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

A Smattering of Southeastern Specialties

A few weeks ago, in late April, we and a dozen or so other birders from the local Audubon headed to Webb Wildlife Management Area in Hampton County, SC. With a good mix of habitats, the trip promised some fantastic birding, including specialties of long leaf pine forests, like Bachman's Sparrows and Red-cockaded Woodpeckers.

I was particularly excited for the Bachman's Sparrows. Although they're year-round residents of coastal Georgia and South Carolina, you'd never know it. Notoriously difficult to find outside of breeding season, these secretive birds normally stay silent and hidden in understory. But our group was fortunate in having visited at just the right time of year, and everybody was afforded excellent, open looks of the males singing their clear and melodious song. 

Bachman's Sparrow

 

Bachman's Sparrow

Bachman's Sparrow with a tasty (for him) morsel

Singing Bachman's Sparrow

Red-cockaded Woodpecker, another target species for the day, took a little more patience to locate, but we were handsomely rewarded in finding a mated pair make repeated trips to their nesting cavity. The cavity was just beside the road, and we could hear the nestlings' begging call each time a parent left to forage more grubs. The experience was more than we could have hoped for, and it was encouraging to see evidence of this species recovering with the help of wildlife management. 

Red-cockaded Woodpecker

Red-cockaded Woodpecker on the way into the nesting cavity

Both members of a successfully mated Red-cockaded Woodpecker pair

We also stopped in on a small rookery, where twenty or so Little Blue Herons were safeguarding the fruits of a successful breeding season. Occasionally, one would briefly move off of their nest, letting us see their aqua blue eggs or (snow-white) egg-sized chicks. The rookery was situated within a small pond, where we were also treated to Green Herons, Purple Gallinules, Blue-winged Teal and others. 

Little Blue Heron rookery. You can just make out the blue eggs in the nest

Great Blue Heron with an good-sized eel

Purple Gallinule

Purple Gallinule

At one especially noteworthy spot, a covey of Bobwhites flushed as we exited our cars. Although right out in the open, they were perfectly invisible until they were already in the air, and heading toward a strip of dense understory, never to be seen again. We also managed a pair Yellow-breasted Chats, which at one point shared a tree with a Bachman's Sparrow! Seeing these skulkers out in the open together nearly sent me into a swoon, but I pulled through as best I could. 

Yellow-breasted Chat - I've been wanting to see one of these for a long while

Other notable birds for the day included Prothonotary Warblers, Blue Grosbeaks, Orchard Orioles, and Indigo and Painted Buntings. While we tallied an impressive number of species, there were noticeably few passing migrants. Taken together with a possible (heard) Blackpoll Warbler, it seemed as though we were seeing the tail-end of migration. But with residents like these, who needs migrants! 

The ol' "Swamp Canary" - Prothonotary Warbler

Prothonotary Warbler

Prothonotary Warbler

Indigo Bunting

Afterwards, some of us stopped in at Millstone Landing (in Jasper County) to check for raptors. We didn't have to wait long before a swarm of kites appeared in the distance, including 2 Swallow-tailed, and over 30(!) Mississippi. They gradually moved farther North along the Savannah River, giving us a better and better view as they flew closer, while hawking insects in mid-air. 

Carolina Chickadee with lunch

Finally, we ended our (very) long day with a quick trip through the driving trail at the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge. Our aim was locating migrating Bobolinks, which we found immediately on entering the refuge, congregating in the rice fields. We heard them on their way south last autumn, when we were living in Florida. Their distinctive "plink!" called out from plots of tall grasses, but we never managed to lay eyes on them. Now, they were out in abundance, and we were able to watch the (mostly male) blackbirds to our hearts' content. It was a terrific way to end a truly awesome field trip and an unforgettable (and exhausting) day of birding.

Bobolink

Bobolink

Bobolinks

Search for the Blue-winged Warbler

Although we'd planned on staying local today, we read reports yesterday of a Blue-winged Warbler sighted at A.D. Barnes Park in Miami. We'd first visited A.D. Barnes just a couple of weeks ago after reports of some Veeries, a Cerulean Warbler, and a Prothonotary Warbler. We managed to find the Prothonotary, but didn't have any luck with the others. Even so, this park immediately became our favorite migrant hot-spot, and well-worth the hour drive each way. 

Prothonotary Warbler from our previous trip

We parked at the nature center at about 7:30. Last time we found this area teeming with Red-eyed Vireos, as we did again this morning. Once we gave up on finding anything else of note there, we walked to the end of the nature trail to more open ground covered by large sprawling live oaks. Here we found lots of Black-throated Blue Warblers, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Prairie Warblers, Northern Parulas, and several American Redstarts.

Prairie Warbler

A little farther along, past the park's lake, we found a number adult male and female Cape May Warblers, as well as some 1st winter juveniles, and an Ovenbird. We also had our first male Baltimore Oriole, having had our first female on our first visit, two weeks earlier. As great as all the migrant activity was, we started to get nervous around 9:30 at not having seen the Blue-winged yet. We were due to volunteer at Daggerwing at noon, and still had an hour's drive ahead of us. Even while we enjoyed everything we'd seen, this was the bird that motivated us to come down, and it would have been somewhat disappointing to miss it. This species of warbler doesn't stay here, but is only passing through en route to its wintering grounds in the Caribbean and South America. If we didn't see it today, it was possible we might not see again during our time in Florida. 

Red-eyed Vireo

Black-throated Blue Warbler

male Baltimore Oriole

female Baltimore Oriole

We doubled back the way we'd come, deciding to give the park one more pass before the long drive back. We paused at some picnic tables under a dense canopy and sifted through more Red-eyed Vireos and some of the more common warblers. I caught a glimpse of yellow on the underside of a bird, and was almost ready to pass it up as another parula, but following it long enough for it to come out from behind some leaves, I was able to make out the black eye stripe just before it flew to the next tree. I pointed it out to Maureen and she confirmed the ID - we were looking at the elusive Blue-winged Warbler. We followed it for as long as we could, and then trekked back to the car feeling a bit more proud of ourselves than we might otherwise have.

Success! Blue-winged Warbler