Scarlet Tanager: Migration Monday

Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea)

Description:

Scarlet Tanagers are medium-sized songbirds that spend their summers in the Eastern United States. They have bright plumage but are actually hard to find since they spend their time singing high up in the tree tops. Male Scarlet Tanagers are brilliant red with black wings and females are greenish-yellow with olive wings. Tanagers are finch-like with thick bills, stocky bodies, and short tails. In the fall, males molt to look more like the females, but retain their black wings.

Male Scarlet Tanager (Image via birdingaroundnyc.com)

Female Scarlet Tanager (Image by Rob Curtis/VIREO via audubon.org)

Range:

Long-distant migrant. Summer (breeding): Eastern United States. Migration: Southeastern United States, the Caribbean Islands, and parts of Central America. Winter: South America.

Habitat:

Mainly deciduous forests, sometimes pine-oak woods or coniferous woods. Scarlet Tanagers prefer to breed in oak trees. In the winter they spend time in the tropic rain forest or lowlands near the Andes.

Food:

Scarlet Tanagers are foliage gleaners who mainly eat insects. They either perch or hover when grabbing insects and will swallow smaller insects whole. They will press larger insects into a branch. They will mainly forage towards the canopy but may also forage on the ground.

Breeding and Nesting:

Males will display their contrasting colors to the female by standing on a branch below her and drooping his wings/spreading his tail. Scarlet Tanagers are monogamous during the breeding season but choose new mates each year. Females will build the nest in a deciduous tree on a horizontal branch that is usually away from the trunk. Scarlet Tanagers have 1 brood per year with the average clutch size of 3-5 eggs. The female will incubate the eggs for 12-14 days and chicks will be fed by both parents (but mainly the female). The chick will fledge 9-15 days after hatching, but will be cared for by the parents for about 2 weeks after fledging.

A pair at their nest (Image via yucatanadventure.com.mx)

Sound:

A repetitive, hurried warble. Many people say that a Scarlet Tanager sounds like an American Robin that has a sore throat.

Fun Facts:

• Scarlet Tanagers migrate mainly at night and fly across the Gulf of Mexico to reach their breeding and wintering grounds.
• Scarlet Tanagers sometimes fall victim to Cowbird parisitism. If the Tanagers sees the female Brown-headed Cowbird approaching they will attack it to keep it away. However, if the Cowbird is not spotted, it will throw out the Tanager’s egg and replace it with their own. The Tanager cannot tell that it is not their egg and will unknowingly raise the Cowbird chick.

Male Scarlet Tanager (Image by the National Park Service via nhptv.org)

• They are one of the few birds where the female also sings. She can answer the male’s song similarly , but in a shorter and softer manner.
• Scarlet Tanagers are the only North American birds that has the combination of red bodies and black wings.

Shore to Please

It’s Memorial Day weekend. Although summer doesn’t start until June 20th, many people consider this weekend to be the start of the summer season. In New Jersey, this means that thousands of people make their way to the Jersey Shore each weekend from now until Labor Day.

I grew up at the Jersey Shore. The strange thing is though, I barely spent any time at the beach until I became an adult. Once I became a birder and moved away from the shore I realized that there were so many birds that I missed out on growing up. So I try to go to the shore a few times a year to enjoy the beach and the shore birds.

Dave and I visited Barnegat Lighthouse State Park on Friday morning. Barnegat Light SP is located on the northern  tip of Long Beach Island in the town of Barnegat Light. It’s a great place to see all different kinds of shore birds as well as waterfowl in the winter. Whatever time of the year, Barnegat Lighthouse SP is shore to please (bad pun, I know haha!). It seems like a crazy idea on Memorial Day weekend but we got there early and beat all the crowds. We started our hike by walking along the short pine trail near the visitor entrance. I finally got to see my first Black and White Warbler. Other birds on the trail were Northern Cardinals, a Mourning Dove, Song Sparrows, Yellow Warblers, Gray Catbirds, and American Robins.

Black and White Warbler (Image by David Horowitz)

Mourning Dove (Image by BirdNation)

We continued onto the beach and walked along the jetty towards the end of the beach. The first thing we spotted was a small group of gulls, but there was something else mixed in…a Piping Plover! Piping Plovers are small and blend in perfectly with the sand. They are considered endangered in New Jersey as well as in some of the other states they live in. Human recreation, habitat loss, and predators have all contributed to the decrease in numbers of Piping Plovers over the years. Here in New Jersey we’ve had some good new though. Last year Conserve Wildlife New Jersey reported that the breeding population of Piping Plovers increased from 92 pairs in 2014 to 108 pairs in 2015. On Long Beach Island certain parts of the beach are blocked off to avoid people from interfering with the shorebird’s nests.

