September 9 - Nature Center Report

Wow, I haven't posted on here in forever.

I FINALLY went back to "my" nature center to go birding.  I hadn't been since the end of June, and even then those were super-short visits.  Pretty sad.  But I made a special effort now that migration has started.

I saw all the regular birds, plus a few fun ones: Red-eyed Vireo, Hooded Warbler (which was a lifer just two months ago), and a new lifer, a female *American Redstart.  I was hoping for a Black and White Warbler, which they'd seen recently there, but no luck.  Maybe next time, if I don't wait too long (I didn't go birding this past weekend).

I also fooled around with my camera, here are some pictures.

A "September" picture for 12 Months of the Meadow.  Too bad I missed June, July, and August.
Guess I'll make them up next year.

 
I got there so early there was still dew on the ground!!
Alright, it was 8:30, not really that early.  There was still dew around 10:30.

More dew, it was prettier in person.

Rocks in the stream... more below

A cool spider on one of the bigger rocks

Walking on the trail

I love this part of the trail, it feels like a cathedral made of trees.
I really need to bring my tripod there sometime, it's usually pretty dark.

The reason I've been outside less is because Carlos and I moved into our house on July 7, and have been working on it (and unpacking).  Our backyard has a lot of trees though, and a lot of nature.  I'll have a post about that next, hopefully soon since the pictures are already resized!

July 1 & 2 - The Cottage

It took me a while to shrink & upload these pictures, and then even longer to post... Sorry!

So I went back down to the Cottage for the 4th of July weekend.  As usual I was out on the boat a lot, and saw some nice scenery.  I even made it to a state park nearby to try to bird, although it was a short trip.  I got two lifers, *Summer Tanager (which was perched right in front of Carlos and I for a long time, but flew as soon as I finally got my lens cap off) and *Hooded Warbler.  I also saw several Scarlet Tanagers, which I have only seen once before and that I think are beautiful.  I was proud of myself that I was able to recognize their song enough to know it was something I wanted to look harder for!

Carlos came with me and liked seeing the birds, although instead of a Life List he wants to have a "Pretty List," where only colorful birds count

Around the house were the usual Tufted Titmice, Cardinals, Canada Geese, Turkey Vultures, and Ospreys.  I forget if we saw Eagles this time, I think we didn't.

Now it's picture time!  (Many are x-posted from my regular Xanga so sorry if you see them twice)

Birds and Bugs from the state park:

Tree Swallow says what?

Birds and Animals from the area:

One of a few rays (probably Cownosed) that we saw in our creek.

And then scenery:

I always bring a sunset picture back from the Cottage!

I tried out the telephoto with the sun... I don't know whose boat that is.

Boardwalk through the swamp/marsh at Westmoreland State Park

Migration is starting up again, so I really need to get back out and bird regularly (especially at my poor neglected nature center).  I hope to have more birds and bugs and pictures to talk about soon!

June 23 & 29 - Nature Center Report

I pretty much haven't been doing my usual birding at the nature center since May.  I did make it there twice during June to check on the baby Eastern Bluebirds.  Here are a few pictures!

June 23:

Nest 1

Nest 2

Solstice Sun

June 29:

Waspy thing I had to chase out of one of the boxes

These may have actually been too old for me to open the box.
I didn't think they were that old the week before and didn't pay attention, I guess.

Finally, a video where you can't see anything, but between the sounds of a softball game you can hear a Wood Thrush sing beautifully.

Nature Books

Since I haven't been out AT ALL for about the past two months, I've tried to make up for it by reading about being out in nature   Here are my thoughts on the books I've read (mostly collected from posts in my regular journal, which I do update slightly more than this one if you are interested, and there are occasional nature-y paragraphs there).

Suburban Safari: A Year On The Lawn by Hannah Holmes:  I really liked this book.  The author observed every detail of her backyard for a year, and researched every topic she could find.  She talks about the life of a bug and mating habits of squirrels and the chemical defenses of trees, among many other things.  It's really fascinating and I learned a lot.  Plus she is funny.  She writes about taming a chipmunk by feeding it sunflower seeds.  She got it tame enough that it would come into her house and crawl all over her when it wanted seeds.  I am tempted to try it (I've seen several chipmunks in our yard, not counting the one in the dryer) but I feel like chipmunks are out there to be chipmunks, not to be pets.  I might buy this book eventually.  It inspires me to explore the "wilderness" of my backyard!  (That is the same reason I like urbpan's journal so much, you should check him out.)  This book also mentions a book called North American Tree Squirrels, which I want to read now.

