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!

Birding by Ear While Window Washing

The sunshine was really bright this morning.  So bright that it definitely showed up the dirt on our windows.   I decided I shouldn’t put off washing them any longer, unlike last Thursday, when I skipped out for a walk instead.  

I started to work on the outside of the kitchen window first.  A Baltimore Oriole was scolding me with his harsh rattle because he wanted to come to the grape jelly feeder, and I was too close. 

Baltimore Oriole

Then I washed the windows at the back of the house.   The tree swallows at the nesting box on the garden fence were making their funny gurgling squeeks.

Tree Swallows

From there I could hear a Field Sparrow up in the old pasture, too.  For small birds they sure are loud! And I could hear a Cardinal singing “Wick, wick, wick.... Cheer! Cheer!”

Then I went around to the front of the house.   Birds were literally making a racket out there.  From the beaver swamp across the road, Canada Geese were honking and Red-winged Blackbirds were singing “O-ka-lee".   I could hear Wood Ducks and a Great-blue Heron.    

Canada Goose

Pair of Wood Ducks

 That’s when I realized, even though I was stuck at the house, washing windows... I could listen for birds at the same time.  So I really started paying attention to everything I could hear. 

A chickadee sang, then a White-breasted Nuthatch was “yank, yank”-ing over in the woods.  There was the loud squawking of a Woodpecker.... it could be a Pileated or a  Northern Flicker.  They sound very much alike, but this was so loud, I’d guess it was a Pileated. 

I also could hear and see a noisy Red-bellied Woodpecker in a tree right down front.  He likes to come to our suet log.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

There was a Robin singing “Cheer up, cherrily, cheer up!”  A Goldfinch flew by singing on its way...  “Per-chic-o-ree”.  They are such cheerful birds especially now that they are in their bright yellow summer attire.  

I heard a House Wren's bubbly song and thought of my Mom, who always was glad when a wren would choose to use the nest box in her “drying yard”.  How nice it is to hang out laundry while listening to the sweet song of a Wren! 

Then I heard another tune.  Was that a Yellow Warbler?  Yes!  First of the year.  I HAD to see it, so I stopped my window washing and grabbed my binoculars and camera - time for a little break. 

Yellow Warbler

Meanwhile, another voice I hadn’t heard yet this spring sang out in nearby tree... a Warbling Vireo.  A minute or two later, I heard another first-of-the-spring song - a Common Yellowthroat.  If I hadn’t been on the front deck washing windows, I might have missed the arrival of these three birds.  I felt rewarded for my efforts! 

I only took a quick break and then finished my work for the day.  After I had written a list of the birds I had heard and seen, I had a total of 18 species.  I’m sure I could have seen more if I’d actually gone out for a walk... but that’s not bad for window-washing birding-by-ear!  Plus, we now have nice clean windows...

 to look out at this beautiful view!