Piping Plover (Image by David Horowitz)

This Piping Plover was putting on a show. It was rapidly flying through the gulls and running around with its tail feathers down while being chased. Then we spotted it…a chick! The other adult and chick were nearby and this adult was trying to distract the gulls. I have seen Piping Plovers before but this was my first chick! It was so adorable.

The Piping Plovers disappeared into the sand, so we continued on our way. There were 5 Semipalmated Plovers resting nearby and 2 Eastern Kingbirds fluttering through the sky. We ran into one of my favorite summer residents: the American Oystercatcher. These birds are so striking to me: medium-sized, black/white/brown bodies, with a long bold orange bill and entrancing red eyes.

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We saw 3 Oystercatchers, but my favorite was the one towards the end of the jetty. It found an oyster and happily strutted around with it in its bill. It would stop every so often to twist the shell in the sand then continue on its way. We watched it run to a tide pool near the jetty where it finally cracked open the shell to enjoy its snack.

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Another bird we watched along our walk was the Ruddy Turnstone. A few days after Christmas it was 75 degrees (crazy New Jersey!), so we went to Barnegat Light and saw our first Ruddy Turnstones. There were a handful of them running around on the jetty in non-breeding plumage that December day. We saw many of them on Friday and finally got to see them live up to their names. They walked around in small flocks, turning over any object that was in the way to find food. They were fun to watch.

Towards the end of the jetty we saw some more gulls and Double-crested Cormorants. As we looked out at the ocean a few Ruddy Turnstones and Sanderlings foraged along the coastline. When we were ready to leave we were in for a surprise: a whole mixed flock arrived! There were a mix of about 30 Sanderlings and Ruddy Turnstones running out towards the ocean then being chased back by the waves. And suddenly, they were gone as quickly as they arrived.

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We saw the same Piping Plover family on our way back towards the lighthouse. There was not one chick though…there were 3! What a wonderful sight! I still can’t believe we were lucky enough to see a whole family of Piping Plovers. I hope through conservation efforts these beautiful plovers and other endangered shorebirds continue to see their populations increase. If you happen to go to the beach this weekend (or know anyone who is) please remember to share the beach with our avian friends. Don’t you want to continue experiencing this cuteness in the years to come? I shore do :-).

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Indigo Bunting: Migration Monday

Time for Migration Monday! Today’s featured migrant is the Indigo Bunting.

Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea)

Description:

Indigo Buntings are stocky, finch-like birds that are actually part of the Cardinalidae (or Cardinal) Family. During breeding season male Indigo Buntings are a brilliant blue, with darker blue plumage on their heads, and have a silvery-gray bill . The male’s wings have black plumage. Females are a drab brown with a whitish throat. Females have faint streaking on their breast and some may have a slight touch of blue on their rumps, wings, or tail. Immature male buntings are a patchy blue and brown. In the fall males will molt their blue plumage and become more brown like the female.

Male Indigo Bunting (Image by Kevin Bolton via wikipedia)

Female Indigo Bunting (Image by Kelly Colgan Azar via allaboutbird.org)

Range:

Long distance migrant. Summer (Breeding): Midwest to Eastern North America and parts of the American Southwest. Winter: Central America and the Caribbean Islands. Migration: parts of New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico

Habitat:

Indigo Bunting tend to like the edges of habitats: edges of woodlands, roadsides, swamps, and old fields near bushes. They breed in brushy and weedy pastures.

Food:

Mainly insect, seeds, berries, and buds. Indigo Buntings forage on all levels, from the ground to up in the trees. In the summer they usually forge alone, but form large flocks to forage at their wintering grounds. Upon arrival to their breeding grounds, they may eat on twigs and leaves from various trees.

Male Indigo Bunting (Image by animals.nationalgeographic.com)

Breeding/Nesting:

Males will start to defend their territories in the spring by song. A male may have more than one female breeding in his territory at a time. Females will build a nest in a low tree or shrub using twigs, weeds, bark, and other materials to form an open cup. Indigo Buntings may have between 1 and 3 broods per year (usually 2) with a clutch size of 3-4 eggs. The female will incubate the eggs for 11-14 days and nestlings will fledge between 9-12 days after hatching. Sometimes the male will take over care of the young while the female starts a second brood.

