Surprise Birds

Black Vulture

This is the second time we have gone birding at Harrods Creek Park. Some friends said they saw Black-billed Cuckoos, so we thought, "Why not? Let's go!" There has been a lot of rain this week, and the creek itself is high, not so much from runoff as from back-up of the nearby Ohio River, so the trails were muddy. The vultures were not in their roost when we arrived, but had already taken off for the morning. You can see the white wing-tips of this Black Vulture and his stubby little tail, keys to identification for this species.

Canada Warbler

 Even the warbler Queens are shaking their head and saying the migration season is coming to an end. We have found more warblers than usual (because we've been out looking more than usual, I would guess) and today we added the Canada Warbler to our life list. At first we thought it was a Magnolia, but the black stripes don't go all the way down his side, and he has a huge white eye ring.

Cedar Waxwing

 A flock of Cedar Waxwings perched in a big sycamore tree. The poor sycamores have been hit by frost three times in the last couple of weeks, and are very late in sprouting their leaves. That's lucky for us birders!

Orchard Oriole

 Every time I see a dark orange breast with a dark head, I have to look carefully. It may be an Orchard Oriole, or it may be another robin. Sigh.

Prothonotary Warbler female

 As always, anytime we see birders with cameras looking intently into a tree, we go over and ask, "What you got there?" Today the response was Prothonotary Warblers! They must have a cavity nest nearby (Goodness knows there are plenty of cavities). This one must be the female, since she is disposing of the fecal sac from one of her youngsters!

Prothonotary Warbler

 Looking at the front of this bird, you would never guess he's such a beautiful blue-gray on the back.

Prothonotary Warbler singing

The male flitted around his territory making sure no one invaded. Just wait and he'll come close again.Then he sang with all his heart and you can see his little tongue vibrating!

Red-eyed Vireo

 I remember when I first learned about the Red-eyed Vireo, and although you hear it all the time, you rarely see it. I've gotten lucky or more skilled this spring, since it seems that I find one almost every time we go out. This one has a big yummy bug he was beating against the branch before eating it. Just to get it tenderized, I guess.

Wood Thrush

Wood Thrush

 The Wood Thrush is another of those heard but rarely seen birds. Always singing in the woods where you can't see them. I found a nest today, then this Wood Thrush was singing right over our heads. Looking around, I think this was his nest and he was defending it vigorously.

Great Blue Heron nest

We know there is a Great Blue Heron rookery somewhere on Harrods Creek. We asked hikers along the trail if they knew where the rookery was, and each one of them responded "huh?" not knowing anything about birds. At one point, we heard something that sounded like ducks quacking softly, and thought it might be the rookery. We have a friend who does know where the rookery is, and might be persuaded to take us up there in kayaks. If so, we need to go before they all grow up and fly away.

How to Choose a Birding Spot

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

It has rained for the last two days, so we stayed home for the most part. And each day, other birders post on FaceBook or the email list about the rare birds they have seen that day. When we try to plan what to do the next morning, we have to consider where to go and what we might see there, along with the weather forecast. A Connecticut Warbler is still hanging around at Cherokee Park, but we missed it the last time we went there. Good reports are coming in from Jacobsen Lake in Lexington, and I'm tempted to give it a try.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

This morning we decided to head a short distance to Anchorage Park. We are familiar with it, and both wore our mud boots, knowing that wet spots would be abundant after the recent rain. After chatting with two of our bird club friends, we tactfully walked on our own, forging into the low marshy area by a creek. Yes, it was full of water, but we were prepared. We got a good look at several Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, a small active bird with a white eyering. As it hops from branch to branch, this steely blue-gray bird flicks its white-edged tail from side to side, scaring up insects and chasing after them. I've heard folks guess that it's a baby Mockingbird.

Blackberry bushes

Grandiflora Rose - invasive

Yellow Flag - invasive

White-tailed Deer

The Anchorage Trail is used by dog-walkers, exercisers, kids with bikes and birders. It was established, oh, I don't remember, maybe 10 years ago, by a generous donation from the U of L basketball coach who lived nearby at the time. It has a nice paved walkway, fancy stone bridges and goes along Willow Lake. In the beginning, it was planted with Kentucky native plants in grasslands next to the woods. However, over the years, invasives have taken over. Bradford pears, grandiflora rose, and even yellow flag (an iris) have spread all over. I grumble about it, but we walk there anyway. This morning, the mower made it hard to hear the birds. I know, he needs to mow, and doesn't know that we will be there. It's nothing personal.

