The Warbler Show

Sunday started out slow. The expected rain never came (nor did it on Saturday), the air was still and it was very humid. I did some yard work, pond maintenance on both the fish and back ponds, while Patty went on a bike ride, training for an upcoming group ride.

As we were sitting in the living room, relaxing after lunch, I remarked that the birds seemed to have all gone away.

I was wrong.

At around 1:00 the American Redstarts showed up. There are three in the image below, starting with the black and orange male and two females increasing in blurriness to the right.

We saw five females at any one time, although only the one male.

Who was much less camera shy today.

And then a Northern Parula, seem here eyeing a Tufted Titmouse, briefly stopped by. We would see it about the gardens off and on, but it never came back to the birdbath area.

The Titmouses (Titmice?) did.

Much to the displeasure of the Redstarts.

This round goes to the Redstarts.

The Titmouse would get its turn.

Making an even briefer (and blurrier) appearance was this Chestnut-sided Warbler. I managed two shots before it was gone.

The fun ended when this noisy Carolina Wren came barging in. Too much activity near its nest perhaps?

(Is "noisy Carolina Wren" redundant?)

Things settled down, with only the Titmice (Titmouses?) flying about. And the Wrens bringing food to the youngins. And Patty and I went back to reading and listening to music.

And then,, this time around 3:00, it started up again.

As before it was the Redstarts that started things off.

Checking things out.

He's back!

Splash about ...

... shake dry ...

... a bad feather day ...

... a bit of preening will fix that.

And then Patty spotted this bird peaking out from behind the leaves and bouncing from tree to bush to this Pokeberry.

And then briefly out in the open. A White-eyed Vireo. 

And then a Prothonotary Warbler made a appearance. 

Which upset this Carolina Chickadee for some reason.

The Chickadee needs to learn to share, there's plenty of room for everyone.

The Black and White Warbler knows.

As do the two Titmouse (see what I did there?).

And we'll leave with that with which we started.

Not a bad day of birding for never leaving the living room (well, except to get a beer). 

Shed

In the A Snake in the … post I noted how the Northern Water Snake featured was soon to shed its skin. 

Well, skin has been shed.  

And I expect that snake feels a lot better for it.

The Warbler Show

Ask night a cold front came through and the forecast was for a day of rain and a bit of migration.

Still waiting on the rain ...

But as to the birds we had a nice little turnout, starting with this bird:

A Canada Warbler, which stayed high up in the trees.

A somewhat rare visitor, we've had it five other times since we moved here in 2014.

This is the first time I've managed to get any pictures.

These birds breed in Canada. They are among the last birds to arrive on the breeding grounds and among the first to leave, explaining why most of our yard sightings have been in August, as it is on its way to South America.

Cool to have it visit, and to finally get some pictures!

🐦  🐦  🐦  🐦  🐦

You can find all of the Yard Critter posts listed here.

The Warbler Show

Staring, in this episode, the Common Yellowthroat.

A somewhat regular visitor to the yard, appearing on thirty-two eBird yard checklists. 

As with the American Redstart, this is a female. 

Patty had spotted one early this morning, and it seems to have spent the day in the gardens, with most views as in the image below (the bird is dead center in the image).

Deep in the foliage. Its presence known mostly by shaking plants and chip notes. Kind of annoying.

But I got lucky as I had the camera at the ready for the other warblers, and she popped up on the fence in the garden. And bang bang bang, I got the shots.

The Wren Show

Carolina Wren that is.

I had been noticing a Carolina Wren around the Triple Stump, seemingly catching insect after insect there.

Cool I thought. But I had it backwards.

It (they?) were bringing bugs to the Stump. The image above? It is a nest, and there are several chicks in the "hole".

Mom or Dad was not happy with my snooping around the nest, so I quickly took some (bad) images with my phone and moved off. But you can make out four chicks in there.

Very cool.

And from our living room we can watch as the parents fly in, with those insects, to feed the brood.