Sounds:

Males sing a lively and cheerful song of short phrases that are each repeated twice. For example, a song may sound like “what! what! where? where? see it! see it!”. They form what is referred to as “song neighborhoods” because young males will learn songs from other males in their area. As a result, neighboring males will have similar songs and males from a few hundred yards away will have very different songs.

Fun Facts:

• Indigo Buntings migrate at night and use the stars to help them navigate.
• Indigo Buntings, like other blue birds, are not actually blue. Microscopic structures in their feathers refract and reflect blue light.
• They can migrate around 1,200 miles from their breeding grounds to their wintering grounds. They tend to migrate due south, meaning if an Indigo Bunting breeds in the western part of their range they will migrate to the western part of their wintering grounds and vice versa.
• Indigo Buntings and their western cousins, the Lazuli Bunting, may share ranges and even interbreed. Male Lazuli Buntings may also learning songs from the Indigo Buntings.

A Dream Fulfilled…Part 2

Today’s post is Part 2 of our Ithaca, New York birding vacation recap. You can read Part 1, which was our first day at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, here.

I have to admit, there was one thing I was worried about before we left for the trip: weather. The forecast was set to be beautiful for Thursday, but it was supposed to rain all day Friday and Saturday. I was slightly disappointed by the idea of rain because this trip was all about birding and being outdoors. I really treasured our time at the Lab on Thursday because I thought it would be the only day we would be able to walk around there.

It did rain on Friday morning. We had a plan though. We spent the morning at the  Museum of the Earth. Museum of the Earth is part of the Paleontological Research Institution, whose building is located right next door. If you ever go to Ithaca, New York I recommend visiting the museum. It details the history of Earth spanning 4.5 billion years ago to today. As you walk through the museum you can view thousands of fossils and some cool dioramas. According the the Museum’s website, they take care of 2-3 million specimens. It was a fascinating subject to learn about.

By the time we left the Sun was mostly out and it seemed to dry up. We were blessed with dry weather for the rest of the day, so we headed back to the Lab. We didn’t walk as much as Thursday but it was just as rewarding. Some of my favorite moments were:

• Watching a Great Blue Heron play with a fish it caught while another heron and Red-winged Blackbird looked on
• More chippies!
• Snakes swimming through the pond
• Observing and listening to a beautiful Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
• A Baltimore Oriole who seemingly “followed” us through the forest singing

Warling Vireo (Image by BirdNation)

Chippie! (Image by David Horowitz)

Lounging the day away… (Image by David Horowitz)

The Lab from acroos the pond Image by BirdNation)

Who are you looking at? (Image by David Horowitz)

We spent more time on Friday exploring the inside of the Lab. I enjoyed seeing the new Wall of Birds Mural in the stairwell. As part of the Lab’s centennial celebration last year, artist Jane Kim and Ink Dwell Studios created “From So Simple A Beginning”. This mural highlights birds evolution and highlights species from all over the world. I was excited to view it because I watched all the live streams and seminars about it while it was being painted. There are paintings throughout the Lab of various birds and a cool hummingbird taxidermy display. We watched the Feeder Cam from above in the Adelson Library and viewed a Mourning Dove nest from an observatory that overlooks the pond. I loved visiting the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and hope to go hiking there again in the future.

After lunch Dave and I walked back to Cascadilla Gorge. This time we climbed the 400-foot incline to the Cornell University campus. It is certainly not a walk for everyone (the incline is steep) but it is definitely rewarding. While walking to the Gorge, Dave and I were discussing the Museum of the Earth and fossils. We started to look for fossils and ended up finding them all over the place! In Ithaca and the Finger Lakes region fossils are abundant. They all date from the Ordovician and Devonian periods from 450 to 360 million years ago. The ones we found were mainly clams and crinoids, also known as sea lilies. Dave found a somewhat large piece that looked like a whole small ecosystem that we took with us. It was awesome seeing all the fossils and the breathtaking waterfalls.

