We Heart Spring Migration!

There’s just nothing like migration time. It seems especially fun in the Spring as the flowers are blooming, the birds are singing, and there is the sense of twitterpation in the air. One of the many reasons that we haven’t been posting as often is we’ve just been birding hard – every weekend (as long as it’s not raining), before work, during our lunch break, and after work. It’s been an intense migration season, to say the least. 

American Lady

Checkered White

Little Wood-satyr

One little gem out in what seems in the middle of nowhere is the Solomon Tract of the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge. This is not a place where “usual visitors” go. This side plot of land is nestled behind an industrial area, and it is mostly explored by birders and driven through by the occasional hunters. It can be super buggy, riddled with mosquitoes and high probability of ticks, but it’s totally worth it for migrant birds and other creatures and critters.

Prothonotary Warbler

Prothonotary Warbler singing

 In late April, Nick and I ventured out there and had quite a flurry of activity. As soon as we stepped out of the car, we could hear a number of Prothonotary Warblers singing along the watery forest edge. Each one was out to stake their claim on territory and woo the ladies. Some got into some intense fights, but looking beautiful all the while. These warblers are some of my favorites. These little beauties are so intensely yellow all over their entire bodies except for their boldly contrasting slate blue wings. And their song is so sweet-sweet-sweet-sweet-sweet.

Prothonotary Warbler

Prothonotary Warbler singing

Prothonotary Warbler

A couple of other warblers that we only get to enjoy during migration vocalized and showed themselves off nicely, although maybe not as showy as the Prothonotary Warblers. We could here the sweet, choppy song of Hooded Warblers amongst the dense patch of trees. These little bandits wearing their black ski masks are also some of the prettiest warblers.

Hooded Warbler

The other special treat we saw was a Worm-Eating Warbler. Although it is not as flashy as some of its other warbler kinfolk, it is still a very nice warbler to see, using its impressive, long bill to pick through the dead leaves in the trees to find juicy little grubs. These guys have usually been difficult to get good looks at for us since they typically are digging around in dense vegetation. But this one in particular allowed for some decent looks and for a good amount of time.

Worm-Eating Warbler

Worm-Eating Warbler

There is a curious part of the trail at the Solomon Tract. Out of nowhere, about 20 feet from the main path, there is a type of wooden cage/crate in the woods that looks like it’s set up to trap a slightly large animal as there is a door that could be triggered to slide down with the yank of a string. I’ve always suspected that it may be some kind of hog trap since we do have feral pigs sprinkled around the area. But even more curious is that along the path directly in front of it is hanging a long, thick rope with a knot at the end. It was probably more secure at some point, but it still remains hanging ever so tenuously on the smallest bit of a branch. In my wild imagination, I picture a couple of guys waiting for a hog to be lured into this trap, but should their plans fail, they had this rope to climb up if the target hog gets angry and comes after them.

Feral Hog

Feral Piggies running

This past trip, as we stopped near the hog trap to look around, we did in fact see 3 feral pigs rooting around on the opposite side of the path about 20 yards away. I admit I was a little intimidated because I know they can be quite aggressive and very strong. But these three little pigs (well, not that little) were far enough away, and there was enough vegetation to hide behind as we snuck in looks and got photos of them. And they seemed way too into looking for food to care about anything else. 

A grass skipper of some sort

Little Wood Satyr

A grass skipper of some sort

To round out our eventful trip, we encountered a number of other creatures, winged and otherwise, including many butterflies and dragonflies. Some of them posed very nicely and allowed for great looks. But even so, the identity of some of them proved to be difficult to narrow down for us novice butterfly watchers. But they were still pretty and nice to photograph.

American Lady

A Duskywing of some sort

Green Darner dragonfly

One creature that really intrigued us was this BIG spider – about quarter sized. It was running around in the grass along the bank of a canal. Its size alone was impressive, but what really got our attention was what appeared to be a large egg sack clinging to its belly. Nick was creeping closer and closer to it trying to get pictures of it, but I, again with my wild imagination, was slightly worried about him accidentally stepping on it or something else happening causing that egg sack to pop and then hundreds of little creepy baby spiders would run out in all directions. Eeek! I actually saw this happen once when I was a kid and my mom stepped on a much smaller spider and tons of tiny babies scurried out, and I squealed as we tried to step on all of them. I don’t mind spiders in general, but the scrambling of tons of little babies spiders coming out freaks me out a bit. But luckily the spider and egg sack stayed intact, and we ended the day creepy-spider-incident free and hog attack free. Winner!

Large Spider with what seems to be an egg sack on the belly

Another look at the large spider and egg sack

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.