Mid-July Warblers

Today was predicted to be hot and muggy so I wanted to get in a walk early in the morning. I arrived at the park around 6:45am and this was the earliest I've hiked in a long time. In addition, I had intended to make it all the way around today –another thing I've not done very often as of late. I had my new lens with today as well so I was bound and determined to get a few decent bird photos. There are still two species of Warblers that can be found –American Redstarts and Common Yellowthroats, and I figured I would be happy if I could get a good shot of either one. But before I had an opportunity at either of these birds, I was in for an even better surprise. From a distance I'd spotted what looked to be a female American Redstart, but it quickly moved up into the thick part of a Buckthorn tree. When I got closer, I looked up and into the area and saw a little bird with even more color than I expected. I thought "hey, that looks almost like a Chestnut-sided Warbler." As the bird came into an open area through the leaves, I realized it was indeed a Chestnut! The last CSW I've seen at Palmer Lake was in May. This is the time when the vast majority of them are heading even further north to their breeding grounds in northern Minnesota and Canada. But what was this one doing here? Well, for one thing it's color and pattern did not look quite fully formed, meaning that it's likely a juvenile. I didn't notice at the time, but it's tail is extremely short and stubby, another sign that the bird is not fully developed yet. So the big question now is this; is this an early migrant that fledged further north and is making it's way south? OR, is this possibly a bird that was born and fledged right here in Palmer Lake Park? Though I've not seen a single CSW in the Twin Cities area since May, it IS entirely possible that this bird fledged within or near Palmer Lake Park. The reason is that if you look at what's called a "range map" for a Chestnut-sided Warbler, the Twin Cities metro area is near the southern-most edge of their "summer range." Not too long after this exciting sighting, I ended up having my best chance at the bird I was most determined to capture today –a Common Yellowthroat. This was in a more open area where the wood chip trail runs along the cattails on the south side. There was a dead shrub sticking up out of the cattails and as my luck would have it, this beautiful male Yellowthroat decided to perch here for a brief moment. Earlier on my walk I actually saw a female Common Yellowthroat which for me this year has been much harder to find. I got an OK pic but not as good as this one of the male. But before my walk was over, I ended up having a much closer encounter with one more Warbler –the American Redstart. This particular bird (another male) came within very close proximity and actually stayed put! This is something Redstarts –and other Wablers for that matter– rarely do! The bird was in kind of a darker area shaded by the canopy of trees and I ended up not having my camera set very well to compensate. Thus these photos have been lightened up considerably. But despite this oversight, I was pleased to see how much detail came through on some of my shots! Even in person, this little guy appeared pretty mangy and beat up. Some of his tail feathers seemed to be broken off and he was just overall rough looking. But despite his appearance he sat there singing away. There have been times I have seen Redstarts sit still for a while and I would say it always seems to be later in the season, long after they've adjusted to their new surroundings after arriving in early Spring. This guy surely beat the record though for holding still and I shot 57 photos of him alone! Another thing that I liked about my view of this bird was that I could see some detail in his face and eye, which is something that doesn't always come across in a photo because they are just so black on the head. It's shabby appearance and uncommon cooperative behavior makes me wonder if this too was a juvenile bird! Oh and just a few other birds that were spotted today; Gray Catbird, Black-capped Chickadee, Northern Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird, Common Grackle, American Goldfinch, Rose-breasted Grosbeak (female) and Cedar Waxwing.

My Big Month - Day 11

I just can't believe how much our weather changes day-to-day here this Spring. After such a gorgeous day yesterday, I found myself wearing my winter hat again this morning. It was only 45 degrees and extremely windy. Twice during my walk it even sleeted for a short time! BUT, despite the weather today may likely have been the best day of birding I've ever had at the park. I took just under 300 -yes 300 photos in one outing today. Of course a heck of a lot of them were of the same bird(s), attempting to get the best shot possible. There were too many highlights to even mention them all -but the biggest was finding an area of the park that was packed with different kinds of Warblers. It's an area I don't even typically walk, on the paved trail closest to 69th Avenue on the south side. All in this one small area I spotted Black-and-white, Yellow, Palm, Yellow-rumped and Chestnut-sided Warblers! To my amazement I tallied up 9 different Warblers that I saw and photographed today, which is definitely a record for me! So my list of total species below should be bigger for that reason alone, plus I just saw a lot of other neat birds today.
I couldn't believe I was seeing the Chestnut-sided so easily as my only other encounter with one at the park was extremely brief. I took LOTS of photos of one of the Chestnuts that stayed on the ground and let me get closer than I would have thought possible. It was great fun to see all these Warblers but I was in for another treat later on when I got to see that Magnolia Warbler I mentioned yesterday in full view on the ground where I could also photograph him easier. I sat and watched and photographed this bird more than any other today. I just found him so striking that I devoted quite a bit of time to getting the best shot I could. So for the simple reason that I was able to photograph two stunningly beautiful Warblers today, I'm breaking my rule and posting two photos today.