Cascadilla Gorge (Image by BirdNation)

A crinoid and clam fossil found by Dave (Image by David Horowitz)

Saturday was our last day in Ithaca. On the way home we visited Buttermilk Falls State Park. This gorge was definitely “gorge-ous”, just like the slogan “Ithaca is Gorges!” tells us :-).  We took the Gorge Trail, which elevates to 450 feet. We did not hike the entire trail but what we did see was spectacular. We ended up finding some small clam and crinoid fossils that we took as souvenirs. Again, we were blessed with lovely weather which we didn’t expect. I’m glad we stopped at Buttermilk Falls on the way home, because it was a wonderful way to end the vacation.

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I had a wonderful time in Ithaca. I would love to visit the area again to enjoy all the natural beauty in the area. If you are looking to have a vacation that revolves around nature activities I highly recommend staying in Ithaca, New York.

A Dream Fulfilled…Part 1

Friends, it finally happened. Last weekend Dave and I went on vacation to Ithaca, New York to visit the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

If you’ve been following my blog for awhile, you know that this is a big deal for me. I love the Lab and everything it stands for. I’ve been wanting to visit the Lab for the past few years, so we decided it was finally time.

We arrived at the Lab in the early afternoon on Thursday and were blessed with beautiful warm weather. The Lab was just as pretty as it looks from the bird cams and website. We only briefly entered the Lab because there was a seminar of sorts taking place, but we planned on spending more time inside the follow day. The Lab’s Feeder Cam is right outside the visitor’s entrance, but blocked off by pieces of wood so people don’t disturb the feeders. You can see the cam well from the inside of the building. I’ve spent many hours watching the live Feeder Cam on the internet, so it was cool to see it in person. After checking out the feeders we started our walk through Sapsucker Woods.

We made it! (Image by BirdNation)

I already had an idea of what Sapsucker Woods Bird Sanctuary looked like from watching Pond Cam on the Lab’s website. It was beautiful experiencing it in person. Sapsucker Woods is 230 acres and comprised of ponds, forests, and ferny swamps. One of the first things we noticed was tons of woodpecker holes. There were woodpecker holes of every size and many of them were made by Pileated Woodpeckers (unfortunately we did not see any Pileated Woodpeckers this trip). We recorded 30 birds on our walk and hiked almost all of the trails. Most of the birds were the usual suspects we would see at home, but seeing them in a new place was exciting. We did add a few new birds to our life list: Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Black-capped Chickadee (we get Carolinas here), and Wood Thrush.

Some of my favorite moments included:

• Watching a Gray Catbird grab an insect right out of the air
• Yellow-bellied Flycatcher sighting
• Chipmunks everywhere! Dave and I call them “Chippies”. They were literally everywhere. I think we spent most of the day happily exclaiming, “Look! Another chippie! They are so cute!”. They were not phased by us one bit.
• Walking through the swamp and seeing a variety of woodpeckers, holes, and sapwells
• Finding somebody’s nest with 3 eggs on a ledge
• Gray Catbirds everywhere (but I enjoy that at any location I’m at haha!)
• Red-bellied Woodpeckers chasing each other through the forest

Red-bellied Woodpecker on the go (Image by BirdNation)

Chippie! (Image by BirdNation)

Wood Thrush (Image by BirdNation)

Eastern Phoebe (Image by BirdNation)

Me being an extremely happy bird nerd 🙂 (Image by David Horowitz)

We spent most of the afternoon at the Lab before heading into the city to check into our hotel. After dinner we found Cascadilla Gorge. Ithaca is known for having around 150 waterfalls. Their slogan is “Ithaca is Gorges!” (get it? I love the play on words). Cascadilla Gorge Trail is a 400-foot climb that leads to the Cornell University campus. We didn’t hike the trail on our first night, but planned to the following day. We did watch a cute Mallard couple dabbled on the edge on the waterfall.

Cascadilla Gorge (Image by BirdNation)

The following video was taken on my iPhone so its not the best quality ever, but they were just so cute dabbling I couldn’t resist sharing. This video is posted on the BirdNation Youtube page.

Day 1 of our vacation was fabulous. I was elated that we were finally in Ithaca enjoying  all the natural beauty this town had to offer. Check back tomorrow for Part 2, where we return to the Lab and experience some other natural wonders.

Warbling Vireo: Migration Monday

Hi everyone! I’m back! It’s been about a week, but I have a good excuse for why I’ve been away. I was on vacation fulfilling one of my birding dreams. What might that be you ask? You’ll have to wait and see in tomorrow’s post!

