06/09/09
Today evening several people (ornithologists and non) from the Lab of Ornithology, watched Virginia Rail and chicks at Sapsucker Woods. But looks like Mark Chao and family seemed to have had best view. Many of us thought it was adults who were making this sound. Thanks to Mark's observations and readings, now we know they are chicks!
Here is what Mark wrote to Cayugabirds
"My daughter Francesca and I found five VIRGINIA RAILS (two adults and three chicks) at 6:15 PM on Wednesday in Sapsucker Woods, in the same small cattail patch to which Charles referred in his earlier message.
It took us a full circuit to find them, but in the end, we saw the rails just at the southern edge of the cattail patch, maybe five meters away from the path where we stood. These were life birds for Francesca, and they might as well have been life birds for me, the experience was so thrilling and unforgettable. The adults were brilliantly sharp and colorful, and the chicks tiny, black, fuzzy, admirably confident afoot, and of course utterly cute. Their bills were white with black rings. (We saw both adults at once, and all three chicks at once; therefore I am positive that our count represents the minimum number of rails present.)
This patch is between the Lab of Ornithology and its closest parking lot, bordered on the north by the service driveway and on the south by the paved path that leads from the parking lot to a side door (main staff entrance) of the building. Dave McCartt and my wife Miyoko Chu have told me that people today variously saw the rails from the north and west sides of this patch too. If you go searching, listen for a distinctive loud "pee-eep!" vocalization, which the chicks were voicing to communicate location to their parents, or vice versa. (BNA says it's the chicks.) Note also that there is a culvert under the service driveway, through which the rails could possibly pass under cover on their way (back?) to the Fuller Wetlands."
Here is how they sound. Don't worry about the visual part of the clip just close your eyes and listen. Of course there are lot of disturbances and noises from all around, but pee-eeps are very audible.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Trip to Warbler Capital of the world: Point Pelee and Rondeau Parks
CBC trip
Meena
Twelve members of Cayuga Bird Club made a trip to famed spring capital of migratory birds of Point Pelee from May 8 to May 10 2009. Although we tried to book for a motel in Point Pelee in February, all hotels were full. So I ended up booking Howard Johnsons motel in Ridgetown. It was kind of blessings in disguise. This motel was just about 20 minutes from Rondeau Provincial Park, which is also equally good as Point Pelee if the winds are right. Also it is a smaller park and less crowded, at least you don’t rub shoulders with other birders or hit other birders with your scopes. As we were coming from different parts of the local area we decided to meet at Montezuma Winery on Rt 89. We took the throughway 90 to Rainbow Bridge, but we missed it and ended up at Lewiston, but it turned out to be better. I had looked up internet as to what was seen in Rondeau (RPP) and Point Pelee PPs (PPPP) and found Rondeau had better birds. From Lewiston, as all drivers were driving at different speeds, we decided to meet at the Visitors center at Rondeau park as there were better birds than in PPPP.
We reached RPP around 2.00 PM. As we entered the park we found a beautiful RED-HEADED WOODPECKER in a beautiful photographable spot. All of us started trying to get photograph of the bird. But as everyone was getting ready the bird flew away and hid behind the trees. While we were there we met some birders and they told us that a TOWNSEND’S WARBLER has been seen in the nearby area and they pointed it to us the location. By then two cars had rendezvoused, but we were waiting to meet the third car. Everyone wanted to go look for Townsend’s but I was the spoilt sport and insisted that we meet at Visitor Center and collect the third car too before we go birding. We reached the center, but no third car anywhere in sight. So we left message for third car occupants and headed for the shortest Tulip trail. On the trail someone told us about Kentucky Warbler behind the Visitor Center. So we headed there. Most of us could not see the bird, though couple got some quick looks. We took a round around Tulip Trail. Trail was comparatively quiet. We did see a few birds, mostly Magnolia Warbler, Black and White warblers and a few Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. By then we had spent almost more than an hour, and past 3.00 PM and no sign of third car. We got worried and tried contacting hotel to see if they had landed there. Most of our cell phones did not work in Canada. We decided to continue birding and we headed to Harrison Trail. We had just parked and were heading towards the trail, when Sara Jane spotted the third car and they also spotted our car. So we ran towards the car. Found out that they had a bad run over a metal part on the road and had two flat tires one rim badly damaged and they were lucky that one of the local guys fixed the rim by hammering and they made it to Rondeau. After the lost group joined us we walked on Harris Trail. We started seeing a few birds, mostly Black-throated Greens and a Magnolia, as we were watching a Black-throated green; I saw another bird flit nearby. As soon as I saw it I recognized it and yelled almost at top of my voice “TOWNSEND'S WARBELR” as I did not want others to miss it. Everybody quickly got on it and we watched it for quite some time actively foraging. Then it dawned on me that I can try taking some pictures and I did and they were good enough to id the bird as Townsend’s. A couple of other groups came by and we showed it to them and then it got lost behind the tangles of vines. We continued to Pony barn and brush pile to look for Golden-winged warbler that was seen in the morning. But, we were not lucky but we did watch some gorgeous Magnolia Warblers in perfect sunlight, some more Nashvilles and other usual birds. As we came off back to main trail, a Scarlet Tanager male sang for us from a leafless tree. We also found a Veery and some Blue Grey Gnatcatchers. Then we started to head back as we wanted to spend some time on Marsh Trail. As we walked past Pony Barn, we watched Gladys watching something and others waving out excitedly to us. As we reached her, we found that she was watching another co-operative KENTUCKY WARBLER. We watched it sometime before it got lost in the depression. We headed back to car and had our dinner of variety of left over lunch and breakfast stuffs. Then we headed to Marsh trail. On Marsh trail it was very windy; the place was covered with Yellow Warblers. Here we realized that yellow warblers had a song that resembled Northern Waterthrush. Then we later found that both Rondeau and Point Pelee had birds that sang like NOWA. It was very confusing at times, because now we were not sure if we were listening to NOWA or YEWA. We also saw a few Common Yellowthroats and White Crowned Sparrows and a SWAMP SPARROW and nothing much else. We reached our motel late by 9.30 PM. So when I asked how early next day everyone wanted to get up, no one said anything, but I suggested that we should be out by 5.45 AM as we had to drive almost three quarters of an hour to reach Point Pelee.