Pileated Woodpecker

Pileated Woodpecker

 We mentioned to our friends that we hadn't seen a Pileated Woodpecker yet this year, and a few minutes later they found one up in a sycamore tree. They are the largest woodpecker in Kentucky, and peck out rectangular shaped holes. Remember Woody Woodpecker? It was modeled on this bird. The biggest thing about it is how to pronounce the name. Some birders say "Pie-lee-ated" while others pronounce it "Pill-e-ated." I used the second pronunciation since that's how my mother-in-law always said it! We walked on down the trail humming "You say to-ma-to and I'll say to-mah-to." But we sang softly and listened to the Barred Owl hooting in the woods.

Great Blue Heron

The lake can have half a dozen different kinds of ducks, but not today. We saw a family of Mallards with six teenagers, almost as big as their mother. Two Great Egrets flew overhead, along with lots of swallows snatching bugs out of the air. Finally, a Great Blue Heron coasted in for a landing on the other side.

Baltimore Oriole

Baltimore Orioles are beautiful birds, especially when the sun hits their bright orange breast. They all sing different songs, and you just have to remember the tone of their whistle. 

Cedar Waxwings

 Cedar Waxwings are on the move. We saw 6 or 8 of them perched in a tree top. Through the binoculars they looked yellow, but were too big to be Gold Finches. Then we noticed the crest on their heads. They are unusual looking birds, who like to hang around together eating berries. If ever in doubt, remember to look for the tip of their tails that look like they have been dipped in yellow paint! 

Total bird count on eBird today: 42! I don't think we've had that many on one walk in one location before. Total species count for the month of May: 102!

Cherokee Park After the Rain

Red-eyed Vireo

It rained a lot Friday night, but people saw wonderful warblers at Cherokee Park that day, so Saturday morning I resolved to get up and go find them myself. I've now decided that weather forecasts cannot be relied on. If they predict a low chance of rain, you will get wet. If they issue storm warnings, it may not rain at all. Sure, it was raining Saturday as I left the house, but I counted on it being a gentle, light, 35% kind of rain. I was wrong. Although I saw runners, bikers and golfers in the rain, I sat in the deserted parking area for a while before deciding to go on home. Primarily because I didn't want to use my binoculars and camera in the downpour. I was being prudent. By afternoon, the predicted rain had disappeared, and we headed back to the park to look for warblers after finding three amazing warblers in our own back yard. (see previous post)

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Beargrass Creek was running high and fast. In fact, it seemed to have overflowed its banks during the night, and everything was really muddy. Good thing I had my mud boots on as we slogged along the banks of the water. One of our target birds, sighted the day before, was the Black-throated Blue Warbler. This is a bird we had seen at Magee Marsh several years ago, so I was familiar with its appearance. The Connecticut Warbler was another target, and I had to ask other birders what it looked like. The described it and said, "It's right in those bushes" but we never did find it.

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Anyway, this little guy jumped around under the leaves, hiding from view as much as possible. If the light isn't just right, the blue looks black on him. If he faces you, you don't see the blue back feathers at all.

Black-throated Blue Warbler

But, if he turns just right, you get a marvelous profile view of the black throat and blue back feathers. The definitive field mark is the little white "handkerchief" on his wings. Yes, triumph - we found it on our own! It's great to identify a bird with confidence while still in the field. I logged the sighting in eBird, and was surprised to see an R for rare sighting next to the name. When I tried to submit my list for the afternoon, eBird demanded that I tell it more about why I thought my sighting was, in fact, this rare bird. When I got home, I was able to submit photos, the best evidence of all! Of course, the same bird was probably reported 20 times that day by various birders.

Swainson's Thrush

Some families of birds all look the same without intent study. I've been working on sandpipers this spring, but still get a little confused. Today, there was some kind of thrush every time we turned around. They are all a brown-ish color, with some degree of spots on their breast. But you might have a Wood Thrush, Veery, Hermit Thrush, or Grey-cheeked Thrush, so I kept taking photos of every thrush I could focus on for further research.

