Look! A bird!

[Langue_doc]

nebo113, I'm in the birding mecca, in honor of Spring Break. If you're in an area that is home to ospreys in summer, you can probably guess the location.

More birds today, including the honking swans flying overhead. The sound was reminiscent of a locomotive of the steam era, so I'm not sure if the sound was the honking or the flapping of the wings. You hear the sound before the swan appears overhead.

According to the park ranger, the ospreys aren't here yet. She thought that it was too early. However, a couple of years ago this week (Spring Break) I had parked on a street near the park entrance which was barricaded because of Covid when I heard an osprey's squawk above me. There he was with a fish probably twice his size. The osprey settled down on a lamppost across the street from me with his talons on the fish which now looked like a large slab of something and started chomping on his meal. I sat down on some steps and watched him for about 20 minutes. The park ranger also told me to look for merlins along a couple of trails and for bald eagles who now prey on ducks (the fish settle to the bottom in winter, hence the feeding on ducks).

More refuge areas and trails tomorrow; as for the smaller birds, I recognized most of them but couldn't identify them, so will have to look them up in my bird books when I get home.

ETA: I just looked at the osprey picutes; the fish was lengthwise the same size as the osprey.

[nebo113]

Langue_doc......Never seen one with food in it's beak or claws, but manoman that beak!  I drive across a bridge where they often sit, and bridge speed is slow, so I get a good look at the beak.  Fierce!

Thanks for mentioning merlins.  I see the occasional kestrel but have not seen a merlin, though the range map shows non-breeding.

And wood storks!  Almost primeval looking.

[AmLitHist]

I've seen lots of meadowlarks lately driving to daughter's country house--probably a dozen over the past week, perched on utility poles or in trees along the road.  I've never seen one in town; she lives only about 10 miles north of me, but it's all fields and pastures and creeks.

On that same drive, I've seen turkey buzzards having lunch two different times.  And on the way home yesterday afternoon, a red tailed hawk grabbed a squirrel on the shoulder of the blacktop as I drove past.

The robins and cardinals are back in force and singing their heads off in our yard.  Yesterday I had ALHS take off the leaves that we always use to mulch my flower beds, so the robins are busy pulling out worms as long as they are (almost)!

[Morden]

However, a couple of years ago this week (Spring Break) I had parked on a street near the park entrance which was barricaded because of Covid when I heard an osprey's squawk above me. There he was with a fish probably twice his size.

Have you ever seen them dive for their supper? It's amazing.

[Langue_doc]

Morden, yes; ospreys belong to my list of favorite birds. In summer I have the good fortune to spend a few days in prime osprey country where I can see osprey platforms, osprey chicks of assorted ages (this depends on the month/week of my visit) and ospreys diving into the water for food and also osprey parents squawking if they think you're too close to their nest. The parents take off from the nest but remain nearby until they think that the danger is over. In my neck of the woods, we can see them along some of the main drags where they sometimes sit on lamposts along the water looking for food. There are also osprey platforms in the state wildlife refuges in the city--the wildlife centers used to have osprey walks in addition to bird walks. I hope they resume these walks now that the covid-related restrictions have been lifted.

Today I must have seen at least 50 bird species. There were the usual swans, egrets, the turkey vultures overhead, robins, bluejays, woodpeckers I couldn't identify because they were on the other side of the tree trunk, the ubiquitous Carolina wrens, assorted warblers and other small birds that I have to look up in my bird books, three oystercatchers on the shore, a lone sanderling--I saw a flock of small birds fly along the shoreline, so I'm assuming that they must have been sanderlings, and a bald eagle.

[nebo113]

Saw a marsh hen/moor hen/rail yesterday!   I hear them frequently in the marsh, but they are impossible to spot.  Yesterday, I was driving around in the golf cart, so going slowly, when one dashed across the road, from one marsh to another.   Made my day.

On Wednesday, crossing the bridge (25 mph speed limit), I saw an osprey with a fish, sitting on the bridge railing.  Not a bad day.

[fleabite]

After reading Puget's recent post mentioning the arrival of red-winged blackbirds, I pedaled off to check out the place where they hang out in my area. Sure enough, they were there. But the reason I'm posting about it was because the visuals were so striking.

Setting: Two blackbirds were calling to one another—one high in a tree and the other in tall cattails near the edge of a small lake.

The one by the lake was facing me. Every time it trilled out a response, it opened its wings slightly as if spreading out the two sides of a black cloak. As it did so, the red bars on its wings became visible on its shoulders, looking for all the world like epaulets. As the bird's vocalization ended, it relaxed its wings at its sides and the red epaulets disappeared. It was quite a show.

[FishProf]

In a mangrove in Key West Florida, a Great White Heron!  (Technically a Great Blue, white morph)

[Langue_doc]

It's mating season for the red-winged blackbirds, hence the display. I saw several active ones along most of the trails. The females though look quite unlike their male counterparts in color and in size. I'm still a newbie at identifying the females so couldn't decide if the ones I saw were the female counterparts (https://ebird.org/species/rewbla) of the noisy males or some species of sparrows.

[fleabite]

I didn't know that the females looked so different. I will try and spot them; thank you for the pictures. I could only see one half of the pair of birds that I reported on in my previous post because the other member of the pair was high up in a tree and hidden from me by branches.

[Langue_doc]

Not real birds, but saw the poster Birdhouse Subways by John Parra on the subway today.

It's the first picture on the website below (this was the best reproduction that I could find online)

https://johnparraart.com/2021/05/5-26-21/

If you're in the city and would like to see the local birds and the birding hotspots, here's a map for birding by subway, courtesy of the NYC Audubon.

https://www.nycaudubon.org/events-birding/birding-resources/birding-by-subway

[mamselle]

How cool!

That's almost like the "Highway Geology" series from a couple decades back.

It identifies the outcroppings you see as you whiz by on the Interstate, and the parks and shores you can visit to see specific formations up close.

Sorry, this is for the birds.

Back to your regularly-scheduled bird-watching....

:--}

M.

[Langue_doc]

A pair of Northern mockingbirds doing a little dance outside the front door (this is an urban environment) as I was coming in. When they saw me, each of them hopped on the two planters by the door. I saw at least a couple more perched on a neighbor's fence.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I haven't seen them yet, but I can definitely hear them- an Eastern Towhee doing its eponymous call and cardinals doing their little chirps.

[Langue_doc]

Ospreys galore, today; not quite galore, but still aplenty considering that this was in a NYC park.

First we saw an osprey on a tree eating a fish. Not long after that, we saw another osprey flying overhead, and then another. All three of them flew to the osprey platform on the other side of the trail, which was practically bare and looked as though it had been uninhabited for at least the last couple of years. Then the osprey with the fish flew off the platform and onto a post near the water. There were several crows on the platform and also flying overhead, trying to get the fish and probably stake their claim to the platform. The ospreys flew off, but then there were five of them overhead, including the one with the fish. More jostling for position on the platform. On the next platform were two more ospreys which promptly started to mate.

We also saw assorted ducks including buffleheads, a lesser scaup, and mergansers. A solitary cormorant on one of the pilings, and a few flying overhead. Plenty of red-winged blackbirds, all males. Assorted sparrows, juncos and other birds. The highlight was a ring-necked pheasant who we could hear long before he made an appearance.

I'll probably go back to the park to see how the five ospreys resolved the one-platform problem. There are other platforms in or near state and city parks, so I hope they find their new home and a partner.