A sign?

Tweet Such a beautiful day, I had to go birding.

Decided to check out the East Fork beach and surrounding areas this morning to see if that huge low pressure system brought anything good in.

As soon as I got out of the car, an Osprey flew over. The wind was howling out of the northwest. Something large and white caught my eye just over the rise to the west. What the $#%@ is that? I got closer to find this:

Headless cement goose

A headless cement goose. Someone had to have carried this dang thing down to the water's edge and put it there. Don't know what this is supposed to mean. Maybe it's a sign I should quit watching birds?

Nah, that ain't happening.

After I found out what the goofy looking white thing was, I went back up the little rise to hear and then see a flock of about 20 Horned Larks flying around. They decided not to land on the beach. I then spotted an adult Bald Eagle soaring over the lake.

I then decided to head up to the two ponds on top the hill to look for land birds. Glad I did. There was a lot of activity. Found a Swamp Sparrow, lots of Yellow-rumped Warbers, Robins and other birds. Also found this cool looking leucistic American Robin.

Leucistic American Robin

While watching the leucistic robin, I noticed something smaller bathing in the water in front of the robins. Purple Finches! Two of them. They are the first of the season for me. (Crappy pictures)

Female (or immature) Purple Finch(es)

A female Belted Kingfisher was fishing the pond as I was watching the Purple Finches. I love kingfishers.

Female Belted Kingfisher

The woods were going crazy with bird activity, so I decided to go find out what was going on. I often see Barred Owls in this area, so I decided to imitate one to see what would happen. A Barred Owl went (vocally) nuts and so did the other birds.

Pileated Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, YS Flickers, GC Kinglets, Cedar Waxwings, WT Sparrows.

This White-breasted Nuthatch almost landed on my head.

White-breasted Nuthatch

And the flickers were going crazy!

Yellow-shafted Flicker female

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A white-crowned day

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I woke up at around 8:30am to the sound of birds singing outside the window. I got up and opened the back door and could hear the songs of White-crowned Sparrows. I love their songs! I could see sparrows flitting around in my brush pile, so I grabbed my camera and headed out the door.

I phished and the White-crowneds popped up!

"Hey, look at my cool hairdo!"

"Hey, I'll have a head like that some day!" or maybe not

Also saw an Eastern Phoebe, Ruby-crowned Kinglet and Yellow-rumped Warblers flitting around.

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A gorgeous fall day spent birding

Tweet I spent a gorgeous fall day in the backyard watching the birds flit about the golden-yellow sugar maple leaves in the backyard.

The drought has had the birdbath super busy lately, as I had to fill it up three times today. The day started off cool, in the mid 40's. The trees were filled with shivering, puffed-up Chipping Sparrows this morning. They all seemed to hit the birdbath at about the same time!

I keep my lawn a little longer than usual in the fall. The sparrows seem to love the seeds on the grasses. The yard was filled with over 20 chippies this morning.

Chipping Sparrows (fall plumage)

The Chipping Sparrows were chasing each other through the trees constantly. Every time I would look at a bird, it was a chippie. Then, a yellowish bird caught my eyes behind the leaves. The bird was playing hide and seek.

"Hey you, what am I?"

"How about now?" ah, a Tennessee Warbler (Had it misidentified on my camera)

"Hey, you takin' my picture?"

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Where's the water?

Tweet Woke up this morning to find a Yellow-rumped Warbler in the bird bath asking "Where's the water"?

Yellow-rumped Warbler

I quickly filled it up and am glad I did! The birds (mostly Yellow-rumped Warblers) kept it busy all day. Even saw a Cape May Warbler visit it very briefly!

The yard was filled with good birds all day despite the fact the we had a near record high temperature in the high 80's. Saw for the first time in the yard a Swainson's Thrush visiting the poke weed for some berries. Also saw a Palm Warbler (working goldenrod), White-crowned Sparrows and a Red-breasted Nuthatch that visited the peanuts I have put out. A nice, warm fall day off spent in the backyard. Tweet

Morning banding

Tweet Decided to stop by a bird banding demonstration at East Fork before having to go to work this morning. Wasn't much bird activity, but they did catch a few common birds.

I liked this idea, to keep it from biting, a bracelet was used. (cardinals hurt when they bite!)

Female Northern Cardinal




Tufted Titmouse




Carolina Chickadee in mist net



Cute little Carolina Chickadee

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Indigo Stem Borer

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Indigo Stem Borer Moth Papaipema baptisiae

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More dreary day birding

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Another cloudy, chilly, misty day.

Outside in the yard this morning, I heard Pine Siskins and looked up to see 3 flying from a sweetgum tree in the neighbor's yard. FOS (First Of Season) for me. Since I had the day off and the birds seemed to be moving, I decided to head to East Fork State Park.

I arrived at about 11 am at the beach. Scanning the gulls, I was able to pick out 5 Herring Gulls. Many people would probably not think that much of five Herring Gulls, however in SW Ohio they are not often encountered in this number. One was a very dark juvenile bird, one was an adult, and the other 3 were in various stages of plumage.

