Freezing happily with Gabriel

The Audubon winter day trip to close-by frozen trundras!  We bundled up, we got in the van, and we were off.  Okay, let's get one thing straight right away.  We did not see any snowy owls.  At all.  None.  In fact, no owls of any sort!  Well, unless you count a quick glimpse Gabe may or may not have had of a short-eared owl flying.  However, we made up for it with the crazy number of raptors we saw!

We started off with a pair of rough-legged hawks.  Like you do.  There was an incident with a Cooper's hawk, but the rough-legged pair help their ground.

rough-legged hawk

They tend to be implausible.

rough-legged hawk

A kestrel tried to distract us, and then a mockingbird tried to distract the kestrel.

American kestrel, northern mockingbird

 At the water, most of the birds were far far away, but a few of them wanted to show off for us.

red-breasted merganser

This may or may not be an immature red-shouldered hawk.  It could be a red-tailed hawk trying to fool us into thinking it's a red-shouldered.  Anyway, we are pretty sure something is red.

mystery hawk

More water, more gorgeousness!  Look at this duck!  

long-tailed duck

 Grebe!

horned grebe

 There was a great cormorant standing around for a while, and then it flew a few circles around us and landed near a double-crested cormorant.  There was a merganser nearby for some color.  Sadly my camera failed to adequately capture the moment.

great cormorant

Nobody knows quite why this pin-tail duck decided to try to pass itself off as a Canada goose.  Gabe ran into a birding blogger who pointed it out, we are all grateful!  You can check out his blog, which is amazing, at http://birdingdude.blogspot.com/.  Thanks Andrew!

northern pintail

And then, just when we were wondering if the freezing was worth the mostly empty water we were looking at, we saw these guys.  Red-necked grebes, which really perked Gabe up!  Apparently they are unusual to see, especially in numbers more than one or maybe two.  Seeing four was a treat, and they were nice and close. I spotted them, with my trick of turning my head to the left 30 seconds before someone else did.  They floated right in front of us, and then flew off, tired of the paparazzi.

red-necked grebe

Back into the van, to another spot, where we did not see short-eared owls.  But we did see this harrier!  

northern harrier

And this one too!  This is an adult male, which is called the Grey Ghost.  Why?  Because it's a harrier and they are bad-ass and get to have cool names, that's why!  

northern harrier

This grey ghost wants a mouse real bad.

northern harrier

Finishing up, we were all happy with what we saw, the amazing number of raptors and the ducks.  Oh, and there were other things too, I'm just still half-frozen so I can't give a good account.  Just before we left, with a sideways glance, Gabe found us this wigeon.  Great ending to a great day!

American wigeon

Hummingbirds! Yay!

Any day is made better by hummingbirds.  At least, this has always been true for me.  Today we went up for a nice walk through the park, and ended up at the oven, sitting and hoping for hummingbirds.  A couple of other people were there with the same basic plan, and I'm really glad they were, because one of them found a perched hummingbird!  We moved to where this little one was, and watched it for ..... oh, probably about an hour.  Sitting, flying, eating, engaging in very small swordfights with other hummingbirds.  You know, the usual.  I didn't hear any chatter, possibly because there really weren't many of them.  A great afternoon!

ruby-throated hummingbird

ruby-throated hummingbird

ruby-throated hummingbird

ruby-throated hummingbird

Hummingbird nest, still there

Today I took Jack to see the hummingbird nest!  We first tried to walk around the pond and see lots of herons, but that didn't work out because of a loud event happening, having to do with Puerto Rico.  We didn't see much until we finally got to the hummingbird nest, but this little beauty was worth the walk!  :-)

Hummingbird nest!

So last night after the algorithms lecture are the World Science Festival, Jack and I looped through the ramble before heading home.  There was a gathering on the bridge at the upper lobe where I gathered someone had found a hummingbird nest!  I didn't have binoculars with me, or my camera, but I paid close attention to the spot and the directions to find the nest.

I went back today with binoculars and a camera, and sure enough, there it was!  There was nothing else to be seen except a black-crowned night heron.  Well worth the trip!  :-)

hummingbird in nest

hummingbird in nest

hummingbird in nest

Last AMNH Spring walk

Well today is the last of the spring lunchtime AMNH bird walks, so that's sad.  But it's a lovely day, so that's happy!  Dale led the walk today, it was great to see him.  Before meeting up with the group, I saw this gorgeous egret at the upper lobe.

