If you are going to the Biggest Week, then I cannot stress enough how important it is to follow @BiggestWeek on Twitter and, if you can, get the tweets sent to your phone while you are at the festival. The tweets had me and my friend, Renee, chasing birds all over the place – with a high percentage of success. There are a number of good birders who have access to post tweets, so the area is pretty much covered.
Note: this post has embedded tweets, please be patient with the loading time.
Thanks to the tweets, our first afternoon at Magee started off with great views of a bird we only barely saw last year.
Gray-cheeked Thrush at the beginning of >Estuary Trail
Not sure where Estuary Trail is? Do not be shy to ask someone. Birding guides are all over the boardwalk; your fellow birders are also friendly and will be happy to help!
After a long day of birding outside of Magee, we came back to another good find. Once we got to the location, the crowd of people directed us where we needed to look.
American Bittern close to the road out in the open along the Magee Causeway (north end)! – Ethan Kistler
I would have never thought I would see a Bittern out in the open like this! He was busy fishing while many birders got great looks.
One of my favorite tweet stories happened on our third day. Renee and I just began the Ottawa wildlife drive and this tweet came in. She saw the tweet first didn’t know what to say about it. I picked up the phone and knew why.
We drove through the rest of the wildlife drive without looking for more birds and made our way to Magee. As we were walking to #13 on the boardwalk, birders assured us that the Owl was still there – and it was.
Long-eared Owl at Magee Marsh!
We did have some unsuccessful attempts at chasing tweets – you can’t get them all!
Black-billed Cuckoo just flew between # 1 and 3 – adrian
I can’t tell you how many times Renee and I chased the Black-billed Cuckoo in hopes of both of us getting a life bird. Unfortunately, this is one that we did not see. They did not show themselves for long, but the chase was fun. In the process, we did get to see one of the American Woodcocks off the boardwalk.
American Woodcock found while looking for Cuckoos
Another tweet came through that had us abandon the Cuckoo search that morning…
Golden-winged warbler showing nicely at north edge of small loop on MM boardwalk (7ish). -Greg Miller
This one was a success! Thank you, Greg – you helped us both get a great life bird!
Golden-winged Warbler at the loop
The loop turned out to be pretty popular for good Warblers. At one point, there were so many birds that people were using Warblers to direct birders to another Warbler.
Prothonotary and Canada at 7A on small loop – adrian
I hope this post convinced you – getting live tweets sent to your phone can really help you stay connected! You will also stay up to date on the latest event happenings.
Book signing: Stokes, Kaufman, Birdchick, Ken Keffer – 1 PM – AT BLACK SWAMP BIRD OBSERVATORY
That happened after the festival was over, but three Kirtland Warblers showed up and were tweeted about on the previous year during the festival, so you never know!
This winter was a harsh one. Our days were extremely cold and the snow seemed never-ending. It made me more anxious for spring than ever before.
The snow is finally all melted, birds are returning and the migrants are slowly coming through. Birds are pairing up and warm days are here!
Mourning Doves pair up early
While it is getting warm out, we are also having a ton of very windy days. It doesn’t stop the birds from coming, but it’s enough to annoy both of us!
Downy Woodpecker on a windy day
One of my favorite signs of spring are molting Goldfinches. They go from their more-drab winter coat to the most brilliant yellow.
The Goldfinches are molting!
I have a few nesting boxes up – one for Chickadees or Wrens, a ledge for Robins, Doves or Flycatchers, and a Brown Creeper box. So far, I have tenants in at least one of them.
Black-capped Chickadees took over this nesting box
I also found the nests of two other birds – Blue Jays are building one behind my neighbors house.
Blue Jays building a nest
I also spotted Nuthatches going in and our of a hole on my neighbors house. As much as I was excited to see this, I think I should tell them now so that they do not unknowingly patch up the hole while there are eggs or babies inside. Oddly enough, I just purchased a Nuthatch nesting box, so if my neighbors choose to evict their tenants, maybe I can set up my box nearby. Speaking of Nuthatches – I’ve seen them exchange gifts to each other a couple of times right outside my window.
White-breasted Nuthatch before stashing the seed
One bird who is nesting in the area that I have yet to find nests for are the Red-shouldered Hawks. I hear this bird more than I see it (I also hear the Jays mimicking them) and hope to find a nest one day.
