Better than Saturday morning Cartoons

The beaver swamp was filled with action this morning.  First thing that caught my attention were the Wood Ducks.  We've had a few days that have been above freezing recently, so there is some water again.

We saw the first pair of Wood Ducks on March 27th.  This is a photo from this morning, of a drake on the left and a hen on the right. 

This morning, I counted nine wood ducks all together!  First though, the group I was watching across from our house had 5 drakes and one hen!  Not a good ratio.  As you could imagine, there was some action between the drakes, as you can see in the next two short videos.  

There are Red-winged Blackbirds singing, and Canada geese honking in the background of this one:

 

In the next one, Red-winged Blackbirds are calling "Oka-lee" and there is a Song Sparrow singing, and one of the Wood Ducks chases another:

Now that you've heard some of the other birds of the swamp, here's one with the Wood Ducks calling:

The Wood Ducks all swam toward the other end of the swamp, and a short time later, back they came.  This time, there were 3 pairs of drakes and hens, and only one lone male.  Phew!  That's a better ratio!

My attention was so focused on the Wood Ducks, that until I saw it in one of my videos, I did not notice another little duck.  I went back out and watched for it again, and luckily, this Green-winged Teal was still there.

That's not a great photo, but it's the best one I got, and is good enough to identify it by its' white band on the side and rump patch, plus its' dark rufous head with the green eye band.  It doesn't show up as green in the photo, but in my new binoculars, it was quite clear and pretty! (Thanks, F)

Just as I didn't notice the teal right away while I was watching the flamboyant Wood Ducks, these other ducks were kind of hard to see:

There are two ducks in that photo.  The one on the right is pretty easy to see, but the one to the left has its' head under the water.  Here's a slightly better shot:

And, now you can see him!

How about those orange legs and greenish-yellow bill!  Looks like a pair of American Black Ducks, which would be a first-time sighting on our swamp.

Another thing I got rather excited about this morning was this:

 A Great-Blue Heron sat atop the 'nest tree' where we had a pair of herons raise a family during the summer of 2012.  If you didn't read about it before, here's a link to my blog post about that.  I didn't go too close, because I didn't want to scare it away.  It stayed there for maybe 10 minutes, meanwhile a goose strolled along below the heron tree.  I hope the herons don't mind noisy neighbors.  I would love to have another "heron summer".

If you look closely, you can see the heron nest in the tree right behind the goose, and the heron sitting on top.  In case you have trouble picking them out, here they are:

I'm sure you can see the silly goose!

Birds and Ice

Birds and ice was not the subject I was hoping to be writing about today.  ('Global Warming', where are you?  Oh, I forgot, it's 'Climate Change' now.)  

We did have some water in the swamp, but this morning, it's all ice again.  No birds in sight out there today:

Sorry if that is a depressing photo for March 26th.  I'm trying to have a 'thankful' attitude... but it's getting a bit hard.  

Spring -- where are you?  

Even the bluebirds have given up guarding the bird houses.  I still hear them singing sometimes though, so I guess I should, too.

There have been some more birds returning northward.

Or southward?

Or, not really sure where they should go?  These 3 photos were all taken of the same flock of Canada Geese, while I was standing in the same spot!

Our resident geese are back, too.

At least, they were.
Until this happened...

And this...

This spot of water got smaller and smaller yesterday afternoon.  This was the only goose I could see.  (There has been one goose who is 'single' and the other geese have made it an 'outcast' - honking at it and chasing it around).

This morning that goose is not anywhere in sight either, and the puddle is iced over.  

Sorry for the electric line in the photo... I didn't feel like going outside (brrr!) so this was taken from our window.

One heron was back and using a nearby spot on Monday.

I watched it for awhile (once again, from our window, thankful I was inside where it was warm!) and I'm happy to tell you it did catch something and eat it.

Then it flew off when it heard my hubby bringing the wood cart in our driveway (I'm sure he's getting tired of that chore!).

Okay, I'm thankful we have wood to keep our nice cozy house warm, and I'm thankful I don't have to stand in icy cold water to catch my food.  I'm thankful to be able to watch birds out my windows, even if the weather is not what I would wish for right now!  But sometimes, I think I'd be thankful for wings to be able to fly away, too.  I know which direction I'd head -- south!

After all that kind of depressing stuff, I'll leave you with a short video that makes me smile.  I videoed this a few days ago, when the geese were all worried over the 'single' goose I mentioned earlier.  Be sure to watch for the unfortunate goose near the end of the video, who falls thru the ice unexpectedly!  I'm also thankful that wasn't me!

Spring Sparrows and other Spring Things!

Happy First Day of Spring!

There are a few more signs of spring happening here, and it sure is a welcomed event!  In the last few days, I've seen these signs...

More birds, and this one's for you, Sara!

The first Fox Sparrow I saw this year was on March 18th.  We see them on their northward journey to their nesting grounds in Canada.  

This one was enjoying the seeds underneath our bird table.  I don't think they sing until they arrive at their final destination, at least I've never heard one that I know of.  "What does the Fox Sparrow say?" you ask?  Click here if you want to hear their song.  It's really quite lovely.

They get their name from their color - especially their tail, is a pretty 'foxy' red.