Which may be the third this year?

The Warbler Show

Today was a good day for binge watching ...

An American Yellowstart (a female American Redstart).

This critter breeds in New Jersey, but I don't know that it breeds in our woods. It likes large areas of contiguous forest, and our woods may not be quite large enough, broken up by farms and such. But they likely breed in the not to distant state forests.

A common visitor to our yard, included on forty-five eBird lists over the years we've been here.

That's the mister hose that she is perched on.

There were at least three in the yard this day. I saw two females and one male at the same time (the male was camera shy). Along with the other warblers. In a small mixed flock with Tufted Titmouse and Carolina Chickadee.

Bye-bye!

🐦  🐦  🐦  🐦  🐦

You can find all of the Yard Critter posts listed here.

The Warbler Show

Featuring the Black and White Warbler.

Yeah, I know, a rerun. But ...

Black and White Warblers are always fun to watch. Especially when they play in the water.

J.B. and J.T.

The concert started at 7:30. We got to our seats at some point around 7:45 with the concert already in progress.

Bummer.

You can see in the image above that the lights are not down and there are plenty of people still filing in.

The parking and the lines to get in were just atrocious. $40 to park, that's fucking bullshit. And then the lines to get in were slow for no reason at all. But eventually we got in.

Flash back a couple of months, when it seemed that Covid was under control. "Want to go see James Taylor and Jackson Browne?", Patty asked. Hmm ... two artists that I have no interest in. "If you want to go I'll go with you."

She wanted to go.

So that's how I found myself at the at the BB&T Pavilion in 90° heat, with the delta variant raging, listing to music I don't particularly enjoy.

To my surprise and delight, I actually enjoyed Jackson Browne's set, an artist I had always found annoying. 

Alas, his set lasted only an hour or so, and we missed the first bit. And he had no encore. Disappointing for sure.

James Taylor came out and played with Jackson, and later Jackson would come out and play with James.

Alas I found much of Taylor's set boring, although some songs really resonated with me.

Now both of these fellows are clearly quite talented. And pretty much everyone went home happy. It's just that this style of music is not my cup of tea.

I don't know how Taylor was able to wear a jacket, I was sweating just sitting there. The guy three seats over from me was drenched in sweat, literally dripping. 

Jackson's set felt somehow more authentic than Taylor's, Taylor's seeming more scripted (after the show I read a review of the same show in Georgia, and it was the just as what we saw, with Taylor telling the same jokes and preforming the same encores).

Part of the reason I preferred Jackson's set was that I recognized more of the songs. And they were more rock songs then strictly singer songwriter-ish. As noted the singer songwriter genre is not my thing. Perhaps my dislike of Jackson Browne was more with how he was pigeonholed than with his actual music. Or maybe my tastes are changing.

One of Taylor's songs that really hit home was Fire and Rain. For two reasons. One is that the we are planning a memorial for my dad, who passed away just about one year ago. And there was a text string in progress for this with my siblings during the concert. And second is that as part of that text string I learned that my mom's best friend is now in hospice care. And this song had me crying.

Overall I enjoyed it. It was nice to be out again, although Covid was in the back of my mind throughout the night. At one point Patty said that we should go to more concerts. I think she is right. Maybe we'll even go see bands I like ...

Black and White

Is the species staring in today's episode of the Warbler Show.

Here perched on a Virginia Creeper Vine (the smooth black 'vine' is the mister hose).

And now on a stump eyeing the ground level bird bath.

Heading in for a dip.

Like the previous two warblers, Prothonotary and Worm-eating, the Black and White breeds in our woods. And we see them when the arrive in the spring until they leave in the fall.

And they appear regularly outside our windows, much to our enjoyment.

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All three of the featured warblers have continued to visit the yard, and did so today. As did another for which I saw only its wing and vent.

It's made several appearances this past week, and I'm pretty sure it is a Blue-winged Warbler, albeit a shy one. 

We'll keep watching ...