...part 2 of the hungry little Green Heron

Part 2: I had so many cool photos of this juvenile Green Heron, I had to break the post into two installments (click here for part one). The video at the end shows him catching another fish and licking his chops again...

Head-on shot of a juvenile Green Heron. 

The Green Heron hears my camera shutter and gives me the stink eye!

Juvenile Green Heron Fishing from Kelly Riccetti on Vimeo.


Photos taken at the Ibis Pond rookery on Pinckney Island NWR in Hilton Head, SC June of 2012.

p.s. We just returned from Hawaii (Maui). I hope to have a few photos of those cool birds up soon. 

The gnatcatcher and the caterpillar...

While I sat in the grass watching a Red-shouldered Hawk's nest, this Blue-gray Gnatcatcher landed on a branch in a tree very close to me. I had been sitting still for a while, so maybe he didn't notice me, or maybe the promise of tasty crawly eats overrode the danger of a human with a camera...

This Blue-gray Gnatcatcher was studying something on a branch above him. I knew whatever it was had to be important because the little bird had come in so close to me. I wondered what it was and imagined a fat and juicy caterpillar inching along unaware of its impending doom...

...sure enough, the male gnatcatcher snatched up the protein-rich larva right in front of me!  The instant I clicked the shutter, he glanced my way, warning me off the tasty treat with a birdy (but steely) stink eye... 

Yum...fresh caterpillar...

...hmmmm...is that another?

...it definitely was, and within seconds, he jumped to the next branch over and nabbed another unsuspecting caterpillar. 

How do you tell a male Blue-gray Gnatcatcher from a female? 
Just look for "eyebrows." During the breeding season when males are in their alternate breeding plumage, you'll see a thick, black line above their eyes:

Male Blue-gray Gnatcatchers in breeding plumage sport dark eyebrows! 

A Cheery Veery...

I found this beautiful Veery Thrush at Magee Marsh last May during the Biggest Week in American Birding festival. I was walking the boardwalk near dusk when I saw him moving around in the undergrowth. I've never been able to get a decent shot of a Veery. They skulk around on the ground in the leaf litter, and when they do come up for air, they stay tucked deep in thickets and shrubby areas in the woods. This bird was no different. I didn't even try to photograph him because it was getting dark and he was well concealed. I was just watching him through the binocs, hoping he would sing his beautiful song, when suddenly he hopped up on a branch and stared right at me. I switched out the binocs for the camera and held my breath, hoping the lens would squeeze enough light out of the day to record that face! Such a cheery Veery...

A beautiful Veery (Catharus fuscescens) gives me the eye. It might be the stink eye, but I don't think so. 
He's too sweet for that! :-)

Veeries love the cool and damp forest floors. They also like water, which makes the Black Swamp at Magee Marsh perfect habitat! I assume this fellow is migrating through, but Veeries do nest in the northern parts of Ohio, so maybe he is staking out his territory.

I was so happy to see this bird. I don't get to see it that often in the woods around my house. During spring migration, I do get to hear his beautiful song every now and then in the evening along the Little Miami River, but it's rare. 

The Veery's song is beautiful. If you read about it, you'll often see the words "ethereal,"and "flute-like," "airy," and even "magical" or "haunting." The descriptors are intense for a reason--the song will stop you in your tracks, and once you've heard it, you'll never forget it. Click here for a link to Lang Elliott's recording of a Veery's song. I usually only hear it in the evening near dusk, and it always seems a bit haunting to me...

...such a magical-sounding little bird. If you really want to get fanciful, it's not too hard to imagine his song being a fairy call to announce the beginnings of "midnight revels, by a forest side..." (John Milton, Paradise Lost) 

For migration predictions and info on the birds being seen on the boardwalk, click here for Kenn Kaufman's "Crane Creek - Magee Birding" blog (it covers the Lake Erie Shores and islands region of northwest Ohio). Click here for a nice resource on Magee Marsh.

The Biggest Week in American Birding festival starts May 3, 2013 and runs through May 12, 2013.

