Thursday, July 2, 2009

Purple Martin's Majesty

That Fourth of July patriotic thing is still running around in my brain, hence the title of today's blog! (*Explanation for those not familiar with patriotic American songs, it should be "Purple Mountains Majesty..." lalalala)



Me and the Doodles (she loves that name!) went for a little visit to Magee Marsh and wandered around their really cool visitors center. At the back of the center they have a Martin house that was fully stocked with Purple Martins big and little! You really have to hear the sounds they make in real life, though if you click here, you can hear an individual. When they are in a group and busy hawking dragonflies, they make the most amazing cacophony of sound! It's as if there's an echo built into their voice box.



As you can see by the following photos, it's been a busy spring out here. Lots of new mouths to feed! And a few less bugs to bug us. Not that there's anything wrong with them!





As always, Mom is stuck cleaning up after the messy kids, while Dad just sits there, smiling, with his mouth full of food.


"Wake up kids! It's Dragonfly-O's, breakfast of champions!"


Here you can see the female eating an eggshell. The extra minerals help after the recent egg laying.


And here's a lazy kid. Snoozing and waiting for the next meal to be delivered! He'll be on his own soon enough.


Dad just chillin' after a hard day of hunting.




*Barn Swallow Update*


This 'little' family is nesting under the eaves of one of our neighbors at the BirdMobile! There's actually five hungry mouths packed in there.


A few posts ago, I spoke of the Barn Swallows that are nesting on the sprinkler heads at the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge nature center. I joked about fire codes being possibly broken with the nests built right on top of the sprinkler heads. Well, Rebecca Hinkle of the refuge checked into the situation and found no codes being broken and the Swallows are fine to nest there.


Since that time, all the little one's fledged and we're working on a second helping of mosquito eaters! Mr. Cranky-pants, above, has taken over one of the sprinkler nests. He likes the security of knowing if he falls asleep smoking, it would be extinguished quickly.



This one is doing it the hard way. He's clinging onto the wooden beam while putting a mouthful of mud into just the right position.

Ack. Mud.



Wednesday, July 1, 2009

A Proud American...

No, I'm not talking about me...or any of the politicos that claim to be "Proud Americans" while they collect their money and trash the world...oops, sorry, that should be in a different blog...

So, the American Redstart, as in starting this post over again...I thought with Independence Day coming up, I'd have to think of something American, so here ya are! He's a handsome bird, isn't he? All dressed up in black and red(actually orange, but I'm color blind so what do I know...). And that flashy tail! When he gets a little riled up, he'll flash his tail feathers to get your attention and to flush out insects. Sort of like waving a red flag!

This is one of the warblies that nest in our area, though it's gonna be hard to spot their nests in amongst all the leaves. That will be a project for retirement (12 years to go!)


Almost from behind. They like to keep an eye on you!


This is a great example of the difference between the male and female. Once again, please note the impatient female and the "I don't care" look of the male. Special thanks to Mark Shieldcastle and his steady hands!

Here's a subtly colored female "Yellowstart" staring down a breakfast-bug. Yum.

This one was WAAAAYYYY up there! It may have been a female or a first summer male, too far and fuzzy to tell.

This poor lady. She doesn't realize that many of the male Redstarts have another mate on the side.
Just like the governor of South Carolina...

You can see the black blotches around the eyes on this one. That's a sure sign of a first summer male.
He can sneak around like this and the older males won't harass him.
Oooh, wait until next year buddy!
This is his 'Ernest Hemingway' deep in thought pose. "Yeah, I'm a deep think...ooh a bug...!"

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Let's take a Poll...

A Blackpoll...as in Blackpoll Warbler, that is!

I'm not one for participating in polls or believing what they say, but this little one said a lot to me. As you can tell by my last few posts, this was a banner spring for seeing warbly things out at BSBO and Magee Marsh. We go out there every spring to enjoy International Migratory Bird Day and all the craziness that comes along with it. But this year, WOW! We may be lucky to spot about twenty species of warblers on our visits, this year we blew it away with TWENTY NINE! Woo-hoo! Yep, me and the Doodles did the happy dance a number of times.

I didn't get the best photos of all 29 of them, but now I have something to look forward to next May!

Most of these photos were of this one, special individual. This busy body kept going in and out of the branches hunting for juicy bugs, but always popped back out to check on me and to make sure I got a good shot!


Getting ready to dive back in. A good Blackpoll always properly prepares for the launch to lunch!

This one was definitely checking out the lens and the goofball behind it!

Very rarely do I get the opportunity to get a shot from above. I never noticed the mottling on the cap before!

Thanks for putting up with my obsession with warblers! I'll be out this coming weekend and I'll try for something different to post...or not! Love them Warblies!!