Dr. Ruby and Bird #100

Dr. Ruby hasn't been on the blog for awhile.  Yesterday, when I told her that no one has mentioned missing her, she looked rather sad.  Oh wait... she's a basset hound, 'sad' is her standard 'look'.  But you have missed her, right?  Right!  So today, Ruby is back!

 Did you know that Ruby is a birder?  She likes to sit by our window and watch the birds at the feeders.  It's also very nice that the windowsill is the same height as her chin.  Very relaxing!

She also likes to watch birds in our front yard.

There are tree swallows nesting in the box you see in the distance above her head.

Next on our walk, she sees an American Robin.

That was in the front yard, too.  We need to get out of the yard and into the woods.  We're looking/listening for bird species #100 for our property list.  If you'd like to know what a property list is, or see our list for 2013, you can read about it by clicking on this blog post.

We'll keep an eye out for fawns, too, because it's that time of year.  I've seen one so far this spring, but not today. 

Ruby wants to point out how GREEN it is!  YAY!

Now, we're in the woods.  Doesn't Ruby have almost as good camouflage as a fawn?  (and on a funny side note... spell-checker wanted me to change 'camouflage' to 'guacamole'!)

Okay, Ruby and I are listening carefully for one particular bird song.

There it is!  "Pee a wee.  Pee - yoouuu!"  That's an Eastern Wood Pewee's distinctive song.  I thought I heard one faintly a few days ago, but I wanted to make sure before putting it on the list.  Dr. Ruby was excited to be with me when we reached bird #100 for the year 2014.  This was a bird I expected to have on the list and knew where to listen for them (in the woods like their name implies). 

Same way with the Common Yellowthroat.  They are common... but hard to get a photo of because they are usually in the underbrush.  I knew they would be on the list.

male Common Yellowthroat  May 19th

There are always many birds on the list that are expected, but each year we have some unexpected ones as well.  We certainly were not thinking we would see Sandhill Cranes fly over our house, but they did!

Sandhill Cranes  May 1st

Last year we didn't have Indigo Bunting on the list, so I was really hoping to see one this year. I didn't go birding on May 19th since I was doing housework that morning, but then I saw this one right outside our window:

That's one of the neat things about birding... you never know what you are going to see.  And sometimes I think the birds enjoy seeing us, too!  How about this Blue-grey Gnatcatcher checking me out with his spectacles on?

The birds' beautiful colors and songs can really cheer a person (or a basset hound) up!  Here's another common warbler in our area, singing his heart out:

Chestnut-sided Warbler  May17

 Ruby and I hope you have enjoyed our birds!  We will keep watching birds because we love them, not just to put them on a list - so "stayed tuned"!

A Bird in the Hand: Part 2

I suppose the people who work at One Hour Photo Centers see all kinds of photos.  But when I stopped in to pick up the photos I had ordered (to give to one of my birdbanding classmates who doesn't have email), after I gave the lady behind the counter my name, she said "Do you mind if I ask you a question?"  She wanted to know, "Why do you have photos of birds in peoples' hands and are they dead?"

One of the photos that inspired the question from the Photo shop lady... a Blue Jay on its back!

"No", I told her, "they aren't dead.  They just aren't used to being on their backs."  I went on to explain to her a little bit about birdbanding.  If you missed my post about class #1 and want to read about some of the basics of birdbanding, you can click here.

Class #2 and 3 were every bit as much fun as the first class.  There's something about holding a wild bird in your hand that is thrilling.  We had lots of different birds, too, because Dr. Skinner set up the nets in different habitat.  Instead of in the backyard near his bird feeders like at the first class, this time the nets were in a brushy/woodsy spot.  

We'll start with a bird in the warbler family.  Here's a female American Redstart:

She was so petite that her leg was too small for the smallest regular band!  (She would have needed something like they use on hummingbirds).  Here she is getting her leg measured:

In this post, I want to show you somethings about birds that you might not see from a distance.  In the next photo, take a look at her whiskers.

Both she and her mate have whiskers.  They aren't hairs (birds don't have hair!), they are a special type of feather without the normal fluffy parts that branch out from the shaft of a regular feather.  Biologists aren't really sure why some birds have them.  Many that do are insect catchers so it could have something to do with that.  Here's a link to an interesting article about bird whiskers.

Another curious thing about Redstarts is why the name, since the males are black and orange.... not red! According to some info I read, there are birds in the redstart family that do have red tails, and "start" is an old word for "tail".  One mystery solved!  Now if we could figure out what the whiskers are for. ;-)

More warblers.... this time, Yellow Warblers.  And we had a pair.

The female is on the left and the male with his more prominent rusty streaks on his breast is on the right.  I learned their song as, "sweet, sweet, sweet, I'm so sweet" and that's not hard to remember because they are!  In this photo, they are being held by two different people in what is called the "photographer's hold".  Next you will see me holding Mrs. Yellow Warbler in the "bander's grip".

And finally, here she is, up-side down.  All she has to do is figure out she's free and fly away! (Don't worry, she did!)

We had an American Robin, who wasn't even too sure of sitting right-side-up in a person's hand:

But just a gentle touch sent her on her way.

One of the other birds we banded was one of my favorite singers.  A Veery, which is in the thrush family with a bunch of other great singers such as Wood and Hermit Thrushes, and Bluebirds.  If you'd like to listen to a Veery's song you can click here. 

This Veery was very co-operative so she got the whole banding check-up. 

Wings and tail length measured...

