I went out looking for molting Bobolinks, but found a Sedge Wren instead…not a bad tradeoff!

Sunday evening found me at VOA park walking the clipped grass aisle of the high meadow. There was a cool chill in the air more reminiscent of September than the first of August, and as I shivered just a bit, I heard the chatty little song of a Sedge Wren just to the right of the grass path. I also heard two Henslow’s Sparrows in the same area, but I knew they were not popping up any time soon, so I stalked the Sedge Wren instead, narrowing in on him with each repetition of his little song. He would sing, and move…and sing and move, and suddenly, there he was! I fired off a few quick shots, but he had a very annoying habit of diving back down into the grass and perching near the base of the vegetation (bad little Sedgie!).

A very sweet bird, and a bit of a rarity around here.

The grassland habitat at VOA park brings in so

many birds lost to the never ending suburban sprawl.

Thank goodness little pockets of protected land exist

so we can get a glimpse of these cute birds.

This little guy is cute—no other word will do to describe his choppy, spritely little movements. Short bursts of flight always carried him to his next perch, where he would sing, peer here and there, and then dive back down in the grass to hide from the camera.

"Hmm...that stalk over there looks nice. I had

better head over and claim it. Then I'll dive back

into the grass to annoy the camera chick."

Little Sedgie hiding in the grass where he spent

most of his time. A perfect little grassland bird, he

completely melds with his environment.

Beak Bit
We are on the eastern-most range of this little bird. Sedge Wrens are also very nomadic, so they don’t always return to the same nesting grounds; therefore, we don’t always get to see them. So this little fellow is special. They can also be late nesters, so our singing male, may be setting up shop and advertising for a female. I hope so! I’ll keep returning to see if more Sedge Wrens have located in the high meadows at VOA. In the Great Plains, Sedge Wrens nest earlier, breeding in May or June. Jim McCormac, in his book “Birds of Ohio,” offers an explanation for our later-nesting birds, “It’s possible that there is a postbreeding dispersal of western birds to the east, where they nest again when midwestern habitats are more conducive to successful breeding.”

Click here for more information on the Sedge Wren, including his song.

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.

Pileated Woodpeckers on the Little Miami Bike Trail (BPW #39)

I hear Pileated Woodpeckers almost every time I go to the trail, but I don’t see them that often. They are just too shy; however, in the past 3 weeks I’ve seen a male and a female foraging together six or seven times…and at close distance! It’s like they’ve moved in and set up house or something, which is probably exactly what they’ve done. I doubt I’ll ever see their nesting cavity though, because there is no way the secretive birds would have excavated a cavity in one in the trees along the pavement (of course I can always hope...). I think they are anchored up the hillside because I hear them calling from that spot almost every time I go there.






One of my best Pileated Woodpecker memories happened earlier this spring at Spring Valley Nature Area. As I was walking down the path west of the lake, this monster bird came up from behind, sweeping overhead and directly down the corridor of trees in front of me. At 17 inches, he is a force to reckon with. Hearing the air under his wings and feeling the energy he left in his wake (being only four or five feet over my head) is a sensation I’ll never forget. Then watching him sail straight down the woodland path at about eye level was a spectacular sight.

To tell a male and female Pileated Woodpecker apart, just check 

out their mustaches. The male's is red and the female's black. 

The above photo shows the male's red mustache.

Click here to see some great bird photos from around the world.

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.

Slow down and watch the ordinary become the extraordinary

Matty and I hit the trail on Tuesday right after school. It was warm and very sunny. We were hoping for one more day of spectacular warbler sightings with birdsong sweeping through the forest and us chasing after each trill, but we should have known better. It was 3:30…sort of an off-hour, and we were both a bit tired and hungry, and the height of migration was definitely over (but we refused to admit it). Right off the bat, however, we heard the loud, beautiful song of a Baltimore Oriole and saw him high in a Sycamore…promising! But as we stepped further down the trail, the woods fell strangely quiet. After having experienced the nonstop birdsong of the migrants over the past couple of weeks, the hollow emptiness was foreign. In response, I could feel us picking up our pace, searching for something that was not there, fueled by just a touch of frustration...but then we saw Red sitting in a shaft of sunlight. The saturated color in his feathers was so striking it made us slow down to take a longer look, and finally, as we stopped and watched him, we felt Sweet Nature melting away the frustration (and slight sadness) of knowing spring migration was just about over.