To See Every Bird on Earth, by Dan Koeppel.  Written by a son about his father who has a Life List over 7,000.  Interesting but more of a bio than a bird book, and I can never seem to get into bios.  Still, it's neat to hear about birding in crazy places I'll probably never go.  Also, it mentioned a birder (whose name I have forgotten) who was diagnosed with terminal cancer.  Instead of getting treatment she decided to see as many birds as she could in the few months she had left.  She ended up getting a Life List over 8,000 (if I remember correctly) before dying in a car crash 20 years later.  She wrote her own book that I'd really like to check out!

The Big Year:  I liked it, but Big Year-ers are insane.  Spending $12,000 a month to see 750 bird species in a year??  Crazy.  Or maybe I'm just jealous because my life list is only around 180 right now.  Boo hoo   Of course I haven't been birding at all lately, so what do I expect?

The Grail Bird: I liked it a lot, it was like a treasure hunt adventure.  Am I stupid for believing they really re-found the Ivory-billed Woodpeckers?  The book made me want to make a crappy monster movie about the Ivory Bills, too.  Seriously, it would be awesome.  Like they are mutatedly huge from logging chemicals dumped into the swamp and they are pissed about being almost extinct, and nice birders come along to try to find them and get TERRORIZED AND EATEN ALIVE BY WOODPECKERS!!!

Kingbird Highway was good, even though a good part of the book is a completely foreign concept to me.  Hitchhiking around America, alone, not getting killed?  Wandering around with no "traditional" future in life and not giving a damn about it?  WTF??  It's seriously stuff I can't even understand.  It's like some other world.  Also known as the 70s.  Thank goodness my mom can explain it to me   (And Ryan, I see what you meant about the writing.  But I think the story gets across - I loved the part about the Sky Larks!)

The Backyard Bird-Lover's Guide:  Attracting, Feeding, and Nesting:  I need to check this book out again now that I am in our house.  It has great tips on what kinds of birds eat what, what kinds of houses you need for what birds, and what kind of habitat and attractions (like water) you need to attract the birds.  There was a lot of usefull stuff, I can't wait to make my backyard a little birdy paradise.

So I have bluebird pictures from a little while back, and I should be able to do a nice report on my backyard so far...  I will try to hurry up and post this stuff!!

I hope everyone is having a lovely summer

Sorry I haven't been posting at all.  I am so slow at resizing & uploading pictures, and I've barely been out birding anyway.  I've finally got this entry ready from a month ago

May 29 - The Cottage

"The Cottage" is a house on the water that my dad's parents bought over 50 years ago.  We usually get down there for holidays, although I wish it was more often!  There has always been good nature down there, and this Memorial Day weekend (which yes, I do realize was practically a month ago) was no exception.  Ospreys were nesting on the platform in front of our house, so I got to watch them for a while.  There were a few Barn Swallows flitting around too.  They used to nest under the dock but I forgot to look for a nest this year.  As usual we heard the Chuck-will's-widow calling from the woods.  I think I need to ask Ryan & Phil about going to look for these.  I will be sure to wear bug spray.

I am convinced there were Pine Warblers there.  I heard trills that sounded like Pine Warblers but all I ever managed to see were little blobs of yellow once in a while.  I will hunt them like Bigfoot if I have to   I also think the grackles down there could be Boat-tailed.  I'll have to study the ones at home really hard so I can see a difference, if there is one.

Here are some "Birds and Bugs" pictures:

One of the ospreys nesting out front, carrying a fish.
I probably should have sharpened this up a little.

Could this be an owl pellet?  The only problem is, it was over on an island that doesn't exactly have extensive tree cover.
Maybe some other birds-of-prey make pellets as well.

Great Blue Herons on a fishing net.

Ladybug

An interesting bug.  The closest thing I could find on BugGuide.net was Checkered Beetles or Soft-winged Flower Beetles.

A fuzzy caterpillar on the porch screen at sunset.  BugGuide seems to suggest a Tussock Moth caterpillar.

From underneath, I just liked the fur.

And a few landscapey pictures.  There are more on my "regular" Xanga.

Sunset

On the island

More sunset, but I am pretty sure I messed with the white balance when I took this to make it so blue.

Previous Cottage entries are listed in my 2005 Travel and my 2004 Travel, and there are more pictures here.

I haven't been birding at all in June   I miss it!  I am going to The Cottage again this weekend for the Fourth of July so hopefully I'll have some pictures then.  I will try to bird down there as well.