More Mountain Tales

We returned to the camp for our annual July 4th family trip. This year, Connie and I spent the whole week which gave me plenty of time for more nature hikes and photography. The first photograph isn't "nature" exactly but it is pretty interesting. To most, it just looks like a dirty window but look at the pattern of the dirt - bear paws!

Bear Print

Outside of the cabin, we found another "home" situation going on. Connie and I watched these dedicated Yellow-bellied Sapsucker parents as they flew back and forth the their nest hole with food for their screaming babies. Here is Mom. She would bring the food and then go into the hole and bring out the baby poop to remove it from the nest. 

Mom- Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Here is Dad. He is truly a good provider. His beak was overloaded with bugs each time he returned to the nest. Typical male, he didn't do any dirty diaper duty. 

Dad - Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

We spent an hour just watching the daily routine. Pretty remarkable. We also took a good hike up at the top of Nelson Run Road and stumbled on a male Mourning Warbler as he was carrying out his fatherly duties. Here he is with a beak full of bugs. 

Mourning Warbler

Mourning Warblers are secretive birds that spend their time in bushes so getting a photo isn't easy. He never revealed the location of his nest and babies. We left him alone after a few minutes so that he could deliver the goods. 

We expect birds to be singing in spring. The woods are loud with song in May and early June but we don't expect to hear birds singing in July. These 2 didn't get that memo. This male Towhee was singing away. He was either done with his first brood and looking to start a second family or maybe he missed out on a mate in May and is hoping for a late start. Either way, he was dedicated to the song. 

Eastern Towhee

This Chestnut-sided Warbler was also singing. At closer look, I noticed that he isn't quite in his adult breeding plumage. He doesn't have the "chestnut side" that gives this species it's name and the rest of the feathers are also dull. Maybe "he" is really a "she" who likes to sing? Maybe he is a young male still in that awkward pre-adult phase? Regardless of the situation, the song filled the trail. 

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Our neighbors, Linda and Frank mentioned that they have seen Flying Squirrels at their camp lately. The squirrels come out just before dusk. Come out from where? Apparently, the squirrels live in the rafters of the attic and come in and out through a tiny hole above the porch. We sat on the deck and watched for the critters to come out.

Flying Squirrel

How cute right? He would sit on the rafter for a few minutes and then run up to the roof and fly to a nearby tree. The whole motion takes a few seconds. Unfortunately, they are so fast and the light is so dim that capturing a photo is nearly impossible.  

Potter County 2019

Wow. Where did June go? I'll tell you where - to house projects, that's where. After 20 years in our house, we broke down and decided to do some renovations and upgrades. After weeks of disruption by contractors and painters, we headed up to Potter County with our friends Jill and Becky for the summer solstice weekend. The plan was for Becky to teach us how to fly fish but the weather made that impossible. It rained for 3 weeks straight prior to our arrival making the streams unfishable. We hiked instead and I got to show them some birds. Cedar Waxwings are easy birds to show to non-birders. They are beautiful and often pose like this one did.

Cedar Waxwing

Really pretty birds are great to show non-birders. Unfortunately, many of the pretty birds are often difficult to see. Blackburnian Warblers are usually bouncing around at the tops of trees which puts them in that "difficult-to-see" category. Not this guy. This guy was flitting around in a walnut tree at eye level right in our yard making it easy for Jill to see. She was impressed.

Blackburnian Warbler

I snuck away to do some early morning photography down by the stream while the others lounged at the camp. There is a place where I can stand on the road at the tree top level which makes it easy to photograph yellow warblers and willow flycatchers. On this day, the stream was running high and fast. I heard a quack and saw a mother Common Merganser swimming against the current followed by 3 tiny ducklings. Wait til you see how cute this is:

Look how fast #3 swam to catch up! And then it got cuter. I snuck upstream to get an angle for some photographs. Mom didn't know that I was there until I moved. Then, she sounded the alarm call and the ducklings hustled close and jumped onto her back for safety.

Common Mergansers

I don't know where #3 was. Only 2 jumped on her back. I left them alone to continue their upbringing. 

We did see a fish this weekend when we went to the Austin Dam. This is a Sucker Fish that was swimming around a clear pool of water below the dam ruins. 

Suckerfish

Colorful birds aren't the only attraction on our hikes. Jill spotted this Red Eft along the logging road. 

Red Eft

All-in-all it was a great weekend despite not being able to fish. The good news for me and Connie is that we were headed back to Potter for a whole week over July 4th holiday. More about that soon.