Swainson's Thrush

Their color can change depending on how much sunlight or shade they are in. If they face away from you, you can't get a good look at the spots on the breast. So when we got home, I made comparisons in AllAboutBirds.org to go for the details. The best clue I could find was the buffy eyering for the Swainson's Thrush. Every thrush picture had a buffy eyering.

Thrushes sing duets with themselves due to the unique characteristics of their syrinx. The larynx of a human, is higher up the throat, and only one air flow goes through it to make sound. A bird's syrinx, is at the spot where the two bronchial tubes join above the lungs. The bird can control the air flow from each lung to sing an echo or duet with itself, and thrushes excel at this.

Acadian Flycatcher

Willow Flycatcher ?

The Nettleroth Bird Sanctuary isn't really a separate park of Cherokee Park, but somehow cool birds tend to find their way in. And the city constructed a boardwalk over the areas that fill with water every time it rains. It really helps, as long as you remember not to step off the boardwalk when trying to see that warbler straight over your head! This is where I missed the Canada Warbler. I saw a large bird with a long tail fly into a tree, then disappear, and thought it might be a cuckoo. Several people reported Yellow-billed Cuckoos, so I may have been right.

American Restart

Walking up Maple Road, the two birders in front of us found all sorts of birds. Some have found a family of owls in this part of the park. This American Redstart (a warbler, although you wouldn't think so from his size) finally caught that bug and perched in the open to eat it. Yum! By now, I can hardly walk, my arthritic feet hurt so bad, so we decided to head on home. Where's the ibuprofen?

OMG! Warblers in our Backyard!

First View

During Warbler season, lots of birders go out with their big lenses on cameras, and post all sorts of beautiful, sharply focused photos of these brightly colored little birds. Must be easy, right? NO WAY, as my grandchildren say. Let me tell you what it's really like. It rained often during the night, and for several more hours in the morning, so when the sun came out, we decided to go birding at Cherokee Park, lured by reports of unusual warblers to be found there. Dick forgot his phone, and while he went back in the house, I looked around for a bird whose call I didn't recognize. And I saw the bird above. Now this is the usual view you get of a warbler--far above your head, and all you see is the underside of the tail or its back. But I take the photo anyway, since something is better than nothing.

Second View

OK, here is the second view. It's on the same branch, and I could zoom in a bit without losing it. Focus isn't the best, but again, something is better than nothing. I think I see something chestnut in color by the wings. Looks interesting.

Third View

Come on bird, turn around so I can see your front! He turns a bit more---please, please, let it be...

Chestnut-sided Warbler

YES! Triumph! It's a Chestnut-sided Warbler in MY YARD! Last time I saw one of these was on the boardwalk at Magee Marsh in Ohio. This is a life bird for my backyard.

First View

They must be happy that it stopped raining. All kinds of birds are hopping around in the big oak tree. Here's another one, and I see his throat first. Dick, Holy Cow! I think we have a...

Blackburnian Warbler

The Blackburnian is probably my favorite warbler. At a bird festival in West Virginia one year, it rained the whole blessed time we were there. But ONE morning, the sun peeped through the clouds to light up the orange throat of this little bird and make it look like it was on fire.

Blackburnian Warbler peek-a-boo

Don't ask me where they get these strange names for these birds. Lots of times, they were named for another ornithologist, or the place they were first seen back in the early 1800's. You just have to learn the names, what they look like and how they sound. Most of them are just passing through to their northern breeding grounds. WooHoo! Another life bird for our backyard!

Warbler in LOTS of leaves

This is also a common warbler view. Your eyes find the bird when it moves, and you try to mark the branch structure where it appeared, or the clump of leaves, but branches and leaves look so much alike. Then you try to focus on it with binoculars. Not an easy task, believe me! OK, this one has black and yellow and white, common colors for warblers.

Warbler in lots of leaves, front view

OK, now he's turned around so we can see his belly. This is progress. I see a yellow belly, and black stripes down the sides of it. I need to look at a field guide, but can't put the camera/binoculars down to check on it. Just keep looking and taking pictures...