In the meantime, it’s Migration Monday! Today’s featured bird is a new edition that I added to my life list yesterday. Dave and I were at Maria B. Greenwald Park and we kept hearing  very rapid, jumbled songs from high in the trees. The songs were coming from all over the place. They  were hard to spot, but we finally found the crooner: a small gray and white bird. It was very plain, so I became concerned. My first thought was: how are we going to id this gray and white bird that has no distinguishing features? So I used my iPhone to make an audio recording hoping it would be useful. And it was; after searching it on Merlin (my Cornell Lab birding app) we had a match: a Warbling Vireo. Turns out its lack of features helped us with this id as well. So without further ado:

Warbling Vireo (Vireo gilvus)

Description:

Warbling Vireos are small songbirds with white underparts and gray-olive upperparts.They lack wingbars, but have pale lores (the region between the eyes and nostril) and faint yellows flanks on the sides of their breast. They have a black stripe through their eyes and white stripe above their eyes. Don’t let their plain plumage fool you; these birds are anything but dull. Warbling Vireos live up to their names. They sing a rambling song from high in the trees which is their most distinctive and one of their most interesting features. Western Vireos and Eastern Vireos were once considered different species.

Warbling Vireo (Image by Garth McElroy/VIREO via Audubon.org

Range:

Warbling Vireos are medium to long-distant migrants, who mainly travel at night. You can find them in the summers breeding in Western Canada and most of the United States, except for the Southeast. They migrate through Texas and Mexico to reach their winter residence of Central America.

Habitat:

Deciduous and mixed woods, usually near some source of water. Western populations tend to breed in canyons, prarielands, and trees of mountains. Eastern populations breed in isolated groves with water nearby. In the winter they spend time in mixed flocks throughout open woods.

Food:

Mainly caterpillars, but eats other insects as well. They will add  berries and fruits to their diets in fall and winter. Warbling Vireos are foliage gleaners who search for food high in the treetops. They search methodically on one leaf before moving on to the next.

Breeding/Nesting:

Males will attract females by spreading his wings, fanning his tail, and strutting/hopping around. Female vireos in the east will build their nests high up in trees, while females in the west build them in shrubs or shorter trees. The nest is made up of different plant fibers and bark. Warbling Vireos have 1-2 brood per year with an average clutch size of 4 eggs. Both parents will incubate the eggs for 12-14 days. The male will usually sing while incubating. Warbler Vireos are a species that are frequently parasitized by Brown Cowbirds. When this occurs the vireos will unknowingly raise the cowbird chick as their own. However, some females in Eastern populations have figured out that there is a cowbird  egg in their nests. These females will puncture the invading egg and roll it out of the nest. Vireo chicks will fledge from the nest 12-16 eggs after hatching.

Warbling Vireo on its nest (Image by Gary L. Clark via wikimedia commons)

Sounds:

Males sing  a cheerful and dizzying series of notes. The highly-variable songs are approximately 3 seconds long and usually end on a high note. If you want to hear it, check out the sound links on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Warbling Vireo page. The second sound clips sounds like what I heard the other day. You can find the sound clips here.

Fun Facts:

• Due to the fact that Warbling Vireos avoid areas that are not unbroken forest, it is believed that their populations are larger than they ever were.
• Warbling Vireo populations throughout the country are so variable that ornithologists have recognized 6 separate subspecies.
• Some scientists believe that the Warbling Vireo’s song is partly learned as opposed to instinctual. They believe that their jumbled song is partly due to mistakes in the development process of learning the song.

Mother’s Day Birds

This past Sunday was Mother’s Day. I had a lovely day with my mother and sister. The weather was lovely as well, so we decided to start our celebration with a walk at Amico Island. I heard from one of the internet birding groups that I’m in that there was a heavy migration Saturday night, so I was hopeful for some new migrants. We had a successful day with 28 species in a little over an hour.

Our first stop was the blue trail. Towards the beginning of the trail there were two people with cameras. They seemed very excited and they had a reason to be: Baltimore Orioles! There were both males and females present and they were whistling from high in the tree tops. We didn’t know where to look; they seemed to be everywhere!

It was really busy in the forest area on the way to the Great Blue Heron rookery. Birds we observed included: Yellow Warblers, Common Yellowthroats, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Carolina Chickadees, Brown-headed Cowbirds, a Carolina Wren, Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers, Grackles, Gray Catbirds, and American Robins to name a few. Below is my favorite picture I took of a Yellow Warbler so far. He looks perfect to me :-).