Stepping off the trail and into the grass, we became more engrossed in the Northern Cardinal's extraordinary beauty. Drawn in, we watched him move from branch to branch, Matty with binocs and me framing him in the camera lens. Then we noticed the wriggly green caterpillars in his bill, and even better, we noticed he wasn’t eating them. He was just carrying them around, which could mean only one thing…Papa Red must be delivering the juicy green things to a few hungry mouths! Slowly the male worked his way into the hollow, continuing to hop from branch to branch towards what we hoped would be a nest full of baby Reds. He definitely knew we were watching him, and I felt a bit guilty and wondered if he was taking the long way home trying not to give away the nest’s location, but we couldn’t resist and soon he flew into an overgrown honeysuckle bush and rustled around a bit. When he hopped back out, his bill was empty! We wanted to go down there and peer into the nest to see the babies, but instead, we got back on the trail so the male, who was now chipping loudly, would feel comfortable about leaving the nest site to find more caterpillars for his offspring.




So “ordinary” Red, the same bird who started it all for me with a peanut at my Aunt Mary’s house so many years ago, saved the day and reminded us that there is birding after spring migration, and all you have to do is slow down and observe and you will see the extraordinary.

Mama Ruby-throated Hummingbird Sitting on her Nest

Walking on the trail today, I looked up just in time to see a tiny bit of movement in the leaves. Something was there. Something small. I put the binocs up to my eyes and spun the focusing dial slowly until a tiny lichen-covered nest topped by a lovely female Red-throated Hummingbird came into view. So tiny and sweet, she had decorated her nest with a beautiful display of lichens, locking everything in place with spider web silk. Although not visible, the inside of her nest would be lined with plant down. If you look closely, you can see the down from a dandelion seed stuck in the spider web at the base of the nest.

(Click photo to enlarge to see the detail in the lichens.)

Right now, at home as I write this, a storm is rolling through. Rain is pouring in torrents and thunder and lightning are reminding me it’s spring. I think about the little female sitting tight on her nest protecting her eggs from the wind and rain and am very glad I was lucky enough to spot that tiny movement and catch a glimpse of her world of tiny perfection.

Beak Bit
The female builds her nest after the male finds a suitable location. She collects strands of spider web silk and wraps them around plant material and lichens. The lichens adhere to the sticky cobweb as the female pushes the small flakes into the silk using her bill. She also traps bits of lichens under strands of silk she has woven around and around the nest. Very small, the nest is only one and a half inches across, a hummingbird itself, being only three to three and three quarters inches long. She usually lays two white, bean-sized eggs and incubates them for about 14 days, sitting on them 60-80% of the day. After the eggs hatch, the male often will fly off and find another mate, taking no part in rearing the young.

I almost missed this gorgeous Red-bellied Woodpecker, his mate, and their nesting cavity because I was in the grip of warbler-mania…

The last week of April and the first three weeks of May are one of the most exciting times on the Little Miami River Bike Trail. I never know what sort of neo-tropical migrant is going to show up along the river corridor, and I have to admit I am addicted to the thrill of the hunt. In a post a week or so ago, I talked about that surge of adrenalin that comes every time I spot a new spring migrant. It’s a powerful feeling and definitely drives my birding in the spring, so when I recently headed to the trail with warblers on the brain, I shouldn’t have been surprised at my nonchalant attitude toward one of my favorite birds, a Red-bellied Woodpecker.


As I tried to zoom in on a Chestnut-sided Warbler, this gorgeous fellow kept hovering around me competing for my attention, and I felt warbler-lust push a fuzzy “I don’t have time for this bird--I have to concentrate on the warbler” through my mind. But this loyal winter friend was persistent, and his gentle knocking on the wood and unusual tameness started chipping away at my warbler preoccupation. Slowly, with normal appreciation and love of him returning, I shifted my attention and started studying him.






I walked about five steps further to catch him on the other side of the tree, and there was the female...and next to her, their nesting cavity. I couldn’t believe it. I had almost missed this find because of a spring migrant adrenalin addiction!!