Magnolia Warbler

 Even though he's partially hidden in the leaves, I can now see a white eyebrow, and the black stripes go all the way down his belly to his tail. And I can see a glimpse of white wing bars. We can't see the black necklace under his throat, but it's the Magnolia Warbler - another life bird for the back yard. Three in one day! I have never seen warblers in the yard before. Are the migration conditions changing? Remember, I saw the Rose Breasted Grosbeak and Ovenbird (also a warbler) a few weeks ago. Or am I simply paying more attention in my retirement/COVID stay home condition? I'll keep watching. No Orioles at the feeder I bought for them yet. But there is always hope!

Birds of the Meadow

Bobolink

Birders across the state can belong to the Kentucky Birders Facebook group. We can share the birds we've seen at different locations, post photos if we have good ones or ask for help in ID'ing a bird. Lately several people have posted about the Bobolinks they have seen at Camp Nelson near Nicholasville in central Kentucky. I've only seen Bobolinks in two other places (in West Virginia and Maine) and was thrilled with the chance to find them closer to home, so this morning we hit the road for Jessamine County.

Camp Nelson grasslands and buildings (from rear)

I'd never heard of Camp Nelson before and had to look it up. It is a National Monument about the Civil War. Established as a Union supply depot and hospital during the Civil War, Camp Nelson became a recruitment and training center for African American soldiers, and a refugee camp for their wives and children. Thousands of slaves risked their lives escaping to this site with the hope of securing their freedom and, ultimately, controlling their futures by aiding in the destruction of slavery. (I did not know that Kentucky did not ratify the 13th Amendment until 1976. And this surprises me?) At the height of its use in 1865, Camp Nelson encompassed roughly 4,000 acres. The camp, which was organized around an 800-acre core, included more than 300 buildings and tents that housed a quartermaster commissary depot, ordnance depot, recruitment center, prison, and a hospital. Eight earthen forts or batteries, primarily constructed by enslaved labor, helped to protect the camp. The camp was also home to stables and corrals, a bakery, and a steam-driven waterworks that could pump water up 470 feet from the Kentucky River to a 50,000 gallon reservoir. The buildings are all closed of course, but we came to see the birds, so headed across the meadows. My question is, how do they maintain these meadows to prevent invasive plants from taking over?

Buff/yellow on neck

I always thought that the yellow was on their heads, but was surprised to notice that it is actually on the back of their necks. They are related to blackbirds, as you can notice from the shape of their beaks. Males will have several females in their territory, but the females will mate with several males. Guess that's the best way to spread the gene pool around. The name is from "Bob o' Lincoln" (which is appropriate at this location) but they are also known as the "Rice Bird."

White on back

In flight

 When in flight, you can see the white on his back and large white bars on his wings. But mostly, you hear his bubbling song as he soars across the meadow, quickly dropping down into the grass.

 Lang Elliot goes around collecting first class video and audio of bird songs, and here is a little of what we heard today.

Eastern Meadowlark singing

Eastern Meadowlark brown back

Who else lives in the meadow? The Eastern Meadowlark of course. It was amazing how all these birds would land in the fairly short grass of the field and immediately disappear. If we had dared the chigger bites and walked into the grass, the highest stalks would not have come up to our knees quite. The grass stalks weren't strong enough to hold a bird's weight, but sometimes they would find a sturdier weed stalk to perch on.

Lang also has some beautiful Meadowlark songs for you to enjoy.

Red-winged Blackbird

Are we done yet? No, the Red-winged Blackbird gives the other two a good run for their money, singing and dropping into the grass to disappear.

Eastern Bluebird couple

Eastern Bluebird male

 The Bluebirds hang around the meadow, but don't nest in the grass, being cavity nesters. This beautiful couple is getting ready to furnish the nest box right below them. In fact, Bluebirds can have up to 3 or 4 broods every summer if the conditions are right and there is plenty of food.

Summer Tanager

At the back of the meadow, a trail led into the woods for an entirely different set of birds. The Summer Tanager circled our heads a few times before settling into a branch above us to take a good look. 

Wood Thrush

If we hear one or two Wood Thrushes on a hike, we count ourselves lucky. But today we must have hear 6 or 8 of them, each staking out a bit of the woods for his own. We called one, and he circled quickly around our heads. And when he landed, I pulled up the camera to focus on him, but he took off just as I clicked the shutter. Dick said to pull out a picture of another bird to use as a stand-in. There used to be a website I used for short, free sound files of bird calls, but I can't find any now. My feet hurt so much, I can hardly stand. Maybe we need to be a little less ambitious about birding for a while. Sigh.