Male Yellow Warbler signing (Image by BirdNation)

Carolina Wren (Image by BirdNation)

One of my favorite parts of our trip was watching from the rookery observation area. There were some Great Blue Herons in the rookery, as well as some flying around. We also watched a Red-Tailed Hawk soaring and many Tree Swallows. Before leaving I peeked through some branches and spotted a Great Egret (my first of season) and a Great Blue Heron standing side by side.

Great Egret and Great Blue Heron (Image by BirdNation)

Another Great Blue Heron decided he wanted to join the party too while the egret preened.

Then there were three…(Image by BirdNation)

The Egret wasn’t too thrilled about being stuck between two Great Blue Herons, so he decided he was going to be the leader of the line.

There he goes! (Image by BirdNation)

Egret leads the line (Image by BirdNation)

They were amusing to watch as they relaxed and preened. We continued towards the beach area on the yellow trail.

Red-tailed Hawk in flight (Image by BirdNation)

In the wintertime the beach area on the Delaware River section of the island is usually packed with waterfowl and gulls. This wasn’t the case on Sunday, but we did see some Mallards and Canada Geese. An Osprey flew overhead and was even mobbed by a little bird at one point.

We really enjoyed walking at Amico on Sunday. I hope everyone that celebrates Mother’s Day had a great weekend with their families!

Baltimore Oriole: Migrant Monday

Welcome to another edition of Migration Monday! Our featured bird this week is the Baltimore Oriole.

Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula)

Description:

Baltimore Orioles are medium-sized songbirds that visit the Eastern United States in spring and summer. The males have bold plumage- flaming orange underparts contrasted with black upperparts. They have slender bodies, thick necks, and sharp blackbills. They also have white marking on their wings. The females are more of a duller yellow-orange with an olive-gray head and backs. Their bills are a silvery-gray and their tails are orange. The females also have white wingbars.

Adult Male Baltimore Oriole (Image by Brian E. Small/VIREO via audubon.org)

Adult Female Baltimore Oriole (Image by USFWS via wikimedia commons)

Range:

Medium to long-distant migrants who travel in flocks. Winter: Central America and South America. Summer: Eastern to Midwestern United States and parts of Canada. Migration: Southeastern and parts of Midwestern United Station.

Habitat:

Open woodlands, deciduous trees, orchards, backyards, parks, and along rivers.

Food:

They mainly eat insects, nectar, and fruit. Their diet varies by season. In the spring and fall  they eat a lot of nectar and fruits since these sugary foods give them energy for migration. In the summer and while raising young they mainly eat insects.

Breeding/Nesting:

During courtship a male will face the female, stretches upright, then bow down deeply with his tail and wings spread. He will sing to defend his territory.The female will weave a hanging nest in a deciduous tree. She will position small fibers and randomly poke at the fibers will her bill. Although she is not deliberately making knots, poking the fibers will cause them to make knots. She builds the nest in a span of a week in 3 steps: weaving the outer bowl, weaving the inner bowl, and finally adding a soft down lining. Sometimes the male will bring her new nest material, but the female will usually recycle material from an old nest.

Male at a hanging nest (Image by Gary Tyson via allaboutbirds.org)

Baltimore Orioles have one brood a year with a clutch size of 3-7 eggs. The female will incubate the eggs between 12-14 days. Both parents will feed the nestlings, who will fledge in around 12-14 days after hatching.

Song:

Clear, flute-like whistles that vary by individuals. Like the Northern Cardinals female Baltimore Orioles will sing. Her songs are shorter, and sometimes the male and female will communicate as a duet.

Fun Facts:

• The Baltimore Oriole was named after England’s Baltimore family, whose crest colors were orange and black. This is the same family that the Maryland city of Baltimore is named for.
• Young male Baltimore Orioles do not molt into their bright orange until they are around two years old. Young males will be a drab yellow-orange like the females. However, even without bright breeding plumage, some first year males have been successful with mating.
• Baltimore Orioles and their cousins, the Bullock’s Oriole of the west, were once considered one species called the Northern Oriole. Since their range overlaps they sometimes interbreed, but Bullock’s are distinct because they have orange faces instead of black faces.
• Baltimore Orioles will sometimes use their bills to make a movement called gaping. They will stab their closed bills into a piece of fruit, take off a small juicy piece, then drink from it with their brushy tongues.
• They prefer dark-colored ripe fruits. They will ignore bright fruits even if they are ripe in favor for dark-colored ones.

