I'm a Sucker for Sapsuckers

Maureen is away in Texas this weekend, which is unfortunate for me in every way but one: she left behind her big lens. Happy to take advantage of a rare opportunity I knew I wanted to spend a good deal of time outdoors, and shockingly, the weather actually cooperated with after 3 straight weeks(!) of rain. So directly after work on Friday I set out, first to Woodmansee Park (interrupting countless rounds of frisbee golf every step of the way), and then to Minto-Brown.

Bushtit

Song Sparrow

American Robin. Cold-blooded killa

Friday's highlight wasn't a bird, but actually a copulating pair of… I'll say robber flies? As they whizzed by me I couldn't quite tell what was happening, so I followed until they landed and I could sidle up and play voyeur. As the male gripped the branch above above him, he inseminated the female below while she was busy feasting on her nuptial gift. 

I returned to Minto-Brown again in the morning, when I wasn't racing the sun. But I did soon decide to see how many species I could rack up before I needed food or water (neither of which I'd thought to bring). There's a certain trail that I recently visited, sans camera, when I happened upon a very cooperative Red-breasted Sapsucker (x Red-naped Sapsucker hybrid? See comment below). I'd cursed myself for not being better prepared, and crossed my fingers that I might luck into another close encounter. 

I was NOT disappointed. It turned out that this particular stand of trees is frequented by two sapsuckers, and their handiwork was visible all around. I could have watched them all day. 

Even though we've lived hear for (just about) two years, and Minto-Brown is one of the premier parks in the Salem area, there are miles of trails we've never explored. You think you're going to take one path to the end, and then it splits. You choose a path and it splits again. Now I'd decided to finally do some serious exploring, and the park rejected me. Time and again I'd have to backtrack after finding trails flooded out. 

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Hopefully not the last Varied Thrush of the season

Brush Rabbit

Song Sparrow

I did still manage to see more of the park than ever before, and wherever I explored there was one constant: singing Bewick's Wrens. They were everywhere. And very much out in the open. The three photos below are of three different individual birds - just a small sample of the day's tally.

Bewick's Wren

Just a Wee Bit O' Birding in Atlanta

A few of weeks ago, we celebrated our 6-year anniversary by taking a little weekend getaway to Atlanta, which is only about a 3 1/2 hour drive. But what a difference this distance can make to birding. Being more north and west of Savannah and away from the coast, you can have a whole host of birds that you may not get in coastal Georgia. Although our trip was really a touristy non-birding trip, we still managed to squeeze in some birding when we weren't walking around a zoo or an aquarium or eating fabulous food!

A non-caged animal at the zoo - a Silver-spotted Skipper.

Red-spotted Purple seen in Grant Park

Underside of a Red-spotted Purple

Our first day in Atlanta was spent at the zoo, which had some great animals (and baby animals), including pandas, gorillas, and orangutans. They also had a great aviary exhibit where you can walk along a boardwalk within a treehouse-like enclosure with spectacular, colorful, exotic birds flying and singing all about. And partly what makes this zoo so great is that it is situated in gorgeous Grant Park. Grant Park is an absolutely beautiful space. It's a very large park with winding trails that go through small hills of grass and large trees. Having lived in flat areas most of my life, it was a nice change of pace to walk amongst this rolling greenery.

Guira Cuckoos of South America and a Blue-breasted Kingfisher from tropical West Africa were some highlights of the zoo's aviary.

The striking King Vulture (Central and South America)

When we left the zoo about 5pm, there was still plenty of light out which left us some time to walk around and enjoy the park and check out any bird activity. We were pleasantly surprised by the number of Red-headed Woodpeckers that were all about! We had some of our best views of these vibrant woodpeckers. And a white-breasted nuthatch gave us a nice little show of his creeping behavior.

Red-headed Woodpecker

White-breasted Nuthatch

The next day we spent at the Georgia Aquarium, where we saw their truly amazing whale sharks (my favorite fish, I think), and we had some great close encounters with African penguins! The aquarium also happens to be right across from Centennial Olympic Park. Through the Georgia birding listserv, we had read that there can be some good birding within this very urban park. There were even sightings of a Red-crested Cardinal, which was believed to be an escapee. Unfortunately, we didn't see that bird, but we were treated to a couple of fledglings, including a little Mockingbird and a Robin following its parent.

Me within the plexiglass tube that gets you right next to the African Penguins!

Nick amongst the African Penguins

Mockingbird fledgling

Hungry Robin chick following its parent

Our last day was a "free" day, so we decided to drive a little out of the way to check out Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield Park. This is supposed to be one of THE hot spots in the Atlanta area for migrants, including one of our target birds, the Cerulean Warbler. Alas, we didn't see the coveted warbler. We tagged along with some top birders that we ran into at the park, some of whom we met during the Black-headed Gull bonanza. They were kind enough to show us around the area, as well as show us how much we still have to learn about bird calls. I swear they all had superhuman hearing. But they were all so patient with us and very willing to give us pointers.

Male Eastern Towhee

If you look closely, you'll see the tiny Eastern Towhee fledgling

Male Summer Tanager

They said it was one of the slowest days in terms of birding as we didn't seem to find many warblers or other migrants. But Nick and I couldn't really feel bad at all as we enjoyed the beautiful scenery and saw 35 species, including our first ever male Summer Tanager, who was singing so lovely, as well as two male Scarlet Tanagers. We had our FOTS (First of the Season) Ruby-throated Hummingbird and Indigo Bunting. We also found that the Eastern Towhees were not as shy here. One was giving a little performance (and maybe checking himself out) on a truck's side mirror. Additionally, we had the privilege of seeing a mommy Eastern Towhee feeding her very freshly fledged chick. And right as we were leaving, we got to witness a little bit of a live cannon firing and reenactment, hence demonstrating why this is called a battlefield park. This may have been a slow day at Kennesaw, where they can find over 20 species of warbler in a day, but we still left there very happy. We will surely be back!

