Carolina Wren - 1, Starlings - 0

In the winter, our little Carolina Wren loves to eat freeze-dried mealworms. She will pass up everything else just to get to those crunchy little treats. Unfortunately, since the ground is now frozen solid and covered in snow, our massive starling flocks (from the local night-time roost) have started showing up at the feeders. While the ground was soft, they were content to dig grubs and other invertebrates out of the earth and pass our feeders by, but now that the ground is frozen solid, the crunchy, protein-rich dried mealworms must be the next best thing to live grubs. Mealworms are the larval (or grub) stage of a beetle, so it only makes sense. When a daytime flock swoops in, the mealworms can disappear in minutes, and then our sweet little Carolina Wren is not happy...

"I'm not happy. Where are my well-deserved crunchy freeze-dried mealworms?"

"I've looked left...and I've looked right...but nary an amber-colored crunchy is to be seen!"

"...look harder little wren! I hid them to keep them safe for you..."

"...what's in here?"

"Mealworms! Hundreds of them, I tell you!"

"Now that's more like it!"

So far, the starlings have left the wicker birdhouse alone, and only the Carolina Wren has been brave enough to peer in and find what she was looking for. The birdhouse is only about 4 feet from the kitchen door, so that might be discouraging some of the birds. Our Carolina Wren, however, is never afraid! I'll let you know if this system continues to work...

A Dark-eyed Junco at odd angles...

This little Dark-eye Junco just wouldn't turn around. She was determined to stay out of the eye of the lens, but that made her all the more interesting!

I like this one because it almost captures that little "seed dance" they do. You can see the snow flying as she tries to rake up seeds buried in the snow.

A Red-shouldered Hawk and a Cooper's Hawk were around that day, and the Dark-eyed Junco was ever-vigilant looking skyward for a swoop from above!

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Snowy Egret feeding nestlings...

Birding Hilton Head Island, SC and Pinckney Island at the Ibis Pond Rookery

...continued from the Tricolored Heron takes a walk post.

Even though I try, I can't begin to describe the energy and wonder of the Ibis Pond rookery at the height of the nesting season. There are so many birds and so much action it's hard to decide where to point the camera. Noise is varied and nonstop, sometimes slipping into a state that can only be described as a cacophony, and when you mix in the pungent aroma of regurgitated fish guts spiking here and there as you walk around the mote...with the never ending beauty and variety of birds at every glance, it can actually start to feel like an assault on the senses (but it's a good assault that keeps you coming back for more)!

As the Tricolored Herons from an earlier post were learning to fly in the trees in front of me, to the left, in the trees growing along the mote (again, on our side!), several parents in a mini colony of Little Blue Herons and Snowy Egrets were busy feeding their young while others sat patiently on eggs. Here a Snowy Egret tends to nestlings.

...you can see how the baby's gular pouch has expanded to hold the food.

...and I think we have a glimpse of regurgitated fish guts here--sort of greenish grey. Yum. Just what the baby needs to get big and strong!

...the sun did a beautiful job highlighting the baby's gular pouch. Kind of cool...it was the first time I had ever seen the sun shine through the tiny pouch.

It looks like baby#2 has given up, but he's just resting. He was fed first!

These photos are from June 7, 2010. The rookery was not as far along as the same week last year, but there seemed to be more herons and egrets. It was strange that they had crossed over the mote and were nesting on our side. Not many people were visiting the rookery while I was there. It was hot...really hot...like 100 degrees F hot, so that might have kept people away, but those that did visit were respectful of the nesting birds and kept back. That was good to see. The rookery wasn't quite as pungent or noisy this year either, but I assume a week or so after I left, the noise increased, and as more and more babies hatched out, so too the wonderful smells!

