Nice (Yellow) Legs!

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It isn't often that I get to see yellowlegs up close. If you have never seen them up close, the brightness of their yellow legs is stunning.

Here is a juvenile Lesser Yellowlegs that I found foraging along the beach at East Fork the other day. Man, those are some bright legs!

Why are you looking at my legs?

The yellowlegs are comical birds to watch, constantly running and stabbing at the sand. I watched this bird for about half an hour.

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Young Red-headed Woodpeckers!

Tweet After seeing Red-headed Woodpeckers numerous times at the end of my road, I was finally able to confirm that they are breeding in the area today. They used to be VERY hard to find around here, however I am seeing more and more of them.

Here is a pic I took this morning out the car window of an adult Red-headed Woodpecker after just feeding a juvenile. If you look closely, you can see the young one.

And here is a pic of the juvenile -

The sighting was entered in to the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas II.
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Someone Terned off the heat!

Tweet Thunderstorms have given way to a much nicer, cooler, and less humid air mass. Being cooped up for about two weeks due to mid - high 90° temps, I had to take advantage of the nice weather.

August is the time that I start to see terns appearing on the beach at East Fork. I love terns! I have to go early to avoid the people. I found this gorgeous Forster's Tern there the other day.

Forster's Tern

And a quick drive by of the beach yesterday produced this nice looking Black Tern. It just flew in and landed in the corner of the beach with the local Ring-billed Gull flock.

Black Tern in non-breeding plumage

Ospreys are also moving through, two have been fishing the lake for the last couple of days.

Osprey

Got lucky and found this beautiful Prothonotary Warbler this morning while looking for a Red-headed Woodpecker that I heard calling. I never found the Red-headed, but I got good looks at the Prothonotary.

Prothonotary Warbler

It's already time for the American Goldfinches to start nesting. They start nesting later than other birds as to coincide with the abundance of food from blooming thistles. Here, a female gathers nesting material from a cattail.

Female American Goldfinch

Young of the year Red-bellied Woodpeckers have been hanging around the yard eating peaches from my peach tree. Here is one that spooked when I opened the back door. Notice that it is just getting its red crown.

Young Red-bellied Woodpecker

Also been seeing a lot of butterflies and dragonflies. Here, I leave you with this photo from today of a Twelve Spotted Skimmer.

12 Spotted Skimmer

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Still too hot to bird!

Tweet With temperatures ranging from 95 - 100° F, I haven't felt much like going out of the air conditioner. However, I was able to get out a few times early in the mornings before the heat of the day and swarms of people to see if anything was moving birdwise.

I checked the beach at East Fork SP, and was able to find a Least Sandpiper.

Least Sandpiper

While watching the Least, another peep flew in. Luckily, they were close enough that I didn't need my scope (the way I like it).

Since I have been feeling a little rusty on my birding skills as of late, I welcomed the chance to practice my peep ID.

The two peeps joined up, giving me the chance to compare them. I was quickly able to ID the one that joined the Least as a Semipalmated Sandpiper.

Semipalmated and Least Sandpipers

The size difference is only slight really. The Semi sand has black legs, while the Least has yellow legs. This is not always discernible though.

The Semipalmated appears longer legged to me. Here is a pic of it by itself.

Also, been seeing lots of deer on my morning walks. Here are a few pics of fawns from a few weeks ago (because I like baby pics).

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Too hot to bird!

Tweet Between working and the muggy, hot summer days, I haven't had much of a desire to go out birding recently.

Since birding is usually slow here in the summer, I often turn my attention to lepidoptera and odonata. Here are some of the butterflies that we found on the 1st annual East Fork Butterfly Count.

Least Skippers were everywhere...

Least Skipper on daisy

We also saw Hackberry Emperors, a butterfly that will often land on humans to get at the salts in your sweat.

Hackberry Emperor on hat

And we saw a few Peck's Skippers...

Peck's Skipper

And, since this is a bird blog, here are some pictures of some birds that I have ran across while out in the field recently.

This year seems like a good year for Indigo Buntings, as I have had up to four males in the yard this year.

Indigo Bunting male

And, I found these cute little baby Killdeer at Armledder Park. There were three of them.

Baby Killdeer

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Female Canvasback at Armledder Park?

Tweet Today, I decided to spend some quality time exploring Armledder Park in Hamilton Co., OH to become better familiar with it.

I found a large flooded area that was just off the paved trail that I presumed to be the "bean field" that many birders are familiar with.

The first bird of note there was a Spotted Sandpiper feeding right in front of me. It was also calling. I slipped in the mud and fell into stinging nettles, which caused the bird to flush. I also noted an odd duck with mallards. I IDed this duck as a female Canvasback.

June 8th, 2008 is the latest record of this duck in the area, occurring at Miami Whitewater Park.

Here are the pictures I took, the bird was very far away and I did not have a scope.

And in the background is a Great Blue Heron for size reference.

Comments welcome.

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From water everywhere to scorching heat

Tweet After a long while of having many of my birding spots under water, the waters have finally receded. This had left behind lots of mud, and some mud loving shorebirds.

I walked right up to this Least Sandpiper which was sleeping in the mud. I did not see it till it lifted its head. I was so close, I had a hard time focusing my camera!

I startled it up, it walked around me till it was later spooked to flight by a person with a dog. Was able to get a good shot of it.

Least Sandpiper

Also spotted these Semipalmated Plovers in the mud. They are so small when seen up close. They look and move like little wind up toys.

Semipalmated Plover

One flew to the lake to take a bath, here it is taking off.

The swallows were also taking advantage of the abundant food available left by the receding waters. I was able to see Bank, Cliff, Barn, Northern Rough-winged, and Tree swallows at the same time.

Barn Swallow

This was the first time that I seen a Cliff Swallow close up. It just started to rain when I took this picture. They are a nice looking bird!

Cliff Swallow

The receded waters must have left an abundance of food around. Here are some pics of birds seen in the remnants of the flooded woods.

Pileated Woodpecker - this bird was on the side of the road!


Pileated Woodpecker



These birds were everywhere!


Baltimore Oriole



Red-eyed Vireo



Blue-gray Gnatcatcher



Eastern Kingbird

Then came the heat. Temps in the high 80's and then 90's quickly turned the good birding off. It left a lot of amphibians and reptiles high and dry. Here are a few that I had come across.

Found this Painted Turtle in the middle of the road while out birding. I had put him back in the pond. Love this turtle's colors.

Painted Turtle

My nephews had found this little Western Chorus Frog (at least I think it is) on the patio. It was small enough to fit on my thumbnail.

Western Chorus Frog?

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