HollerPhenology

Lots of warblers fueling up in the Holler!

For the past couple of weeks, the Holler has been especially lively with several species of warblers de-bugging the trees, and cleaning up plants in my container garden.

Here are some individuals that showed up between August 18th and September 5th -- and sat still long enough for me to get some photos!

Black-throated green warbler, 18 August 2024. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

 

Chestnut-sided warbler, 5 September 2024. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

 

Northern parula warbler, 18 August 2024. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

 

Ovenbird, 5 September 2024. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

 

Pine warbler, 26 August 2024. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

 

Tennessee warbler, 5 September 2024. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

 

A scarlet tanager is back in the Holler

I have been hearing a scarlet tanager very close to the house for about a week. Today he flew in for some suet, and stayed long enough for me to get a photo.

 

Scarlet Tanager male, April 23, 2024. [Photos: Cathie Bird]

 

More wild turkeys in the Holler

When wild turkeys started showing up in my yard last spring, it was difficult to get any photos. If they saw my slightest movement inside the house they would usually make a hasty exit.

With time, they began to tolerate my presence, and I would see them stretching their wings, flaring their tails, chasing each other and, especially when it was hot and humid, lying in the shade or the dusty driveway for a bit. But, if I reached for the camera to get some photos, they would stop and extend their necks and look all around before returning to foraging.

In the last few weeks, though, I've finally managed to get photos of them doing something other than browsing:

Wild turkey lying near the edge of the woods, September 9, 2023 [Photo: Cathie Bird]

 

Wild turkey on the gravel at the edge of the yard, September 9, 2023. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

 

A wild turkey stretches its wings and flares its tail, September 28, 2023. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

 

A wild turkey scratches up some gravel and flares its tail feathers, September 28, 2023. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

 

Snakes in the Holler

My last post on June 6th focused on a visit from a Mama Turkey and four babies. That same day, a short time after I saw the turkeys, I saw a rat snake crawling out of the grass and disappearing under the porch. A couple of minutes later, I saw what I think was one of the water snake species that live around here. Three days later I had this experience:

I took a break to gather and load trash around the planter garden. I used my cane handle to lift part of a broken bird bath so I could pick it up and bag it, and came face to face with a copperhead. She kind of came up out of the leaves underneath the bowl, twisted around a bit, moved away from me then turned her head back toward me. For a moment she was looking right at me – seemingly right into my eyes – with her mouth open, and hissing a bit. Then she crawled off.

After another week or so, I came home from town and found what looked like the same snake lounging on top of some bags of garden soil. Since then I've seen her often in that same spot.

Yesterday I saw her again and took a photo, noting some odd shaped bulges, and guessing that she had caught some food recently. As I got ready to share the photo later in the day, I decided to look outside the window to see if she was still there. There was indeed a snake on the soil bags. Since the light was a little better, I took some more photos.

When I uploaded them to edit, I couldn't believe what I saw:

Two copperheads curled up together near my planter garden. July 9, 2023 [Photo: Cathie Bird]

An unexpected gift from Mother Nature.

If you want to know more about copperheads, check out this great Northern Copperhead page at Smithsonian's National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute

Trout lilies, trillium, hepatica and rue anemone are blooming in the holler!

Last week the holler had a string of freezing nights. Now it's warm again and it looks like most of the plants that were up survived the chill and have buds or open flowers:

Trout lily colony, March 24, 2023. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

 

Sharp-lobed hepatica on March 24, 2023. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

 

Trillium grandiflorum on March 24, 2023. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

 

Rue anemone on March 24, 2023  [Photo: Cathie Bird]

 

A yellow-rumped warbler is back!

Last year I decided to include a mealworm and dried fruit mix at my platform feeders, hoping that those items (as well as suet) might attract warblers. Today I saw the first yellow-rumped warbler since November 2022. He has been hanging out near the house much of the day, visiting the suet log and platform feeders several times.

Yellow-rumped warbler at the basket feeder, February 10, 2023. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

 

A Tennessee warbler visits the holler

On May 11th this year, Merlin identified one of the birds singing near my house as a Tennessee warbler. I tried to locate it but, as often happens by that time of the year in the holler's woods, I couldn't see the bird for the leaves. Even though it's named for the state I live in, these warblers don't spend much time in Tennessee, so I felt fortunate to at least have caught one's song, my first ever.

Yesterday, I watched a couple of American goldfinches hunting for bugs on a giant ragweed plant not too far from my birding window. When they flew off, another bird landed on the plant. At first I thought it was another goldfinch but the size, color and feather patterns didn't quite fit. With field glasses I clearly saw a thin, pointy bill and obvious lack of white on this bird's wings. I quickly traded the binoculars for a camera and managed to get several photos as the bird moved up and down the plant, gleaning the stems and flowers.

Tennessee warbler (Leiothlypis peregrina), September 1, 2022  [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Since I couldn't immediately identify the species, the photos gave me a chance to gather more field marks and narrow the choices. Before long, I'd settled on Tennessee warbler as the closest match, and then used Birds of the World, Merlin and other online resources to sort through similar species with all of their seasonal variations. I concluded that it was, indeed, my first visual experience of a Tennessee warbler in action.

