Paintings 25, 28 and 29 - Studies of a Female Black and White Warbler

I love Black and White Warblers and see and hear them a lot on the Little Miami Trail. They haven't arrived yet, though, but I keep watching for them. These studies are from a bird I saw at Clear Creek Metropark in Hocking Hills (southeastern Ohio) last July. I hope to go back there this summer. I loved my time there and saw so many cool birds, moths, and butterflies.

These paintings are part of the 100 Paintings in a Year Challenge.

Orange on orange...

Just a quick little post...deep in the meadow, this sprig of Butterfly Weed was pushing through the grass. Neon orange in a sea of lime green, the colors shout summer! The Great Spangled Fritillary perched on top was taking it all in stride, sipping nectar from the blossoms, unaware of his own beauty.

I learned from my "Wildflowers of Ohio Field Guide" by Stan Tekiela, that Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) is in the Milkweed family. It is found in meadows and prairies, and along roadsides blazing in the hot sun. It is a true milkweed, but it does not have milky sap. If broken, the stem and leaves ooze clear sap. "Tuberosa" refers to its large tap root, which makes it very difficult (if not impossible) to transplant. Sowing seeds is better. I just bought a Butterfly Weed plant from the local nursery. It was the last one they had and was flowerless and bedraggled. I hope it can come back. If not. I'm going to sow seeds next year. It is a host plant for Gray Hairstreak and Monarch butterfly caterpillars. Yeah!

A homely little House Wren? (BPW #49)

Birding Hocking Hills in Southeastern Ohio

...continued from the Eastern Towhee post.

This little bird was anything but homely when he started singing, and when you add in mama and three juveniles, you really have a show! While I was watching Common Yellowthroats in the meadow in front of me, a family of House Wrens started acting up in the trees along the bank of Clear Creek behind me. They were all making a clamor, singing and shaking and flitting all over the place, cute—and noisy—as can be.

"I'm a wren...and I love to sing...and I have

such a pretty song, so I'll sing some more!"

"But I can also make a ruckus with non-stop

scolding...and it's not quite as pretty!"

In Lang Elliot’s book “Music of the Birds, a Celebration of Birdsong,” Elliot includes a quote by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow from his epic poem “Evangeline” (1847) that he feels could have been written about the song of a House Wren (in the poem, Longfellow attributes the song to a mockingbird):

“…from a neighboring thicket the wildest of singers, swinging aloft on a willow spray that hung over the water, shook from his little throat such floods of delirious music that the whole air and woods and waves seemed silent to listen.”

Standing about 15 feet from this little family, I was amazed at how much noise they could make. I think Longfellow's poem better describes a House Wren too. With all their singing, shaking, and moving all around, they were very fun to watch!

Mama and papa had taught the babies well, because the entire family was gleaning insects and spiders from the undersides of leaves, but every now and then papa would feed a baby still.

"I see...a spider!"

...perfect insect-gleaning form!

Hummingbird Clearwing Moth (Hemaris thysbe) and Snowberry Clearwing Hummingbird Moth (Hemaris diffinis)

Birding Hocking Hills in Southeastern Ohio

...continued from the Great Spangled Fritillary post.

I remember the first time I ever saw a Hummingbird Clearwing Moth. It was 19 years ago in the backyard of our first house. I was standing by a patch of Black-eyed Susans when he flew up to a blossom. “Ohhhh, a hummingbird!” I thought. Until I looked closer and realized it was most definitely not a hummingbird. I remember it frightened me in a “something’s gone awry in nature” way because it looked like neither a bird nor an insect, and to top it off, it had fur (or at least is looked like it did)! I watched him for a while as he quickly went from flower to flower, until it suddenly dawned on me that he might be a bee and have a really big stinger, so I high-tailed it out of there and called mom. I can’t remember if she knew what he was or not, but I do remember a few days later I read an article in the paper about Hummingbird Moths and have thought they were really cool ever since.

I found this furry-looking Hummingbird Clearwing 

Moth (Hemaris thysbe) at the Clear Creak Metro Park 

on the Creekside Meadow trail.

Hummingbird Clearwing Moths are

often called “Common Clearwings.”

I love his little curled-up proboscis.

In my new National Audubon Society “Field Guide

to Insects and Spiders,” I read that the wings are

“plum-red” to “brownish black” at first, but the scales

drop off after the first flight leaving the clear areas.

Hummingbird Clearwing Moths can be found

around forest edges, meadows, and cultivated

flower gardens. They like nectaring on

Phlox and Bee Balm.

