A Day on Merganser Lake
Warbler season, sadly, is done for the year. The warblers that remain are the nesters, which is exciting in its own right. Here’s a throwback photo of a palm warbler I saw back in April. Palm warblers are one of the first warblers to arrive in New England each spring.
A Day on Merganser Lake
Yesterday, I showed a male and female American redstart as an example of sexual dimorphism (male and female look different.) Today, here’s the bobolink, a beloved bird of our fields. Another good example of dimorphism. Click here for yesterday’s post.
Here’s the male …
A Day on Merganser Lake
Like most warblers, American redstarts are dimorphic. (From Wikipedia: Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the two sexes of the same species exhibit different characteristics beyond the differences in their sexual organs.) In other words, males and females look different from each other. Females are usually duller in color so as to not attract the attention of predators. Cardinals are one of the most obvious examples. Chickadees and many other birds are sexually monomorphic. I got these shots of male and female redstarts yesterday and those terms came to mind.
Here’s the male …
A Day on Merganser Lake
Can’t go wrong with a random cardinal photo. Happy last day of May!
A Day on Merganser Lake
They aren’t birds, but these two young white-tailed deer bucks made for a nice photo opp during a recent walk in the woods.
A Day on Merganser Lake
With two teenage boys I can relate to the photo above. I originally thought the bluebird pair that has been coming around since February had only one youngster. Then, all these birds showed up a few hours later. Click here for yesterday’s post, which provides more context.
A Day on Merganser Lake
I have been seeing an eastern bluebird pair at my feeders daily since February. I’m in a fairly wooded area and there are no open fields (bluebird’s preferred nesting area) in the neighborhood. I assumed it was a young pair that wasn’t breeding this year as it was well into the nesting season and they were still visiting daily.
To my pleasant surprise, yesterday the pair showed up with a youngster. It is a noisy and demanding little bluebird. The parents are dutiful in feeding it. I still don’t know exactly where they nested but I’m happy to still see them every day, especially with a youngster in tow. I’ve also seen them in the woods behind my house catching natural prey so, thankfully, they are not relying solely on my mealworm handouts. It’s also nice to see that it is indeed a bluebird youngster and not a cowbird as I’ve seen plenty of those around this spring.
Here are a few more shots of the family.
A Day on Merganser Lake
The common yellowthroat is one of the more common warblers we see throughout New England. Thankfully, we get to see them for several months out of the year as they nest throughout the region. They are often heard singing their “witchety-witchety-witchety” song, but it is usually tough to find them in the thick brush in which they skulk.
This gray catbird struck a rather interesting pose the other day. Catbirds are one of the great characters of the bird world.
It feels as if it were months ago and the weather has certainly taken a turn for the better, but the May 9 snowfall created some unique opportunities for birdwatchers and photographers.
I mentioned in last week’s column that we rarely see our late migratory birds in the snow. In fact, I can count on one finger the number of times in my memory it has snowed when these migrants were around — and that one time was last week.
The snow was predicted to fall during the night so I was fairly certain it would already be gone by the time I woke up. I got up early and, to my pleasant surprise, snow blanketed all surfaces. I jumped out of bed and headed to the nearest park.
How much snow you got depends on where you are in New England. I had only a slight covering where I am and the morning sun was already rising, so I had to hurry if I wanted to see these birds with a snowy background.
Photo by Chris Bosak
An ovenbird perches on snowy branches at Bennett’s Farm State Park in Connecticut during a rare May snowfall in 2020.
The first bird I was able to see was an ovenbird, a warbler that more resembles a small thrush. He belted out his signature “teacher teacher teacher” call and I stopped in my tracks. The bird flew in for a closer look and perched in a branch right above me. The branch and those around it were covered in about a quarter of an inch of snow and I got my coveted warbler-in-snow photo. Ovenbirds usually arrive In New England during the last week of April or the first week of May, well past what is normally a threat for snow.
I continued along the trail and heard a familiar insect-like buzzing and knew a blue-winged warbler was nearby. I also heard the “witchety witchety witchety” call of a common yellowthroat.
I didn’t have a lot of faith in the yellowthroat making an appearance, as they like to sulk near the ground or in heavy brush. Blue-winged warblers tend to be more curious so I waited out his appearance. After a few minutes, he did indeed appear and gave me some decent photo opps on snowy branches. My guess is that there aren’t too many photos of blue-winged warblers in the snow (even if my photos show minimal snow cover.) Most of the snow in the brushy areas was gone by the time I was done with the blue-winged warbler, so I headed back.
Along the way, I saw a hermit thrush and got some shots of it in the snow, as there were some snowy spots left in the woods. Photos of hermit thrushes in the snow are not as unusual as they tend to migrate out of New England later than a lot of our transient bird species.
Later in the day, another snow squall blanketed the ground and the hummingbirds kept up their busy schedule of visiting the feeders. Never thought I’d see hummingbirds on a snowy day in New England.
Getting shots of late migrants in the snow is a rare opportunity indeed. I’d be OK if the opportunity didn’t come again for a long time.
Birds of New England.com 