Tennessee warbler (Leiothlypis peregrina) gleaning giant ragweed (Ambrosia trifida), September 1, 2022  [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Once I had an identification, and just for the heck of it, I decided to check out the BirdCast site to see who'd been flying over the holler that past evening. The estimate for Campbell County, Tennessee was 1,240,400. Though Tennessee warblers did not show up in the species list, it gave me goosebumps to think about that many winged beings flying by while I was sleeping.

I'm seeing indigo buntings more often at my end of the holler this year

The first indigo bunting that I saw in the holler this year was a female that landed on some old milkweed stems in my planter garden.

Indigo bunting (Passerina cyanea) female, April 26, 2022  [Photo: Cathie Bird]

A few days later, I started seeing a male. He came back almost everyday in late afternoon, but I never caught sight of another female.

Indigo bunting (Passerina cyanea) male, April 30, 2022  [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Adult indigo bunting (male) with a seed he found. June 26, 2022  [Photo: Cathie Bird]

On June 29th, I thought I spotted another adult female. A short time later, a male indigo bunting joined this bird and they foraged in the grass together. After a few minutes observing them, I noticed that the first bird was just kind of following the male around, occasionally opening its bill wide. When I got a good look through binoculars, it was clear that the bill I was seeing was that of a fledgling.

Adult indigo bunting dad introduces a fledgling to the planter garden and feeding areas of the yard, June 29, 2022  [Photo: Cathie Bird]

On that visit, the dad and his fledgling stayed in the taller grass at the edge of the yard. It was difficult to get a good photo.

Dad and fledgling return to forage on June 30, 2022.  [Photo: Cathie Bird]

The following day, however, the dad and fledgling returned and foraged in more open areas of the yard. I was able to get a photo of the fledgling getting a seed or two on its own as well as taking food offered by the parent.

Indigo fledgling finds some seeds on its own, June 30, 2022  [Photo: Cathie Bird]

The parent and fledgling continued to forage together every day for awhile. The young bird would often get here first, and some days -- for example, on July 4th -- it came several times without the parent.

Fledgling on the 4th of July, foraging on its own.  [Photo: Cathie Bird]

The fledgling on a white oak branch, July 4, 2022.  [Photo: Cathie Bird]

I haven't seen the younger bird now for several days, but an adult male indigo bunting has been here several times, usually early morning and late afternoon. This year was the first time I'd seen and identified an indigo bunting fledgling. I'm still hearing indigo songs out in the woods near the house and down in the flatter parts of the holler and my neighbors' fields.

Louisiana Waterthrush in the holler

A little more than a year ago I saw my first Louisiana waterthrush. It was grooming its feathers on a branch, easily identifiable with binoculars and almost beyond reach of the camera lens I was using at the time. I felt lucky to get any kind of usable image.

Louisiana waterthrush (Parkesia motacilla) on June 11, 2021. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

After my first sighting, I looked this species up at Birds of the World -- something I like to do for any bird I find in the holler -- to predict what my chances of seeing more of them might be.

Pretty much centered in the breeding range for Louisiana waterthrushes, the holler's natural features match a majority of those where these birds more frequently breed. It's hilly with closed-canopy mixed deciduous and evergreen forest, and has two high to medium gradient headwater streams running through it. Neither stream could be classified "perennial" but, in most years I've lived here, they'd have had plenty of water flowing during the waterthrush's peak breeding season. Not an exact match, but I thought I had a good chance of seeing them again.

Louisiana waterthrush, June 28, 2022. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Just a few days ago, I caught sight of one searching at the edge of the woods beyond my driveway and hanging around my planter garden, hunting and catching insects.

Louisiana waterthrush with an insect it caught, June 28, 2022. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Prior to this sighting, my Merlin app had suggested one might be around but I was unable to match my recording to any of the typical songs/calls. I've now seen and heard its calls every day since I saw it on June 28th. It's interesting to me that its appearance near the house coincided with a stretch of really dry weather during which the flow of both streams had slowed considerably, so I'm wondering if that's why it came in closer or if it was just branching out a bit.

Louisiana waterthrush near the planter garden yesterday, July 3, 2022. [Photo: Cathie Bird]

Good photos of this individual have been hard to get. It seemed shy at first and would scurry for cover if it saw me at my bird-watch window. Now that it's coming closer, my imaging difficulties relate more to its speedy foraging style -- lots of blurry pictures to weed out.

Such an interesting bird. Makes me happy to hear and see it around the holler.

Downy Woodpecker

Yesterday while getting in some porch time, I got this photo of a male downy woodpecker sitting on a white oak branch. I saw at least four more downys and one male hairy woodpecker while I was out there, and heard some of their calls. Earlier in the day -- on my way back from town -- I saw a female pileated woodpecker as I came up the driveway.

Downy woodpecker (male) on April 14, 2022.  [Photo: Cathie Bird]