Total species seen today: (These first 9 in blue are all Warblers) Chestnut-sided Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Ovenbird, Yellow-rumped Warbler, American Redstart, Yellow Warbler, Palm Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, Black-and-White Warbler, Hairy Woodpecker, Bald Eagle, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Northern Cardinal, Blue Jay, Hermit Thrush, Baltimore Oriole, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, American Goldfinch, Black-capped Chickadee, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, American Crow, Brown-headed Cowbird, Red-winged Blackbird, Common Grackle, American Robin, Least Flycatcher, Canada Goose, Mallard, Blue-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, Wild Turkey, Gadwall, American Coot, American Tree Sparrow, Song Sparrow and White-throated Sparrow.

Conditions: 45 degrees and very windy. Some sleet.

Last visit of July

Today was my 8th and final visit for the month of July. I'm surprised I got up to 8 seeing as how how and muggy it has been this month. The rain just continues and this morning was wet again from the previous day's weather. There were plenty of birds out today and among others I saw Cardinals, Catbirds, Downy Woodpeckers, Goldfinches and a Green Heron. One bird in particular was doing it's best to avoid a photograph. It was a common yellow-ish bird I've seen often, and in fact I remember incorrectly identifying it earlier as a Yellow Warbler. This one was hoping back and forth on the lower parts of cattail stems and I sat there for a long time before I was able to catch a decent photo. I noticed it has a faint eye-ring and mostly a yellow colored throat so I'm convinced now that it's a female Common Yellowthroat. After I'd almost completed the north side, a young looking Doe popped out of the woods onto the trail and began walking right towards me. I knelt down on one knee like I often do and it continued toward me stopping only just a few feet away. Her face looked to be peppered with ticks or something but upon looking closer at my photo I think they were engorged mosquitoes. This year has been especially bad for mosquitoes with all the rain. Sometimes I think they're bad enough to drive the Deer right out of the woods. I often keep an eye on the small Willow shrubs now for birds as I've seen just about every kind perched in them at one time or another. But today I noticed something else. Almost everywhere were pairs of these brown and green beetles. The green head is a shiny, iridescent emerald green. It also looks like they eat the Willow as the leaves were chewed within close distance of every beetle. I looked them up and learned they are "Japanese Beetles." They are native to Japan and thought to have arrived in the U.S. in the 1900's. They've become a serious pest of roughly 200 different plants in America. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_beetle

Yet more new birds

This Sunday was definitely the nicer day of the weekend. It was sunny and 65º and it made for one of the nicest walks this year so far. The amount of Bird species one could see at the park seems to still be on the upswing. In this visit alone I will have positively identified 3 more species. This first one I've seen plenty of and become very familiar with. I've been seeing -and hearing- lots of Gray Catbirds for a few weeks already. They're not the most fun to look at but sure are fun to listen to. They mimic other Birds and I swear I can hear a Robin call in there among all the other noise they make. There were a pair of them just above me on the woodchip trail and I couldn't resist such a close shot. As I was making my way towards the baseball fields on the west side I noticed a bunch of small Warblers in the woods. I paused to watch and see if I could get any shots when I caught a glimpse of one with stunning colors. He, along with the others didn't sit still for very long and I caught only this very poor photo. Pretty sure it is a Chesnut sided Warbler! On the north side I spotted a larger, Robin sized Bird that did not look familiar at first glance. He was perched high up in a Willow Tree so I checked with my binoculars. It was a Red-Breasted Grosbeak, a fairly common Bird but the first one I've seen at the park. I went for my camera but I was about half a second too slow and caught him launching into flight. Between this and my next photo I saw all kinds of stuff including another Flicker, Brown-headed Cowbirds and a Green Heron. I'd walked up the edge of a pond to watch the Heron for a bit when I noticed a colorful, orange and black bird land just out to my right. I'd seen my first one only yesterday but managed to get a photo this time of an American Redstart! The Redstart is a member of the Warbler family and if you ever try to catch a photo of these types of birds, you'll understand why I'm so happy with this picture.