SPRING AT LAST: Bird sightings, tomatoes.....

[j44ke]

Birds of prey time their broods to arrive before ground cover and leaves grow in spring to maximize hunting effectiveness in the early stages of the nestlings lives when they are most vulnerable. Nowhere for the bunnies to hide. Barn owls are largely nocturnal, hunt things like rats, live in old buildings (thus the name) and look very floppy and loose "limbed" in flight with long legs and nearly white appearance. Barred owls are brown, again usually completely nocturnal hunters, short legged, brown, wooded areas, often river bottom land or around water, prey usually rats, squirrels, mice, etc. Great Horned Owls are big and almost hawk-like when they fly, open land, farms, woods, like to nest in pines, dark colored, eat absolutely anything including skunks, snakes, or even house cats, hunt day and night, unafraid of crows, etc. You can see any of the three at dusk. I.D. depends on local habitat, flying characteristics, and if you can see it, color and perhaps what they have caught.

The birds you saw in the grass, if they were starling sized, might actually be starlings. The difference in plumage between spring and every other days is amazing with starlings. Their feathers are prismatic, so in the right light they can flash from green to blue to violet. Their bill goes bright yellow and really sets off all the other colors. For a ubiquitous and often nuisance bird, they can be stunning. It makes sense though if you look at all the species in the starling family which includes mynahs and some of the amazing starlings in Asia and Africa which are mind-bendingly gloriously colored.

[nahtnoj]

I woke up to the sound of birds singing at 4am Saturday. Was on the bike shortly thereafter...

[j44ke]

I was looking forward to the sounds of birds this morning, my first out in Amagansett since the last berg of snow melted. But instead I got leaf blowers. And two hours later they are still going. I would love the opportunity to spend some quality time with the inventor of the leaf blower.....

[caleb]

The woodcock are migrating through the Catskills right now, and Vasa's been having fun finding them.





Another sign of spring is happy hour on the dock.

[j44ke]

So cool! Amazing and crazy birds. Like it was cobbled together out of leftovers. Nearly 180 degree vision out of each eye so it can look in front and behind without moving. Plus a name guaranteed to make 14 year olds go mental.

[Tom]

You got a pic of a woodcock? Damn! One time driving up to Vermont a mother and her brood crossed the road in front of us, I saw them and stopped, Karen had never seen one before, her first question was "What the hell are those?" and then she laughed and laughed in pure delight. I still smile thinking about that.

Today was turtles on logs. For a turtle that's what life is about, it just doesn't get any better than a warm sun and bask time.

[Too Tall]

Ahhh good thought. It is turtle crossing season.

[steve garro]

IMG_3168.JPGIMG_5048.JPGIMG_6829.JPG

11081268_944848422200045_7355447787617298231_n-2.jpg10622857_10206186708484356_3952375005019020751_n.jpgWe have a nesting pair of bald eagles, blackhawks, redtails, peregrines, kestrels, zone-tailed, cooper's, sharpies, greys, harris, ospreys, great blues, night herons, king fishers, vermillion flycatchers, red wing blackbirds, yellow head blackbirds, and a nest of broad tailed hummingbirds, to name a few - the highest recorded density of nesting songbirds is a site 1.5mi upstream from my house - we also have beavers, otters (they had a baby last year) fox, coyotes, javelinas, a bobcat, rattlers, white tails, king snakes, the bass are spawning……….the big mess in the tree is our eagles……...

It's super wonderful.

We are looking at tens of thousands of plums, peaches, pears, apples & pomegranates this year, they are all growing fast!

The Verde Valley is a wonderful place.

- Garro.

[j44ke]

Can like that post enough, Garro. Sounds like a place to keep on the qt.

I saw the ospreys have been successfully convinced to move across the street from their old house. The new pole is deluxe. The old new pole was definitely not deluxe. And the pole across the street was prone to fires but well, it was home. So I guess the utility just had to up their game in order to appeal to the ospreys.

Also spring peepers and other frogs going hyper in the brackish water. How amphibians operate in water with even the tiniest amount of salt in it is a mystery of nature.

The vegetation still looks like a giant teenager turfed it all in his dad's car over the winter.

