August Bounty
August 11th, 2010
An incredible morning of birding at Mud Lake on Monday. Surprising numbers of fall migrants, for so early in August, plus lots of resident breeders out and about with their fledged young. Plus two special surprises.
All three of Mud Lake's breeding herons were around: a Green Heron flushed from the northeast shore and landed in a small tree, three juvenile Night Herons flushed one by one from a tree on the ridge, an adult Night Heron flew overhead a short while after that, and Great Blues, of course, were everywhere. Two Pied-Billed Grebes were on the pond. (Apparently a whole family group of Pied-Billed Grebes has been seen on Mud Lake since late July, which raises the question of whether they actually bred there. If so they were very secretive about it.) A Cooper's Hawk stirred things up when he flew low over the ridge, triggering a chorus of alarm calls.
Migrant Yellow-Rumped Warblers, Nashville Warblers, Black-and-White Warblers, Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks, a Cape May Warbler, a Northern Waterthrush and a Least Flycatcher were all present, along with abundant numbers of Mud Lake's breeding songbirds, all gathered into mixed foraging flocks, enjoying both late-summer insects and late-summer ripe berries.
Surprise number one took place at sunrise, when I saw an Osprey dive into Mud Lake and come up with a goldfish! It caught the sun, deep golden-red and at least seven inches long, like the kind you see in garden ponds. Someone must have dumped it in there. Its camouflage was, let us say, lacking.
Surprise number two was a long-awaited lifer: aforementioned Northern Waterthrush. This is not a thrush but a ground-dwelling warbler, known for its habit of bobbing its tail up and down as it walks along wooded swamps. Back when I was a beginning birder, I saw what I thought was a Northern Waterthrush and was thrilled to pieces that I had seen my first non-common-as-dirt bird. It was a letdown when I learned that what I had actually seen was a female Red-Winged Blackbird, which is, in fact, common as dirt. So finally seeing a waterthrush for real is a nice bit of closure.
The next morning I came back with camera in hand. And though both the activity level and novelty level were down from Monday (no osprey with goldfish), I still managed to capture some of August's bounty, which I'll share over the next few days.
Starting with this:
Green Heron
August 11th, 2010
An incredible morning of birding at Mud Lake on Monday. Surprising numbers of fall migrants, for so early in August, plus lots of resident breeders out and about with their fledged young. Plus two special surprises.
All three of Mud Lake's breeding herons were around: a Green Heron flushed from the northeast shore and landed in a small tree, three juvenile Night Herons flushed one by one from a tree on the ridge, an adult Night Heron flew overhead a short while after that, and Great Blues, of course, were everywhere. Two Pied-Billed Grebes were on the pond. (Apparently a whole family group of Pied-Billed Grebes has been seen on Mud Lake since late July, which raises the question of whether they actually bred there. If so they were very secretive about it.) A Cooper's Hawk stirred things up when he flew low over the ridge, triggering a chorus of alarm calls.
Migrant Yellow-Rumped Warblers, Nashville Warblers, Black-and-White Warblers, Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks, a Cape May Warbler, a Northern Waterthrush and a Least Flycatcher were all present, along with abundant numbers of Mud Lake's breeding songbirds, all gathered into mixed foraging flocks, enjoying both late-summer insects and late-summer ripe berries.
Surprise number one took place at sunrise, when I saw an Osprey dive into Mud Lake and come up with a goldfish! It caught the sun, deep golden-red and at least seven inches long, like the kind you see in garden ponds. Someone must have dumped it in there. Its camouflage was, let us say, lacking.
Surprise number two was a long-awaited lifer: aforementioned Northern Waterthrush. This is not a thrush but a ground-dwelling warbler, known for its habit of bobbing its tail up and down as it walks along wooded swamps. Back when I was a beginning birder, I saw what I thought was a Northern Waterthrush and was thrilled to pieces that I had seen my first non-common-as-dirt bird. It was a letdown when I learned that what I had actually seen was a female Red-Winged Blackbird, which is, in fact, common as dirt. So finally seeing a waterthrush for real is a nice bit of closure.
The next morning I came back with camera in hand. And though both the activity level and novelty level were down from Monday (no osprey with goldfish), I still managed to capture some of August's bounty, which I'll share over the next few days.
Starting with this:
Green Heron
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