After the female went into the cavity, the male stayed around for a bit before leaving to hunt for food, his calls echoing through the trees as he flew off (almost, it seemed, chastising me for ignoring him, but then forgiving me for finally giving him the attention he deserved...).

"The bluebird carries the sky on his back."

There is nothing like the blue of an Eastern Bluebird filling your camera lens! So vibrant and happy! When I arrived at the rookery today, the rain had just stopped and the sun was starting to peak out. The ground was making a squishy, settling sound that was quite nice, and as I listened and looked up into the sycamore trees to see what the herons were doing, I saw movement in a tree about 20 feet from me...and then that wonderful flash of blue that is always such a surprise! I quickly focused in a found this little male perched nicely for me. I had to step into a few sprigs of multi-flora rose for a better angle. If I moved even slightly to the left or right the autofocus would zoom in on a small branch and Little Blue would go out of focus, so I had stay put, which was pretty easy to do considering I was anchored in place by the thorns! Small price to pay for the Bluebird of Happiness...

So beautiful. This Eastern Bluebird sat and posed for me for a long time.

Every now and then, he would drop down to the

ground to grab an insect then fly back up to his perch.

When a bluebird turns his back on you, it's quite all

right! Henry David Thoreau's quote, "The bluebird

carries the sky on his back," fits this photo so well...

I finally noticed his mate sitting about 10 feet behind him on the lower branches of a Sycamore tree. She was not nearly as vibrant, but lovely just the same.

His mate was preening and still appears to

be a bit wet from the earlier rain shower.

Bye Mrs. Blue. I hope to see you at the rookery again!

Chickadee doing yoga in the snow…

Rick took this series of chickadee photos during the same shoot as yesterday’s American Tree Sparrow post. I had to laugh when I reviewed them because it looked like Chiggy was doing yoga.

…such a nice forward bend! Sigh it out little Chiggy,

let your head become heavy and feel your body relax…

Samasthiti…or equal standing…feel your weight shift

back and forth on your feet and let your mind

slow down, soften your gaze a little chiggy (I know…

when you’re a chickadee it’s darn hard to do!!).

…and for a nice deep hamstring stretch, Parsvottanasana,

reaching out over the right leg with a flat back…take

your time, use your exhale to sink into the pose.

…a gentle stretch for the neck to the right.

…a gentle stretch for the neck to the left.

Ahhhhh! Doesn’t that feel better? Now go back to just being the cutest little bird in the forest!

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!

Observing a woodpecker’s tail and toes

Our sweet female Downy Woodpecker was outside our family room window in the crabapple tree this morning. Unfortunately, all the crabapples are now gone...they were devoured during the big snowfall a couple of weeks ago. To entice the birds back to the window, I added a small feeder with a mix of black oil sunflower seeds, peanuts, and safflower seeds. The chickadees, always being the first to check out a new feeder, showed up today, and the female downy who hangs with the chickadees followed shortly after.

Mrs. Downy studies the sunflower seed feeder...

Beak Bit
Why are woodpeckers’ tails so strong?
Woodpeckers have unique tail feathers. If you watch a woodpecker climbing up a tree (they rarely climb down), you will notice he uses his tail feathers as a prop for support. Have you ever seen a chickadee doing that, or any other perching bird? It’s because woodpeckers have very stiff, pointed tail feathers, and their lower vertebrae and supporting muscles are much bigger and stronger than those of perching birds.

This photo shows the stiff, pointy tail feathers

so unlike those found in perching birds.

I love the tail action in this photo. It clearly

shows how a woodpecker uses its tail as a prop

to help support its weight as it clings to a tree.

The woodpecker's strong, supporting tail works in conjunction with its toes, which are also quite unique. Perching birds have three toes forward and one toe back, but woodpeckers have two toes forward and two toes back, an adaptation that enables them to cling to the bark of trees very well. Without the combination of toes and tail feathers, a woodpecker would not be able to hollow out a hole in a tree for a nest, dig behind bark for insects to eat, or drum on a tree with its bill to create that beautiful woodland sound (which is another unique adaptation that would make a nice Beak Bit post in the future...).

Look at that cute little bill. We will

definitely have to learn more about it.