What Bird Is This?

I briefly watched this bird out in the wetlands as it flew around catching insects. I liked the way the light was shining behind it illuminating its rusty-colored tail. I was only able to watch it for a few minutes and then it flew back into the wetlands where I couldn’t see it. For fun, I thought it would be interesting to see what you thought this bird might be. Leave your guesses/thoughts in the comments below.

I just want to add that this small wetland area attracts so many birds. It is a real eye-opener how crucial wetlands are, no matter the size, in supporting so much diversity in wildlife.

Virginia Rail

It was early evening, and I took a leisurely walk through the arboretum. As I approached the wetlands, I heard the calls of chickadees moving through the lower part of the canopy and decided to go see what they were up to. I walked out onto the bridge in the wetlands to find them flitting around in the red-osier dogwoods. As I was watching them, a small flock of Bushtits came sweeping through and descended onto the lily pads sticking out of the water. They were excitedly gleaning insects from the surface of the leaves. As my eyes followed their acrobatic tumblings, I came across another bird at the water’s edge. A Virginia Rail was squatting on a lily pad and quietly foraging.

A Virginia Rail’s habitat is mostly shallow, freshwater wetlands but can also occupy brackish marshes near the coast. They prefer wetlands with “40–70% coverage of tall, emergent vegetation” (All About Birds). This consists of cattails, rushes, grasses, and plants like spirea, red-osier dogwood, and willow found in the wetlands at the arboretum. These areas provide great cover. Coupled with that, Virginia Rails have excellent camouflage and are mostly solitary birds, so they are often heard more than seen. With their long toes and strong legs to help them walk around on floating vegetation, they are right at home in a marsh habitat.

Their diet consists of “beetles, snails, spiders, flies, small fish, slugs, crayfish, and frogs. In the winter, they eat aquatic invertebrates as well as plant material and seeds” (All About Birds). This one appeared to be probing into the mud for food and eating bits of vegetation.

Seeing this bird is a reminder of how important it is to stay tuned into my surroundings. This encounter only lasted a few minutes, so it can be easy to miss these brief, but exciting moments. I am also reminded to be curious about places that I have been to many times because they can offer new and delightful experiences.

I hope to see you out there.

Resource
Virginia Rail Life History, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Virginia_Rail/lifehistory. Accessed 16 Sept. 2023.

Black-capped Chickadee Eating Oregon Ash Seeds

Chickadees are so curious and have such a varied diet. This morning I heard them calling from the canopy and decided to go over and see what they were doing. I found them plucking Oregon Ash samaras, carrying them over to nearby limbs, and eating the seeds. They were so adept at balancing, lining up the samara along the limb, and picking the seed out of the end. They would eat some ash seeds for a few minutes, then dart over to an oak tree to rummage around through the canopy for a couple of minutes, and then pop back over to the ash for more seeds. I am always amazed at how action-packed they are and that they never seem to stop moving.

Bushtit Eating Blackberry

I was watching a flock of bushtits move through the landscape. They fluttered and tumbled into a thicket of blackberries that were growing up through a cottonwood tree. As I peered through the foliage, I found some of them eating the blackberries. I captured one plucking off one drupelet at a time. I love its stance of one leg down grasping a tree limb and one nearly straight up holding onto the berry. I imagine the thorns of a blackberry are potentially harmful to birds. They have easily torn open my skin on more than one occasion when I was picking the berries. This one is playing it smart and showing off its acrobatic skills by finding a safe place to perch away from the thorns.

Robin Eating Red-osier Dogwood

The American Robin eats a wide variety of fruits, so it is no surprise to find them eating the Red-osier Dogwood berries. One of the shrubs next to the river had an abundance of berries, and I watched a robin eating from it quite a few times on different days. It would fly in, perch, and watch its surroundings for a moment. It would then pluck a berry, hold it in its beak, slightly toss it back, and swallow it whole. I feel like it ate around 6 - 8 berries before flying off. I found it interesting that I have only seen one robin at a time eating the berries. It is not unusual to see a group of robins in a tree devouring fruit. Also, I usually see them start to gather together this time of year. For example, in the recent post Grasshoppers - August 20, 2023, there were probably a dozen robins together out in the meadow eating grasshoppers.

White-breasted Nuthatch Cleaning Out Nestbox

I subscribe to Birds of the World by The Cornell Lab of Ornithology which is a resource found on their website that they describe as, “Birds of the World is a powerful resource that brings deep, scholarly content from four celebrated works of ornithology into a single platform where biologists and birders can find comprehensive life history information on birds. Every bird has a story. Discover them all with Birds of the World.”