Baltimore Oriole (Image by Garrick Fields via fallsoftheohio.org)

Have Baltimore Oriole migrated to your area yet?

They’re Finally Here!

Friends, I’m so excited! One of my absolute favorite birds is back! I saw one of my balcony this morning and all throughout my walk at Boundary Creek tonight. I’ve been waiting so long for this.

Gray Catbird being awesome! (Image by BirdNation)

The Gray Catbird! I love Gray Catbirds. These little guys definitely have personality. First of all: they are super cute. I like their little black caps and their rusty rumps. Secondly, I love hearing their cat-like “meeeh!” calls coming from the bushes as I hike. They are also awesome because they are in the mimic family and their songs are a jumble of all sorts of interesting sounds. I am ecstatic that they are back and will definitely write a post about how great they are soon (so look out for that!).

We had a few “firsts” today. It was the first day in a whole week that it didn’t rain, so we walked at Boundary Creek. One of our “first of season” birds was the Baltimore Oriole. We spotted a male in a tree singing a song. Later in the walk we saw a male and female together. Last year we found a Baltimore Oriole nest at Boundary so I wonder if that nest will be used again this season or not.

Male Baltimore Oriole (Image by BirdNation)

We also have a new lifer for our list: the Field Sparrow. There were two looking for food on the side of the path. I originally thought that it could have been a Chipping Sparrow. However, Chipping Sparrow’s rufous cap is brighter and it has a dark eye stripe as opposed to the Field Sparrow’s lighter eye stripe. It’s always exciting to add a new bird to your life list.

Field Sparrow (Image by BirdNation)

Other birds we saw included American Robins, Carolina Chickadees, Canada Geese, European Starlings, Tree Swallows, American Crows, Song Sparrows, and Red-winged Blackbirds. We also saw a lot of cute rabbits.

Female Red-winged Blackbird (Image by BirdNation)

Tree Swallow checking out the real estate (Image by BirdNation)

Adorable baby rabbit (Image by BirdNation)

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day. My mom, sister and I will be celebrating by going to Amico Island. We are hoping to see some more warblers so I’ll let you know what we see.

Also, exciting news! I will be going to my favorite place later this week for part of my vacation: the Cornell Lab of Ornithology! I will tell you more about this soon!

Guess Hoo’s Back?

Hi everybody! Guess “hoo” I saw yesterday? The Great Horned Owl! About 2 1/2 weeks ago, there was a Great Horned Owl outside my apartment. It was my first experience with an owl at night (you can read about my other owl experiences here). Around midnight Dave heard the Great Horned Owl calling again so we went out to investigate. This time we found the owl quickly. We could see its silhouette on a branch in the same tree as our last encounter. As it called we could see its tail moving and were also able to see its head movements. Now that we’ve seen it a second time I’ve been wondering more about it. Where does it come from? Does it live here? It would be cool if we had an owl neighbor that moved into the complex. I’m happy it came back. I feel so lucky to be able to be in the presence of a Great Horned Owl. I’ll let you know if we see it again.

The rain continues here in South Jersey. I like rain, but I’ll admit it’s been pretty dreary lately. It has basically been raining since last Friday, with a brief break Saturday morning/afternoon. I haven’t been able to go birding, but our backyard has been pretty busy.

Just from today Dave said that he saw most of our Feeder Friends: American Goldfinches, Downy Woodpecker, White-breasted Nuthatch, House Finch pair, House Sparrows, European Starlings, Northern Cardinal, Mourning Doves, and Carolina Chickadees. We have a new balcony visitor: the Carolina Wren. I know that the wren has been living here for awhile because I’ve heard its calls numerous times, but these days it likes hanging out and singing from our balcony.

We have a nest box that is currently occupied by House Sparrows and on our bird cam we discovered that the Carolina Wren has a secret: he steals nest material! What a sneaky wren! We caught this little guy entering the box multiple time and stealing twigs. The wren usually gets caught by one of the sparrows. Oh the drama that unfolds! Once the House Sparrow pulled the wren out of the box and the two fought in mid-air. Speaking of the House Sparrows, they were mating on top of the box today so we’ll see if the female finally lays any eggs.

So I will leave you with my favorite “silly bird”, the Mourning Dove. These two cuties spent a few hours one day just resting on the balcony. I hope the sun returns so I can go birding this weekend and show you some more of our spring visitors.

Relaxing (Image by David Horowitz)