From the entrance of the PP Park it was another 10 minutes drive to visitor center, on the way we were blocked by a displaying Turkey, he insisted that road was a better place than in the woods as humans also could watch him. Cars got blocked in long queue behind us while Turkey was enjoying human attentions. Finally, we decided to overtake the car that was very intensely watching the turkey’s progress from road to woods. As we were nearing West beach, we were stopped by park volunteer and told us that the Visitor center parking lot was full and we need to park on West Beach parking lot. But fortunately the road was connecting the Visitor Center and we managed to park just 5 min away from VC. Now we were waiting for Gladys and Kathy to join us as they were in the damaged car that was driving slowly. Luckily, we saw them driving in at the visitor center parking lot. While we were waiting for Gladys and Kathy we met another Cathy (Sendell) from Seneca Falls and chatted with her and she gave us some of the locations where they had seen some good birds. We took ride to the Point on the shuttle. As we go off from the tram, there seemed to be a huge crowd and felt as if I was in Matunga market in the evening. So I suggested to our group that we take a different route. Initially, it was very slow, but slowly it picked up, we started seeing a few warblers here and there. Lots of Nashville and a Chestnut-sided warblers were being seen by people. Nashvilles were trying reverse migration at the tip, some would go away and others would go to the tip and out on the lake and come back. Lake had more of an ocean like look as waves were crashing on the shores. Someone located an Orange Crowned Warbler and most of us got to see. Bobbie, located a CAPE MAY WARBLER and pointed it us. As there were so many eyes, different people would call different species and everyone try to look at the birds. We literally were rubbing each other’s shoulders and our scope tripods were poking other birders. At the tip. we also some water birds, that included a flock of Red Breasted Mergansers and a couple of Common Loons. After an hour and half at the Point we started heading back towards visitor center along the road, several Orchard Orioles were defending territories and chasing away other males, Baltimore Orioles were ubiquitous. A Sparrow crossed the road and landed on tree. Laura immediately identified it as a Lincoln’s Sparrow. We found a forested seasonal path, so we followed it in search of a Yellow-breasted Chat; instead we found more Orchard Orioles and Eastern Towhees (some singing weird variations), Indigo Bunting. Larry kept missing Orchard Oriole and he thought we were making fun of him every time we saw one. We also found a singing White-eyed Vireo, who just gave us glimpses of his self, but as a usual habit, he kept to thicket. Through a long circuitous road we arrived back on the road about 0.9 KM from the visitor center. Actually, we were looking for a path to go to locate the previously reported Prothonotary Warbler. After a short break we walked the board walk and the Prothonotary was busy feeding in the marshy patches and we all got good looks but were very difficult to photograph as he hid among the bushes. Here were waiting for Laura to return from the visitor Center. While waiting for this Kathy who for last two days was looking for a Blackburnian Warbler and as luck happens she was the one to locate a bird in the newly leafing Maple. We watched it for quite some times. Soon we found a Northern Parula buzzing away. Several Yellow Warblers were calling and all had different songs. They had various dialects. It would be interesting to know how many of them were migrants and what is the local dialect or the local birds have all the dialects as they hear many migrants. Further down along the route we found a Bay-breasted Warbler, Rose-breasted Grosbeak who was having a leisure toilette. Someone else had found another bird and others were trying to identify it and it turned out to be a Philadelphia Vireo. By then it was time to go have lunch and a bit or relaxation from birding. After lunch we went to Tilden Woods. This was not as crowded as the Point. Slowly but steadily we kept adding new species on this trail. We saw Redstarts, Swanson’s and Wood Thrushes, Magnolia, Chestnut-sided, Parula, Great-crested and Least Flycatchers. We then headed to Marsh Board walk in the hopes of seeing bitterns etc. It was very windy and cold and not many birds were around. But we did see some coots, Bank, Barn and Tree Swallows. There were a couple of Marsh Wrens, who flitted around and came into the open occasionally. I think wind kept them down. We located one of the spots where the wren went down in the bushes and heard him singing. So we were hoping to catch him when again he popped up. So we kept an eye on that location. As if to tease us, he popped up just a few feet ahead of us, far away from where he was seen going in and chatter in front us and dash to cover again. We did not have any luck with bitterns and sora. Today everyone wanted to eat a good dinner and go to bed early as they were tired. After local enquiry we found a well respected restaurant in downtown Leamington and ended up getting some hot meal. Next day morning we decided to go to Rondeau instead of driving all way back to Point Pelee. That was a great decision. I wanted to go listen to the dawn chorus early morning, but everyone called me “boot camp leader” put their foot down and decided to leave the motel by 6.00 am. Secretly, I too was happy to sleep longer.
Ironically, my group was the last one to arrive at the Harrison Trail next morning. As we arrived the other two car passengers were watching a bird intensely, when they saw us, they told us they are watching a CAPE MAY WARBLER. So we all piled out and looked for it. Soon another Cape May joined in, and then the third one was located and in one area there were as many as five of them. Then it turned out that it was a CAPE MAY DAY in Rondeau. They were everywhere and singing. Interestingly we did not see and any females. May be we just did not pay enough attention to drab females as there were so many beautiful males all over the place. Or simply females were still not migrating. Blackburnians were also singing and some of them gave us spectacular views from up close. I was photographing one of the Blackburnians and I followed him as he moved from one spot to other. He occasionally stopped singing and preened and rested for a few seconds. I watched him once almost fall asleep. He sat and his eyes were just closing, but suddenly he jerked up and gave a bar of a song. It looks like, after a long trip, they can’t even take a bit of rest for the fear of losing the territory to a rival male. I felt sorry for him. Also, only Nashville’s were the birds that did not sing while all others sang. So why is that? Is it the birds we were watching were all females and the males had already passed through? The Nashvilles are monomorphic and are difficult to distinguish between males and females. Harrison trail was dripping with warblers and we ended up finally seeing as many as 19 species of warblers along this trail. By mid morning we headed back to visitor center and did Tulip Trail, but did not see anything of note. Here Gladys and her group split up to head home sooner as they were driving slower, while the rest of us decided to go to Spicebush trail. We did come across some mixed hunting flocks but nothing as spectacular as Harris Trail. One note of interest was, we saw a fully fledged American Robin baby, which I thought was very early. After lunch we too decided to head back home. Just as we were nearing MNWR, as there was still light, Stuart wanted to take a quick drive around wildlife drive to get shorebirds that we had missed. So we made a quick dash and found a few shore birds that included Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Spotted and Solitary Sandpipers, Blue Winged teals and Ospreys. We returned home fully satiated with warbler viewing! Our total trip tick was 110+ species of birds and two species of dragonflies and three species of butterflies.
Meena
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
An evening with Miilion birds in Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge
Like others, I too decided to take advantage of good weather and go look for birds, though good weather is often bad to see birds. Also, always my dilemma is where do I stop on the way. My main aim for today was chasing some wild white geese, so I decided to skip lake shores and go to back roads. I started around 1.00 P.M. I drove my favorite Rafferty- Dixon road route.
On Rafferty, there were a few Horned Larks singing along the road, but none stopped for me to look at them even for a minute. A big flock of crows was harassing something in the grass and I could not see what it was, I presume maybe it was an owl. One female Harrier scanned the fields for something for an early dinner. They seem that they are highly motivated to concentrate their gaze toward the ground.
Dixon Road was fairly quiet except for a few more scattered Horned Larks and a pair of Kestrels giving a hard time to Red-tailed Hawk. I stopped and watched them. After the hawk was chased across the field on the other side of the road, Kestrels came back and sat on wires excitedly talking to each other, feeling good that they have chased the hawk out of their territory. At the end of the Dixon road, I ended up down toward the lake just near Aurora Fire Station.
Around Levanna, I found hunters putting fake paper/plastic Snow Geese that were fluttering funnily in the air. Just along the shores of Gwywood (?), where there are some mega houses that sit very close to the shore and block the view of the lake for all others, were thousands of snow geese. There was a gap between two houses just enough to watch a few hundred geese. So I pulled out and scanned through the crowd to look for any other species geese among them, but did not find any.
I was planning on heading straight to Muckland via Rt. 90, but then decided I want to look at Eagles at the Mud Lock. The eagle was sitting on the eggs with only head visible. As I was so close to the visitor center, decided to check if the drive was open and it was.
