Birds and blooms at Sandy Creek Park – more of the “good ones”

Posted on July 13, 2016 by Maria dB

Birds are a favorite photographic subject of mine, even though catching them in late spring and summer is challenging when the lush foliage offers them many places to hide. Their songs and calls and warbles tell me that they are there, but often I need to wait quite a while until I finally catch a flutter of movement out of the corner of my eye to locate them.

One early morning, when the moon was still in the sky, I was fortunate enough to see a lot of fluttering in trees near the park’s parking lot – and I discovered an immature white-eyed vireo (Vireo griseus) with a parent who looked as if she or he was really practicing forbearance.

Nearby, a Carolina wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) was singing loudly; these little avians have an outsized voice so that you can hardly miss them even when they are hidden behind leaves.

A handsome male goldfinch (Spinus tristis) was in a field, while a female was visiting the coneflowers (Echinacea), of which there were various species in the cultivated butterfly garden.

Other birds were busy finding insect meals, like the male, female and immature Eastern bluebirds (Sialia sialis).

The common grackle (Quiscalus quiscula) scored a meal, while the pine warbler (Setophaga pinus) and blue-gray gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea) were busy in the trees searching for caterpillars and insects.

Other birds (and mammals, I think) had been getting crayfish from the ponds but I guess there were so many that they only ate the tastiest parts.

The American robins (Turdus migratorius) were looking for earthworms on the ground, and the song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) alternated between the ground and shrubs in their search for food.

The male red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) were calling and flying from shrub to shrub, showing off their handsome black plumage with a red highlight.

Over at a nearby pond, the Northern rough-winged swallows (Stelgidopteryx serripennis) were swooping over the water and then sharing space on a snag; meanwhile, a mother wood duck (Aix sponsa) led her brood along the shoreline.

In a tree beside another pond, the immature great blue herons (Ardea herodias) were still at their nest at the start of June; later in the month, they were no longer hanging out there.

Botanists can have a great time at Sandy Creek, too. The milkweed plants in the butterfly garden attract both butterflies and bees.

Carolina horsenettles (Solanum carolinense) are common but pretty little plants, while the orange jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) enjoys a good reputation as having stem juice that relieves the pain caused by poison ivy for many people.

The fairywand (Chamaelirium luteum) grows profusely on the edges of Sandy Creek ponds and the swamp rose (Rosa palustris) sprouts near them as well.

Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica), an invasive plant, attracts pollinators but so does the more vibrant and native coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens L.).

In the fields, you can see lovely brown-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia) and coreopsis.

The cultivated garden in the park gets plenty of color from the Stoke’s asters (Stokesia laevis) and red bee balm (Monarda didyma), which is a real magnet for hummingbirds. I recently bought a couple for my home garden and was rewarded with seeing the hummers visit them within 2 days.

What makes my walks so interesting is discovering new species. A native grass (Bromus) was lovely; helpful facebook group members gave me suggestions for possible species but we couldn’t narrow it down. The group also helped me identify a plant that I hadn’t seen before, a Germander (Teucrium canadense).

I managed to find an ID myself for a common flower that seems to grow all over the place – the Asiatic dayflower (Commelina communis). It is considered an invasive plant and is on the watch list for North Carolina, but I have to say that I find it quite attractive. Each flower blooms for only one day and to me they look like little faces and make me smile. And so I continue learning as each new walk invariably ends up teaching me something new. Enjoy your day!

Water-logged and soggy birds

Posted on December 29, 2015 by Maria dB

My original intent was to write only one more blog this year, but our current weather has induced me to write two (the other will follow on the last day of 2015). During the past week, our region has had more than our “fair share” of rain. Fortunately, the house is not downstream or downhill of flowing water so that flooding is not a concern (and having helped my parents when their home was flooded with about 5 feet of water, I know that is a real pain to say the least). But the yard is so water-logged that small pools of water are scattered in many places and the ground cover squishes when we walk on it. Combined with very high temperatures for this time of year, it seems that El Niño is really making itself known – and the birds like this Carolina wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) must be getting tired of being water-logged as well!

