There’s a cemetery and a good patch of woods where I currently live. I have been blessed to observe several animal families growing up this season. I heard the hawk long before I got the chance to see it.
The call matched no recording I could find. So, blessed with a network of mentors, I contacted Bird Lady, who says:
“Immatures don’t sound like the adults do in recordings – but I’d say it was a young broadwing trying to do his “Beeeeeee” call.”
As for the nests in the previous posts, Bird Lady says:
“The messier nest could be a barn swallow and the other is the phoebe nest.”
Now all I need to learn is whether the barn swallow and the phoebe are likely to be neighbors or if the barn swallow nest is from a previous season.
Sitting in a lean-to on a DEC-blazed trail that starts at Alder Lake in the Catskill Mountains, not far from Livingston Manor. It’s a refreshing day – breezy with low humidity.
I’ve hiked 2.25 miles on a gradual uphill and I need to stop. I’m completely out of shape. My hiking has been curtailed by a combination of this oppressively hot summer and the car accident. The drought has hit here, too. All the wild berries are dried out.
There are two identically built nests in the rafters of this lean-to and a parent bird has returned and is scolding me for sitting too close to the nests.
I thought the chirping was a chipmunk at first. Before getting out of the way, I took photos and video and left some sunflower seeds, which is silly – this bird is a flycatcher. If I had heard the song, instead of the call, I would have immediately figured out this was Sayornis phoebe. Midday light and shadow are not ideal for photos.
nolink]
No longer between the parent and the nest, I am now sitting on a log in a swamp. Wood nettle is everywhere. In this season it stings worse than common nettle and it’s only good to transplant or harvest in spring and fall. I still do not have a good view of the nests, unless I’m willing to lie down on my tummy on the wood nettles.
I do have an amazing opportunity to observe this bird and its behavior in detail in a natural setting. What a gift. (more…)
It’s rare to get snow conditions that reveal as much track detail as I’ve seen this year. It’s even more surprising to be able to watch the animals move in their tracks and then have those tracks to study.
This group of wild turkeys were in a relatively open area.
When I hear a Wood Thrush sing for the first time each season, it’s a moment of pure joy. This has been a remarkable year. I not only got to hear a few stanzas, I got more than a glimpse. I’d love to have gotten closer, but I’ll take what I can get:
It’s very odd to be wandering through an urban park, like New York’s Central Park and see more wildlife in a few minutes than I typically see on my usual Hudson Valley hikes.
I first thought this was a cat stalking the migrating birds, but a closer look revealed a raccoon on the way home from a night’s foraging:
As I worked on identifying migrating warblers, I was totally surprised to find that not only squirrels, but cardinals, robins, and even house sparrows would approach anyone with binoculars, expecting seeds.
You just don’t see that in a typical wilderness situation. (more…)
Each year at this time I dig out my Birding By Ear tapes. I often hear more than I see, especially once the trees are in full leaf.
After years of struggling to identify warblers, I discovered that in addition to the many experienced bird watchers who lead tours through New York’s Central Park, a number of passionate Audubon Society members are very willing to share information on where to spot them if you turn up in the right part of the park with binoculars around your neck. It seems that city warblers are nowhere near as shy as their rural cousins. I’ve seen more birds in the last two weeks in NYC than I’ve seen on my own in several years.
New York bird watchers are to the birding world what “Wildman” Steve Brill is to the foraging world and Gary Lincoff is to mycology – passionate urban naturalists who are delighted to share their discoveries.
Here are a few birds I’ve seen for the first time: (more…)
The robin’s whinny woke me up this morning and it occurred to me that I’ve been twittering and tweeting – or at least present while others twitter and tweet – for years.
I’m headed outdoors to spend the day with the robins, blue jays, cardinals and the rest of the original twitterers.
I was so busy focusing on the hawk, I don’t know what the squirrel did next, but the hawk sat there for another minute or so - long enough for me to get a few shots like this:
The hawk flew off in the direction of the squirrel. I didn’t hear or see anything. I haven’t found any tracks that suggest the two did more than surprise each other.
Later on, I got in touch with Bird Lady and learned this immature Cooper’s Hawk, prefers to eat birds. But how did the squirrel know that?
