The sweetness of a soft spring...

…there has been a softness to spring this year along the Little Miami River in the form of shadows, raindrops and diffused light. Spring has trod lightly, sympathetic and undemanding of the sun and its meager attempts to break through heavy dark clouds. Cloaked in mist and raindrops, Spring’s sweetness has flowed in blooms glowing in the half-light, delivering a saturated color achievable only without the glare of a strengthening sun…

Wild geraniums (Geranium maculatum) bloom in the hollows of a rain-soaked hillside along the Little Miami River.

Ten anthers dotted with bright yellow pollen...

...sleepy, droopy Wild Geranium buds waiting to be coaxed awake.

...a Geranium maculatum blossom shows as soft and misty as the overcast day.

...the saturated color of an unfurled blossom is hard to pass by.

With nonstop chatter and buzzing, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers are one of the first spring migrants to arrive on the scene along the Little Miami River, blending into the remnants of winter with their blue-gray feathers and tiny, round bodies, but by mid May they can sometimes seem out of style. Their soft blue-gray color is easily overshadowed by the riot of spring as we search out the reds, oranges, yellows and vibrant blues of later-arriving neotropicals, but this spring…the gnatcatchers continue to hold their own…sweet and soft in the continuous gloom…

...a male Blue-gray Gnatcatcher perches lightly surrounded by the lush green of spring.

...a month or so earlier he was still surrounded by winter's gray...

...standing bright in the gloom of a rainy afternoon...

Polioptila caerulea commands a soft spring along the Little Miami...

…and although there’s a soft, lovely romance in a rainy spring…and walking the woods while tiny raindrops drum out an old, soothing rhythm on the umbrella is nice, I’m still ready for some SUN!!

p.s. Rick just read this post and said I'm trying to sugarcoat the sogginess of the situation...(and he might be right! It's raining and 49 degrees...where's the sun?).

A Scarlet Tanager in a Buckeye Tree

...a light patter of raindrops was falling against the dome of our oversized umbrella as we walked the Little Miami trail listening to the evening songs of Wood Thrushes and other wood warblers. "I hope we see a male Scarlet Tanager," I said to Rick. "I haven't seen one yet this year, and he would be beautiful in the rain." We walked on and saw lots of birds, but no tanager. Eventually it stopped raining and the sun came out in a fitful burst to light the treetops and help dry the rain, and suddenly, there he was...fiery crimson in the buckeye tree...

A male Scarlet Tanager radiates color in the shadows of evening along the Little Miami River.

...in its only appearance of the day, a shaft of the sun's light makes it through the canopy and ignites the bird's feathers against the yellows and greens of the buckeye tree's leaves.

...even though a shaft of sunlight was highlighting the bird, the evening sun was weak and the low light required a high ISO, draining the photo of detail (but to me a fuzzy Scarlet Tanager is better than no tanager at all...).

Of all the spring migrants, Scarlet Tanagers hold a special place in my heart. They were the first "exotic" bird I learned as a child. When I was really young, my parents hung an Audubon print of the Scarlet Tanager in my bedroom. I loved that old-fashioned print, and I loved knowing that the fiery red bird with coal black wings was a Scarlet Tanager. It was a beautiful bird and had a beautiful sounding name (I also remember wondering why none of my friends loved the bird or thought the painting was cool...).

Today when I looked at my fuzzy photos, I fell in love with the bird all over again. The contrast between the bright crimson and the spring greens sparked ideas in my head, and I couldn't put the oil pastels down and decided to go for grungy impressionism...

Painting 147. Scarlet Tanager in the Buckeye Tree

(Oil Pastel, 10x7 Sennelier Oil Pastel paper)

Painting 148. Scarlet Tanager Looking Up

(Oil Pastel, 10x8 Sennelier Oil Pastel paper)

Painting 149. Scarlet Tanager From Behind

(Oil Pastel, 10x8 Sennelier Oil Pastel paper)

...one more Scarlet Tanager story, and then I'll be quiet! In the early 90s I was birding at Sharon Woods in Hamilton County with my parents and my Grandma B. It was the first time Grandma had ever been "birding," and while we were walking, I said to her, "If we're lucky you'll get to see a Scarlet Tanager!" Of course, I knew the chances of that were slim because it was midsummer and the leaves were thick...and the canopy where the tanagers usually hung out was extremely high, but...Grandma with her Irish-Lass-Luck lucked out. Within seconds of the words leaving my mouth a male Scarlet flew down and landed on a branch no more than 3 feet away...and at eye level!!! We all stood there stunned and stared at the bird for over a minute. He was so gorgeous and so close...and just perched there watching us as we watched him. It's never happened since. I used to go to Sharon Woods all the time and walk that trail. I'd stop every time I got to that spot and watch and wait...