Check out this fellow. He’s smaller than a Common Clearwing and is called a Snowberry Clearwing Hummingbird Moth.

Nectaring on Bee Balm, I found this Snowberry 

Clearwing Hummingbird Moth (Hemaris diffinis) 

at the meadow's edge on the Prairie Warbler trail.

With such an interesting little 

masked face, he's hard to resist.

Eastern Towhee...that beautiful red eye gets me every time!

Birding Hocking Hills in Southeastern Ohio

...continued from the Grey Catbird post.

Gravel crunching under my feet is always a good sound. Crunch, crunch, crunch…I love it, but that morning it was obscuring the “witchety—witchety —witchety—woo” of my suddenly new favorite bird, the Common Yellowthroat. Sidestepping into the soft, green grass, my footsteps quieted, allowing me to listen to the yellowthroat's song fade as I left the meadow and headed into a brushy, wooded edge. On my left, the watery sounds of the slow-moving Clear Creek led me down the path and made me smile. Every now and then, I'd stop and peer over the edge just to make sure the water was still clear (and maybe see a Great Blue Heron or Kingfisher). Further down the path, I slowed as I inhaled that musty wet-wood smell that clings in the air around old wooden structures and was not surprised when I saw a worn footbridge up ahead. Not hurrying over it, I enjoyed the scent and the scenery, but eventually moved on. Only two steps off the bridge, however, a familiar scuffing and scraping sound made me stop. To my right I could see a glimpse of a rufous side through the breaks in the leaves. Quiet and still, I watched as he kicked through the leaf litter. Suddenly, he popped up on a branch, eye-level, and sang, and it wasn’t the definitive “Drink your tea-eeee” song I love to hear the Eastern Towhees sing. It was another song, very pretty, and as he sang, he didn't see me as I admired how the red of his eyes intensified each time he moved through a beam of sunlight. But soon enough he heard me, because at the first click of the camera's shutter, he looked my way. I assumed he would bolt, but he didn’t. He listened as I clicked again…and again, more curious than wary, his extraordinary red eye glowing like a tiny glass marble lit from the inside.

The most cooperative Eastern Towhee I've ever seen!

"Look at me...look at my gorgeous eye...

I'll even sing for you."

Clear Creek Metro Park was fast becoming

the Pinckney Island of the midwest!

Eventually the Eastern Towhee started singing

his beloved "Drink your tea-eeee" song.

Singing his "other song," his feathers were quite

ruffled. I think he was telling another male Eastern

Towhee to move on and find his own territory.

A Great Spangled Fritillary nectaring on Wild Bergamot (Bee Balm)

Birding Hocking Hills in Southeastern Ohio

...continued from the Pipevine Swallowtail post.

Again, the Creekside Meadows Trail led me to another beautiful sight. Apparently, acres and acres of grass and wildflowers will do that.

"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly, "one

must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."

~Hans Christian Anderson

Pipevine Swallowtail Nectaring on Common Milkweed

Birding Hocking Hills in Southeastern Ohio
...continued from the Catbird post.
While watching a Gray Catbird on the Creekside Meadows trail in Clear Creek Metro Park, I saw this beautiful butterfly off in the distance. I kept my eye on him hoping he would come in a little closer. He came in a little, but mostly kept his distance, constantly moving from blossom to blossom and seeming wary.

A stunning Pipevine Swallowtail sips nectar from a

Common Milkweed blossom. I've got to plant this native

wildflower in my garden! I saw several species of

butterflies nectaring from its fragrant flowers. I also

saw Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and Hummingbird

Clearwing Moths sipping nectar from it.

To us, the blue and orange against black is extraordinarily beautiful, but to a bird, the color combination says “Look, but don’t eat!” While it's a caterpillar, the Pipevine Swallowtail stores toxins in its body from its pipevine host plant, making him unpalatable to birds. Because of this, birds usually leave him alone. In Ohio, five other butterflies have evolved the same color pattern. By mimicking the color combination of the Pipevine Swallowtail, these other species gain protection from predators.

Common Milkweed is the host plant for Monarchs.

Female Monarchs lay just one egg per plant under

a leaf. Monarch caterpillars ingest and store toxins

from the Common Milkweed plant just as Pipevine

caterpillars do from pipevine plants. Birds soon

learn to leave Monarchs alone too.

Zebra Swallowtails love nectaring on Common Milkweed also. When I was at Strouds Run, a gorgeous Zebra Swallowtail hung around for quite a while, going over each blossom carefully.