Red-shouldered Hawk being mobbed by Blue Jays
I had my first visit from a pair of Cardinals. I’ve been hearing at least two males singing, but this is the first time I’ve seen them. Never again will I take such a beautiful bird for granted as I did in New York. I hope they decide to stick around my yard!
This Cardinal was a long-awaited yard bird
As for birds returning for the summer, I had a quick visit from my first non-Junco yard sparrow, a pair of Flickers are being very vocal behind my house and the Phoebes can be heard singing around the woods.
A brief visit from a Chipping Sparrow
Along with geese, blackbirds and gulls migrating overhead, I got my first feeder migrants of the season.
A male Purple Finch – one of many migrants passing through
A female Purple Finches behind the brightly-colored male
And that’s not all… the woods are becoming more active! So far, I’ve seen Pine Warblers and both Golden- and Ruby-crowned Kinglets, including some singing males. It was truly the first time that I felt like Spring is here.
Too bad this Pine Warbler would not come closer
The only decent photo I could get of this Ruby-crowned Kinglet
I cannot wait to see who else will pass by! Spring is HERE!
My friend and I took a trip to Delaware to go to Bombay Hook and Cape Henlopen State Park on Sunday. One of our goals was to both get a life bird in its northern-most range, the Brown-headed Nuthatch.
The day started off with a bang as we were exiting a highway in Allentown, Pennsylvania. I spotted a raptor perched on a utility pole and IDed it as a possible Peregrine Falcon. We pulled into a parking lot to confirm the ID and take some photos.
Spotting a Peregrine Falcon from the road
We then started our long drive to Delaware. This was the first time I visited the state for birding. After my total of a three-and-a-half hour drive, we arrived at the Nature Center at Cape Henlopen to watch the feeders.
Red-winged Blackbirds dominated the area and were extremely loud at times.
One of many loud Red-winged Blackbird
When they quieted down, we could hear a Great Horned Owl hooting in the woods. We did not want to step off trail to find it and instead enjoyed the feeder birds. I took this chance to photograph a bird that I do not see in my new yard anymore.
The Northern Cardinal was common in my NY yard, but not in my PA yard
I also remembered that I have no good photos of Carolina Chickadees and snapped a few of them too.
I only see Black-capped Chickadees near me, not Carolinas
After a little while more of waiting, the bird we were waiting for finally showed up.
Brown-headed Nuthatch at the feeders
We stuck around to try to get photos of them in a more natural setting, but that proved to be difficult since they would go directly to the thick of trees from the feeders. We had up to six of these birds in sight and calling back and forth at the same time. If you’ve never heard their call, I highly suggest you listen to it on Allaboutbirds.org. It is the cutest call!!
This Brown-headed Nuthatch kept posing for us
After a couple of hours, we left to go back up to Bombay Hook in search of waterfowl, shorebirds and possible owls. This part of our trip was a little quiet as far as photo ops went. We did see seventeen species of waterfowl and an early shorebird migrant.
Greater Yellowlegs with a bill that is covered in mud – it is longer than it looks from this photo.
Other notable sightings include a Red Fox, multiple Harriers, our first-of-year Gray Catbird and a couple of Bald Eagles flying in the distance.
Red Fox on the road
Bald Eagle flying over-head
I won’t leave out some of the more common birds that seem to pose nicer than the waterfowl, which I did not take any photos of due to over-bright lighting and distance.
My township is less than two inches away from the being the snowiest February ever recorded set back in 1958. This coming Tuesday snowfall will most likely surpass the record. I am at my wits end with all of this snow!! There is still one thing (and one thing only) that I enjoy about it. That is, of course, the amount of birds that utilize my feeders and the photo ops they bring.
Let’s just say that my feeders were pretty busy…
Busy bird feeders
My most abundant guest is the Goldfinch… I lost count at 40 the other day when counting them for the GBBC. The only other finches I have been getting this year are House Finches.
American Goldfinch
Male House Finch with ice
Female House Finch
I live in the woods, so I also have tons of Woodpeckers.
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Along all of my other regulars…
Mourning Dove braving the storm
White-breasted Nuthatch
Tufted Titmouse
The snow was so heavy on Thursday that it quickly accumulated on birds if they stayed still for a moment.
Dark-eyed Junco with snow accumulation
Mourning Dove with snow accumulation
Some birds took cover in the Christmas tree I have set up under the feeders.