On the main pool I found one CACKLING GOOSE with five other Canada Geese that were swimming closer to the island just past the first Seneca Spillway. But as I was getting ready to take pictures, they moved behind the grass. There were plenty of ducks which others have already described. I did spend sometime photographing and watching No. Shovelers at Benning’s Marsh.
Then I headed to East Road. At the Knox -Marcellus view point, there were 16 TREE SWALLOWS, that were excitedly fighting with each other for a few seconds and next few seconds back to insect hunting. When I went close to their would be nest box, they chirped over my head. From here I could see the vast white mass on the Muckland. I stopped at Muckland and watched the SNOW GEESE, but decided to come back later in the evening to watch them take off in the evening light.
I headed to Carncross Road. There I found a SANDHILL CRANE feeling lost and all alone. I am wondering if the female has already started nest. I also met some other people and Cindy told me that they were seeing some 7 eagles. I did watch four eagles of which three of them were adults. On Rail Road Road, I found thousands of Pintails, softly humming and take off as the Northern Harrier swooped over them. There were also lots of Tree Sparrows some of them were singing and all wanted to sun themselves on one particular tree. Every time I approached them they would fly away but if I moved away, would come back to the same tree again and again.
Finally, it was time to go back to SNOW GEESE on Muck. I parked near first potato building and watched the snow geese as they flew and mulled around. While, I was scanning for a Ross’s all the geese in the front row suddenly looked up and started calling and soon took to air. I did not know what was it that alarmed them, I did not see anything that I would think would alarm them. It always intrigues me, why some geese take off and some as group and some as threes or twos and others single. I watched a single goose coming back toward the group honking and go in circles and finally land. I wonder, if this goose took off by mistake when its group members did not fly after going some distance realized that its companions are not there, so did it come back and search for the companions till it found? So many interesting behaviors to observe and solve. I spent time till almost it was time for sunset. Snow geese stretched over the Mucklands as far your eyes could see.
Ithaca 031509
I wanted to head towards main pool to observe blackbirds coming in to marsh. But as I was on East Road, I started seeing rivers of Blackbirds, mostly Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds coming from west of Mucklands. Some flocks would stop in woods and once the group built up, they would take off. Soon that place would be occupied by another group. It was a dilemma whether to watch from this point or go to main pool.
I headed further towards the Tschache Pool. Here I could not resist, I had to pull out and watch them. Every tree was covered with throngs of Blackbirds all calling. There seemed so much excitement and exuberance of energy in them, it was impossible that they could not rub on that to me. In the late orange light of setting sun, the wings of Grackles were almost reddish, they looked like Sirkeer cuckoo or the miniature Coucal (Crow Pheasant). They would lift their wings and let out a call. The male Red-winged Blackbirds were chuckchuking. In the crowd I was searching for one possible Yellow-headed Blackbird but found none. I did a see a few female Red-winged Blackbirds, they sat quietly, I watched a couple who had fluffed their feathers and sat looking down, as if they were thinking. Were they thinking - ‘no not one more breeding season again so soon ‘ One more interesting thing I felt was that even though they are making some much of noise the noise was not of annoying quality. In Mexico the Melodious and the Great tailed Grackles can be a little bit annoying with their high pitched songs. Or the din of traffic honking in the evening at Matunga market was annoying. But this sound some how seemed to have cancelled each others noise by interference and rest of the sound was something more soothing like a river flowing over rocky bed. From here, where ever I looked in the sky, as far as my eye could see were throngs of birds continuously heading towards marsh. Some of them would stop for sometime on one tree and the take off and in next few seconds a second group has occupied the place. It was amazing to watch them.
I again stopped at North Spring pool and looked around, they were still coming and coming. As soon as they took from nearby trees for a few seconds it would seem like there was almost a dead silence (comparative feeling). What a contrast from watching sea of white birds earlier in the day and end the day with sea of blackbirds. I am not sure how many Blackbirds were there.
I had same questions as those for geese, what are these groups, are they all from one particular population? Family members and neighbors? How would they recognize each other in such group?
While driving along the west side of the lakes, I could see at least another three large rafts of SNOW GEESE in the middle of the lake till Warwick. There were few black rafts of CAGO, but they were still streaming in as I was driving, they seem to have better eye sight.
One the whole, I must have seen lots and lots of birds for the day. A million, trillion or Obamamillion (as Peter Segal has coined the new name after stimulus bill amounts)?
ITHACA 031509
On Rafferty, there were a few Horned Larks singing along the road, but none stopped for me to look at them even for a minute. A big flock of crows was harassing something in the grass and I could not see what it was, I presume maybe it was an owl. One female Harrier scanned the fields for something for an early dinner. They seem that they are highly motivated to concentrate their gaze toward the ground.
Dixon Road was fairly quiet except for a few more scattered Horned Larks and a pair of Kestrels giving a hard time to Red-tailed Hawk. I stopped and watched them. After the hawk was chased across the field on the other side of the road, Kestrels came back and sat on wires excitedly talking to each other, feeling good that they have chased the hawk out of their territory. At the end of the Dixon road, I ended up down toward the lake just near Aurora Fire Station.
Around Levanna, I found hunters putting fake paper/plastic Snow Geese that were fluttering funnily in the air. Just along the shores of Gwywood (?), where there are some mega houses that sit very close to the shore and block the view of the lake for all others, were thousands of snow geese. There was a gap between two houses just enough to watch a few hundred geese. So I pulled out and scanned through the crowd to look for any other species geese among them, but did not find any.
I was planning on heading straight to Muckland via Rt. 90, but then decided I want to look at Eagles at the Mud Lock. The eagle was sitting on the eggs with only head visible. As I was so close to the visitor center, decided to check if the drive was open and it was.
On the main pool I found one CACKLING GOOSE with five other Canada Geese that were swimming closer to the island just past the first Seneca Spillway. But as I was getting ready to take pictures, they moved behind the grass. There were plenty of ducks which others have already described. I did spend sometime photographing and watching No. Shovelers at Benning’s Marsh.
Then I headed to East Road. At the Knox -Marcellus view point, there were 16 TREE SWALLOWS, that were excitedly fighting with each other for a few seconds and next few seconds back to insect hunting. When I went close to their would be nest box, they chirped over my head. From here I could see the vast white mass on the Muckland. I stopped at Muckland and watched the SNOW GEESE, but decided to come back later in the evening to watch them take off in the evening light.
I headed to Carncross Road. There I found a SANDHILL CRANE feeling lost and all alone. I am wondering if the female has already started nest. I also met some other people and Cindy told me that they were seeing some 7 eagles. I did watch four eagles of which three of them were adults. On Rail Road Road, I found thousands of Pintails, softly humming and take off as the Northern Harrier swooped over them. There were also lots of Tree Sparrows some of them were singing and all wanted to sun themselves on one particular tree. Every time I approached them they would fly away but if I moved away, would come back to the same tree again and again.
Finally, it was time to go back to SNOW GEESE on Muck. I parked near first potato building and watched the snow geese as they flew and mulled around. While, I was scanning for a Ross’s all the geese in the front row suddenly looked up and started calling and soon took to air. I did not know what was it that alarmed them, I did not see anything that I would think would alarm them. It always intrigues me, why some geese take off and some as group and some as threes or twos and others single. I watched a single goose coming back toward the group honking and go in circles and finally land. I wonder, if this goose took off by mistake when its group members did not fly after going some distance realized that its companions are not there, so did it come back and search for the companions till it found? So many interesting behaviors to observe and solve. I spent time till almost it was time for sunset. Snow geese stretched over the Mucklands as far your eyes could see.