Gray Catbirds at Clear Creek Metro Park in Southeast Ohio

Birding Hocking Hills in Southeastern Ohio

...continued from the post on Black and White Warblers.
Gray Catbirds…I just love it when I hear that distinctive “mew” from the bushes. Here in Cincy, I don’t hear it that often. Gray Catbirds are on the Little Miami Trail, but usually just one or two at a time (and not every time I go), but in Hocking Hills, they were everywhere! And predictably, just like at an earlier visit at Strouds Run State Park, the little piggies were never too far from the blackberry bushes!

If you lived in the Hocking Hills area, you might become immune to these gorgeous birds because they are so numerous, but for me, seeing them all over the place was a treat.

Walking on the Creekside Meadows trail, it was no surprise when I heard that familiar mew and saw my first of many Gray Catbirds take off for cover in the thick, grapevine-cluttered brushy edge. What did surprise me, however, was the repertoire of lovely whistled song that followed. Being a mimic like the Northern Mockingbird and Brown Thrasher, Catbirds can let loose with lots of different songs, and I've heard a few of them on the Little Miami River trail, but they were never as pretty as those I heard at Clear Creek Metro Park! All day long and in different locations in the park I would suddenly hear an unfamiliar song coming from the brush. I wouldn't recognize the notes, but I would recognize the pitch…and soon enough I’d see that familiar gray shadow singing behind leaves in a tangle of branches.

This photo shows a little of that bright flash of red feathers under his tail.

I saw more Gray Catbirds in five days in Hocking Hills than I've seen in my life in Cincinnati!

This is how I would normally see the Catbirds. Hidden away in the brush, skulking behind leaves.

With all the berry eating I've been talking about, you would think I would have been able to capture lots of the cutie-pies plucking off the juicy fruits and swallowing them down, but I couldn't. When eating, the Catbirds preferred the privacy of the hedge, being secretive and shy, but this fellow messed up. He was so into his juicy red fruit he didn't see me standing just below him, and me.....panicked....and hurrying to catch him in the act, caught only so-so photos.

Look at that juicy red blackberry in his bill.

If you look closely you can see red berry juice

all over his bill and the feathers around his mouth...

A total berryfest.

A bummer of a photo, but you can see the red

berry juice around his bill and in his feathers...and

you can see where it's run all down his chest. It

cracks me up, and lets you see how crazy

these birds were for the fruit.

Female Black and White Warbler exhibiting her nuthatch-like behavior at Clear Creek Metro Park in Hocking Hills

Birding Hocking Hills in Southeastern Ohio
…continued from yesterday’s post on the Common Yellowthroat.
After hitting the mother load of Common Yellowthroats yesterday I had to go back to Clear Creek Metro Park again today to see if I’d luck out again. I started from the Creekside Meadows parking lot and took the trail to the right. I really hadn’t walked too far in when I saw a Black and White Warbler creeping up and down a tree. Yesterday, I caught sight of a Black and White Warbler briefly while I was watching Common Yellowthroats, but I wasn’t able to photograph her, so I was really happy to see her again today.

A female Black and White Warbler creeps down a tree. Black 

and White Warblers are known for their nuthatch-like behavior. 

(You can tell this is a female because she 

has a grey cheek, males have a black cheek.)

Female Black and White Warblers build their nests on the 

ground near the base of a tree, usually well hidden by leaves. 

Maybe that's why she's always walking down trees ;-)

I love Black and White Warblers. I find them regularly on the Little Miami Bike Trail, but I’ve never been able to photograph one, so you can imagine what I was feeling when this Black and White female decided to glean insects off the bark right in front of me!

This little female spent more time going down the tree than up! 

She was very thorough as she worked over the bark and 

really resembled a White-breasted Nuthatch while she worked!

...don't stick your head in that hole, Mrs. Black and White 

Warbler. It might get stuck, and that would not be good! 