And put back in the bag and weighted.

We even got to see her ear!  Dr. Skinner was checking her out for ticks and mites, and so he blew on the side of her head to see her ear.  Frankly, this is something you won't see very often... I googled 'birds ear' and let's just say... not a lot of 'hit's' on that!

 I read that birds don't have protruding ears like mammals do and they are covered with fine feathers because it keeps them from having too much "wind noise" while they fly.  Makes sense to me!

We also had a House Wren:

He showed off the inner-eye covering birds have called a nictitating membrane.  You can see it in the next photo, while he was getting his band put on. This is a pretty amazing feature birds have which can shield their eyes during flight (or in this case, banding!). They can still see thru the protective layer, though with a somewhat milky view.

We also had a pair of Eastern Towhees.  Here's the female:

And now the male:

The male and female towhee look quite different but they do have similar color-patterns, though the male is black and the female is brown.  

We caught three Ruby-throated Hummingbirds in the nets.  They might have been enjoying the lilacs blooming nearby.  They were released, unbanded, as that is a specialty.  

The male in the next photo is showing off his ruby throat or 'gorget'.

The next one's gorget looks black because the light is not hitting it at the right angle for it to show as red.

Someone else has red that you might not have noticed unless you've looked carefully.

That's right, the Grey Catbird has very rusty-colored undertail coverts.  They are good singers, too... they mimic other birds' songs.  Although their namesake call is very close to a cat's "Meow"!

I learned a lot in our bird banding class and I enjoyed sharing it with you.  I'd highly recommend Dr. Skinner's class if you ever have a chance to take it.  It takes a lot of study and patience to become a certified bird bander, so the class is just an introduction.  

Birds often bite the hand that bands them, and still, gentleness is required.  Above all, the bander does not want to hurt the birds.

Many thanks to Dr. Jerry Skinner for our class, and all the classes he has taught over the years!

 

What's Blooming Here -- Mid-May

I'm a little later than I planned in posting flowers for Mid-May.  May is the month in which,  when I'm walking in the woods, I have trouble deciding whether to look up or down.  Up for birds, or down for flowers?  So of course, I'm alternating between both.  Only occasionally do I trip!  Seriously, there is so much to see in May and I love it all.  My housework is probably (well, definitely!) getting behind, but who cares about dust when there are warblers and wildflowers to see?

Here's what I've found in bloom this past week:

Wild Columbine

There is a place along our road where it blooms in abundance among the rocks.  I like to walk to see it, but you can even see it from your car.

I mentioned the Marsh Marigolds in our old pasture in my early-May flower post.  I said I knew of a place where you could see them from the road, so here's a picture of those.  It was just beginning to bloom in early May, now it is almost done but still pretty.

I mentioned Yellow Violets in my last flower post, too, and more violets are blooming now...  many kinds and colors.  As I was walking along the road,  I saw the best bunch of Common Blue Violets that I've seen this spring.  

Yes, they are right by the road!

You may also see the next flower as you ride along in your car... there is a lot of it blooming now in damp places.  It's called Toothwort.

It's quite pretty close up.  

For the next plant, we're going to leave the roadside and go into the woods.  And we're going to have to look carefully to find the flowers.  Wild Ginger is blooming, but probably not many people will even notice.  I think they are really neat though.

Wild Ginger flowers are right next to the ground, underneath their pretty leaves and they are less than an inch in diameter.  My wildflower field guide calls them a 'curious' flower and they certainly are.  Even though they are not the source of our modern day ginger root used in cooking, their root has a similar taste and was used as a substitute for it in the late 1700's and early 1800's.  American Indians used it as a food flavoring and a medicine.  It has been found to have two antibiotic substances in its' roots, so they knew what they were doing! (that info comes from the wonderful book I got for Mother's Day called 'The Secrets of Wildflowers' by Jack Sanders -- thanks, Sara!)

 

This very healthy-looking patch of Wild Ginger I found was growing on top of a large boulder - there was none anywhere else nearby.  I have no explanation for that but thought it was interesting.  

Wild Ginger on top of a boulder.

The next flowers are White Trillium.  (for you, Laura, as you said you wanted more trillium!)

These are growing in our 'little woods'.  They were plants we rescued from a road-side, where a bulldozer had uprooted them.  They have been happily blooming and multiplying in our woods now for probably 25 years or more. 

Once they are past their peak of bloom, they often turn pinkish.  So if you see pink trilliums, they are just white ones that are fading.

Also in our little woods are some Virginia Bluebells.  I planted those, too, but they are native to Pennsylvania.  They are also called Virginia Cowslip.

Nearby is Celandine, in the Poppy family.

(Has anyone else noticed that there seem to be a lot of Bumblebees this year?)

A wildflower blooming now that grows pretty commonly in our woodland is Foamflower.  These have escaped the woods and are growing in a shady spot at the edge of our lawn.  I've been mowing around them... they are too pretty to mow off!

Now, we're going to go back into the 'big woods'.  Another flower that you have to look carefully to notice (though not as carefully as for the Wild Ginger!) are Jack-in-the-Pulpits.

That one stands out because of his beautiful brown stripes and the rock he is growing by, but a lot of them are green and not so noticeable, at least until they have their bright red berries in August or September.

Still fun to see though!

Speaking of fun to see, how about this little fellow?

He is right next to our last flower for today.... a wild strawberry.  Lots of them are blooming now.

The chippy will probably be right there to feast on the berries, too, a bit later in the season!