Dogwood berries and rusty blackbirds

Dogwood berries are a popular food item with the outdoor critters. As the fall progresses our anticipation of the dogwood berry feasting spectacle grows. Who will come this year? For the last month squirrels have taken some. Mockingbirds appeared and began guarding trees. Then in mid November robins descended and began munching.

We speculate on what brings on the invasion. Are the berries "ripe" enough? Does a roaming flock come through the area and eats what it finds? I suspect the answer is the latter as everyone's trees are stripped at different times. Then there are berries on other tree species that remain untouched.

This year there were lots of American Robins, a few mockingbirds, some Northern flickers showing off those golden feathers and a few Rusty Blackbirds. No starlings or grackles were seen at the trees this season.





One of the blackbirds was caught in a mist net and so I obtained the close up photographs of the exquisite rusty edgings on feathers. The detail is rarely visible when a bird is viewed through binoculars amongst leaves in the uneven lighting of a tree.

Big Bald Mountain banding station

A fall migration banding station operates on Big Bald Mountain. I spent an informative two days visiting at the station in September. Tennessee warbler is the most common bird at this time of year. Some of the other species banded during my visit were Swainsons Thrush, Cape May warbler, and Blackpoll warbler.

Furled nets in morning drizzle

Station is in the low trees at the top of this bald.

Open net

Hawk watch station in distance.

This Whimbrel was an unusual visitor at the hawk watch station. This photograph was taken on September 18th. The bird was seen on the 16th as well.

Difference between days

Common Yellowthroat

This weekend seven birds were caught on each day but what a difference in the composition of species. The most likely reason is a weather front that started to come through the area between the two sessions. Rain was forecast on Sunday morning and so I reduced the number of nets that would need closing in a hurry. As it was the rain held off until mid-afternoon.

On Saturday the only neotropical bird was a Northern Waterthrush. On Sunday there were two each of Common Yellowthroat and Red-eyed Vireo and an American Redstart. On Saturday three birds were recaptures; none on Sunday. My fingers faired better on Sunday. The Saturday cardinals (both AHY males) chewed on me.

Red-eyed Vireo

New species at station

This banding station is not on a major fall migration route. I was pleasantly surprised to find a Northern Waterthrush in a net this morning. In theory the habitat is suitable; at least for a stop over for a waterthrush. This is the first NOWA banded here. This particular bird has a strong yellow shade underneath and in the supercilium.


The other species banded or recaptured today are year round residents: 2 northern cardinals, a trio of tufted titmouse (with a 4th avoiding the net) and a carolina wren.

Unsettled, cooler weather is forecast to come in tonight. Today's 90+F temperature is probably the last of the summer heat.

Bugs on garlic chives

On this warm sunny afternoon Swallowtail butterflies were hovering over a patch of garlic chives in the neglected herb bed. As I had a small camera with macro feature in my pocket I went over to take photos. The large butterflies immediately left but I looked around for other subjects. The photographs here are of the different insects I found enjoying the flower nectar. The variety of color and species was surprising.

I tried to ID the butterflies. I have no idea what species the various other insects are. If anyone knows please post a comment.








A piece of a Common Buckeye butterfly. The larger butterflies, like swallowtails, moved whenever I tried to take a picture.

Red-banded hairstreak butterfly

Great purple hairstreak butterfly. Insect constantly moved (rubbing motion) wings and revealed blue on one side and red on the other. At first I thought two butterflies were somehow co-joined.

Silver spotted skipper butterfly

Ammophila?

a scolid?

Hatch year birds

During August ten new birds were banded and seven were hatched this year (hatch years). This high proportion may mean: a) the adults are better at avoiding nets, or b) this patch of land is attractive to dispersing hatch year birds, or c) the birds were attracted to the sunflower seeds. I put a feeder back up mid-August and a flock of chickadees, titmice and brown-headed nuthatches come by regularly. However the carolina wrens, white-eyed vireos, eastern towhee, and red-bellied woodpecker are not sunflower feeder visitors so c is not supported for the majority.

At this time of year birds are molting as well. So while the numbers banded are small I am increasing my knowledge of molt and thus ability to better age birds.


Molt in hatch year female Northern cardinal.


Even barring in hatch year Carolina Wren.

Pee Dee NWR birding trip

A lovely day for my first visit to the Pee Dee NWR in Richmond/Anson counties, NC. The trip was led by Cassie Willis on behalf of the Sandhills Natural History Society. There was nothing spectacular in the birds we saw. However we had a good time (and educational) working on identification and behavior. A piece of non-bird behavior observed is illustrated in this photo of a praying mantis hanging out at an insect trap.



Later in the year many of the fields we passed will be flooded to attract waterfowl. Access to the refuge land (over 8,000 acres) is limited during hunting seasons.





This time of year produces identification challenges in hatch year birds in various plumage stages and the potential for migrants passing through. Our group was entertained by a flock of birds on the edge of a road. The birds were jumping up to reach seed heads on tall grass at the road side. Initially lighting on the birds was poor and we worked through a variety of species, matching up what we could see of shape, color and behavior. This was a flock of mainly juvenile and female red-winged blackbirds. Another id challenge came from some juvenile great egrets. The juveniles were distinctly smaller than the adult birds and had a different colored bill. We could not discern leg/foot color.




Pee Dee NWR = http://www.fws.gov/peedee/

Seasons are changing

The spiders are spinning lots of webs. As I put up mist nets I'd stop and take photos of the webs. There were large webs stretched across walkways, and smaller ones nestled in plants looking like fluffy cocoons.













Last week and today I caught more hatch year birds. Unfortunately these birds do not go on the MAPS report as that protocol season is over. Today few birds went in the nets. However a flock of titmouse, chickadees and nuthatches are now regulars at the sunflower feeder. I put the feeder up a few days ago. Many of these birds are sporting jewellry. At least 2 of the nuthatches have color bands. I've id'd one (which then helpfully went into a net as a recapture); hope some photos I took through a window will confirm identity of others. The nuthatches do not linger at the feeder and usually crunch down on their legs and that hides the bands.

















The vegetable garden continues to produce. The photograph shows what was picked this morning. We ripen the tomatoes inside. Bugs, splitting, and blossom end rot all provide competition for the fruit. There was a caterpillar crawling out of one today.

I planted pea and carrot seed today in a section of the garden cleared of weeds. The recent rain was a great assist to the weed pulling effort. Also have seedlings developing for transplant later.

Successful MAPS session

This late in the season I expect few birds in the nets. Today started out very humid and the heat rose to 95F in the shade. Unpleasant conditions for walking around outside. I ended the morning with 10 new captures and 2 recaptures. Excellent numbers for this banding station. One of the recaptures was a Wood Thrush that I banded in May. Representing the neotropicals I banded 3 white-eyed vireos, 2 great crested flycatchers and a second Wood Thrush.