I had other luck in the park today as well, but I didn’t see a Cerulean Warbler. They are supposed to be everywhere in this part of Ohio, but the naturalist said in the past couple of days they haven't been singing as much as they did earlier in the season. I did hear a Cerulean Warbler sing four times in the huge Sycamore trees by Clear Creek, but I didn’t see him, so I can’t include him in my count (also...I’ve never heard his call in person—just on CD, so I can't be sure, but it sounded just like the CD!) I did, however, see and hear a Worm-eating Warbler, which is another lifer for me! I had taken the Hemlock Trail to the other side of the road away from the meadows and Clear Creek. This trail wound through the bottom of a Hemlock-forested ravine and hugged a small brook. The temps were significantly cooler and the breeze felt so good sweeping through. While standing on a tiny bridge that crossed over the slow-moving brook, I noticed an area where leaves had caught on branches from a fallen tree, isolating part of the brook and making it a perfect place for a small bird to get a drink, so I decided to watch a bit. As soon as I looked through the binocs I saw movement and there he was! He didn’t stay around long, though. The entire time I was walking in the ravine, a Hooded Warbler was singing...very loudly! Yesterday I got one brief look at his beautiful eyes and face, but today I heard him over and over, and recorded him on my iPhone. I don't know how to get that file to my computer yet. I'll have to do that when I get home. 

p.s. Worm-eating Warblers, like Black and White Warblers, also nest on the ground.

Common Yellowthroats at Clear Creek Metro Park in Hocking Hills

Birding Hocking Hills in Southeastern Ohio
...continued from the Strouds Run State Park post.
A friend emailed me this morning recommending I visit Clear Creek Metro Park for spectacular birding, and WOW! am I glad I did. Within minutes of leaving the parking lot and starting down the Creekside Meadows trail I heard the first of at least 25 male Common Yellowthroats. I know Common Yellowthroats are one of Ohio’s most abundant breeding warblers, but I’ve never seen so many in one place. On top of that it was my first sighting of the year, so I was very happy.

Common Yellowthroats were all over the Creekside Meadows 

Trail at Clear Creek Metro Park singing and calling.

This fellow was singing in the meadow among Joe Pye Weeds.

I can see why Joe Pye Weed is sometimes called 

Queen-of-the-meadow. It rises above most of the other 

wildflowers. The Common Yellowthroats liked climbing 

up their sturdy stems and perching and singing at the top.

"Camera lady...are you quite through yet?"

The Creekside Meadows trail is beautiful (and easy to walk, which was good for my foot). To the left of the trail is a gorgeous meadow full of wildflowers and butterflies and to the right is Clear Creek itself (and it really is a clear creek). It didn’t matter where I was on the trail, the Common Yellowthroat’s loud call of “witchety—witchety —witchety—woo” was everywhere. I would hear it in the brushy edge and trees between the trail and the creek and again in the meadow. At first I just heard the male’s song, but on the return loop I started hearing the fairly harsh call notes of the male and female. They would call from the meadow and from lower in the brush, and all I had to do was stand still, listen, and watch, and magically they would start appearing. One after another popped into view. Females were in the brushy edges hidden in the bushes and grapevine tangles, and males were mixed in with them coming out into the open far more frequently, but as often the males would call from the meadow, and I would see them hop from the bottom of the stalks of larger and stronger wildflowers to the top like they were climbing a ladder. 

"Finally I made it to the top. 

I'm King of the Queen-of-the-meadow!"

While I was watching one female moving in and out of the dense cover of the grapevines, what should appear but a Hooded Warbler! (One of my target species…and a life bird for me!) I nearly fell over. He was not singing, just sitting there, hiding in the tangle. His eyes looked enormous and the black feathers framing his yellow face were beautiful. I knew if I dropped my binocs and went for the camera he would fly, so I just watched him for a few more seconds until he ducked deeper into the vines and flew out the other side.

Clear Creak Metro Park is Ohio's largest dedicated nature preserve. It is in the Hocking Hills region and part of the Unglaciated Allegheny Plateau. Characterized by deep gorges and hemlock-laced ravines, the Hocking Hills region offers wonderful birding. Although the glaciers didn't come through this area, their runoff carved the gorges and deposited plants from northern climes. When the glaciers retreated, the northern species continued to thrive in the cooler environment of the the gorges. This microclimate adds up to cool birding. Hermit Thrushes, which head north in the summer, nest in the cooler ravines in Hocking Hills. Heather and I heard and saw Hermit Thrushes on Tuesday while we birded Old Man's Cave and Cedar Falls. I'll write more about that trip and the "winter birds" in the coming days. 

I saw so many birds at Clear Creek today…two Veerys near a small bridge, a Hermit Thrush, two Blue birds, Catbirds (naturally they were eating blackberries), Song Sparrows, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, a very loud and entertaining Belted Kingfisher, even Red made an appearance, and sooooo many more. I will be going back to Clear Creek Metro Park tomorrow…my target species, a Cerulean Warbler and a Canada Warbler.