Ithaca 031509
I wanted to head towards main pool to observe blackbirds coming in to marsh. But as I was on East Road, I started seeing rivers of Blackbirds, mostly Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds coming from west of Mucklands. Some flocks would stop in woods and once the group built up, they would take off. Soon that place would be occupied by another group. It was a dilemma whether to watch from this point or go to main pool.
I headed further towards the Tschache Pool. Here I could not resist, I had to pull out and watch them. Every tree was covered with throngs of Blackbirds all calling. There seemed so much excitement and exuberance of energy in them, it was impossible that they could not rub on that to me. In the late orange light of setting sun, the wings of Grackles were almost reddish, they looked like Sirkeer cuckoo or the miniature Coucal (Crow Pheasant). They would lift their wings and let out a call. The male Red-winged Blackbirds were chuckchuking. In the crowd I was searching for one possible Yellow-headed Blackbird but found none. I did a see a few female Red-winged Blackbirds, they sat quietly, I watched a couple who had fluffed their feathers and sat looking down, as if they were thinking. Were they thinking - ‘no not one more breeding season again so soon ‘ One more interesting thing I felt was that even though they are making some much of noise the noise was not of annoying quality. In Mexico the Melodious and the Great tailed Grackles can be a little bit annoying with their high pitched songs. Or the din of traffic honking in the evening at Matunga market was annoying. But this sound some how seemed to have cancelled each others noise by interference and rest of the sound was something more soothing like a river flowing over rocky bed. From here, where ever I looked in the sky, as far as my eye could see were throngs of birds continuously heading towards marsh. Some of them would stop for sometime on one tree and the take off and in next few seconds a second group has occupied the place. It was amazing to watch them.
I again stopped at North Spring pool and looked around, they were still coming and coming. As soon as they took from nearby trees for a few seconds it would seem like there was almost a dead silence (comparative feeling). What a contrast from watching sea of white birds earlier in the day and end the day with sea of blackbirds. I am not sure how many Blackbirds were there.
I had same questions as those for geese, what are these groups, are they all from one particular population? Family members and neighbors? How would they recognize each other in such group?
While driving along the west side of the lakes, I could see at least another three large rafts of SNOW GEESE in the middle of the lake till Warwick. There were few black rafts of CAGO, but they were still streaming in as I was driving, they seem to have better eye sight.
One the whole, I must have seen lots and lots of birds for the day. A million, trillion or Obamamillion (as Peter Segal has coined the new name after stimulus bill amounts)?
ITHACA 031509
Monday, February 23, 2009
Howlers in Guatemala
I spent a few days in Yaxha and Tikal region of Guatemala in Dec-Jan of 2008 and 2009.
I stayed in an ecolodge, Hotel Sombrero. It was a quiet, rustic location away from the crowd in a private wooded area. First morning I wanted to be up early and be out recording, but I felt I was hearing rain, so decided to sleep longer. All of a sudden as the dawn was breaking I heard the heart tearing sound. Immediately realized that howlers are just in a nearby tree. I quickly set up my recorder and lied down on the bed listening to them without any movement.
I presume alpha male was the one who first woke up. I could hear him taking deep breath and then pouring all that air out with some additional energy. I could almost feel that he has a large lung. As he woke up his sound became louder and louder. He went on for more than ten minutes. Almost at the end others joined him. His sound was so loud that the dawn chorus of other birds were drowned in howls of Howler.
Next day evening I decided to take a walk to Sombrero ruins that was on the hotel property. As I started the walk, I could hear the howlers in some distance. When I reached the gully and stood for sometime, I heard two groups of howlers calling one after the other. It was very eerie and scary. Initially, I thought it was I who was the cause of the commotion, but it went on. If it was in India and monkeys were calling then I would have thought a leopard or a tiger was in the vicinity and that agitated the monkeys. So here I thought may be a puma or a jaguarundi was on the prowl. I continued my walk with a bit of hesitation to make sure that there are no carnivores in the vicinity. I listened for their sounds and tried to smell for carnivore. After half an hour I reached the spot where the monkeys were. My arrival further agitated two of the howlers that looked like an adult and a teenager. Both howled at me. They would take deep breath and let out the howls. After about 20 minutes of watching, recording and listening I decided to walk ahead to a quieter place to listen to birds. Somehow my gut feeling made me a bit uneasy about what was around me. May be it is just the jungle sense I have picked up in India. Also, it was getting late and was not sure how much I had to walk, so I increased my pace. Once I reached the path, which was parallel to road, I felt better to slow down.
It was a great experience to listen to these large lunged giants!
I stayed in an ecolodge, Hotel Sombrero. It was a quiet, rustic location away from the crowd in a private wooded area. First morning I wanted to be up early and be out recording, but I felt I was hearing rain, so decided to sleep longer. All of a sudden as the dawn was breaking I heard the heart tearing sound. Immediately realized that howlers are just in a nearby tree. I quickly set up my recorder and lied down on the bed listening to them without any movement.
I presume alpha male was the one who first woke up. I could hear him taking deep breath and then pouring all that air out with some additional energy. I could almost feel that he has a large lung. As he woke up his sound became louder and louder. He went on for more than ten minutes. Almost at the end others joined him. His sound was so loud that the dawn chorus of other birds were drowned in howls of Howler.
Next day evening I decided to take a walk to Sombrero ruins that was on the hotel property. As I started the walk, I could hear the howlers in some distance. When I reached the gully and stood for sometime, I heard two groups of howlers calling one after the other. It was very eerie and scary. Initially, I thought it was I who was the cause of the commotion, but it went on. If it was in India and monkeys were calling then I would have thought a leopard or a tiger was in the vicinity and that agitated the monkeys. So here I thought may be a puma or a jaguarundi was on the prowl. I continued my walk with a bit of hesitation to make sure that there are no carnivores in the vicinity. I listened for their sounds and tried to smell for carnivore. After half an hour I reached the spot where the monkeys were. My arrival further agitated two of the howlers that looked like an adult and a teenager. Both howled at me. They would take deep breath and let out the howls. After about 20 minutes of watching, recording and listening I decided to walk ahead to a quieter place to listen to birds. Somehow my gut feeling made me a bit uneasy about what was around me. May be it is just the jungle sense I have picked up in India. Also, it was getting late and was not sure how much I had to walk, so I increased my pace. Once I reached the path, which was parallel to road, I felt better to slow down.
It was a great experience to listen to these large lunged giants!
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Merlins nesting in downtown Ithaca NY in 2006
I was listening to Martyn Stewart's blog of Merlins in Seattle. My memory went back to our own Merlins nesting near Schulyer House, close to downtown Ithaca. I got curious to see what kind of sounds they were making and what was surrounding sound scape. Did the traffic noise affect them or did their presence had affect on other local nesting birds? Listen to a clip of their sounds, male and female talking back and forth and it seems no other birds were generally affected. Cardinal was doing his song, House Sparrows that were main food of Merlins, also seemed blissfully unaware of their being around as you can hear a male sparrow singing. Unfortunately, I do not have merlin's pictures, so the sound is dubbed over a cardinal's picture.