Sayings such as “like water off a duck’s back” imply that birds don’t really get bothered by water pouring from the heavens, but that is probably only partly true. During recent downpours, I saw – through the back porch screen – a Carolina wren and Northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) hanging out on a downspout under the house eaves, while a brown-headed nuthatch (Sitta pusilla) clung to the brick wall under the roof overhang to get out of the rain.

brown-headed nuthatch I77A0090© Maria de Bruyn Northern cardinal I77A0101© Maria de Bruyn res

Birds that regularly dive underwater do have denser feathers, which helps prevent water from penetrating through to their skin, as is the case for this Canada goose (Branta canadensis).

But birds’ feathers are not inherently waterproof – when we see water droplets beading on their backs and tails, as in the case of this brown thrasher (Toxostoma rufum) and blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata), it’s because the birds have made them water-resistant to some extent.

This happens in two ways. On the one hand, birds such as pigeons, herons, hawks and owls have special feathers called “powder downs” or “pulviplumes”, which are covered in a dusty powder containing keratin that disintegrates and becomes a waterproof coating. They spread the powder to other feathers while preening.

Great blue heron (Ardea herodias)

Other birds have a uropygial (preen) gland located at the base of their tails. It produces a substance containing oil and wax that the birds spread on their feathers when they groom. Often, they will rub their head against the preen gland and then spread the oil by rubbing their head against other feathers, a behavior that this female red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) seemed to be doing when she was grooming. The wax then helps make the feathers more flexible and water-resistant, which explains the water beads we see on their feathers when it rains.

Dark-eyed junco (Junco hyemalis)

Eastern towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus)

Pine warbler (Setophaga pinus)

It may be that some birds are less successful in spreading the powder and wax to their head feathers, or they rub all the oil or powder off their heads onto other feathers. This may account for the “bad hair day” look some of them get when it rains for hours on end. These spiky “Mohawks” often appear in Northern cardinals and Eastern bluebirds (Sialia sialis).

Other birds seem to especially get soggy feathers on the crowns of their heads just above their eyes. This may be why we see so many of them shaking their heads vigorously to get rid of the dampness on their pates.

Pine warbler White-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis)

And some birds just get an overall scruffy look when it rains hard, like this red-bellied woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus).

The water-logged look does seem to give some birds an angry or disgruntled appearance; I can certainly sympathize since endless days of rain – even in warmer temperatures – is one of my least favorite types of weather. It seems that overcast days and showers are continuing in our local forecast for some time to come. So the poor birds have to put up with the wet weather a while longer. We’ll all appreciate the sunlight when it comes back in force – hopefully soon!

A life and death drama on a nature walk

Posted on March 8, 2015 by Maria dB

Frost was sparkling on the grass, dried shrubs and grasses as our small group set out on a birding walk in the local nature preserve. Water in the creeks and bog was frozen in pretty patterns and the air felt crisp (and cold).

At first, not many birds seemed to be around but soon we spotted Eastern towhees (Pipilo erythrophthalmus) and numerous sparrow species in the meadows — none really close by but still visible to those with binoculars and a zoom lens. Blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata) were flying from very high treetop to treetop.

After seeing my familiar red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus), to whom I’ve given the name “young’un” as I’ve been following her/his progress since s/he was a brown and white juvenile, we saw some Eastern phoebes (Sayornis phoebe) and more sparrows.

In the woods, we saw a ruby-crowned kinglet and a yellow-bellied sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius). It was when we emerged from the woods into another meadow that we had our most spectacular encounter, however. I spotted a young red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) perched in a tree at the meadow’s edge gazing ahead.

Suddenly, the bird flew across the field (perhaps 150 feet in a fellow birder’s estimate) to land on a branch in a tree right next to our walking path.

After alighting, the bird began staring downwards very intently. We walked a little closer and stopped. The bird didn’t even look in our direction but continued to stare down with great concentration, occasionally looking out ahead.