Black-capped Chickadee in my Christmas tree
Dark-eyed Junco in my Christmas tree
I think, overall, the birds are as sick of all of this snow as I am.
Last week, I shared photos of birds on ice. The wintery weather continued this week with a heavy snowstorm. It was so heavy at times, that snow was just accumulating on the birds who would stay in the same place for a minute or more.
Dark-eyed Junco accumulating snow
I had at least thirty or so Juncos on my deck, in the trees and scattered around the ground.
Dark-eyed Juncos
It’s a good thing they are ground feeders or they would have cleaned me out!
Dark-eyed Junco
The Junco’s weren’t the only birds out during this storm – my feeders were very busy with all of my common visitors.
White-breasted Nuthatch
House Finch looking in
Hairy Woodpecker
Hairy and Downy Woodpecker comparison
It’s amazing how these birds can survive the winter. I’m happy to provide them with a helping hand.
When there is snow or ice, natural food for birds can be more difficult to come by so they flock to feeders in higher numbers. I woke up to plenty of ice this morning and it has not gotten warm enough to melt – the ice is still neatly covering tree branches and anything else that was not manually de-iced. I was able to get some photos this morning through my sliding doors of some of my common feeder birds – the first real “set” of photos from my new house. Enjoy!
Dark-eyed (Slate-colored) Junco
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
House Finches
Male House Finch
Mourning Doves, sticking together like usual
American Goldfinch
Male American Goldfinch
Even my feeder Chickadee was frozen
And some more birds from the next morning:
Female Red-bellied Woodpecker
Blue Jay close-up
Male Downy Woodpecker
Carolina Wren
Dark-eyed Junco moving snow around to search for food
This is my favorite time of year for backyard birding. Parent birds are bringing their begging babies to my yard and tirelessly giving them food from my bird feeders.
Common Grackle family
The parents are very often attentive and I hardly ever see them actually feed themselves.
Northern Cardinal mom feeding young
Chipping Sparrow feeding young
House Finch Family
American Goldfinch dad feeding young
The young woodpeckers seem to be the most patient and often quietly wait for their meal, not far off from Mom and Dad. They are also the most fun to watch as they attempt to cling anywhere and everywhere.
Hairy Woodpecker
Young Downy Woodpecker
Some birds, like the Crows and Jays will continuously beg even though the parents ignore them.
Young American Crow begging to an adult
Begging Blue Jay
Others show up after they are already on their own and shyly feed themselves.
Young Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Young male Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Young Cedar Waxwing
Feeding young is a tough job, but someone has to do it!
I have not been out birding much lately and have been very busy with some big changes in my life – I apologize for slacking with my posting! To make up for it, I will share photos of all of the nesting birds that I found locally this year. Most of the photos are not that great – this is because I observe them from a safe distance and do not want to disturb the nests!!
The only nest I found near my yard, so far, is a Red-bellied Woodpecker cavity. They made it easy to find by constantly calling from the tree. I am still waiting to see the fledglings come to my feeders.
Red-bellied Woodpecker in cavity
I found some nests while out in the field just by seeing birds fly into them.
American Goldfinch on nest
Red-eyed Vireo on nest
Blue Jay on nest
And others were pointed out to me by friends who already knew the location.
Canada Goose on nest
Wood Thrush in nest on my friends property
There is an abandoned building nearby that Cliff Swallows like to nest on every year. Unfortunately, right after we saw them this year the property owners knocked down all of their work.
Cliff Swallows building nest
While out on a trip with my local birding club, we found a female Baltimore Oriole building a nest right above the road. I re-found this nest over the weekend, but did not scout it out to see if it was active.
Baltimore Oriole building her nest
I’ve also found various birds carrying nesting materials – of course, they are very cautious when someone is watching them.
Common Yellowthroat with nesting material
Dark-eyed Junco with nesting material
American Crow with moss
To end this off on a cute note, I will share a non-avian nest – I found this Groundhog den at a local park. The young would crowd around the opening, forage and play.
Next week my friend Renee and I are heading to Ohio for five days of pure-birding fun during the Biggest Week in American Birding. I have been posting photos from this event since February and now it is finally here! Birders from all over the world (yes, not just the US) will be pouring into Magee Marsh and the surrounding areas to enjoy the Warbler spectacle.
Palm Warblers were everywhere!