Original nest (new old nest in background)



Old new nest (bad photo but too short)



New new nest (much better)

[bgav]

Sounds of spring around these parts, Spring Peepers. There was a cacophony of them on today's ride.

[j44ke]

That should be "can't like that post enough Garro." My spellchecker is correcting correctly spelled words into different correctly spelled words. Ugh.

[monadnocky]

Battle of the pileateds around here. They sound like monkeys when they do their thing. There seems to be a resurgence of them in the last few years - I had never seen one until about ten years ago, now they're all over the place. Spectacular birds, comical to see them hopping around on the ground.

[j44ke]

In the spring I put out a bit of finch seed (a thistle mix) in the bird feeder for the house finches, chipping sparrows and white-throated sparrows (sunflower seed attracts mice and raccoons in spring) and I went out to do so today. When I started refilling the feeder (it has been empty since February) the Downy woodpecker pair came down from their nest hole project and sat directly over my head on a branch making little chattering noises. Then the blue jays arrived, then the cardinals, then a whole squad of white-throats - bizarre. There must not be a lot of food around yet. That's the only explanation I can think of. Usually it takes a day or so before they figure out food is there. Anyway, other than the white-throats, they were all pretty pissed to find out that there were no sunflower seeds and they took shifts tossing all the thistle seed out of the feeder. Picky buggers. They are starving but they want the good stuff. I put a bunch of peanuts out on the picnic table, and that held off the mob until nightfall.

[steve garro]

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I saw the ospreys

I took this in March

- Garro.

[j44ke]

I took this in March

- Garro.

That's the guy! Ospreys are smart. They go south in winter. Ours head down to the Caribbean, though there is always one teenager who stays and looks forlorn.

The white egret species arrived today. Literally. I didn't see any of them yesterday. Today I saw great egret, snowy egret and little blue heron (has a white morph.) Also I heard the house wren this morning, so I cleaned out the wren boxes. One of them had quite a few tiny feathers pasted around the interior. Chickadees will roost in cavities during winter, huddling up with each other to keep warm on super cold nights. I figure they must have used the wren box. Feathers looked right.

[j44ke]

Rainy morning. The white-throated sparrows are having a sing-a-long. One starts singing and then another joins in. In this case there are two birds, but there can be several. Their whistle is easily imitated, and sometimes by whistling yourself, even when there are no white-throated sparrows singing, can get them started. They seem to like rainy mornings as well, which is appropriate given their song's minor key.

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[Tom]

Yeah, 50 degrees and rainy this morning, the world smells like a wet dog. It's been a long time since it has smelled so nice.

[steve garro]

[QUOTE=j44ke;685204]The white egret species arrived today. [QUOTE]

What color are it's feet?

- Garro.

[j44ke]

The white egret species arrived today.

What color are it's feet?

- Garro.

3 different species. Great Egret - large with black legs and feet and yellow bill. Snowy Egret - mid-sized with black bill, black legs and yellow feet. Little Blue Heron (white) - mid-sized with grayish bill with darker tip and grayish legs and feet.

Snowy and Little Blue Heron are hard to tell apart sometimes, but these two were near each other in one of the salt grass channels in an area called Napeague Meadows and close enough to the road that I could see the differences pretty clearly. They also stand and act differently while fishing (which is why I could stand there and watch them) - kind of subjective, but when the other field marks line up, they add to the ID.

[steve garro]

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3 different species. Great Egret - large with black legs and feet and yellow bill. Snowy Egret - mid-sized with black bill, black legs and yellow feet. Little Blue Heron (white) - mid-sized with grayish bill with darker tip and grayish legs and feet.

Snowy and Little Blue Heron are hard to tell apart sometimes, but these two were near each other in one of the salt grass channels in an area called Napeague Meadows and close enough to the road that I could see the differences pretty clearly. They also stand and act differently while fishing (which is why I could stand there and watch them) - kind of subjective, but when the other field marks line up, they add to the ID.

Yes - also whether they fly with feet up or down, and neck extended or not.

We have crowned night herons, those guys crack me up, I always wake them up while fishing & they are super pissy!

The GBH's always circle Osa & gonk at her & spray shit - she finds this righteously terrifying.

As far as fish, got a few of these last month……
- Garro.