"What a thousand acres of Silphiums looked like when they tickled the bellies of the buffalo is a question never again to be answered, and perhaps not even asked." -Aldo Leopold
On my last trip out with the canoe, back in September, I came across this most cooperative Green Heron. It did not care at all that I was hanging out watching it hunt. It was a fun challenge, maneuvering around as quietly and methodically as I could in order to get the right light on the bird and the best background possible.
The benefits of wildlife photography from a boat.
Thank you for stopping by.
-OZB
Here are some photos I’ve been sitting too long on from a trip the WGNSS Photography Group took back in May of this year. This is a splendid rookery that hosts at least five species of wading birds in O’Fallon Park that lies in north St. Louis.
A few leftover from my one day at Tower Grove Park on May 16, 2021.
Dave and I found this Bay-breasted Warbler on May 20th this year at Creve Coeur Lake in St. Louis County. Always a pleasure to find a singing Bay-breasted.
The Blue-headed Vireo (Vireo solitarius) is a through-migrant in Missouri. It winters throughout the southern Atlantic and gulf states, Mexico and parts of Central America. This vireo nests in cool temperate forests across Canada and in high elevations of the Appalachian Mountains. This is a species that will be threatened by the continued loss of the boreal forests of Canada. You can hear its sweet song in the spring in Missouri at places like Tower Grove Park where this photograph was taken.
-OZB
The Black-and-white Warbler (Mniotilta varia) is another weirdo in the Parulidae family. It is the only extant member of the genus, Mniotilta, and it definitely stands out against the other wood warblers that we find in Missouri. Whereas other warblers flit about the leaves at ends of branches, through bush or along forest floors, gleaning for arthropods, the Black-and-white Warbler finds another niche. It forages by hugging tree trunks and inner branches, much like a nuthatch or creeper. The interesting genus name apparently comes from another of this bird’s behaviors. This name comes from the Ancient Greek mnion, meaning “seaweed”, and tillo, “to pluck”. Apparently, Black-and-white Warblers strip mosses and reindeer lichens to line their nests, which they make in mature forests across much of eastern and central North America.
-OZB
With the relatively recent removal of the Yellow-breasted Chat from the Parulidae, the title of the largest new world “wood warbler” may very well go to the Ovenbird, Seiurus aurocapilla. The Ovenbird is somewhat of a misfit itself. Seiurus is a monotypic genus, believed to have derived early in the evolution of the family. This pot-bellied, thrush-like bird nests and forages on the forest floor, getting its common name from its nest that supposedly resembles a Dutch oven.
Although the Ovenbird can be easily heard through much of the summer in any large-track deciduous forest, getting good looks and photographs is easiest by waiting to spot them in a migration trap like Tower Grove Park in St. Louis City where these photos were taken.
There is a singer everyone has heard,
Loud, a mid-summer and a mid-wood bird,
Who makes the solid tree trunks sound again.
He says that leaves are old and that for flowers
Mid-summer is to spring as one to ten.
He says the early petal-fall is past
When pear and cherry bloom went down in showers
On sunny days a moment overcast;
And comes that other fall we name the fall.
He says the highway dust is over all.
The bird would cease and be as other birds
But that he knows in singing not to sing.
The question that he frames in all but words
Is what to make of a diminished thing.
“The Ovenbird”
Robert Frost
-OZB
It looks as though I may get only one opportunity for Tower Grove Park this spring, but it was a good one. I’m glad it was a nice morning for Kathy Duncan’s first visit. We had quite a few cooperative birds at the water feature of the Gaddy Bird Garden where these photos of Chestnut-sided Warblers were taken.
A Thousand Acres of Silphiums 