The hills are alive with the sound of...
May 1st, 2011
birdsong!
I've now counted 52 species in migration--birds either returning to Ottawa, or passing through on their way further north. With warm weather, the dedicated insectivores are coming back. That means warblers!
1680x1050 wallpaper
Have you ever seen something so teeming with little creatures, it's like the thing itself was alive? That's how it was yesterday morning, with three tall spruce trees at Mud Lake, and literally dozens of Yellow-Rumped Warblers packed into them. This species is an abundant breeder in the boreal forest, and thus an abundant migrant in spring and autumn. Birding becomes a matter of picking through the five hundred Yellow-Rumpeds to find the one interesting bird--the one who isn't a Yellow-Rumped but is one of the 20+ other warblers who occur in our area. But right now YRW's are still fresh and new and I'm enjoying them!
From AllAboutBirds:
May 1st, 2011
birdsong!
I've now counted 52 species in migration--birds either returning to Ottawa, or passing through on their way further north. With warm weather, the dedicated insectivores are coming back. That means warblers!
1680x1050 wallpaper
Have you ever seen something so teeming with little creatures, it's like the thing itself was alive? That's how it was yesterday morning, with three tall spruce trees at Mud Lake, and literally dozens of Yellow-Rumped Warblers packed into them. This species is an abundant breeder in the boreal forest, and thus an abundant migrant in spring and autumn. Birding becomes a matter of picking through the five hundred Yellow-Rumpeds to find the one interesting bird--the one who isn't a Yellow-Rumped but is one of the 20+ other warblers who occur in our area. But right now YRW's are still fresh and new and I'm enjoying them!
From AllAboutBirds:
Yellow-Rumped Warblers are perhaps the most versatile foragers of all warblers. They're the warbler you're most likely to see fluttering out from a tree to catch a flying insect, and they're also quick to switch over to eating berries in fall. Other places Yellow-Rumped Warblers have been spotted foraging include picking at insects on washed-up seaweed at the beach, skimming insects from the surface of rivers and the ocean, picking them out of spiderwebs, and grabbing them off piles of manure.
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Gillian
May 2nd, 2011 at 11:11 am
Wow, great photos! I haven't been able to get close to a yellow-rump yet, they've all been high in the tree tops. Yesterday we had Eastern Kingbird, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Pine Warbler and Gray Catbird at Mud Lake. I love this time of year!
Suzanne
May 3rd, 2011 at 12:44 am
I think it was the sheer density of YRW's in those spruces (the ones just past the end of the ridge) that forced some of them to forage in the low branches. Although mostly the low ones were females--I had to wait patiently for the males to dip down low enough for good pictures.