...and I still have an Audubon print of a Scarlet Tanager in my bedroom (it's a bigger print, and it's in the bathroom, but it's there!).

To see bird photos from around the world, visit...

...a quick sketch of a watery spring wren

Painting 146. Spring Wren Dripping Waterdrops

(Watercolor, 9x10 Arches Cold Pressed 140 lb paper)

Spritely behind leaves...

Spring wren dripping waterdrops

...has a job to do.

Same butterfly, different styles

Painting 145. Yellow Butterfly on Red Geranium II

(Watercolor heightened with colored pencil, 10x7 Arches Cold Pressed 140 lb paper)

Painting 144. Yellow Butterfly on Red Geranium

(Oil Pastel, 9x12 Sennelier Oil Pastel paper)

Yesterday we had a taste of summer's heat before a cold front moved in and blew it all away, but the seed was planted, and warm sunshine and sunshine-y butterflies were in my imagination waiting to get out. I'm also taking a watercolor journaling class with Laure Ferlita called An Imaginary Trip to the Garden, and part of our assignment was butterflies. After I finished the journaling assignment, I took one of the extra photos and got my oil pastels out...intense color and a fleeting impression was what I had in mind, and painting 144, Yellow Butterfly on Red Geranium was a the result. After that, I created a very loose and impressionistic watercolor painting, then heightened it with colored pencil, which became painting 145...

The Dance of the Reddish Egret

...from the Captiva Island, Florida posts.

Birding Sanibel Island and the J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge

A soft breeze was pushing across the shallow waters of the eastern impoundment of the tidal basins off Wildlife Drive in the Ding Darling NWR, ruffling our hair and providing cooling relief from the ever-strengthening sun overhead. It was quiet, and an adult and juvenile Pied-billed Grebe were bobbing and preening in the shallow saltwater tidal flats on the right side of the rode--the Pine Island Sound side. Matty and I were crouched in shaggy grass behind a small red mangrove stand watching the two birds, captivated by the baby as he dove every now and then under the water only to pop up nearby, water beading and dripping from his dull brown feathers (just like his mama!). Eventually, however, a bird on the other side of the drive--the eastern impoundment side, which is the brackish freshwater basin, stole our attention and pulled us across the road and into the breeze. "What is that bird doing?" Matty asked. "Dancing!" I told him, "...and fishing..." Matty had spotted one of the birds I wanted us to see most that day, a Reddish Egret (our rarest egret), and even better, the reddish-bluish bird with a half pink and half black bill was doing his famous dance!

...a Reddish Egret runs in circles and "dances" through the shallows of the eastern impoundment along Wildlife Drive at Ding Darling. He's not just having fun...or running away in terror from an alligator, he's employing the same foraging techniques used by his ancestors for centuries.

A Reddish Egret raises its wings to form a canopy over the water, casting a shadow that reduces the sun's glare, making it easier for the bird to see the fish in the water. The shadow also lures in small fish and frogs, tricking them into its "protective" shelter.

...prancing and hopping around in the shallow water with wings outstretched and flapping, running back and forth in his own ballet...all to drum up a little lunch!

...every now and then he pauses from the dance and assumes the canopy stance...luring in the unsuspecting prey churned up from his spastic movements. He also may shuffle his feet a bit to stir up the mud, releasing other tasty creatures.

...flicking the wings...and prancing....

...more flicking of the wings...and prancing...

...charging through the water... (These shots always make me laugh. It looks like he's shrieking in the stereotypical "I just saw a mouse" posture...or maybe the standard, "snake...")

...getting ready...

...direct hit!

Matty and I saw this bird on March 22, 2011. For last year's visit to Longboat Key, Florida, and another post on the Reddish Egret's fishing dance, click here.

Dunlins hunting in the mudflats...

...from the Captiva Island, Florida posts.