Acadian Flycatcher along the Little Miami River

…along with Angry Birds and Disappearing Cardinals, Friday’s walk along the Little Miami brought in close-up views of an Acadian Flycatcher (Empidonax virescens). He’s not the flashiest of all the spring migrants along the river, but he is fun to watch as he flies out to hawk insects…and he is noisy too. He didn’t shout out his “peet-sa” call at all while I photographed him, but he had been singing shortly before I found him sitting on a branch overhanging the trail...looking for something to eat...

I always hear these little birds before I see them.

The standard mnemonics for his call is a quick "Peet-sa" (click here for a link to the call).

...his pinkish, yellowish lower mandible is so cute...

...upper mandible is dark...

...I'm not sure, but this might be a Stink Eye.

The Acadian Flycatcher is a riparian corridor bird of Ohio (click here for details),

and one of the best indicator species of riparian quality.

...a glimpse of his broad, flat bill. For the size of his little head, he really does have a big mouth!

It must make catching insects mid-air easier...

For an earlier post with a little more info on the Acadian Flycatcher, click here.

Beak Bit

A riparian corridor is a mature woodland growing along a river or stream. With the Little Miami, this forested river corridor offers an unbroken stretch of woodland (which gets harder and harder to find) offering ideal habitat for the woodland warblers and spring migrants. Since the Acadian Flycatcher is one of the best "indicator species" of riparian quality, I'm always happy to hear his happy call. If the Acadian Flycatcher is living along its banks, the Little Miami river corridor is doing well and is free of pollution!

For more information on indicator species, click here.

For more information on riparian corridor birds of Ohio rivers, click here.

For more information on riparian corridors or a riparian zone, click here.

Dunlins hunting in the mudflats...

...from the Captiva Island, Florida posts.

Birding Sanibel Island and the J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge

While two little Dunlins were busy scouring the muddy shores of one of the salt-water marshes and mudflats in the Ding Darling NWR, Matty and I were watching a Reddish Egret hunting and dancing in the blue waters much farther out. We didn't even know the two "best buds" were so close until we happened to look down. A total surprise, they were about 15-20 feet away, systematically probing the soft, creamy mud for invertebrates...

...could these little sandpipers be any sweeter? I love Dunlins with their gently down-curving bills and their beautiful little faces.

Although still mostly garbed in his dull, "dun," non-breeding winter colors, the beautiful russets and reds of his spring breeding plumage are starting to show.

Dunlins are predominantly visual hunters (pecking) during the day and tactile hunters (probing) at night. Matty and I sat on the grassy embankment and watched the Dunlins for a long time. We saw both feeding methods. Maybe because the mud was so soft and creamy they did a lot of tactile feeding, their long bills resembling straws that let them probe deep into the muck and slurp up their prey!

Click here to read a very interesting article about the Dunlin's hunting methods in the Journal of Avian Biology 25: 55-62 by K. N. Mouritsen titled, "Day and night feeding in Dunlins Calidris alpina: choice of habitat, foraging technique and prey."

I don't think this is the Stink Eye. I think it's a curious What's-making-that-clicking-sound-above-me Eye!

Matty and I watched these birds on March 21, 2011. It was so warm in the Florida sun, and we were able to sit down, relax and just study the little birds. Such a welcome relief from the cold, nasty weather still waiting for us back home...

Usually when we saw the Dunlins at Ding Darling, they were in huge mixed flocks out on the mudflats, but these two birds were hanging by themselves. Sometimes they would split up for a few minutes, but they always came back together. At one point, we were further down the road watching a Tri-colored Heron, when a large flock of Dunlins ripped over our heads trailing energy, sound and even a breeze in their wake. It was so sudden and unexpected--and the experience was made even more thrilling because they flew from back to front and only a few feet over our heads. It was like all the energy of their flock washed over us. In a split second they were in front of us zipping and turning together at breakneck speed, flashing and zig-zagging until they lighted on the mudflat further out in the marsh. It was the first time I ever felt that kind of energy...I'll never forget it.

P.S. After dinner this evening Rick and I headed over to the Little Miami River to see what neotropical migrants we could find, and...oh my gosh...first up was a Canada Warbler!! He was so gorgeous...and SO CLOSE...and stayed around for so long. Even Rick the Reluctant Birder was sold. We then saw a Black-throated Green Warbler, a Blackburnian Warbler, two Wood Thrushes, two Hermit Thrushes, a Swainson's Thrush! (directly overhead), an Ovenbird (really, really close too)...our Northern Parula was still there, a Baltimore Oriole, Red-eyed Vireos...tons of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, two Phoebes...an Eastern Wood Pewee...a Barred Owl...the list goes on and on. Rick attributes the incredible views of the Canada Warbler to the fact I didn't have my camera with me. It was misty...and foggy...and evening was falling hard, so I thought I'd be "free" and just bird with binocs. I knew not having the camera would guarantee something cool...