But they can be identified almost as much from their behavior as their looks.  They 'spring' around a lot, trying to kick up food, as you can see from this video:

The next day, March 19th, I saw my first Song Sparrow of the year.

This morning, Ruby and I heard one singing when we were out for a walk.  You can listen to their song here.  Does it sound like "Madge, Madge, Madge, put on your tea-kettle, -ettle, -ettle"?  That's one phrase people have attributed to it.

Here is a video with a Fox Sparrow on the left and a Song Sparrow on the right:

Besides these two kinds of sparrows, other signs of spring I've seen are: a chipmunk out and about up in the woods:

My snowdrops are starting to bloom...

and the ice on the swamp is giving way to a little water... even though it measured 17" thick in one of the spots my hubby dug to check it a couple of weeks ago.

A muskrat found something green to eat and enjoyed it on his own small 'iceberg' in the middle of that stream!

And of course, the Robins and Red-winged Blackbirds that I've mentioned in other posts.  So, even though as I look out the window on what the calendar says is the first day of Spring and I see snowflakes in the air-- the birds and animals are telling me that Spring IS here!

Prime Real Estate

Just the other day, I mentioned to the Mr. that some of our bluebird boxes were getting rather shabby.  Possibly needed new roofs.  Instead of renovations, he made some completely new ones and put them up.  Wasn't that nice?  The birds thought so, too.

The past three mornings, Papa and Mama Bluebird have been house hunting.  

 "How about letting me have a look inside?"

"Okay, Mama, take a look."

"It seems pretty nice, but I'm just not sure", says Mama.

"And what if those pesky House Sparrows come back?"

 

"You know, they were actually already starting to claim it as theirs, until that lady cleaned their stuff out -- 

said they didn't have a lease for it!"

"Yes, well, they seemed to have moved on, dear... at least for the moment." replies Papa.

"All their stuff is gone."

"Perhaps it's just a little too close to the people-house?" says Mama, thinking out loud.

"Okay, then what about this one?  It's farther away, but the house is basically the same," Papa replies.

"Honey, we don't have to decide today.  Let's go have some breakfast!" says Papa, and off he flies.

Time will tell if the bluebirds make their home in one of these boxes, or somewhere else entirely.  I'm not sure where they are spending their afternoons... they might be looking at more real estate.  But I'm really hoping they will decide to nest where I can watch them right outside our window!

Pale March

"Pale March sunlight spreads across a world bleached free of color".

Thus begins the narrative on the page for Red-winged Blackbirds in the 'Book of North American Birds' from Reader's Digest.  I bought this book awhile back at a library used book sale, and while it is not as factual as a lot of other bird guides (rather more poet, as you can tell from the above quote), it is worth the price I paid, for the charming prose. 

Red-winged blackbirds have always been a wonderful sign of spring to me, even more so than the beloved-by-many Robins!  I have fond memories of them returning to our farm in the spring. How wonderful it was to have them back-- and singing like crazy, near the creek as I walked to the school bus stop.  I still love them and as luck would have it, I now live near a beaver swamp that draws them in by the dozens.  

I mentioned our vanguard red-wing in a recent post.  He arrived on March 4th.

During the winter of 2012-13, we had one male red-winged blackbird that stayed all winter.  Possibly he enjoyed the cracked corn at our feeding table so much he didn't want to leave, or there was something wrong with his internal migration sense.  Everyone else went to Panama or Costa Rica or somewhere nice and warm for the winter but he did not.  Other years, our red-wing blackbirds have arrived back here as early as February 28 or as late as March 9th.

Now, they are back once again, and they are hungry!!!

Their friends, the Common Grackles have also arrived back in mass.  

To add to the quote about March being bleached of color, I have to say it's also dirty!  Dirty snow and dirty cars.  So, let's find some color where we can.

The grackles actually have very beautiful blue heads when the sunlight hits them.  And if you look at them closely in their group photo above, you'll see how they are quite iridescent with blues and purples.  

The red-winged blackbirds in the photos above aren't showing much of their name-sake red.  So I decided to try to get a photograph of one showing it for you.  But first, this grackle was being photogenic. 

Then, this happened...

Sometimes you just can't plan these things!  It was a red-winged blackbird coming in for a landing.

"Thanks for the strange and wonderful display of your red epaulets, sir!"

For the most part, the birds arriving back from the migration are eager to eat, and they will share the food table with the birds that have been around all winter, like this blue jay and mourning dove.

Occasionally a scrabble will break out and one of the blackbirds will display its' red wings and fan out it's tail to show the others who is boss!

 Meanwhile, I'm helping the corn farmers and local feed store -- we're going thru lots of cracked corn and mixed bird seed!  They eat like crazy then spend some time sitting in the trees nearby.

There's not much use in searching the swamp for potential nesting spots, as the females have not arrived back yet.  They won't be back for a few more weeks... smart ladies!   You can see what the females look like in the top photo.  They are very different looking than the males.  The first year males are a little different looking themsevles -- they have color at the ends of their feather compared to the older males with their all black feathers.  

Older male on the left, first-year male on the right.

Once the ladies arrive back, then the competition will heat up (along with the weather, I hope!) Other birds are already starting their contests, but that's a story for another day.