When I looked up nesting of White-breasted Nuthatches there surprisingly wasn’t a lot of current information on certain topics and little information on others. The information on nest construction cited sources from 1948, 1968, and 1978. Under the section “Selection,” it only stated “Not clear which sex selects the nest site.” Under the section “Maintenance And Reuse Of Nests,” it only stated “No data but thought to reuse nests often. No information on maintenance.”

Birds of the World is a great resource but obviously doesn’t contain all the information about White-breasted Nuthatches. That’s good news. There is probably still much to be discovered about its life. The even better news is that it is a common bird found at the arboretum that I can watch, study, and enjoy. Who knows, maybe I’ll make a new and exciting discovery about its life.

A couple of weeks ago I observed this nuthatch partially cleaning out this box. A pair of nuthatches have used two different nest boxes out at the arboretum the last two summers, so maybe it is scouting out a potential nesting site for next year. White-breasted nuthatches seem like curious birds, and I see them thoroughly investigating trees. They are constantly circling branches and the trunks of trees as they forage. It is not uncommon to see one pop into the cavity of a tree to have a look around. It makes sense to keep track of potential places to seek refuge during bad weather, escape danger, nest, etc. Next spring I’ll be wondering if they decide to nest in this box. I hope to see you out there!

Sitting By The River

I sat on a gravel bar along the river one morning. I watched birds come and go for hours. Goldfinches stopped by quite often to drink from shallow pools. They dipped their bills down in the water, raised their heads up, and slightly tilted their heads back to swallow. A Robin hopped along the rocks gathering insects. Once its beak was full it would fly back to the nest. Its babies immediately reached their heads upward. Their outstretched, yellow mouths were ready to be stuffed with food. Cedar waxwings swooped back and forth over the river catching insects. Across the river, an American Kestrel was using an old cottonwood as a perch as it hunted in the farm field. A female common merganser was zigzagging across the river diving for fish. Just upstream, I could see a green heron stalking along the shoreline. Killdeer were downstream gleaning insects on the gravel bar. A lazuli bunting was singing from the willows to my right and occasionally came down to the river to drink. A pewee was calling and hawking flying insects from over the river. A song sparrow hopped about the river stones in front of me catching insects. Towards the end of my time sitting there, a pair of California Quail quietly appeared out of the willows. I don’t get to see them very often out at the arboretum. They like to stay hidden, are well camouflaged, and are easily startled. They only spent a minute or so out in the open then moved back into the willows. I could occasionally see their silhouettes as they moved through the thicket. Seeing these quail reinforced the approach to birdwatching in which you quietly sit and let the birds come to you.

Hope you are finding time to get out and do some birding this summer.

Common Yellowthroat

The Common Yellowthroat is a beautiful bird. The male has an olive-brown body with a striking, black mask that is bordered by a bright yellow throat below and a brush of white above. The female is elegant with an olive-brown body and a gentle yellow wash on her throat, breast, and under tail.

Sometimes this bird is tricky to see. It likes open areas with thick, low vegetation. It usually stays concealed as it shuffles through tall grass, thickets of blackberry, and low-growing shrubs of the meadow. It’s fond of the area past the old Quonset hut in the bristly fields of teasel I call Teaseltown. That is the plant you see it perched on in the photos.

While you patiently wait for a glimpse of this magnificent warbler, listen for its rhythmic, fluid song that Peterson describes as a “bright rapid chant, witchety-witchety-witchety-witch.”

The Common Yellowthroat has a pointy bill that is excellent for gleaning all the nooks and crannies of leaves, bark, branches, etc. Its diet includes spiders and a variety of insects, such as flies, beetles, ants, termites, bees, wasps, grasshoppers, dragonflies, damselflies, moths, butterflies, caterpillars, and other larvae.

In the margin on the website All About Birds, it lists other common names which I think are interesting and fun: Mascarita Común (Spanish) and Paruline masquée (French).

Nature is an inexhaustible source of wonder. I look forward to seeing you out there.

Resources
Common Yellowthroat Overview, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Yellowthroat/overview. Accessed 25 June 2023.

Peterson, Roger Tory, et al. Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Western North America. 4th ed, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010.

Canadian Geese & Goslings

I was sitting on the bank of the river. It was a quiet morning. It was slightly cloudy and the temperature was a little cool. There were bird songs filling the air. The song of the river saturated the background. A family of Canadian Geese was casually floating downstream next to the shore foraging on grass. They were graceful and calm and also keenly watchful of their surroundings for any danger. I often hear their clamorous honking as they fly along the river, but today they are quiet. They are vulnerable to predators. It takes about 10 weeks for a baby to mature and be able to fly. It is nice to see them nesting out here. In my time observing nature over the past few years at the arboretum, I don’t recall seeing them breeding. That said, there is so much life occurring here, and I know that I miss infinitely more than I discover.