On shore the Double-crested Cormorant looks a bit gangly, but they don’t look quite as prehistoric in the water. They are dark birds, but they have pretty aquamarine eyes on an orange face with a mouth that is bright blue inside (although I haven’t captured an image with their mouth open enough to see the blue mouth).
Double-crested Cormorant
The beaches are filling up with early vacationers for the Labor Day holiday, but there are some feathered friends on the beaches too.
Beachcomber
The hummingbirds and the orioles were frequent visitors at the sugar water feeders today, as it was another hot and humid day and they seemed extra thirsty. But the hot day didn’t stop them from fighting and chasing each other off so it wasn’t often that more than one hummingbird was drinking at the same time.
Finally Sharing the Feeder
This swallow looks a bit upset but at least not it isn’t swooping down and trying to scare me away.
Upset Swallow
This robin was waiting until the people left the area so it could take the large bug to its nest to feed its young.
Robin Bringing Lunch
The bright yellow feathers of the Yellow Warbler catches your eye but it is hard to photo this little bird as it hops around quickly looking for bugs. The females are less colorful and lack the chestnut stripes that the males have. But this warbler better watch where it lands in the tall grass as some have been caught in the strands of an orb weaver spider’s web.
Male Yellow Warbler
The orioles have been frequent visitors to my sugar water feeders, but they also spend time in the apple trees eating insects and nectar from the blossoms.
Oriole in Apple Blossoms
While the House Wren may be one of the tiny birds, it is rather mighty, territorial and aggressive as they will puncture eggs in nearby nests or even removing the eggs or young chicks. They will harass and peck larger birds and they sure holler at me when I get near one of their nests.
Mighty Little Wren
With the return of the Tree Swallows and the Gray Catbirds, most the birds have returned for another season. The Catbird may be making its nest near my porch and its calls do resemble a cat’s mew sound, but their songs may lasts ten minutes which includes imitations of birds and other things in addition to whistles and squeaks. Catbirds usually don’t repeat the phrases unlike the Brown Thrashers that normally repeat twice or the mockingbirds repeating three or more times.
Gray Catbird
Yesterday a couple of male Indigo Buntings arrived at my bird feeders. There might have been some females too, but the female’s brown color does not pop out like the male’s blue even though the males do not have blue pigment. The blue we see instead comes from microscopic structures that refract and reflect blue light in their feathers.
Male Indigo Bunting