There are no words for this one...

...because I laugh every time I look at it.

Mr. Wide Jaws is funny enough, but it’s the contemptuous look on his sibling that really cracks me up. I always imagine “Nice, Junior…” running through her head, followed by "you're so immature."

A young Tricolored Heron sticking out his tongue with jaws open wide!

(Photo from June 13, 2010--Pinckney Island NWR, Hilton Head, SC)

Joe "Hollywood" Cooper

This juvenile Cooper's Hawk is so pretty he must be a bird actor...

...show me........Dejection!

...show me.......Regal like an Eagle!

...show me.......Anticipation!

...okay, okay...you've shown me enough...I'll move on.

(I don't know why these hawks never want me to stick around and always end up giving me the stink eye!)

I found this juvenile Cooper's Hawk sitting on our deck. Walking up on him and seeing him so close took me by surprise, and I sort of did that jumpy second-look move, which unfortunately frightened him off, but he didn't go far. He perched in the Ash Tree about 20 feet away and surveyed the offerings for a while--enough time for me to get the camera and snap off a few shots before he grew bored with the clicking and took to the wing...with a flourish, of course!

Beauteous Buteo

I walked into the kitchen Saturday to find a new species of hawk sitting in our half-dead weeping willow tree, Buteo jamaicensis--the Red-tailed Hawk! Compared to the Cooper's or even Red-shouldered Hawks that often perch there, this bird was a monster.

The beautiful rusty red tail of the Red-tailed Hawk was visible from the kitchen. He sat about eye level from me on the most "popular" hawk perch in the tree.

This is the view from our kitchen door. When I walked into the kitchen, I gasped and ran for the camera, thinking "Oh my gosh...that hawk is big!" When Rick came in a few minutes later, he found me standing on the back of the living room chair photographing him through the window and shouted, "Holy Cow! There's a dog in the tree!" (I laughed so hard I almost fell off the chair. Rick is always funny...)

The dog in the tree surveys his territory. We're used to Cooper's Hawks perching here and are familiar with their size. I didn't realize how much larger Red-tailed Hawks were.

Mild irritation seems to be showing on our Red-tailed Hawk's face. He's probably thinking "...enough with the photos, Chicky. Move along..."

"I SAID...enough with the photos...move along!"

"Okay, okay! I'm putting the camera down and am stepping away from the window..."

I wouldn't look so tough if I were you, Mr. Starling. Look who's sitting behind you just above your left shoulder...

Acadian Flycatcher on the Little Miami Bike Trail

I was about a quarter mile down the trail when this little Acadian Flycatcher caught my attention. His song burst through the trees, loud and short and familiar—practically demanding that I look for him! As I slowed and started focusing in the leaves of a tree just off the trail, he suddenly plopped down on a branch out in the open and started singing. A plain little bird that looks like so many others, there is no mistaking his song, especially when he tosses his head back to sing it.

When he sings he tosses his head high, and if you're standing

below, all you can see is that little yellow lower mandible.

In the summer, I hear Acadian Flycatchers all the time on the Little Miami Trail. The heavily wooded riverside path is their textbook-perfect breeding habitat. In this stretch of the trail, four small creeks tumble down the hillside and feed into the Little Miami River. Our little migrant was staking his claim very close to one of those feeders.

The sun was so intense on Saturday that as it filtered

through the green leaves it cast a green glow on the bird.

Acadian Flycatchers are fun little birds to watch because they often sit still for a few minutes, and that gives you ample time to study them (unlike those cute little warblers that seem to be here, there, and everywhere). Our fellow, in between singing and looking for bugs, liked to preen, and he was very good at it too, doing it a lot!

You can even see his lower yellow bill while he preens.

What a cutie!

No matter how tolerant a bird is to the clicking

of my camera shutter, every now and

then he still has to give me the eye!