Eat or be Eaten

I finally took a long solo walk today, from my house in Apple Valley to a pond by a strip mall near the entrance to our development.

I watched birds and photographed butterflies and flowers along the way.   I found my way through woods to the pond and worked my way to my favorite spot, sitting on rocks near a channel of the pond.

There are rocks there that are easy to sit on, by the water's edge.  Dragonflies like to rest on these rocks too, especially the "common whitetail" male dragonflies.  I watched at least one patrol the shoreline for other males in its 30 feet of territory and for prey.

Prey seemed the name of the game on that pond, as bullfrogs and likely green frogs croaked as they waited for a meal of dragonflies or other bugs.  A red-tailed hawk sailed overhead looking for food, while two little birds harassed it, maybe to save their young from becoming a meal.  Two vultures soared too, one looking as those something had taken a bite out of one wing.  Two large fish cruised looking for food.   A muskrat or beaver swam by once.

A male "common whitetail" dragonfly characteristically resting on rocks near me today.   (Photo by Don Comis) 

On my way to the pond, I had seen a robin feed a young bird.

I soon became hungry myself and stopped at a general store at the mall and got something to eat!

Clouded Sulphur butterfly seen on my walk, in the grass by the Apple Valley Lake dam I believe.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Red Admiral butterfly--I think; I didn't get a good view unfortunately.  This was right near me as I rested on the rocks by the pone.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Red-tailed hawk like the one I saw at the pond today, but this photo was taken about 2 years ago, elsewhere in Apple Valley.  (Photo by Don Comis)

I believe these are frog eggs; they are in the channel of the pond, near where I sat and heard frogs.  (Photo by Don Comis)

One of two mystery fishes I see a lot n the pond, near the channel.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Two of the three shy turtles sunning themselves on the Apple Valley Lake spillway, until they spot me!  (Photo by Don Comis)

Last of the three turtles to dive back into the water after seeing me at a great distance.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Brown Thrasher's Arrival Means Spring is Getting Even Closer

O

n April 5, the brown thrasher became my latest summer migrant bird returning, another signal spring just got a little closer.

One of the ways I spotted him near my feeders was the way he threw leaves around searching under them for grubs and other bugs and worms.  The only surprise I got was how he sometimes was pounding something with his beak, with all the force of a woodpecker on a tree.  I couldn't see what he was trying to get with that beak action.

But other times he seemed to be eating spilled seed from the feeders.  He's the second bird that surprised me by eating at feeders--an early arriving robin was the other bird I never expected to see eat bird seed.

The thrasher is supposed to be shy but we seem to have a pair every summer hanging around if not living in our yard, often in low shrubbery or under our back deck.

When I checked a field guide, I was surprised to learn that the brown thrasher, not the mockingbird,  knows more songs than any other bird in North America,  over 1,100 song types!

Red-Winged Blackbirds Have Their Songs Down, But Not All Have Their Colors

The red-winged blackbird has the right colors to get the girls.  I photographed him, along with a starling (middle) and a blackbird I can't identify from the photo, on March 21, 2013 in the same maple tree where I saw a similar male today, next to a weaker colored male red-winged blackbird.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Well, the red-winged blackbirds are not only serenading me from a maple tree in my yard, above a platform feeder, but one of them has developed the deep red and strong yellow on his wing patch that assures him of getting the girls' attention.  The girls should all be here by March 9.

One of the two birds had no red and only a thin line of weak yellow.  I could identify with the fellow, remembering my high school days and how I felt comparing myself with the Big Men on Campus who had all the masculine qualities to attract the girls, down to five-o'clock shadow on their faces!

I bought a platform feeder that I placed on the ground near my robin's favorite feeding grounds and he's been using it, until some culprit--probably a raccoon--tipped it upside down.  I had placed it on concrete blocks, so tonight I placed it directly on the ground and will re-fill it tomorrow, when the raccoons are sleeping.

My neighbor's son, Steven, and I just about finished a red-headed woodpecker house for my yard tonight.  Now I just have to figure how to get it 12 feet off the ground--a little easier than the 20 feet goal for the pileated woodpecker house we built earlier and placed in a tree in his yard, temporarily only about 10 feet off the ground.

I'm looking forward to building bluebird houses--at 4 to 6 feet high, these feeders can easily be mounted on fence anchor posts, with no harm to me or trees!

If I can get us registered on time, Steven and I will go to Lowe's free birdhouse building workshop birdhouse building this Saturday and come away with a free Lowe's apron, a certificate and badge for birdhouse building, maybe some more skills--and definitely another birdhouse.

Maybe we'll even build legs for my robin's ground feeder!

A Punctual Red-Winged Blackbird Returns

The red-winged blackbird I saw at my feeders on Feb. 23, 2014 did not have the bright patches of this blackbird which I photographed in breeding season in Maryland on April 11, 2012.  The amazing thing is that my first sighting of a red-winged blackbird at my feeders last winter was on Feb. 23, 2013!  (Photo by Don Comis)

I also saw my first robin at my feeders on Feb. 23, 2014.  I photographed this robin even earlier last winter, eating berries of one of two crabapple trees along Apple Valley Drive, on February 9, 2013.  I believe these robins are northern robins that spent the winter here and will leave as our real spring robins come back from south of us.  I saw one long ago this winter, at the edge of our yard, near woods.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Talk about punctuality!  I saw my first red-winged blackbird this winter, at my feeders this morning, and last winter a red-winged blackbird made its debut on February 23, 2013, right to the day!


And what a morning after my first zero count yesterday!  Eight species in eight minutes, including a second harbinger of spring, my first robin of the winter.  It seemed fat to me but spent a long time under one of my raised feeders.  It could have been eating dropped seed, but it seemed to be digging for worms and insects.


I know the robin is probably a false harbinger of spring because it's likely one of the robins that migrated here this winter from farther north.  Robins are fairly rare at feeders because they're insect eaters, and northern robins are even rarer at feeders because they're shyer and prone to be in secluded wooded areas away from homes.


Still, my guess is it's still too early for our spring robins to return, so it's probably one of those northern robins with its own bold personality, or just one desperate after all this snow.  We can identify!


All in all a great eight minutes that included a northern flicker.  Birdwatching has many lessons for life, including that no matter how many times you're disappointed, you never know when life is going to give you a box of chocolates.