Merlins are such fun creatures!
Merlins are such fun creatures!
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
CAPE MAY TRIP
Links to photos
This past week-end (Oct 3 to 5), eight of us from Cayuga Bird Club visited Cape May. We left Ithaca around 2.00 PM and arrived at Cape May around 8.30 PM. After a dinner and next days planning went to bed early.
Unfortunately, the fridge in the motel room made such a high pitched hissing sound that I could not sleep most of the night, but the same noise next night was not at all that bothersome.
We left the motel around 6.15 am after listening to few night flight calls that were probably coming down. After a coffee stop we arrived at Higbee Beach just as the day was breaking. We headed towards warbler platform on the west. We climbed up the dyke and stationed ourselves next to the official counter. Initial few minutes it was quiet, but we could see hundreds of birds in the east in the air, though most of them were starlings. Soon we started hearing chips and zips and a tiny bird would come into view, they would fly over head or directly into phragmites and then slowly head towards the bay. There were two bare trees that were near us happened to be one of their stop over places. Very mild chip and a small bird meant Northern Parula. Emphatic chip and bold dashes meant Yellow-rumped Warblers. Palm Warbler was in between the two in emphasis. Black-throated Blue warbler had its on distinct chip. So we watched them as they landed in the bare trees and take off after a few seconds. We observed several female Black-throated blues and a fewer males. I heard a DIckcissel flyover and as I was about to announce it, the official counter also announced it. So I felt a bit happy of my id skills. We also watched a Rose-Breasted Grosbeak circle over our head. In the near by bushes several Carolina Wrens were creating a racket. There were a fair number of Sharp-shinned Hawks circling or heading south. A couple of Merlins and several Peregrines were also observed from this spot. Ospreys were constantly around, many with fish in their talons. After spending about 2.5 hours on the dyke we decided to try woods.
Woods turned out to be rather quiet except for a Winter Wren call (which I did not know, but Andre Desrochers idied the call) and a few already seen warblers; we did not see anything more. Then we headed to Hawk Watch, with a stop at the Cape May Observatory on the way. As we were getting out of the observatory we saw a big kettle of Sharpies in the sky, with a Peregrine among them. So we headed to Hawk Watch. It seems just a few minutes before our arrival a Mississippi Kite had passed overhead. Initially sky was clear and very blue, so it was difficult to point a bird, though there were lots of very high flying birds. Soon the white clouds started arriving from the south and spread around. That helped in locating birds. We had many Peregrines pass by. Some would fly low and others very high and even at that height they gave hard to time to other species of birds by often chasing them. Occasional Merlins passed by. A couple of Northern Harriers were also seen. By late noon we started feeling hungry and we decided to stop for lunch. As we were about to disperse, some one yelled out that a SWALLOW-TAILED KITE has been located over “Meadows” , which was about a mile north and was heading south. So changed the plans and waited for the approach of the Swallow-tailed kite. Everyone was scanning the sky with great intensity. I heard someone shout “here it is” from the east corner. So I quickly searched the sky and found it immediately. Many people from my corner got to see it. We watched its antics of flight and couple of times it tried to chase a nearby Sharpie. It came almost close to us and then headed back to “Meadows”. I passed on my binoculars to a few of the visitors who had no binoculars. They watched it and awed at its beauty. I hope they get hooked to birding! After this nice show we went down to eat lunch. While we were having lunch it showed up again and did the same, headed north again.
After lunch we spent some more time on the Hawk watch platform. Bob Fogg pointed out the Swallowtail Kite to me, but this time it was seriously headed to Delaware, though some spectators wanted to it to stay behind in New Jersey, others wanted their friends to record them on the other side of the Delaware Bay!
Then we headed to the “Meadows”. We took a walk around the trail. At the sea, a small bay was formed and there were hundreds of gulls and few ducks were hanging out. We saw Great Black-backed, Herring, Laughing and Ring-billed Gulls and also Don picked a Ruddy Duck at the back of the crowd of other water fowls. While watching first a small group of Skimmers skimmed over the bay and landed on the sand bar. We also saw some Royal and Forster’s Terns. There was a young Royal Tern, his bill was still pale orangish yellow and he was facing away from the wind and in the wind his crest blew out creating a funny look to him, while he was begging. He made a cute little picture as his crest was blowing forward in the south east wind. In the creek, we saw some other water fowls like widgeons, Blue-winged and Green winged teals, Great Blue heron and other egrets. I met Steve Colins on the way back to parking lot, he showed me pictures of Blue-faced Meadowhawk he had photographed around the Hawk Watch ponds. I did see some Bluets, I think probably Atlantic or Familiar Bluets and a Rambur’s Forktail. We also saw several Buckeyes, highly tattered Black Swallowtails, American and Painted Ladies, a smaller Fritillary, probably an Aphrodite and many Monarchs. We also saw a caterpillar of Spicebush Swallowtail which was almost ready to pupate. He had big false eyes and these had catch lights in their eyes! I remember seeing one caterpillar in the Sapsucker Woods, who was hiding in a rolled spice bush leaf with only his false eyes visible out of the leaf roll and next to him was a Wilson’s warbler and the size of Wilson’s eyes were as big a false eyes of caterpillar!
We headed to Stone Harbor after a gas station stop. We arrived to the Ocean Drive. We stopped just before the first bridge. We were entertained by a Boat-tailed Grackle. He seemed to have been in good mood and just enjoyed trying variety of phrases. To add to his music, a Northern Mockingbird spent sometime singing duets with him. On the east side of the bridge there was a large island formed due to low tide and was filled with hundreds of shore birds. We started picking up different shore birds. I found some Red Knots, Andre was pointing out Dunlin, dowitchers, there were lots of plovers and the group was trying to separate out knots and plovers. I saw the Godwit (previously reported), we identified it as Hudsonian Godwit as he lifted his wings showing his blacktail tip and other markings. I spied a small tern fluttering over deeper water like a butterfly, with dark pointy black bill, black legs and an eyeline and not so very deeply forked tail. Quickly looked up the book and identified it as non breeding Least Tern. Bobbie Monroe got a chance to look at it. Just then something spooked the birds and most of the birds vacated the exposed flat and flew to the other side of the bridge. So some of us went to the other side and some scanned the remaining birds at the flat. We found some Sanderlings, Caspian Tern etc. As watching from the bridge was not very convenient to watch birds from, we headed south along the road as we wanted turn around and face the mudflats with sun behind us. We again passed Steve who was watching birds on the other side of the road. But there was no place to turn around easily and Stuart did not want to turn the van in the middle of the road. So we headed for a suitable place to turn around. Andre suggested he would scan the flats for birds while we were turning around. So we dropped him off and headed further, there we met a probably a Norwegian sounding birder. He said that he has been watching a pair of sparrows and he thought that they were seaside sparrows. So we stopped and looked around and there were two very co-operative Sharp-tailed Saltmarsh Sparrows. We had some good looks at them. Andre had been very keen on seeing them but he was a mile away down on the road. So I suggested we go and fetch him, but by then Stuart had already left to get him. Both Andre and Steve came back and had good looks at the birds. Steve also mentioned that he had seen Seaside Sparrows on the other side of the road. So we headed to check that out. But missed out on them, but further down we did get to see a Ruddy Turnstone and another species of bird which seem to have slipped off my memory. No, now I remember (after 10 minutes), Don found a large rail run across the path on the marsh and told us about it. Andre walked by the path and flushed it again and he could id it as a Clapper Rail, we could see it as a flushed bird. We were scanning the afternoon’s mudflat where we had relocated godwit again. As I was watching it, I saw something run behind like crazy; kind of jumping up and down and back and forth was a rail. I called it a Virginia rail simply because that is what is a default rail here. But actually we could not say what it was from the distance we were watching but it was a strange behavior we have ever watched of a rail.
