Gobble, gobble, gobble...wait, it's not Thanksgiving, it's spring!

...but spring is the perfect time to listen for gobbling Toms and witness their incredible courtship displays, and thanks to conservation and restoration efforts, it's much easier to find them in the woods now...

A male Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) walks in full regalia as he puffs his feathers up in a courtship display. He really does have an air of royalty as he glides through the brown leaves, wings dragging the ground, and his iridescent green, bronze and gold feathers catching the light perfectly for maximum effect.

In early spring, when winter's leaves are still brown and crackle underfoot, male turkeys start strutting for females. It's an image we usually think of at Thanksgiving, but spring is when you usually see it!

...every emotion a turkey has shows on his face where "mood colors" of bright red, blue and white can change in seconds when hens or other toms are around (source: "Birds of Forest, Yard, & Thicket," by John Eastman, pg. 7).

Turkey lingo! The skin that hangs from a turkey's beak is a snood. The bumpy, wart-like projections on the skin...caruncles, and the crazy rope of feathers that hangs from his chest...a beard! What's a group of turkeys called? ...a rafter or a gang (source: USGS).

This gobbler (male turkey) had 6 hens in his harem, but they weren't interested in his strutting and displaying, and most, like this hen, walked away non-plussed.

Turkeys roost in trees at night. They also will fly up to trees when startled (or when they hear a camera shutter click...). This female flew effortlessly up to branches about 30 feet off the ground. She remained there for about 10 minutes before deciding to fly back down and join the foraging flock.

Courting Toms take their job seriously. I watched this male and the six hens in his harem for over 45 minutes. Only once did he let his feathers down, and that was only for a second or two. While the females foraged and ate seeds, the male never once tried to eat. This behavior was confirmed in Eastman's "Birds of Forest, Yard, & Thicket," pg 7, where he writes, "Belligerent toms strut and display in spring, sometimes hardly feeding for days at a time."

I love the return of the Wild Turkey. When I was a kid, turkeys were not in any woods I ever played in. For me they were birds that showed up on Thanksgiving decorations and only took the form of a male in courtship display. According to "The Birds of Ohio," by Bruce Peterjohn (pg. 143), Wild Turkeys were extirpated from Ohio by 1900, so no wonder I had never seen one in the wild, but in February of 1956, Wild Turkeys were released in southeast Ohio. In the 80s they were released in the glaciated counties, and in the 90s, in the central and western counties. For the past three years I have heard and seen them regularly along the Little Miami River. Before then, I saw them once about eight years ago along the bike trail. They are skittish birds and can disappear into the brush and woods with amazing speed. I saw this rafter of turkeys in Tennessee on the Cumberland Plateau in the woods behind my mother- and father-in-law's home last week when Matty and I headed down for spring break.

Prothonotary Warbler exhibiting courtship behavior and displaying his tail feathers...

It's no secret that I do a lot of birding on the Little Miami Bike Trail, and for good reason...every time I'm there I see something cool. I usually hop on the trail at the old Peters Cartridge Company (commonly called the Powder Factory) on Grandin Road in Kings Mills and walk toward Morrow, going as far as the Lebanon fork. This little patch is always productive. If you’re familiar with this stretch, you probably know the hillside stream not too far from the Powder Factory with the tiny “observation deck.” Over the years people have carted stones from the creek bed up the steep banks to create a rustic patio that lets you look down at the stream and follow its course up through the heavily wooded hillside. The water runs at a nice pace here and gathers in small pools along the way creating little watering holes perfect for sipping out of, especially if you’re a bird. I always check the watering holes to see what might be there. It's a great place to spot thrushes, and a Barred Owl is often hanging around too. I will see him well up the hillside sitting over the water, just watching. He’s usually so far up the hill you can only see him with the binocs, but if you know where to look, you’ll spot him frequently. Once, he sat in a tree about 10 feet from the patio. I stood and watched him, mesmerized, but this post is about a Prothonotary Warbler, so I had better get back on track! ...I had just walked back from the little patio, and as I stepped on the trail, a Prothonotary Warbler landed on the bridge railing about 15 feet from me. I was so surprised I froze! I watched him for a few seconds and slowly raised the camera to get his photograph. I didn't want to scare him off. This guy was so gorgeous and so close he unnerved me!

A Prothonotary Warbler perched on the wooden railing of a bridge spanning a small stream. I was a bit shaky when I took this photo. He surprised me by flying in so close, which sort of sent me for a loop! You know that feeling...you're trying to move quickly and slowly at the same time while adrenalin floods your system and you forget to breathe... I didn't really pull this shot off, but you can see how he was fanning out his tail feathers to display for the female.

He soon flew down on the trail and started hopping around, spreading his tail feathers even more and leaning a little off balance. At first I thought he was hurt, but then I realized he was exhibiting courtship behavior and showing off his lovely tail for a female up in the tree. Every couple seconds he would look up to see if she was still watching him…

...this is the first time I've had a Prothonotary Warbler walking the trail with me!

He would hop a little and look up, then move forward and look up again. It took me a while to figure out he was looking up to make sure the female was paying attention to him.

...he continued to hop forward, fanning his tail.

...look at that cute little eye. He is soooo looking up to make sure his honey is watching him!