Birding Sanibel Island and the J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge

While two little Dunlins were busy scouring the muddy shores of one of the salt-water marshes and mudflats in the Ding Darling NWR, Matty and I were watching a Reddish Egret hunting and dancing in the blue waters much farther out. We didn't even know the two "best buds" were so close until we happened to look down. A total surprise, they were about 15-20 feet away, systematically probing the soft, creamy mud for invertebrates...

...could these little sandpipers be any sweeter? I love Dunlins with their gently down-curving bills and their beautiful little faces.

Although still mostly garbed in his dull, "dun," non-breeding winter colors, the beautiful russets and reds of his spring breeding plumage are starting to show.

Dunlins are predominantly visual hunters (pecking) during the day and tactile hunters (probing) at night. Matty and I sat on the grassy embankment and watched the Dunlins for a long time. We saw both feeding methods. Maybe because the mud was so soft and creamy they did a lot of tactile feeding, their long bills resembling straws that let them probe deep into the muck and slurp up their prey!

Click here to read a very interesting article about the Dunlin's hunting methods in the Journal of Avian Biology 25: 55-62 by K. N. Mouritsen titled, "Day and night feeding in Dunlins Calidris alpina: choice of habitat, foraging technique and prey."

I don't think this is the Stink Eye. I think it's a curious What's-making-that-clicking-sound-above-me Eye!

Matty and I watched these birds on March 21, 2011. It was so warm in the Florida sun, and we were able to sit down, relax and just study the little birds. Such a welcome relief from the cold, nasty weather still waiting for us back home...

Usually when we saw the Dunlins at Ding Darling, they were in huge mixed flocks out on the mudflats, but these two birds were hanging by themselves. Sometimes they would split up for a few minutes, but they always came back together. At one point, we were further down the road watching a Tri-colored Heron, when a large flock of Dunlins ripped over our heads trailing energy, sound and even a breeze in their wake. It was so sudden and unexpected--and the experience was made even more thrilling because they flew from back to front and only a few feet over our heads. It was like all the energy of their flock washed over us. In a split second they were in front of us zipping and turning together at breakneck speed, flashing and zig-zagging until they lighted on the mudflat further out in the marsh. It was the first time I ever felt that kind of energy...I'll never forget it.

P.S. After dinner this evening Rick and I headed over to the Little Miami River to see what neotropical migrants we could find, and...oh my gosh...first up was a Canada Warbler!! He was so gorgeous...and SO CLOSE...and stayed around for so long. Even Rick the Reluctant Birder was sold. We then saw a Black-throated Green Warbler, a Blackburnian Warbler, two Wood Thrushes, two Hermit Thrushes, a Swainson's Thrush! (directly overhead), an Ovenbird (really, really close too)...our Northern Parula was still there, a Baltimore Oriole, Red-eyed Vireos...tons of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, two Phoebes...an Eastern Wood Pewee...a Barred Owl...the list goes on and on. Rick attributes the incredible views of the Canada Warbler to the fact I didn't have my camera with me. It was misty...and foggy...and evening was falling hard, so I thought I'd be "free" and just bird with binocs. I knew not having the camera would guarantee something cool...

A Cormorant taking off from the water...doing the Cormorant Hop!

...back to the Captiva Island, Florida posts!
Birding Sanibel Island and the J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge
Cormorants are always fun to watch. I like to follow them when they are diving for fish, but watching their take-offs is sometimes even more entertaining. They don't pitter-pat, pitter-pat, pitter pat across the water in a running motion before eventually hauling their stout and dripping wet bodies out of the water and into the air--they hop, hop, HOP!

A Double-crested Cormorant swims the waters of the Ding Darling NWR.

His sparkling turquoise-colored eyes and orangish face mask command attention...

...hmmmm...that water looks like it's starting to boil. Something must be going on with those feet!

SPLASH! Cormorants use both feet at the same time to push off the water when they are taking off, basically hopping their way in huge leaps across the water. If you follow the splashes you can see this fellow's progress...a big splash, then undisturbed water, then another big splash, etc. (One of my favorite bird reference books is the National Geographic Reference Atlas to the Birds of North America by Mel Baughman. I like this book because is discusses bird behavior and general information instead of bird ID. You can read more about the cormorant's take-off method in this book.)

...the hops are getting further apart...and you can see his two feet working together!

...do we have lift off?

...no, but almost...one more really big hop should do it...

...see you later C-bird!

...these photos were taken on March 22, 2011 at the Ding Darling NWR on Sanibel Island, Florida. It was so beautiful...warm, sunny, and blue!