By then it was getting late and we were feeling hungry. So we decided to call it a day. We had a good meal at a family Italian restaurant. After doing a bird list for the day we called it a day.
What a different day next was compared the earlier day. Higbee Beach had a very few birds, but we did get a couple of Brown Thrashers for the trip tick. Then we stopped at the Hidden Valley, a few warblers and noisy bunch of Northern Mockingbirds and nothing much. Hawk Watch was very slow. So we took a walk around the pond and along blue trail. I was keen on looking for some donates. The group had split up. Some of us saw/heard Scarlet Tanager, Red Breasted Nuthatch and our group managed to find a CAPE MAY WARBLER (HY bird) in CAPE MAY. On the way back I also managed to find a Blue-faced Meadowhawk and take some blurry pictures of him!
Then we headed to Stone Harbor. Mine was the lead car, so I reached the earlier day’s bridge on Ocean Drvie, but there was no mudflat but only the previous day’s Boat-tailed Grackle still singing merrily. By then I got a call from Ann saying that they are watching some shore birds and we should go back. We retraced our path. This was a grassy marshy patch in front of the Wetland Institute. There were many shore birds, but by the time we got there something spooked them and they became skittish. But often they would land and take off. Most of the crowd was made up of Greater Yellowlegs, and about 25% Large-billed Dowitchers, at least a couple of molting Short-billed Dowitchers, Dunlins, Black-crowned Night Herons (8 or 9 birds), Black-bellied Plovers and the Hudsonian Godwit etc. were mixed in.
We spent some time at Avalon Beach, we could not find the sea-watch spot, but from one of the dead-end roads we could see a few birds on the rocks, mainly Sanderlings in various plumages and a few Ruddy Turnstones. Main sea was calm with practically no birds on the water.
By then it was time to call time off for lunch in a nearby park. After lunch we headed straight home.
Some of the other interesting encounters were 1. Spotting of Bob Fogg (or rather Bob Fogg spotting me) at Higbee Beach, many Cayuga birders might remember seeing him in various birding alleys, but his plumage has changed now; 2. Jim Piwalcki on Hawk watch Platform; 3. Steve Colins (odonate enthusiast when not bird watching) at various places; 4. Bill Purcell at Higbee Beach; and finally 5th encounter was a car with I TICK plate from Ontario, Canada. We first observed it on 81 near Clarks Summit on the way to Cape May on Friday heading towards south. We saw the same car on 81 near 17/81 junction near Binghamton on the way back to Ithaca heading north on Sunday! What will be the probability of seeing it again? 1 in 10000? We are not sure if I tick was a birder or studies ticks and mites. At least owner seemed to be a female ticker.
Overall it was a great trip with good company!
This past week-end (Oct 3 to 5), eight of us from Cayuga Bird Club visited Cape May. We left Ithaca around 2.00 PM and arrived at Cape May around 8.30 PM. After a dinner and next days planning went to bed early.
Unfortunately, the fridge in the motel room made such a high pitched hissing sound that I could not sleep most of the night, but the same noise next night was not at all that bothersome.
We left the motel around 6.15 am after listening to few night flight calls that were probably coming down. After a coffee stop we arrived at Higbee Beach just as the day was breaking. We headed towards warbler platform on the west. We climbed up the dyke and stationed ourselves next to the official counter. Initial few minutes it was quiet, but we could see hundreds of birds in the east in the air, though most of them were starlings. Soon we started hearing chips and zips and a tiny bird would come into view, they would fly over head or directly into phragmites and then slowly head towards the bay. There were two bare trees that were near us happened to be one of their stop over places. Very mild chip and a small bird meant Northern Parula. Emphatic chip and bold dashes meant Yellow-rumped Warblers. Palm Warbler was in between the two in emphasis. Black-throated Blue warbler had its on distinct chip. So we watched them as they landed in the bare trees and take off after a few seconds. We observed several female Black-throated blues and a fewer males. I heard a DIckcissel flyover and as I was about to announce it, the official counter also announced it. So I felt a bit happy of my id skills. We also watched a Rose-Breasted Grosbeak circle over our head. In the near by bushes several Carolina Wrens were creating a racket. There were a fair number of Sharp-shinned Hawks circling or heading south. A couple of Merlins and several Peregrines were also observed from this spot. Ospreys were constantly around, many with fish in their talons. After spending about 2.5 hours on the dyke we decided to try woods.
Woods turned out to be rather quiet except for a Winter Wren call (which I did not know, but Andre Desrochers idied the call) and a few already seen warblers; we did not see anything more. Then we headed to Hawk Watch, with a stop at the Cape May Observatory on the way. As we were getting out of the observatory we saw a big kettle of Sharpies in the sky, with a Peregrine among them. So we headed to Hawk Watch. It seems just a few minutes before our arrival a Mississippi Kite had passed overhead. Initially sky was clear and very blue, so it was difficult to point a bird, though there were lots of very high flying birds. Soon the white clouds started arriving from the south and spread around. That helped in locating birds. We had many Peregrines pass by. Some would fly low and others very high and even at that height they gave hard to time to other species of birds by often chasing them. Occasional Merlins passed by. A couple of Northern Harriers were also seen. By late noon we started feeling hungry and we decided to stop for lunch. As we were about to disperse, some one yelled out that a SWALLOW-TAILED KITE has been located over “Meadows” , which was about a mile north and was heading south. So changed the plans and waited for the approach of the Swallow-tailed kite. Everyone was scanning the sky with great intensity. I heard someone shout “here it is” from the east corner. So I quickly searched the sky and found it immediately. Many people from my corner got to see it. We watched its antics of flight and couple of times it tried to chase a nearby Sharpie. It came almost close to us and then headed back to “Meadows”. I passed on my binoculars to a few of the visitors who had no binoculars. They watched it and awed at its beauty. I hope they get hooked to birding! After this nice show we went down to eat lunch. While we were having lunch it showed up again and did the same, headed north again.
After lunch we spent some more time on the Hawk watch platform. Bob Fogg pointed out the Swallowtail Kite to me, but this time it was seriously headed to Delaware, though some spectators wanted to it to stay behind in New Jersey, others wanted their friends to record them on the other side of the Delaware Bay!
