Back in the USA

The trip to Europe was great but the timing was terrible. I all but missed the spring migration in our area by being out of the country in May. Once Memorial Day rolls around, there is not much in the way of bird life to keep us interested. Here are a few stories from the weekend.

Barbara and I got up early on Sunday and headed out to Hidden Valley Ranch in Cape May to chase a Painted Bunting that has been hanging around for over a month. This poor guy is way out of his normal range which is down in the deep south. Nonetheless, he was singing his little heart out trying to woo a gal - a nonexistent gal. It's going to be a lonely spring for him.

Painted Bunting

It's only May and we already know that the summer is going to be full of ticks. I was covered with them within the first 100 yards of the walk to find the bunting. Even the birds were covered with ticks. Check out this Carolina Wren. He has 2 ticks on his face. I cropped the photo so you could see them - one between the eye and beak, the other below the eye.

Carolina Wren - with ticks

I was covered with ticks again today when Harvey and I headed out to see if there were any interesting birds around. No neat birds but we found a few neat butterflies. Butterflies have really weird names. Thankfully, Harvey knew what they were.

Hayhurst's Scallopwing

Red-striped Hairstreak

Speaking of butterflies, Di, Barbara and I put in 2 new gardens at the Blue House this spring - all in an attempt to attract butterflies and hummingbirds to the yard. I used Pat Sutton's plant list as a guide. You can find it at New Jersey Audubon website (Click Here) .

Shade Garden

Sun Garden

If you build it, they will come. The plants weren't in the ground for an hour and viola - our first butterfly - a Skipper.

Skipper in the garden

It's not the most attractive butterfly, but you can see that he/she loves the flowers. Check out the long black tongue probing the Bluestar (amsonia).

Skipper

Harvey and I were scolded by a pair of Bald Eagles today. We inadvertently got too close to their nest. Boy were they pissed. We hustled off down the path to get away from the nest but not before they told us about it. I snapped a few photos on our way out of the woods. These are 2 different eagles - one is Mom and the other is Dad. The first one has something in it's talons.

Bald Eagle

Pissed off

Got Another WInter Finch

Thanks to information obtained at the last DVOC meeting and information gathered from eBird, I finally pinpointed a reliable location for one of the other winter finches that I need for my life list and the Big Year - White-winged Crossbill.  They are reported from all over the area, but rarely 2 days in a row so it doesn't pay to go look in a location where someone saw them yesterday since they probably won't be there today. My frustration got the best of me and I decided to say something about it at the last meeting so I stood up and asked the crowd if I was the only member of the club that hadn't seen one yet.  To my surprise, more than 50% of the meeting attendees raised their hands and said that they still had not seen one.  It made me feel a little bit better.  Then, one of the members told me that they were being seen almost daily on Princeton University's campus.

I showed up at Princeton at 8:30 AM and had the bird by 9:00! At first, I was having trouble finding the location since I thought that crossbills liked pine cones and there were not many pine trees on campus, but then I saw the telltale sign - middle aged men with binoculars in a group.  They were really nice guys from Atlantic Audubon club who are also doing a Big Year.  While talking to them about how well behaved Roxy is, one of them spotted a single White-winged Crossbill in the Sweet Gum tree across the street.  Sure enough, we got it!

She only sat in the tree for about 2 minutes, then popped down to the ground to feed on the Sweet Gum balls (you know, those prickly brown balls that act like marbles under your feet) that were already on the ground.  Check out the bill by zooming in.

White-winged Crossbill

White-winged Crossbill

 These birds spend most of their lives in the far north, far away from civilization and people. You would think that they would be skittish.  Not this bird.  She plopped herself down on the strip of grass between the road and the sidewalk and did not flinch as people walked, jogged and even pulled roller luggage past her.  She didn't pay attention to the cars that zoomed past only a foot away from her. She didn't care when the cars stopped at the traffic light.  Nope. She just kept picking at the seeds.  You can see how close she was to the road in the next photos.

White-winged Crossbill - roadside

 Here is a photo of one of the Atlantic Audubon guys that helped me find the bird.  He is standing on the sidewalk trying to photograph the bird.  I love this photo since it also shows how close the cars are coming too.  The rest of the photos above were taken from the other side of the street. I left Roxy with the other Audubon guy, John, since I didn't want to tempt fate. 

WWCR admirer

I missed out on getting any other birds yesterday but I did score a goal in my hockey game. I would consider that a pretty good day!