We came closer and stopped again. Finally, we got right up even with the bird and looked directly at it from about 6-10 feet. It acknowledged our presence but continued to stare down and we couldn’t figure out what it was tracking. Other birds fluttered in nearby branches but it paid them no mind.

When our group began to walk on after taking many photos and admiring the bird’s sharp eyes and even sharper looking talons, I looked intently under the tree, too. And then I spotted the prey — a hispid cotton rat (Sigmodon hispidus), holding still as a statue on a log.

The hawk looked at us, yet kept the rodent in sight. On looking at the photos afterwards, I’m glad that the hawk didn’t decide to fly at us with those talons extended in order to drive us away. After looking at the rat, our group walked on as it looked to be quite a standoff; the rat had several smaller branches between it and the hawk which might make capture difficult.

As my fellow birders tried to spot winter wrens and purple finches, which they had heard, I couldn’t get the hawk and rat out of my mind. So as they went on, I returned to the dramatic scene. As I arrived, the hawk had risen on the branch and was crouching as it looked at me and the rat. It turned on the branch and I just knew that it was getting ready for an attack. Part of me wanted the rat to make it out of there and part of me felt the hawk deserved a meal after such stellar spotting from a distance and patience in watching the prey.

The hawk looked at me, crouched again and then dropped down with great fluttering of wings.

Those large wings were somewhat caught up in the small branches but it got the rat. It flapped about, perhaps securing a tighter hold on its meal-to-be and then flew up to a nearby branch (behind lots of vegetation so that I couldn’t get a good photo). It sat for a minute or so and then flew back over the meadow into the woods, leaving me with a few blurry photos as testaments of the final act in the drama.

My sympathy was certainly with the rat, whose last 30 minutes of life must have been filled with terror as it froze in the hope of escaping the predator. I had to admire the hawk’s concentration and focus, though — that bird was not going to let anything deter it from getting a meal, not even four humans standing a few feet away aiming cameras and phones at it as it perched on that branch. The hawk certainly gave us an unforgettable experience as we may never come so closely eye-to-eye with a wild raptor again.

If you liked this post and/or the photos, could you please “like” it so that I know people enjoyed this posting? Thanks in advance!

A bedraggled sort of day

Posted on January 13, 2015 by Maria dB

First, let this lovely Carolina wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) and me wish you – fellow nature lovers and blog readers – all the best as we look to the future in this year of 2015! May your minor disappointments (life is not always rosy) be compensated by love, laughter, health and happiness in abundance!

Yesterday may have been a minor disappointment for the wildlife here. On Sunday, it was very cold for North Carolina standards. Together with two other Audubon Society volunteers, I was standing at a local lake in 15°F (-9.4°C) weather waiting to see if any bald eagles flew by for inclusion in the quarterly Eagle Count. We didn’t see any, although this lovely hermit thrush (Catharus guttatus) was nearby eating berries.

Monday was warmer but EXTREMELY wet! Two of my cats awakened me at 5 a.m. and I could hear the rain coming down in a veritable deluge. I wondered if I would be able to see the road to drive for an appointment later that morning (it did let up, thank goodness) and also wondered how the birds and animals were keeping in this unpleasant weather.

When it’s cold, the birds fluff up their feathers to trap air pockets by their bodies; this helps they retain body heat and stay warmer. Heavier wet feathers don’t seem to fluff well, though. On the other hand, birds’ feathers are covered with an oily or waxy substance that helps water run off, thereby keeping their bodies drier. Those feathers don’t necessarily look pretty though. Many of the birds were indeed looking bedraggled, some to a greater degree and others just a bit like these Northern cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis).

It didn’t seem that many birds were hiding in vegetation to get out from under the downpour. Nope – they all appeared to be very hungry and anxious for a meal like this red-bellied woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus), who was scolding me for being so close to the feeders!

A few white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) were also wet and hungry, including two visitors to my yard that I had not seen before. They were two bucks, one of whom must have been hit by a car. One of his antlers was broken off and he was hopping along holding up his left hind leg, which had obviously been injured.

