With several nests of orioles, apparently most of the babies survived as there is a dozen or more young orioles lined up on the porch waiting, not always very patiently, for their turn at the feeders and I have trouble keeping them filled.
Young Oriole Eating
When seeing this Great Blue Heron from a distance, I thought it was stuck in a piece of driftwood until I realized it was his wings I was seeing. I had never spotting a heron sunning his wings before so it was an interesting pose to capture.
Birds assume one of several wing postures to sun – such as spread wing, droop wing and delta wing. I believe this pose is referred to as the delta wing sunning pose. Besides sunning, the wings may be held out to dry it feathers, lose heat, show off to rivals or to shades its eggs or babies.
Heron Catching Some Sun
When I approached my pond to take the picture of the Blueflag blooming, I scared up a bird that was near the flowers and although the bird floated like a duck, it wasn’t a duck as it doesn’t have webbed feet. Belonging to the rail family, the American Coot walks like a chicken but swims like a duck and is also called a mud hen. They have big feet with lobed toes and to take flight, the clumsy flier must patter across the water to get airborne which is probably why it didn’t fly off like the ducks do when I go near the pond.
American Coot
While not a returning summer bird, the appearance of a Pileated Woodpecker is not real common in my yard but they are rather noisy when they do show up. The Pileated Woodpecker is a very large woodpecker, with a wingspan nearing 30 inches and has a long neck and a triangular crest that sweeps off the back of the head. It reminds me more of a prehistoric bird than a woodpecker. They dig rectangular holes in trees to find ants and yesterday this woodpecker was checking out my raised garden beds made out of fallen trees, but he must not have found any ants as he didn’t stay long.
Pileated Woodpecker
The little house wrens returned more than a week ago, but you didn’t hear their loud singing during the cold, rainy week. Now that the sun returned today, the yard is filled with their song again and soon they will start building their nests. The House Wren has one of the largest ranges of any songbird in the New World so many yards see the fierce little warrior.
Noisy Little Bird
Another warm spring day has the birds returning and singing joyfully. A new arrvial is the Brown Thrasher, a bird which mimics other birds and songs in a series of doubled phrases. They have a extremely varied repertoire of more than 1,100 different song types and include imitations of other birds.
Songster Singing
Just twenty miles north of my place, there was no snow yesterday and I spotted a Red-winged Blackbird on a cattail stalk singing the spring tune. But there is no singing here and even the geese have left my pond as it was cold enough overnight to create an ice layer. I haven’t heard the other summertime birds, like the bluebirds or killdeers, this morning either as they are probably wondering why they came north too soon. The forecast calls for more snow tonight and tomorrow so probably no blackbird spring serenade near my pond until the snow is gone.
Songless Red-winged Blackbird
For the last week, I have heard Sandhill Cranes way up in the sky but haven’t spotted them as they can be heard up to 2.5 miles away. And while some of my property is rather marshy at the moment from the snow runoff and recent rains, I don’t have the wetland habit large enough for them to nest in so I have to see them on other marshes and bogs.
Their long windpipe create the crane’s unique tone of their trumpeting sound and their long legs provide the graceful courting dances, as well as stepping through a wet meadow with ease. But their long legs will come in handy tomorrow night will possible foot of snow falling so they just might want to head south again for a few more weeks.
Sandhill Cranes
The Great Backyard Bird Count started Friday and ends today and they give you tips on how to count the birds you see but with the hundred or so finches, that is rather tough especially since about the time a majority of the birds land at the feeders, my cats on the porch jump up and scatter the flock and then you have to start the count all over again. It is easier when you see just one bird like this heron, who seems to be ignoring the rushing river in the background.
Heron Near Rushing River
The other day I had a lone Redpoll at my bird feeder. Normally they come in a large group but only stay for a short time so I don’t know if this female was on a scouting trip to see where there are feeders and if I will be invaded soon. At the moment, there wouldn’t be room for anymore birds as the finches are stocking up on seeds while it is snowing.
And while a lot of the birds go south for the winter, the Common Redpolls do to, but their southern range is here in the cold winter areas and not the sunny warm areas. Their summer range is on the lands around the Arctic Ocean. Common Redpolls can survive temperatures of –65 degrees Fahrenheit and will tunnel into the snow down four inches and more than a foot long to stay warm during the night.
Common Redpoll