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Juvenile Tricolored Heron at the Ibis Pond Rookery

Birding Hilton Head Island and Pinckney Island NWR, SC
In June, Matty, Rick and I spent a week on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. While Matty skimboarded and Rick played tennis, I headed to Pinckney Island to bird. I was there almost every day and have so many cool photos. This first series is of a juvenile Tricolored Heron waiting patiently for his mama or papa to bring him some lunch. He was the first bird I saw when I parked my bike and walked toward the Ibis Pond Rookery. I was shocked because he was on "our" side...not across the alligator mote on the unreachable island in the middle of Ibis Pond. Last year all the nests in the rookery were confined to the tiny island (click here for last year's 15 Pinckney Island posts), but this year, several Tricolored Heron families, Snowy Egret families, and Little Blue Heron families were nesting together in their own little colony on our side of the mote in the small trees near the water. The rookery had expanded...

This juvenile Tricolored Heron had already left the nest, but he was not old enough to fly out to the feeding grounds to find his own meal and still relied on his parents for regurgitated food.

Two of his siblings were hanging out in the treetops with him (they were about 20 feet off the ground, and their empty nest was about 7 feet off the ground). This fellow was getting very excited because he could see his mama or papa approaching...

Food!! Thank goodness...

He wanted more, but mama had other babies to feed...

...and other designs in mind. She seemed to be trying to get him to fly, and she stayed with him for a while, while he flapped his wings.

...eventually she took off and flew over to the other sibling.

In part 2 of this series, a sibling takes flight.

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Painted Buntings at Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge (BPW #42)

Birding Hilton Head Island, SC and Pinckney Island NWR

Yesterday we got back from our vacation to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. The trip was way too short. We left on Thursday, June 4, and made it as far as Columbia, then drove to Savannah on Friday and spent the day there, staying at the River Inn that evening. Savannah is a beautiful, old city, and we loved it! But more about that later…right now I’ve got to tell you a little about Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge and the beautiful Painted Buntings I found living there.

A Painted Bunting on Pinckney Island National Wildlife 

Refuge near Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

Can you believe the colors in this beautiful bird? These neo-tropical migrants look like they flew right off of an artist’s palette of pure pigment. And there were so many on the island! At one point they were practically dripping off the trees. I saw at least 8 while birding from the parking lot. I could also hear them everywhere. The first one I saw was just off 278 as I entered the park. I saw an Ibis in the grass and quickly pulled over to photograph him, but as I climbed out of the car, I heard a song resembling an Indigo Bunting. All it took was looking up in a tree in the direction of the song, and there he was. Literally, I had my life bird within 30 seconds of pulling into the reserve. This was going to be good….






Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge is located on a series of small islands just before you cross over onto Hilton Head Island. It is definitely a destination spot for any birder. It is also a rookery with well over 1,000 Ibises. Also nesting in the rookery are many types of herons and egrets. I’ll be talking more about it every day this week and sharing all the wonderful birds I saw...truly an amazing place.

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It's all about cuteness tonight...

After dinner, I thought I'd check on the Mute Swan couple to see if their babies had hatched. When I arrived at the small pond, I was disappointed to see an empty nest with two very large eggs on it. Something must have gone wrong because the couple was no where in sight. Then I looked up again and mama and papa slid gracefully from around the bend...and five little cygnets followed behind!




They were about 25 feet from the shore, so I went to the water's edge and sat very still hoping they would swim over to their nest. After almost 15 minutes, they started working their way over, and mama led them right into the little cove where their nest was hidden! The water was shallow and thick with algae, and she started rocking back and forth using her feet to churn up the algae and mud. The babies were rocked around a bit in the turbulence, but they seemed to be having fun and were getting very dirty in the process. It was exciting to watch. It looked like they were taking a great big mud bath, but my guess is mama was helping bring algae to the surface to make it easier for the babies to eat.

Click to enlarge for a better view of the messy little cygnet (you could almost 

put a little bowl on this one's head and pretend the algae was spaghetti).

After another five minutes or so, they slid back out to the open water, stopping to take little baths along the way to wash the mud and algae from their down and feathers.