Eventually he flew up into the tree, and I walked on. If the couple was nesting close by I didn’t want to disturb them. Prothonotary Warblers are the only warblers in our area that nest in tree cavities, and they often nest over water, so this slow-moving stream would be a perfect place for a nest site. I read a long time ago that fledgling Prothonotary Warblers are born with the ability to swim. Since their nest cavities are often over water, it's not uncommon for them to fall out of the nest and into the water! The Smithsonian’s Migratory Bird Center’s site confirms this, as does the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Nestwatcher’s Resource Center.

Holy Cow...it's been over two weeks since I posted!!

What is up with that? I have so many photos and half-written posts in the pipe. I really need to get cracking and get these things up. I also haven't been able to get out and visit anyone's blog. Things have been so busy, but there is light at the end of the tunnel (I hope it's not the train!).

...I thought I'd sneak this one in. If you look a third of the way down on the right, you can see the silhouette of the Barred Owl sitting on a branch overhanging the stream. I was shooting through a dogwood in blossom, and he was just a spec with the naked eye. I've cropped the image a lot to show him. In person, the view was gorgeous. I've found him in this exact spot many times...

Observing courtship displays in paired Downy Woodpeckers

Yesterday afternoon when I arrived home from work, I looked out the back window and saw our female downy in the Ash tree, so I grabbed my camera and started to snap away. Out of nowhere the male popped into view with her! That doesn’t normally happen. They stayed very close to each other foraging for food and then playing peek-a-boo. The red feathers on the male's head seemed to be bushier than normal, so I kept photographing, capturing them moving around the limb together and wondering if he was raising the red feathers on his head. He really seemed to have a spiky-do going on!

The raised crest was visible from 25 feet away, 

but it just looked bushy. Up close you can see 

the individual feathers raised on the head.

The female seemed to be watching him intently, 

no doubt checking out those spiky red feathers!

Oh yes, those are very nice spiky red feathers. 

I think I'll get a little closer.

Beak Bit
Why is that Downy Woodpecker raising the feathers on the back of his head?
These two woodpeckers were so cute foraging together. When I observed what they were doing I knew right away it was a special courtship display behavior. Downies are monogamous, and when pair bonds form, they forage together for food (a form of mate-guarding). Males exhibiting mate-guarding behavior will fight off another male trying to elbow in on his action. Watching the pair forage together was very cool, but even cooler was the way the male would raise his crest of red feathers whenever the female was in view, showing off, looking larger. 

A raised crest is also a sign of aggression, 

but in our case he's just showing off for his mate.

The female definitely noticed his crest. At one point, she circled around and came in very close at another angle for a better look!

...then she decides to circle around for a better look.

Yes, indeed. That's a fine red crest!

When the male dropped down to get a seed from the feeder and the female was out of site, he lowered his crest.

...no need to keep the crest raised when 

his sweetheart isn't around to notice!

These are just two of several courtship displays and behavior. In our area drumming increases in early spring and is a major form of courtship behavior, but I’m saving that for another post when I learn more about their beak construction. Today when I was out in the woods, I heard a lot of drumming, but I didn’t get to witness another important courtship display, the Butterfly Flight: 

The Butterfly Flight, one of the most spectacular displays of the Downy Woodpecker, is when male and female follow (or chase) one another in a flight characterized by holding the wings high and flapping them slowly and weakly like a butterfly (from the Birds of North America Online). 

...but maybe they will get to that tomorrow…or the next day…I can hope!

The Great Blue heronry continues to grow.

I ran up to the rookery today at lunch out of curiosity. I didn’t think any herons would be there because it was the middle of the day and the herons aren’t sitting on eggs yet, and sure enough, only one bird was there, and he was only there briefly. I assume that I'll know when eggs have been laid because then one of the parents will remain in the nest at all times. A Tufted Titmouse was active and singing Peter, Peter, Peter heartily, but no action in the rookery. On my way back to the office, I saw a Peregrine Falcon sitting on a wire. First time I’ve seen one there. I asked Bill and Larry if they had seen him, and Bill confirmed one is hanging around the office. Yeah!

Beautiful blue lunchtime sky, but no beautiful blue herons!

This evening, I headed over to the heronry at 4:45, a little earlier than usual, but I hoped many of the herons would have returned for the evening already…and they had! The number of occupied nests has definitely increased since my trip last week, and the herons are talking a lot more than last time too. There are at least 13 more occupied nests. Unfortunately, I could only stay for about 30 minutes, which wasn’t enough time to watch all of them come home, but progress is definitely happening! On the 13th, the 7 nesting couples were centered in one large tree. Today, enough new birds had arrived that they had pushed out to two surrounding trees.

Eleven newly occupied nests are in the tree behind 

the original tree, and another is in a tree to the right of it.

I just listened and watched, and that was very nice. If I can fit in the time, I’d love to spend a couple of hours just observing and writing about colony behavior. I could see several different types of courtship displays today: 

One of three couples preening each other.

This couple kept walking around each other in the nest.

This heron was stroking his mate along 

the neck and back with this head and bill. 

I also witnessed one small property skirmish with some pretty cool threat displays, including a sharp bark followed by snapping the bill together several times:

He would bark and then snap his bill together 

several times. Even though I am quite far 

from the rookery, the bark was loud.