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]
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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]
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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]
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Scarlet Tanager male (Piranga olivacea), April 13, 2022 [Photo: Cathie Bird]
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Brown creeper eating suet crumbs on my porch rail on November 29, 2021. [Photo: Cathie Bird]
I saw my first brown creeper back in the early 2000's -- not long after I moved to Tennessee -- and hadn't seen another one until November 3rd this year when one showed up at my suet feeders. It came late afternoon with a very active group of tufted titmice, Carolina chickadees and a pair of white-breasted nuthatches that baffled my eyes and had me guessing at their actual number. So many little birds at once -- I feel very lucky to have caught a glimpse at all. At first I thought it was a nuthatch but something about the color and feather pattern made me reach for my binoculars to check it out. What a happy day, seeing a creeper again!
Brown creeper at suet feeder, November 19, 2021 [Photo: Cathie Bird]
Since then, I've seen it half a dozen times, and even gotten a few photos with a whole, non-blurry creeper in them! Sometimes I see it gleaning bark on a white oak tree or the stick railing on my porch. I've now seen it at each of the three styles of suet feeders, but one of its favorite spots is on the porch rail under the suet ball feeder where it cleans up the crumbs.
Brown creeper searching for crumbs under a suet ball feeder. November 24, 2021 [Photo: Cathie Bird]
Brown creeper, gleaning bark on a white oak trunk on November 18, 2021. [Photo: Cathie Bird]
Like many of the birds that visit my feeders and planter garden, the brown creeper tends to land in the same spot and visit the feeders in a specific pattern that has allowed me to anticipate where it will be -- this has allowed me to get (finally!) some fairly decent photos. It often comes between 4 and 5 in the afternoon. That's helped me add to the number of sightings, I think.
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I have seen scarlet tanagers in this general area occasionally, but not close to my house. Today a male tanager visited a suet feeder:
Scarlet Tanager (male), April 26, 2021 [Photo: Cathie Bird]
Scarlet Tanager (male), 4/26/21 [Photo: Cathie Bird]
Scarlet Tanager and Downy Woodpecker, 4/26/21 [Photo: Cathie Bird]
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I observed courtship among holler birds beginning in mid-February this year -- first with northern cardinals, then doves and Carolina wrens -- but activity has intensified over the past few weeks.
My observations of breeding behavior among birds had been comparatively limited before I started maintaining feeders -- mainly songs, calls, and some phoebes and wrens that built nests close to my house. Yesterday, I managed to get photos of courtship feeding in pairs of cardinals and wrens.
When I saw a couple of Carolina wrens together on a porch step right outside my window, I fired the shutter as fast as I could, ending up with a few usable images. The first one below is the first one in the sequence, and shows what I think is the male of this pair feeding a small seed to his mate:
[Photo: Cathie Bird]
He then hopped down to find another seed. In the second photo, the female stands on the step with an open bill. At the bottom right edge of the image, you can see the male's bill and part of his head just before he hops back up to bring her another seed:
[Photo: Cathie Bird]
Later in the afternoon, a pair of northern cardinals engaged in the same behavior. In the photo below, the male has just given his mate a sunflower seed (visible in her beak):
[Photo: Cathie Bird]
At the same time, and a few branches up from the cardinals in the white oak tree, a pair of mourning doves sat near each other:
[Photo: Cathie Bird]
I couldn't tell if they were the same couple that sat on a post below one of the bird feeders on March 9th:
[Photo: Cathie Bird]
Or this pair in the same tree (and maybe the same branch!) on March 31st, just before an attempt to copulate (the photo I got of that was too out of focus to say for sure):
[Photo: Cathie Bird]
Late in the afternoon now, four to five pairs of doves come to feed together. Other species that have been around the feeders in larger numbers all winter seem to have spread out, and only one pair Carolina chickadees, cardinals and downy woodpeckers, along with two pairs of tufted titmice, continue to show up around the feeders every day.
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