Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Saturday at the Little Miami Bike Trail

It’s been flurrying all day today and very cold, but Saturday it was mild and beautiful! Rick and I had a little extra time, so we ran over to the Little Miami Bike trail for a quick bit of birding. It was fun!

It was a gorgeous day. You can see things are just 
beginning to green up (although after today’s grey, 
cold, snowflurries, who knows what’s in store).

We had only walked a couple hundred feet when we saw a Red-bellied Woodpecker couple foraging together, the male very closely shadowing the female (mate-guarding behavior), and then a little further down the trail, a pair of downies were doing the same thing. It was fun to watch them, the male constantly following after the female, or sometimes, the male would fly off to another tree and the female would follow.

One half of the downy pair, the male had a watchful eye on the female!

A little further down we found this freshly excavated 
nesting cavity, but no one was around. I’ll have 
to keep watch to see if any birds take up residence!

On the way back, as we got closer to the Powder Factory, we heard the buzzy chatter of a couple of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, the first sighting of the year!! Hanging out with them was a Golden-crowned Kinglet. Rick got photos of them, but they aren’t as good as the kinglet I photographed on Sunday! :-P

I love Blue-gray Gnatcatchers. They are always 
singing, making noise, and moving all over the 
place, plus they are another bird of summer. 

On Saturday I was happy to have this photo, 
but after Sunday, the bar was raised! 

13 comments:

Shelley said...

That downy woodpecker photo was great! Curious to see who's nesting in that tree cavity!!

Laure Ferlita said...

Sounds like a friendly competition is heating up between you and Rick! Love your little gnatcatcher! We don't have those here - that I know of!

Kim said...

I too am curiuos on who is going to be nesting in the cavity. Love the picture of the gnatcather!

Anonymous said...

Looks like a great place to get out and do a little birding. Thanks for taking us along.

Kelly said...

Shelley....Rick got a great capture of the woodpecker. He usually does!

Laure...haha! yes...but not really. His photos are ALWAYS better than mine! So we had to laugh when I caught a kinglet you can actually see.

Kim...I'll keep my eyes open!!

Steve...it's only 5 minutes from our house and that makes it even more nice. It's a hidden gem I'll talk about more as the spring migrants start arriving.

Phil and Mandy said...

lovely photos once again, nice olace to visit.

Chris said...

wow I love these woodpeckers of yours. Awesome if you found the nest, you can again follow them all over the season. Cool!

Mary said...

Very cute downy :-) I've never seen a gnatcatcher...great! I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who takes photos of holes in trees...and wonders who belongs to them. I seldom find out.

Kelly said...

...thanks, Phil...Rick gets credit for these!

Chris...I hope something lives there. I would love to be able to go there everyday to check the progress.

Mary...that's funny! Woodpecker holes are so cool, I thought everyone took pics of them! Gnatcatchers are cute...they don't sit still and are vocal!

Anonymous said...

That's a great Woodpecker image Kelly. Isn't it amazing how they can excavate that hole in the tree.

FAB said...

I could just see myself walking that trail. Looking forward to any follow ups. Cheers FAB

Jayne said...

What a great nest cavity someone excavated! Looking forward to seeing what nests there. I've had one gnatcatcher and only got a brief glimpse of him.

Kelly said...

Roy...yes, it amazes me, which reminds me I want to research that a bit. Thanks!

FAB...it's a wonderful trail...follows the Little Miami River and works as a migrant magnet. I'll need to write a little about that too...

Jayne...I hope someone moves in so we can watch!!