A young doe, who visits regularly, stopped for some bird seed, as did the other buck whose antlers had been shed. Their thick hair was coated in raindrops.

The Eastern gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) can curl their tails up over their backs as a kind of natural umbrella, both on the ground and in trees. This individual, who may have been injured by a predator and escaped, enjoyed some apple – first on the ground and then later in the tree away from the blue jays that were hopping around it.

Some of the birds definitely looked more presentable than other. The three visiting mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos) were sleek and beautiful, one using its long tail tobalance as it plucked meal worms from a feeder designed for somewhat smaller birds.

The dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis), Eastern towhees (Pipilo erythrophthalmus) and chipping sparrows (Spizella passerina) looked in fine shape, too.

The bluebirds (Sialia sialis) varied in appearance; a couple looked groomed but wet, while a couple others looked a bit disheveled.

The pine warbler (Setophaga pinus) – usually among the more handsome garden birds – unfortunately looked a sorry sight. Fortunately, when the rain ends, he’ll be able to shake that water off and get back to looking like one of the handsome fellas of the avian neighborhood!

The ruby-crowned kinglet’s (Regulus calendula) oily feather covering seemed to do well in keeping the rainwater at bay, while the brown-headed nuthatch (Sitta pusilla) looked a bit more water-logged.

The tufted titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) and Carolina chickadee (Poecile carolinensis) join me in looking forward to dryer and sunnier weather in a few days’ time!

Birds braving winter

Posted on February 19, 2014 by Maria dB

It’s not unheard to have snow in central North Carolina, but it also isn’t what you’d call a commonplace occurrence. It is a BIG deal when it snows here; if a couple inches of snow or some icing on the roads is expected, schools and businesses close. This is a cause of hilarity among people who originated from points north, but when they realize that many drivers here are not accustomed to winter-weather driving and that the Department of Transportation and towns are not equipped so well to deal with the conditions, they also will often stay inside and not go out on the road.

When we had two days of snow and ice storms last week, it wasn’t only people who were unhappy. The birds also didn’t seem enamored with the climate change, like the American goldfinch up above (Spinus tristis). They had had a taste of snow at the end of January, but it wasn’t such a strong storm then. The Carolina chickadee (Poecile carolinensis) was scurrying about looking for food under the snow and the American robin (Turdus migratorius) was enjoying some berries. The February storm was a bit different though

On the first day, when it didn’t snow heavily all at once (it was more a matter of lightly falling snow much of the day), I had a multitude of birds at my feeders – including some that I don’t usually see there. This mourning dove (Zenaida macroura), for example, didn’t scrounge around on the ground in the snow but landed on a feeder to see if there were seeds there.

Other birds flew back and forth between the trees and feeders, like the yellow-rumped warblers (Setophaga coronata), who weren’t always happy to have others sharing the feeders), and the tufted titmice (Baeolophus bicolor).

When out walking in a furious flurry of fat snowflakes, I ran into a neighbor who does research on bird survival. I mentioned that on the first day of the storm, I had a multitude of birds at my feeders (probably a 100 or so) but now, with this heavier snowfall, not a bird was to be seen. He noted that, given bird’s short lifespans in some cases and the fact that many would be younger, they were likely hunkering down as this was their first encounter with these weather conditions.

Another neighbor down the road and I kept our feeders filled so that our avian friends could rev up their energy stores, like the brown thrasher (Toxostoma rufum) and the Northern cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis). The birds did their part by fluffing up their feathers to help keep body warmth as much as possible. And they posed for some nice photos – albeit not with enthusiastic expressions, like this warbler and Northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos).

Today, they should all be happy though – we’re expecting temperatures well in the upper 60s F! That should make for happy white-throated sparrows (Zonotrichia albicollis), Eastern towhees (Pipilo erythrophthalmus) and all the other birds visiting my yard!

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My beautiful world

Observations about the wondrous world of wildlife

Tag Archives: Eastern towhee

Birds and blooms at Sandy Creek Park – more of the “good ones”

Water-logged and soggy birds

A life and death drama on a nature walk

A bedraggled sort of day

Birds braving winter

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