The Drought is Over

Our annual trip to Potter County proved to be the hottest and most humid that I can remember. Our camp neighbors told us that they had more rainy days than clear ones in June. The weather didn't dampen our family fun. Our hikes up to the slate quarry were just a tad soggy. The dogs managed to find a porcupine. Luckily the critter scampered up a tree before the dogs caught up to him. That could have been a prickly incident for sure.

Porcupine

Those giant claws allow the porcupine to get up that tree and hang on.

Porcupine

The "drought" in the title doesn't pertain to the weather. It refers to my inability to find Mourning Warblers. They are rare migrants through our area and I haven't been skillful enough to find one on their breeding territory . . . until now! I took a drive up on Nelson Run Road to see if I could find suitable nesting habitat. The field guides say that they prefer dense scrubby habitat. That sounds alot like clear cut logging areas. The loggers put up electric fences to protect the saplings from deer. I pulled up to one and bingo.  I heard a "churree, churree" coming from the scrub just along the fence. To my amazement, this guy popped up.

Mourning Warbler

Mourning warblers are very large for warblers. The ID is based on the gray hood and head with the black patch on the base of the bib.

Mourning Warbler

I was thrilled but couldn't stay much longer or risk being late for dinner. Connie and I returned the next day on our motorcycles to see if the bird would oblige us with another appearance. No luck on our first attempt but we did find one farther down the fence line.

Mourning Warbler

I played the song on my iPhone for a bit to attract him. Some people frown on using a tape to attract the bird. I made the call to play the tape due to 2 factors: First, I'm pretty confident that other birders hadn't been here using tapes before us so the bird wasn't tired of hearing the tape. Second, I only used it for a few minutes and let the resident bird "win" the territory fight that he thought he was in. In other words, the warbler assumes that the tape is another male trying to cut in on his action. Once the tape stops, the resident male assumes that he won the contest and drove the other bird away. Oh, and thirdly, we won't be back to disturb the bird again.

Mourning Warbler

It was a special encounter that we will remember for a long time.

Assignment: Warbler

On our annual trip to Connie's family cabin in Potter County, our friend Frank gave me an assignment. He wants photos of all of the birds that are found on Hogback Mountain - the mountain and area surrounding our cabins. He specifically wanted a photo of Hooded Warbler which we hear in the woods all around the mountain. Hooded warblers are easily heard. The male's song is very loud and distinctive however, seeing the bird is challenging. Photographing them is even more difficult since they are a bird of the deep woods with low lighting.

With 4 days to accomplish the task, I set out to photograph Hooded and other warblers. Started slow due to some torrential rain. This Common Yellowthroat was happy when the sun came out.

Common Yellowthroat

I got a bonus with Blackburnian wablers posing for me. Here is one guy who came to investigate me and Peanut right outside of our cabin.

Blackburnian Warbler

Blackburnian Warbler

Here is Yellow-rumped warbler in the pine trees near the house. I forget that these birds nest in Potter County and am pleasantly surprised when I see them flitting around.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Meanwhile, we found another accommodating Blackburnian warbler up at the slate quarry. This time, I used sound recording on my iPhone to draw the bird closer. Here he is looking at me like "you're not an intruding male, why do you sound like one?"

Blackburnian Warbler

Once he checked me out and figured he was safe, he hung around the rocks and picked up a few bugs to munch on.

Blackburnian Warbler

There is a great spot to watch and photograph birds down along the stream. I headed out by myself one morning in hopes of finding a few birds. Luck was on my side. This juvenile Black and White warbler picked bugs in a tree right beside the bridge at eye level.

Black and White Warbler

He didn't care about my presence at all.

Black and White Warbler

He was doing a great job feeding himself.

Black and White Warbler

This Yellow warbler also showed up to feed his baby in the same tree. That baby looks big enough to get her own food.

Yellow Warblers

I ran across this family of American Redstarts at their nest just upstream from the bridge. Here is Mom checking up on the 3 babies.

Female Redstart at nest

Here is Dad feeding one of the babies a big fat insect. Male Redstarts are very colorful with black and orange markings.

Male Redstart at nest

I made great progress with the warblers but struck out on Hooded until our last day. I finally ran across this female at the edge of the path, close enough to photograph.

Female Hooded Warbler

I noticed that she had that big bug in her mouth and sure enough, the baby appeared and screamed to be fed.

Baby Hooded Warbler

Dad was close by keeping an eye on the situation.

Male Hooded Warbler

Finally, assignment accomplished! But that didn't end the photography. I also ran across this baby in the woods.

Fawn

And these Mandarin duck babies at the campground where they are kept as pets. All three are named Daisy.