Adult Herring Gull with Ring-billeds

The gulls starting vocalizing and took flight. I saw an Osprey, but they usually don't react much to them. I then looked over my head and saw this immature Bald Eagle flying in from behind.

Immature Bald Eagle

I then decided to take a walk in the woods up on the hill from the beach. The land birds were moving away from the wind. I had a mixed flock of Cedar Waxwing, many Black-throated Green Warblers, Yellow-rumped warblers, a Common Yellowthroat and one Nashville Warbler.

Moving on to the ponds, I spotted this male Wood Duck with some females. He was displaying to one.

I continued on to find my FOS White-throated Sparrows. I missed their call.

White-throated Sparrow

The Blue Jays were raising a ruckus in the trees ahead, and I later found out why. A Barred Owl took flight in front of me heading for cover from the harassing jays.

Before leaving the park, I decided to check the beach/lake to see if anything new came in. I am glad I did as I quickly spotted my FOS Bonaparte's Gull. It was constantly pruning and looked kinda rugged. Must have just migrated in.

Winter plumage Bonaparte's Gull

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Fattening up

Tweet The Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are fattening up for their southward migration. I had 4 yesterday and only have seen 2 this morning so far. I usually see Ruby-throats until early to mid October at my feeders.

This is one reason that I keep my hummingbird feeders up. It is not true that the hummingbirds will not migrate if you leave your feeders up until after Labor Day. In fact, I would say that it helps them on their southward migration, but this is only my opinion. As one can see from the photos below, the Ruby-throated is fattening up for the coming migration. Hummers also eat insects and spiders etc., so the feeders aren't their only source of food.

Another reason that I leave my hummingbird feeders up all fall (I leave mine up till Christmas here!), is that I hope for a western vagrant hummingbird species. Every fall, some Selasphorus (Like Rufous and Allen's) hummingbird species move east of the Mississippi River and show up at feeders in the Midwest and East. Other western species have shown up as well.

Here are some sites with more info:

HBRC Tri-state Hummingbird Study

Add your fall feeders to this map (Ohio only I think)!: Fall Vagrant Hummingbirds Project

Fattened up Ruby-throated Hummingbird in a peach tree

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A little surprise...

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While up-righting my potted plants on the patio from the storms this afternoon, this little Eastern Garter Snake came out from underneath one of the plants and jumped at my hand. It was not a happy camper!

I think it may be close to or had just shed its skin.



It wasn't much bigger than the night crawlers that I use for fishing! Tweet

Dreary day birding

Tweet The morning started out dreary with light rain/mist and low clouds. Being that it was my day off, I decided to look for birds ( a big surprise there ;-)

The first bird that I saw out the back door was this bright Northern Parula - this photo is from the back door in poor lighting. Definitely brightened up the day!

Northern Parula

I then decided to head for East Fork State Park. Got a later start then I wanted to, but the birding was good for warblers in the backyard early on.

Saw more Ospreys, 5 in total. One was dive-bombing an adult Bald Eagle high above the lake!

Osprey

Also saw 40 Blue-winged Teal way out over the lake. A Sharp-shinned Hawk also attempted a sneak attack on some European Starlings and Killdeer right in front of me. Not a bad way to spend my day off!

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An evening spent with the birds

Tweet Was going to spend my off day birding the morning, but didn't feel up to it. I finally felt better by afternoon and had to get outside to clear my mind. I am glad I did, as I needed it.

Due to the time of day, I figured not many warblers would be moving. So I headed to the beach at East Fork State Park to look for any shorebirds or terns or whatever else could be around.

The first bird I saw was this far off Osprey flying out over the lake, stirring up the gulls.

Osprey

Scanning the gull flock, I only seen Ring-billeds at first. I then noticed a large tern flying around, a Caspian Tern. It decided to hesitantly land in front of me on the beach.

Caspian Tern

(Looks like it has a carrot for a bill when one looks at it head on!)

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Wordless Wednesday

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Painted Lady

Red-spotted Purple






Great Spangled Fritillary

Get wordless at Wordless Wednesday

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Tern of the Season

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With everyone talking about the possibility of good birds showing up with the unusual weather pattern currently over Ohio, I decided to spend some time at East Fork looking for birds.

The air was much cooler than it has been and the winds were blowing pretty good out of the west. The water was very choppy. I didn't get there until around 4pm, so there were people swimming and walking dogs on the beach. However, I was able to spot a non breeding Forster's Tern coming in from out over the lake. It landed very near me on the beach with the Ring-billed Gulls.

The way to tell this bird from the non breeding Common Tern would be the lack of dark black across the crown of the head. Forster's has a kind of black eye mask. Also, the Common has a black carpal bar (shoulder) which the Forster's lacks.

I did spot 4 Black Terns in winter plumage as well way out skimming the surface of the lake. Later, I also spotted a flock of 3 Pectoral Sandpipers flying out over the lake.

I will definitely take the change of season, even if it is only temporary! (Supposed to be back to near 90° next week.)

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