Then we headed to the “Meadows”. We took a walk around the trail. At the sea, a small bay was formed and there were hundreds of gulls and few ducks were hanging out. We saw Great Black-backed, Herring, Laughing and Ring-billed Gulls and also Don picked a Ruddy Duck at the back of the crowd of other water fowls. While watching first a small group of Skimmers skimmed over the bay and landed on the sand bar. We also saw some Royal and Forster’s Terns. There was a young Royal Tern, his bill was still pale orangish yellow and he was facing away from the wind and in the wind his crest blew out creating a funny look to him, while he was begging. He made a cute little picture as his crest was blowing forward in the south east wind. In the creek, we saw some other water fowls like widgeons, Blue-winged and Green winged teals, Great Blue heron and other egrets. I met Steve Colins on the way back to parking lot, he showed me pictures of Blue-faced Meadowhawk he had photographed around the Hawk Watch ponds. I did see some Bluets, I think probably Atlantic or Familiar Bluets and a Rambur’s Forktail. We also saw several Buckeyes, highly tattered Black Swallowtails, American and Painted Ladies, a smaller Fritillary, probably an Aphrodite and many Monarchs. We also saw a caterpillar of Spicebush Swallowtail which was almost ready to pupate. He had big false eyes and these had catch lights in their eyes! I remember seeing one caterpillar in the Sapsucker Woods, who was hiding in a rolled spice bush leaf with only his false eyes visible out of the leaf roll and next to him was a Wilson’s warbler and the size of Wilson’s eyes were as big a false eyes of caterpillar!
We headed to Stone Harbor after a gas station stop. We arrived to the Ocean Drive. We stopped just before the first bridge. We were entertained by a Boat-tailed Grackle. He seemed to have been in good mood and just enjoyed trying variety of phrases. To add to his music, a Northern Mockingbird spent sometime singing duets with him. On the east side of the bridge there was a large island formed due to low tide and was filled with hundreds of shore birds. We started picking up different shore birds. I found some Red Knots, Andre was pointing out Dunlin, dowitchers, there were lots of plovers and the group was trying to separate out knots and plovers. I saw the Godwit (previously reported), we identified it as Hudsonian Godwit as he lifted his wings showing his blacktail tip and other markings. I spied a small tern fluttering over deeper water like a butterfly, with dark pointy black bill, black legs and an eyeline and not so very deeply forked tail. Quickly looked up the book and identified it as non breeding Least Tern. Bobbie Monroe got a chance to look at it. Just then something spooked the birds and most of the birds vacated the exposed flat and flew to the other side of the bridge. So some of us went to the other side and some scanned the remaining birds at the flat. We found some Sanderlings, Caspian Tern etc. As watching from the bridge was not very convenient to watch birds from, we headed south along the road as we wanted turn around and face the mudflats with sun behind us. We again passed Steve who was watching birds on the other side of the road. But there was no place to turn around easily and Stuart did not want to turn the van in the middle of the road. So we headed for a suitable place to turn around. Andre suggested he would scan the flats for birds while we were turning around. So we dropped him off and headed further, there we met a probably a Norwegian sounding birder. He said that he has been watching a pair of sparrows and he thought that they were seaside sparrows. So we stopped and looked around and there were two very co-operative Sharp-tailed Saltmarsh Sparrows. We had some good looks at them. Andre had been very keen on seeing them but he was a mile away down on the road. So I suggested we go and fetch him, but by then Stuart had already left to get him. Both Andre and Steve came back and had good looks at the birds. Steve also mentioned that he had seen Seaside Sparrows on the other side of the road. So we headed to check that out. But missed out on them, but further down we did get to see a Ruddy Turnstone and another species of bird which seem to have slipped off my memory. No, now I remember (after 10 minutes), Don found a large rail run across the path on the marsh and told us about it. Andre walked by the path and flushed it again and he could id it as a Clapper Rail, we could see it as a flushed bird. We were scanning the afternoon’s mudflat where we had relocated godwit again. As I was watching it, I saw something run behind like crazy; kind of jumping up and down and back and forth was a rail. I called it a Virginia rail simply because that is what is a default rail here. But actually we could not say what it was from the distance we were watching but it was a strange behavior we have ever watched of a rail.
By then it was getting late and we were feeling hungry. So we decided to call it a day. We had a good meal at a family Italian restaurant. After doing a bird list for the day we called it a day.
What a different day next was compared the earlier day. Higbee Beach had a very few birds, but we did get a couple of Brown Thrashers for the trip tick. Then we stopped at the Hidden Valley, a few warblers and noisy bunch of Northern Mockingbirds and nothing much. Hawk Watch was very slow. So we took a walk around the pond and along blue trail. I was keen on looking for some donates. The group had split up. Some of us saw/heard Scarlet Tanager, Red Breasted Nuthatch and our group managed to find a CAPE MAY WARBLER (HY bird) in CAPE MAY. On the way back I also managed to find a Blue-faced Meadowhawk and take some blurry pictures of him!
Then we headed to Stone Harbor. Mine was the lead car, so I reached the earlier day’s bridge on Ocean Drvie, but there was no mudflat but only the previous day’s Boat-tailed Grackle still singing merrily. By then I got a call from Ann saying that they are watching some shore birds and we should go back. We retraced our path. This was a grassy marshy patch in front of the Wetland Institute. There were many shore birds, but by the time we got there something spooked them and they became skittish. But often they would land and take off. Most of the crowd was made up of Greater Yellowlegs, and about 25% Large-billed Dowitchers, at least a couple of molting Short-billed Dowitchers, Dunlins, Black-crowned Night Herons (8 or 9 birds), Black-bellied Plovers and the Hudsonian Godwit etc. were mixed in.
We spent some time at Avalon Beach, we could not find the sea-watch spot, but from one of the dead-end roads we could see a few birds on the rocks, mainly Sanderlings in various plumages and a few Ruddy Turnstones. Main sea was calm with practically no birds on the water.
By then it was time to call time off for lunch in a nearby park. After lunch we headed straight home.
Some of the other interesting encounters were 1. Spotting of Bob Fogg (or rather Bob Fogg spotting me) at Higbee Beach, many Cayuga birders might remember seeing him in various birding alleys, but his plumage has changed now; 2. Jim Piwalcki on Hawk watch Platform; 3. Steve Colins (odonate enthusiast when not bird watching) at various places; 4. Bill Purcell at Higbee Beach; and finally 5th encounter was a car with I TICK plate from Ontario, Canada. We first observed it on 81 near Clarks Summit on the way to Cape May on Friday heading towards south. We saw the same car on 81 near 17/81 junction near Binghamton on the way back to Ithaca heading north on Sunday! What will be the probability of seeing it again? 1 in 10000? We are not sure if I tick was a birder or studies ticks and mites. At least owner seemed to be a female ticker.
Overall it was a great trip with good company!
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
June 14-15 week-end notes (Catherine Marsh and Horseheads Marsh NY)
Weekend notes
Hi all,
On Saturday, I lead a trip to look for odonates and lepidoptera to Rock Cabin road, along Catherine Marsh. Nine people joined the trip.
http://maps.yahoo.com/#mvt=s&lat=42.379185&lon=-76.84958&zoom=16
It was a cloudy and occasionally sunny day. Therefore, when insects were not visible we concentrated on birds. Actually, at our first stop we were treated by a gory scene, a Red-tailed Hawk had caught some bird and was tearing it apart, when Baltimore Orioles, do not know if he/she had picked up one of their babies. Meal was a quick fare; in few bites, victim bird was gone.
There were many Yellow-throated Vireos singing, one was kind enough to come out and sit on an open branch and sing for us. Some of us got very good looks at it. We also heard several Carolina Wrens doing variety of songs.