Then a tanager, reminding me of Panama.

scarlet tanager

Hello Maggie!

magnolia warbler

 This Canada is going to need to work on its necklace.

Canada warbler

 Even birders are taken by the cuteness of a raccoon.

raccoon 

 This red-bellied woodpecker was having to defend its hole against starlings, who thought it looked pretty comfy-cozy.

red-bellied woodpecker

 There were plenty of ovenbirds, but they were mostly staying under cover.  This one popped up for a quick photo session though.  Thanks Buddy!

ovenbird

Cuckoo for spring!

It was pretty glorious in the park today.  One of the best spring walks ever!  I'm so glad that this spring is not a repeat of last spring's sparse migration.

On the way up to meet the group, things were pretty loud at the lake - and by things, I mean spawning carp!  They were *very* splashy.  I saw at least 3 pairs of carp, swimming and thrashing together (one pair at a time) along the reeds at the edge of the lake.  It was pretty awesome!  Then I spotted some more splashy activity - mating snapper turtles!  The picture doesn't look like much, I know.

snapping turtles

 The walk itself started off with a little pocket of warblers at the beginning, and this common yellowthroat was one of plenty who were not into skulking.  They were out in the open, showing off their masks.

common yellowthroat

 This hawk was soaring above us for quite some time, and even got harassed by a grackle for a bit.

red-tailed hawk

 Hello Maggie!

magnolia warbler

 This female scarlet tanager was just minding her own business, and didn't really know what to make of all the attention.

scarlet tanager (female)

 There were several chestnut-sideds.  This one was not very vivid, but it was quite cooperative!

chestnut-sided warbler

 Cuckoo!!!!!!  There's not much to say about this, except for the general statement that cuckoos are awesome.  Obviously.

yellow-billed cuckoo

 What?  Who, me?  Just hanging around.

common yellowthroat (female)

 Blackburnian!  This gorgeous fellow did not stay long.  I love seeing them in the pink flowers.  It's like, Dude, you do ~not~ blend.  So why are you so hard to spot?

Blackburnian warbler

 Indigo bunting!  Well, mostly indigo.  He's going through some changes.

indigo bunting

 This blackpoll sang and sang and sang.

Blackpoll warbler

 This Canada did not sing.  It flitted.  Quickly.  And then paused briefly to show me its necklace before it was off again!

Canada warbler

 Lincoln's sparrow!  This got a great reaction from Paul, which was much more entertaining to watch than the bird was.  I'm sure someday I'll appreciate sparrows properly.

Lincoln's sparrow

 After leaving the group I saw this amazing oriole.  No, I did not photoshop-enhance-super-saturate that color.  He was so incredibly vivid!  Then a female flew off, and he chased her.  They were together in a tree, and then hopped to another tree.  The female left, and the male stayed, chattering at me and scolding me.  For..... being near his nest?  I can only hope so!  I didn't find one, but maybe they'll lead me to it next time.

Baltimore oriole

Sunny and happy in the park

Quite a nice day in the park today, sunny and happy.  On the way to meet the group I saw two black-crowned night herons and that's about it - I left later than I planned and I had to hurry up to get there on time!  :-)

black-crowned night heron

 Quite quickly we found this oriole showing off for us.  Nice tail!

Baltimore oriole

 This parula was nearby but didn't really want to pose much.

northern parula

 There were several black-throated blues around, and I loved seeing this female come in right next to us.  Hello Gorgeous!

black-throated blue warbler

 It was pretty exciting to see this worm-eating warbler eating something that was probably not worms.  They are not the most gaudy of birds, but they do look sleek and stylish with their racing stripes.

worm-eating warbler

 This veery teased us for a while and then came out in the open, posing in the sun.

veery

 There were several ovenbirds too!  I love spring, all the birds get just a bit flirtier.

ovenbird

 This cormorant provided a nice contrast in scale.  After a zillion teeny little cuties, it was great to see this big guy sunning.

double-crested cormorant

 This was my best view of the rose-breasted grosbeak.  I was unsatisfied, but the bird was stubborn!

rose-breasted grosbeak

 Back to cooperative cuties - this black and white came right over.

black-and-white warbler

 After leaving the group, I found this towhee playing in the leaves.  Funny how I see more of them in the fall.  I wonder if they follow different paths in the spring vs. the fall, or if it's just been my luck so far.

eastern towhee

 And my good-bye bird was this kingbird, who started out nice and low but once he got his prize headed up to the top branches of a tree to devour it.

eastern kingbird