the best possible Monday.

“Red-Eyed Vireo”

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF400mm f/5.6L USM lens, ISO 800, f/5.6, 1/250 sec

Sunshine On My Shoulders Makes Me Happy

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Hi everyone. It’s an absolute gorgeous Saturday here in the northern Ozarks. I hope the weather is to your liking wherever you are reading this.

This post is dedicated to my grandmother, Genny, who is currently recovering from a health crisis. Sarah and I are so glad you are getting better and we wish you all the best in a speedy recovery.

Today’s post is a result of one of the magical times I spent recently at Ellis Island at Riverlands. During an evening hike I noticed I was in the middle of a huge mayfly hatch. There seemed to mayflys in the millions. This rang the dinner bell for migrating passerines for miles around the confluence! This was definitely one of the coolest bird experiences ever for me. The bird pictured below, a Yellow Warbler, was one of near 50 of this species I came across. Also in huge abundance were Black and White Warblers, Empidonax Flycatchers, Red-eyed Vireo and many others. Thirteen total warblers, four vireos and a large handful of other species were all gorging on this insect feast. The swarm, so thick the flies were perching on me, lasted until sunset and unfortunately I had limited opportunities for getting decent lighting for photographs. That was frustrating, but being able to watch this natural wonder was reward enough.

This is one of those species that I’ll always remember the first time I found. It was a springtime male perched on a dead branch singing his heart out and touched by the morning sun. I never truly saw the color yellow until that morning! The image bellow does that guy no justice.

Enjoy the weekend and remember, in Missouri, dove and teal are in season so hunters will be out there doing their thing. There are places nature watchers and hunters use in close proximity, so be careful and considerate.

“Sunshine On My Shoulder”

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF400mm f/5.6L USM lens, ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/800 sec

King’s Realm

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In the field, the brief views I was fortunate enough to get suggested to me this was a Virginia Rail. The Virginia is only about half the size of the King and this obvious difference should usually make the identification quite easy. Unfortunately my brief, distant and mostly obscured view of this bird did not allow me to get a good estimate on the bird’s size. Once back home with the photo and field guides open I began to doubt my original ID call. I listed as many reasons to feel KIRA as VIRA. I quickly realized I needed help and rushed the photo and my thoughts to the three wise men of the birding community I knew would love the challenge. The single photo was less than the smoking gun I was hoping it was. All three agreed it was most-likely a King Rail, but there is still room for doubt. Although a photo of a Virginia Rail would have added a new species to my bird-photo-life-list it always makes me happy to find and watch a bird of conservation concern, as is the King.

You can see in this “bird in habitat” photo just the sort of habitat that rails and other waders need. Rails love to be in water about up to their knees with plenty of vegetation to use for cover. Most shorebirds like the mud, while larger waterfowl, obviously like a little more water. Heron Pond at RMBS is being managed to provide the habitat these groups of birds need. Check out a few images of young KIRA I took a while ago.

“King Rail”

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF400mm f/5.6L USM lens, ISO 640, f/5.6, 1/400 sec

The Marsh Chicken

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This post/photo is dedicated to Paul Bauer, master birder, bird photographer, and steward – a responsible agent in the development and management of Heron Pond and other features of Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary. Thank you, Paul, for leaving something worthwhile.

The Sora, or as I like to call them the Marsh Chicken is a small but quite abundant rail. They definitely are one of the easier to view rails to be found during migration, but I found out how common they can be during a magical morning spent recently at my usual haunt at RMBS. Arriving just before dawn I wandered the slow hike to a nice spot to watch the marsh of Heron Pond while waiting for the ol’ Sumatra brew to kick in. I had the entire place to myself for most of the next two hours, standing still and counting the birds. Besides being reminiscent of a chicken, I think Pete Dunn’s description of their bill as “candy-corn-shaped” to be quite fitting and a good field mark for identification. These guys are often vocal and at certain times of the year their whinny-type calls and grunts can be heard all day long. Being a rail these guys are definitely timid and spend a good amount of time hidden within the vegetation. However, I have found these guys to be much more willing to spend time on the open mud in search of food, making a run back to the greenery at the first sign of trouble. My total count for this particular morning was 62 birds! Looking around the pond it seems that you would not be able to run through the vegetation without kicking one of these guys with every step. Standing relatively still allowed me to catch this guy in a photo probably no more than 15 feet from where I stood.

“Sora”

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF400mm f/5.6L USM lens, ISO 640, f/5.6, 1/320 sec

As Noisy as a Mouse

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More often heard than seen, this quite secretive wren rarely is found more than a few feet off the ground. Like a mouse, these guys spend a great deal of time low in the tall grasses and sedge of wet meadows/prairies. In July and August taking a walk in this type of habitat within their range will certainly guarantee you will hear their consistent staccato vocalizations as they work to define their small territories and keep rival males at bay. Trying to lay the glass on these birds is much more difficult. These guys rarely will respond to pishing, and if driven out of their particular patch of grass they will simply skirt above the grasses for a second or two before dropping back into the bush, yielding partial, unsatisfying glimpses at best. To get this shot, I admit, I used a vocalization playback. I played just a few bars and waited. This guy was not happy with that! He raced out of his hiding whole and began singing forcefully in attempt to send the potential usurper out of his territory. I was happy with the few quick bursts of the shutter I was able to get and that was that. He may have been a bit stressed, but I bet the burst of testosterone he received from successfully defending his kingdom more than made up for it.

“Sedge Wren”

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF400mm f/5.6L USM lens, ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/1250 sec

Kid ‘n Play

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This image is from a series I took early this summer at Colombia Bottom Conservation Area. These two dancing birds were among a large group of Great Egrets competing for standing room only space in a shrinking pool that was loaded with fish. These moves reminded me of the dancing and rhyming styles of that old hip hop dynamic duo of my youth, Kid ‘n Play. If I ever get around to processing all the keepers from this series, you will definitely not want to miss the shot I took of the bird I was able to get to wear a “Kid wig”. 😉

Ain’t Gonna Hurt Nobody… We Just Dancin’ Ya’ll!

“Kid ‘n Play”