Other interesting birds were Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Scarlet Tanagers, Wood Thrush, Wood Ducks, American Redstarts, Yellow Warblers, Common Yellowthroat, and Great Blue Herons etc.
We had several species of butterflies. Initially it was very slow, but around noon, after a short rain, sun came out and many butterflies showed up. We were almost ready to give up on emperors, when the sun came out. I saw a first emperor zigzag around and sit very briefly on me. Then we found another on Sumac. Then soon we saw lots of them and all seemed like fresh specimens. They sat on everyone, some on caps, on shirts, binoculars and others on pants and eagerly sucking salts on these clothing. We only saw Hackberry Emperors, may be about 20 or so! Then came Angled wings, we must have seen some ten insects at least on a short stretch of the road. At least two I identified of them as Question Marks and others were too quick to identify. There were several hundreds of freshly emerged European Skippers. We also saw first Monarch of the year. A few Little Wood Satyr, Cabbage Whites, Eastern Tiger Swallowtails, two Black Swallowtails, (one we observed lay an egg on the flowers of Pastinaca sativa, Wild parsnip) Peck’s Skippers, a Little Glassywing, Eastern-tailed blue and an unidied hairstreak were other species that were seen.
We also observed a female Eastern Pondhawk chomp on Eastern Forktail male. We observed behavior of male Whitetails when the female arrived. Overall, it was a nice a day, until the rain approached around 3.00 PM.
Sunday morning, I spent three hours working in the garden on the Freese Road. While pulling weeds with vengeance, I listened to birds. There were fewer birds than in the previous years. Interestingly, there are at least five Baltimore oriole territories. Currently they are all singing somewhat similar phrases something like “your shoes are dirty” but I realize how they differ slightly. At least four of these birds are with distinct boundaries and sound something like this to me. 1. “your shoes are dirtee” 2. “shoes are silveree” 3. “shoes are still dirtee” 4. Fourth seemed to be more worried about teeth rather than shoes so he sings, “your teeth are dirty” and some variations on that”. To add to it all confusions the Scarlet tanager decided to sing “ Great, your teeth are great”. The unattended garden plots, including part of my garden are filled with Barberea and another species of mustard plants that are flowering right now. There was continuous background hum once the sun came out from the fog. There were hundreds of Honey Bees humming. At one point, I was thinking wow how fun this place would be for Bee-eaters and unfortunately, there are no bee-eaters here. As if as an answer to my thoughts, within a few seconds an Eastern Kingbird landed on a pole near me and swooped over the flowers. Often came up with nothing, but occasionally he found something which probably he swallowed it quickly. There were also Bank Swallows that are nesting on the banks of Fall Creek, chirping and twittering flying low over the fields. One interesting observation in recent times is that I have found Bank Swallows hunt in groups of threes or fours, while Tree Swallows can hunt individually. I was wondering why there is difference in behavior. I was hoping to hear some cuckoos but I heard none.
In the afternoon, I wanted to do some odonates. I wanted to explore some large creeks or rivers for Cruisers. Hence, I looked up Yahoo maps and decided to do Horseheads Marsh and Susquehanna River. However, later realized I won’t have much of time, so decided to stick to Horseheads Marsh and stop on the way back at Connecticut Hills. Here is the map of Horseheads Area.
http://maps.yahoo.com/#mvt=s&lat=42.182471&lon=-76.817619&zoom=15
I was going to explore both those water bodies. I found out that access to the largest water body was restricted, as it seems to belong to correctional facilities, so I explored only the marsh along railroads, that too only a small portion of it as I spent a whole lot of time observing behaviors of odonates.
The large marsh on the east of the railroad was filled thousands of dragonflies and major insects were Bluedashers. Also in good number were Halloween Pennants, Widow Skimmers, Eastern Pond Hawks, Dottail, Eastern Forktails and a few of Skimming Bluets, Hagen’s Bluet and an yet unidied bluet.
I had some fun observing the behaviors, I was photographing a male Halloween Pennant, and he was keeping watch on me while adjusting to his wings to sunlight. First a Cedar Waxwing flew over his head, I could see his head tilt upwards immediately to watch the waxwing. Then a little later a second one passed, again he tilted his head to look upwards. I could clearly say these were responses to flying Cedar Waxwings. I watched another Halloween Pennant catch an insect and chomp it down while making crunchy noises.
Nearby I found a female of Eastern Forktail with a male Eastern Forktail in her mouth. It was strange to see two heads looking at me. She had managed to find a male and start eating from his body end. I wanted to know if she would eat the head or not. I disturbed her with my movements while I was trying slowly to get different angle to photograph and she took off and I could not relocate her. While I was photographing her, I felt something is watching me, so I turned around to see a Canada gosling looking at me soulfully. I found his left leg was injured, either in an attack by a predator like may be a snapping turtle or got hit by a car and was bleeding, but looked like it had stopped bleeding and he was sitting there hidden hoping to heal the wound. With his eyes, he looked like pleading me to do something for him. I felt so sorry as I did not know what I could do. Once I found an injured deer in my driveway. So when I called the authority to do something about it. His response was to shoot it, so I did not want same thing to happen to this gosling and decided let nature take its course and not humans. Who knows his injury will heal in couple of days and he may be able to join his group again.
I watched oviposition (egg laying) behaviors of odonates. There were several species that were in either wheel or in tandem. I found at least three different pairs of Black Saddlebags (Tramea lacerate), several Halloween Pennants, Blue Dashers, Pondhawks, Widow Skimmer coming to lay eggs.
I spent time observed egg laying behavior of two pairs of Black Saddlebags. They flew over open portions of algae covered pond, and would fly in short jerky flights, as if like a galloping horse and would dip down towards water to lay eggs. When female was laying eggs, male released her for few seconds and grabbed her again once she finished laying eggs. First time I observed this, I thought she slipped away from his hold. Then later I found it was a regular behavior. I watched one pair do this six times in about 10-12 minutes. Therefore, I got curious and watched another pair to see if all Black saddlebags do this. Sure, enough, that seemed to be typical behavior, I was intrigued and was speculating why should he behave like this and came up with a couple of hypotheses. At home, I checked in the literature to see if such behaviors have been reported. Sure enough, it was mentioned for Tramea Carolina.
I also watched Halloween Pennant’s oviposition behaviors. The pair will fly around together and male seem to be directing females as to where to lay eggs. While flying if he found (I presume suitable habitat) he would fly down towards water and force female to turn her abdomen. Most often female curled and laid eggs by dipping her abdomen, while he remained attached to her and hovered. What a contrasting behavior between two of these similarly sized dragonflies. Why male of Saddlebag is so selfish as to not get eaten by the predator, while Halloween remained attached. Would be interesting to study the dynamics of these two insects.
There were so many Blue Dashers on the pond, may be in thousands, there was hardly any aggressive behavior between males or females I observed. Occasionally one would chase away other, but most of the time they sat side by side and flew close to each other over water. I had read about competition between males and harassing females by these species, but here on this pond it looked like there were plenty of females and males and I guess lot of suitable spots for everyone to raise their young, they did not need to fight with each other.
By about three PM, it started getting very dark in the west and heard some loud thundering, so decided I need to pack. As I reached my car, large drops of water came down and then it rained, so it was good timing. It was great fun watching the behaviors.
Cheers
Here in this slide show you can see some of the behaviors I have described!
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