Last year, we went to the festival because we heard good things about Magee Marsh. We ended up falling in love with it! Now The Biggest Week is in our plans for many more future spring migrations.
What is so special about this event?
Obviously, there are great birds – who do not make you struggle to view them.
One of many Cape May Warblers near eye level
We also met new friends from all over the world, many of whom we still keep in touch with over Facebook. Some of them were trip leaders and showed us some pretty cool birds.
My first very good looks at a Sandhill Crane thanks to the guides from Wildside Nature Tours
The event planning just keeps getting better and better. There are so many trips and social events on the schedule. Kim Kaufman and her team really knows what they are doing!
Warbling Vireo, typically in tree tops, seen from one of the raised platforms on the Magee boardwalk
The Biggest Week brought me some awesome life birds including my first looks at Bobolinks, a Least Flycatcher, a Common Nighthawk, an Eastern Screech-Owl, a Sora, Field Sparrows, Grasshopper Sparrows, Lincoln Sparrows, a Cliff Swallow, a Gray-cheeked Thrush, a Kentucky Warbler (thanks to new friends for this one!!) and Prothonotary Warblers.
Prothonotary Warbler – a new bird for my life list
When a rare bird shows up, you will know about it. One of the best highlights of last year’s event were the Kirtland’s Warblers. Three of them showed up after I left so I did not see them, but I am determined to get one this year!! Huge thanks to Dawn Fine and Chris West for allowing me to use their photo so that you can see the great views that people got. Word traveled fast when these birds showed up… and so did the crowds. If you don’t want to miss great birds like this one, be sure to keep up with @BiggestWeek on Twitter and opt to have their tweets sent straight to your phone.
Kirtland’s Warbler by Dawn Fine taken with a point and shoot camera. Yeah… that’s how close she got to this bird!
Kirtland’s Warbler by Chris West
Speaking of crowds – you may be turned off by the amount of people that will be in the area. Be sure to read Anna Fasoli’s post at Nemesis Bird to put your mind at ease. I, personally, am not the type of person who loves crowds. In fact I mostly enjoy birding alone, but if it weren’t for these groups, I may have missed many great birds. And like Anna said, it is not packed wall-to-wall with people – you can always get away from the crowd if you want to!
This Lincoln’s Sparrow was pointed out by others in the crowd
I also share my excitement with Biggest Week bloggers Rob Ripma, Jerry Jourdan and Linda Rockwell – all of who I hope to see this year. I’m sad that I will not get to meet Dawn Fine but look forward to seeing her at future events. If it weren’t for her, I would not have seen the offer for event bloggers.
I will leave you off with a link to a great migration poem by Kim Smith. If you haven’t read it yet, I strongly recommend you do!
Birds are on my mind! There is no better way to start the day then taking a walk in the woods or at a park where it is just me, the birds and my camera. Last week was was pretty quiet. All of the fallout birds we had previously have moved on while no new birds were showing up! High winds toward the end of the week made for very slow birding. Things are starting to pick up as I am finding more first-of-year birds.
I hit my first Warbler wave of the year which included Yellow-rumped, Pine and Black-and-white Warblers; along with high numbers of Blue-headed Vireos and Ruby-crowned Kinglets and one lone Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.
Black-and-white Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Pine Warbler
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Silhouette
I hear the songs of Ruby-crowned Kinglets everywhere I go. This is a song that I just learned this year and I’ve fallen in love with it – so much that I get their song stuck in my head instead of music…
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
I found my first Eastern Towhees, Thrashers and Hermit Thrushes. The low foragers are making some noise in the leaves. This Hermit Thrush, however, stayed out in the open.
Hermit Thrush
I still have some Fox Sparrows hanging around.
Fox Sparrow
And the Song Sparrows continue to contribute their tunes.
Song Sparrow
This afternoon, I heard a House Wren singing so I went to look for him. He hid only for a moment, then popped back up to sing and look around. I think he found a nice spot to settle into.
House Wren
House Wren
Another interesting recent sighting were three Northern Flickers on one tree. Two of them were doing a small dance to each other. I did catch a little bit of it on video, but it may be too shaky.
Three Northern Flickers
I also had my first Broad-winged Hawk of the year – he flew over my yard! This was yard bird number 96. I am almost at 100!
Broad-winged Hawk
I am hoping that this week brings in more new arrivals. I really love finding birds before work to start my day off right!
