Yesterday, I posted a video of a male ruby-throated hummingbird using a bush by the window as a shelter from the rain. Here are a few shots of the little beauty. Here’s the video in case you missed it.
A few more hummingbird shots
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Hummingbird scratching video
Well, if he’s going to sit right outside my window on a rainy day then I’m going to make a YouTube video of him. First hummingbird I’ve seen this year (May 4, 2022, in Bethel, Conn.)
A few birds from a late-April morning walk: field sparrow, eastern towhee, bald eagle
Not as many migrants as I expected, but a good walk nonetheless at Huntington State Park in Redding, Conn. I heard only one warbler (black-and-white), but I have heard and seen dozens of eastern towhees over the last two days. It’s (arguably) the best time of year to be out there. No excuses! (I’m talking to myself too). The bald eagle flyover was a bit of a surprise, hence the lousy photo.
For the Birds: Just a little more patience
It was a classic early spring walk.
Expectations were high to see a lot of migrants, but those expectations did not match the calendar. Mid-April can be a tough time for birdwatchers. We know the migrants are coming any day, and we have waited so long that the anticipation gets the better of our waning patience. It’s like the feeling children get on December 22 and 23. The decorations and tree have been up for weeks already, but it’s still not time to celebrate.
This is not to say it wasn’t a fruitful walk. I saw a handful of migrants including my first warblers of the season. But instead of dozens of species and 100s of individual birds, as we will get in a few weeks, it was more like a few species and about a dozen individuals.
It was a good warm-up to the upcoming peak of spring migration. Let’s put it that way.
Continue readingPalm warblers uncropped
Sometimes I’ll crop photos to delete extraneous background “clutter” or just to highlight the bird more. This time, I decided to run the photos as is (as are?). The palm warbler was a fair distance away, but I kind of like the “clutter” in these photos. (I did burn the edges of the photos in Photoshop to make the bird stand out a bit more.)
For the Birds: ‘FOYs’ abound in spring
I’m not a big keeper of lists. I don’t have a bird life list, U.S. list or state list. I do, however, keep a yard list and work list.
My yard list was very robust at my former house in the woods. Now that I live close to downtown in a small suburban town, my yard list is not very impressive. My work list is growing, however. We recently got new offices and I now look out into a patch of woods instead of a parking lot. My daily sprinkling of seeds and nuts in the crevices of the downed trees at the wood’s edge enhances the view and draws in extra birds.
The other day, a hermit thrush hopped along the ground near where I place the seeds. It wasn’t eating the seeds, of course, but it was slowly walking among the leaves and looking curious as hermit thrushes often do.
Continue readingBelted kingfisher in stealth mode
I couldn’t quite get the entire belted kingfisher in the frame, but I like the shot anyway as it makes it look like the bird is sneaking around the swamp.
For the Birds: Turkeys worth a roadside stop
I’ve missed countless photo opportunities while driving because I did not have my camera with me.
This time I was well-armed.
I was driving to work along my usual route when I passed a small, historic cemetery that I have passed hundreds of times before. On this day, I noticed a flock of turkeys among the grave markers as I sped past. I found the nearest safe place to turn around and headed back to the cemetery.
Here’s where my stories usually end with “but they were gone.”
Continue readingFor the Birds: Robins hunting is a good sign of spring
I think we can officially call it spring now.
The myth that robins are the harbinger of spring has been debunked several times over. I have even mentioned that as being the case in this column several times. But, I’m going to backtrack a bit and say that I still consider the robin to be a harbinger of spring of sorts.
Many robins stay in New England throughout the winter, which is why it is not a true harbinger of spring as you can see them in January or February as well as March or April.
Continue readingDeer eating garlic mustard
Photo by Chris Bosak — A white-tailed deer eats garlic mustard in New England, April 8, 2022.I’ve come across several articles that state white-tailed deer do not eat garlic mustard because of its bitter taste. Well, here’s proof that they do eat the highly invasive plant. Of course, the plants are young and tender and not as bitter this time of year, which may make it more palatable for the deer.
By the way, garlic mustard is edible for humans, too, and actually quite good in salads or by itself as a snack while wondering the woods. Now is a good time to harvest it while the leaves are young and tender. The flowers, when they arrive, are good to eat as well. To make sure you are eating the right plant, smell it first. As the name suggests, it will smell garlicy. It does have trace amounts of cyanide, as I have read, so don’t overdo it with the garlic mustard. (Many of the common vegetables we eat have trace amounts of cyanide, too, so you’d really have to eat a lot to be negatively impacted.) At least this highly invasive plant has some good uses.
Birds of New England.com 