Daisy

Every year, I wonder why we don't stay longer. (oh yeah, because we have jobs)

Annual Mountain Trip

Well, our yearly hike didn't happen but we went to Potter County for July 4th with Connie's family. We had fun and got to visit with some of our favorite birds. Like this Blackburnian Warbler signing in the pine tree just outside the bathroom window. This photo was shot from the roof of the cabin. 

Blackburnian Warbler

And this Chestnut-sided Warbler hopping around the pine trees up the hill.

Chestnut-sided Warbler

And our friend "Maggie", the Magnolia Warbler showing off his necklace up in the slate quarry.

Magnolia Warbler

And of course, the gang of Cedar Waxwings was hanging out. This poor guy has a few ticks hanging off of his black mask. 

Cedar Waxwing

We saw a few Turkeys in the distance at the Elk viewing area - but alas, no Elks were around that day.

Turkeys in the distance

We did see some deer in our field. 2 bucks and a doe.

Bucks and Doe

Of course, this is the time of year for baby birds. I found this one crying and hopping around behind on of the nearby camps. I'm still unsure of what species but I think it is Indigo Bunting. 

Baby Bird

Messing around behind the nearby camps almost got us in trouble when Peanut poked around under a bush at Frank's camp and found a Rattlesnake. Fortunately, the snake rattled and Peanut came away unscathed. We didn't hang around to see the snake. The rattle was enough for us. 

Snakes aren't the only dangerous animals at the camp. Baby birds are also dangerous. Connie found out the hard way when a few baby Ruffed Grouse ran across the logging road in front of our motorcycles. I slowed down. Connie stopped suddenly and got a separated shoulder as a souvenir. OUCH. She's a tough broad though. She rode that motorcycle 10 miles back to camp one-handed. 

Where Have I Been?

Sorry for the gap in posts. It has been a tough month. Our beloved Roxy succumbed to stomach cancer suddenly. The symptoms began before I left for Europe but the diagnosis wasn't made until I returned. Needless to say, I took a break from birding to focus on her care and subsequent death. Sorry to be a bummer but that's what has been going on.

The other thing that's been going on is a new puppy. Yup. We didn't want a puppy but we went to adopt a dog and ended up with a 7 month old puppy named Peanut. I forgot how much time puppy's consume every day. Every day. Even as I attempt to process these photos and write this story, she's terrorizing the cat, chewing anything she can get her teeth on, and generally exhausting me.

PEANUT!

But honestly. Look how adorable she is. Even when she is being a terror puppy, she's cute.

Connie and I did manage to get up to the cabin in Potter County last week. Finally got some pure birding time and even managed to snap some photos. It is always nice to see that the Bluebird box that I put up in the field actually has Bluebirds in it. Most years, this box is claimed by a pair of Bluebirds but the other box is home to Tree Swallows.

Bluebird

Speaking of swallows, there are nesting Cliff Swallows down by the stream.  Here are a few babies hanging out on the phone wires waiting for Mom to deliver a bug.

Cliff Swallow babies

Other common nesting birds include Red-eyed Vireos. This one was doing the usual constant singing even while he/she was hunting for bugs along the stream.

Red-eyed Vireo

 It's a shame that our weather was so iffy. Overcast most of the time and rain almost every day that we were there. This Towhee didn't mind. He sang anyway.

Eastern Towhee

It was amazing how many birds were still singing even though it was obvious that they already had nests going and babies to feed. I would assume that the singing would end once the birds had mates and chores to do. Oh well - just goes to show you that hormones keep going even into the mid summer.

One of my favorite birds at the camp is Blackburnian Warbler. This bird is a little black and white gem that has a flaming orange throat. The song is very high pitched and difficult for some people to hear - especially men of a certain age who lose their ability to hear the high notes. I can hear the warbler very well and find it pretty easy to find the resident birds around the camp. This year, I was luckier than ever. Not only did I find the singing warbler perched in trees all around the cabin. . .

Blackburnian Warbler

Even with the dreary sky behind him, you can see the bright orange throat that makes birders like me go ooh and aah.

Blackburnian Warbler

But I also got to watch this Dad feed one of the youngsters for about 15 minutes. The youngster sat in a low tree right along the driveway preening and waited for Dad to bring caterpillars. You can see that the young warbler is nothing to look at. Pretty drab.

Young Blackburnian Warbler

Dad showed up with a worm. You can really see the bright orange throat.

Blackburnian Warblers - Dad and Junior

Junior even managed to find his own bug while waiting on Dad to return.

Young Blackburnian Warbler with bug

Dad brought another worm. This time, I captured the moment when Dad jammed the bug into Junior's big mouth.

Dad feeding Junior

I'll bet Dad can't wait for Junior to be self sufficient. It shouldn't be long now.