View from on the way to the top of Kennesaw Mountain

Cannon firing demonstration

Equinox Be Damned…

… Because Spring, for us, began this weekend. With the threat of rain looming over us, we were reluctant to make any ambitious plans, so we played it safe, staying reasonably close to home. Forsyth Park seemed a good bet, since it's downtown, and we could always escape into a cafe if the weather turned against us. It's also not an area that we've given much attention to, aside from my lunch break strolls, and this gave us the opportunity to uncover any early migration secrets that lay in store.

This was probably the best decision we could have made.

American Robin

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Stepping out of the car, our first-of-season Chimney Swifts flew above us in their erratic paths, wings quivering. I would have been content if that had been the highlight of the day, but this is the start of migration, and migration means warblers.

White-throated Sparrow

Our instinct was to start scanning the trees, but there was surprisingly little action up there. The Yellow-rumps are slowly starting to thin out, after all, even as other species begin to trickle in. No, it wasn't the trees we wanted, but the bushes, right along the paved walkways. Mixed in among the throngs of White-throated Sparrows and Brown Thrashers were all sorts of treats that we dared not expect.

Brown Thrasher

Hooded Warblers and Ovenbirds appeared simultaneously, and soon, seemed to be everywhere. We ended up with about half-a-dozen of each, and the Ovenbirds, in particular with rather rambunctious, chasing each other from bush to bush, and across the paths. The Hooded Warblers, or at least some of them, will stay and breed here, but the Ovenbirds, unfortunately, are just passing through.

Ovenbird

Ovenbird

Our bird-of-the-day was another creature of the undergrowth. We'd expected that when we eventually find our lifer Swainson's Warbler, it would be in a quiet, swampy area, away from the boisterousness of a city park. Instead, it was in a thin strip of shrubbery, amid all sorts of weekend hustle-bustle.

Hooded Warbler

Hooded Warbler

We had seen it long enough to confidently ID it, and were anxiously trying to relocate it, when we were accosted by a professional photographer trying to get rid of us. It seems his idea of a family portrait doesn't include a couple of hipsters skulking in the background. Now, I know that when we go in the field, we're ambassadors for birding, but this man was ridiculous. We awkwardly tried explaining that we were looking for a bird, and that we wouldn't be able to oblige him. Then he changed tactics, and pointed at random birds: "There, is that it?" thinking that maybe we could move along now. My reply, I think, was a derisive laugh.

Many of the birds here are accustomed to people

Catching up with my best friend, an American Robin

We eventually got back to birding, but not before we lost the warbler. It's a pity, but it's just one of the risks you run when birding a shared public space. And with 9 warbler species, Red-eyed Vireo, and plenty of other birds, the morning was already a resounding success. Now, with migration so clearly upon us, I'm finally ready to admit that Spring is here.

Lunchtime in Forsyth

Alas, I'm neither a field biologist nor an ornithologist, having discovered birding during graduate school, traveling down an entirely different path. But while I don't get to spend nearly as much time outdoors as I'd like during the week, I do try and make the best possible use of the one hour a day that I can claim during my lunch breaks. Since a month and a half ago, I've had the good fortune of working in an office building exactly one short block from Forsyth Park, the largest and greenest public space in downtown Savannah, meaning that I can get to where the birds are without wasting any time at all.

The Forsyth Park Fountain... probably the least imaginative name for a fountain ever, but still neat

 
Forsyth is a product of the same movement that led to the establishment of Central Park in NYC, although it's considerably smaller. The south end is undeveloped, but cleared to make way for frolicking and various sorts of athletic merriment. The north end, around where I work, is laid with numerous tree-lined pathways, dripping with Spanish moss, and all leading to a central fountain. The fountain itself apparently draws a certain inspiration from nature, featuring, among other figures, herons feeding among cattails. 

Forsyth Park Fountain

Cast iron herons cavort among the cattails

Upon my daily strolls, the birdlife is often salient, with Robins sometimes laying claim to the fountain as their very own gigantic bathhouse. The incessant stream of foot traffic from tourists and other passersby has inured many of the birds to the presence of people, and I sometimes find White-throated Sparrows digging the leaf right beside where I sit. 

White-throated Sparrow

Various monuments to the state's Confederate past pepper the park, as indeed, the rest of the city... apparently without the least trace of irony or shame

 
I don't take my binoculars with me when I leave for work, so these days have mostly been an exercise in naked birding. However, over the course of a week I brought our digital point-and-shoot camera in order to try and document my lunch break experience. Maureen typically takes 99.9% of the photos on the website, but the proximity and trusting nature of the birds doesn't require the more heavy duty equipment that she uses. In further illustration of that fact, all of the pictures shown here are left uncropped. The short video below serves a montage of some of the sights that I've encountered. 

An American Robin surveys the park

American Robin

Savannah is a peculiar place, populated by peculiar people -- if you doubt it, it's time for you to rewatch Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. There's also a prominent art school downtown, and you can often find students setting up all sorts of strange projects in the park. Now, I've long ago lost any sense of embarrassment when I bird in public, but even if I hadn't, my repeated crouching and videotaping beside dark recesses of the shrubs would still seem perfectly ordinary within the larger context, making even the most self-aware birder would feel at home. 

A Brown Thrasher reflecting philosophically

 

Pondering his own existence

Anyway, this is where I get to spend my lunches, which hopefully means that I won't have to let spring migration pass me while I put in my 40 hours a week. What about you? Does anybody else get the opportunity to get any birding in during the week?

 A Carolina Wren preparing to serenade me

Carolina Wren

Carolina Wren