Long time, no post. Catching up a little.

Was excited to see a female Baltimore Oriole enjoying the sunflowers.

Haven't seen a hummingbird since 9/8, but here's one in the Russian Sage before that.

And one having a cat nap in the J. Maple.

For those interested in the bluebirds, we did have a second brood fledge, but I didn't get any photos or a video (like I did with brood 1), We still have a large population of blues in the yard. Here's a juvenile with a pretty collar.

Goldfinch enjoying the seeds from the fading black-eyed susans.

Susan

Excellent dragonfly release, Jane! Very elegant solution to a potentially messy situation.

Lovely pictures, Susan - the hummer in the Russian Sage pic is beautiful!

Claire

The grackles are back and have been for a while. They usually leave in the middle of the summer (visiting a better food venue?) and later come back, probably to fuel up for the migration to wherever they spend the winter.

This video shows grackles being grackles at the feeder today, squabbling and displaying and generally being very theatrical, but no one gets hurt. There's a male near the end doing the male puff-up routine (I am big and strong and you should go away and let me have the food).

I'll miss the grackles, just as I'll miss the hummers (which actually seem to have a similar mindset to the grackles, except the grackles play together better).

Claire

A good, puffy finale :)

He's still very mobile. It's becoming a daily exercise. He runs around the deck garden, across the steps with Ivy looking at him. He stops mid-stair, they stare at each other, he zips under the deck through the lattice, she stalks, finally grabs him and carries him into the garage. She spits him out, he assesses his position, looks around furtively, she looks away, then he runs away. Most days she carries him by the scruff of the neck like a kitten. Today, it was by the tail and left leg. Ivy's well fed. He's probably still in back of a flower pot. Last week he ran over my foot, so there is little fear in the chipper.

Jane

Good Heavens! A chipmunk and a cat playing together - are you running a Peaceable Kingdom in Connecticut? Great, unbelievable, picture, Jane!

Claire

Goldfinch selecting seeds. Skillful and agile for sure.

I wonder if the hardest ones to reach taste better...

Jane

Great pictures, Jane, but it's a little sad to see the molting plumage. Ah well, spring is around the corner somewhere.

Claire

The birds around here are changing daily. Friday late afternoon we had mallards visiting - they haven't used our little wet area since spring, probably since it hasn't been particularly wet. 5.4" of rain cured that!

Two drakes and a female spent some time dabbling in the "pond".

The bees have been drowsing in the flowers on cool mornings and late afternoons. Here are some on Caryopteris Sunshine Blue, but I also see them in other blooms.

NHBabs: I wonder what the ducks find to eat in an ephemeral pond. According to Cornell's All About Birds site:

"Mallards are generalist foragers and will eat a wide variety of food.
They don’t dive, but dabble to feed, tipping forward in the water to eat
seeds and aquatic vegetation. They also roam around on the shore and
pick at vegetation and prey on the ground. During the breeding season,
they eat mainly animal matter including aquatic insect larvae,
earthworms, snails and freshwater shrimp. During migration, many
Mallards consume largely agricultural seed and grain. In city parks,
they readily accept handouts from parkgoers."

Maybe the farmer left plenty of corn and it's nicely soaked by the water.

Nice pictures of bees still finding nectar and pollen this late.

Claire

The wet area has typical wetland plants such as sedges and rushes, which go to seed since it only gets mowed once a year most years in late summer (too wet to mow in spring or early summer.) So I am sure that they are finding ephemeral aquatic insect larvae like mosquitoes and caddisflies in spring, but at this time of year it will be the seeds from the sedges, etc. The corn doesn't travel that far - it's probably about 100 feet from the current corn field.

Sounds reasonable, NHBabs. When people talk about ephemeral ponds they don't usually say anything about what happens when the pond dries up. I guess it's a little like a rain garden.

Claire

I finally managed to get a picture of a bee on the mullein. Usually they're gone by the time I grab the camera (view from my kitchen window). At the rate the mullein is opening flowers the bees will have food for a few weeks more.

A catbird was grooming itself in the sun this morning on the winterberry. Maybe it was waiting for the berries to ripen before migration time.

The bees and hornets and catbirds are also sharing the apricot preserves in the jam/jelly feeder.

Claire

It's been a while since I posted turkey pics - mostly because they've been off somewhere else or I hadn't been getting good enough photos.

Today's turkeys at the feeders,

and at a bird bath.

The turkeys seemed extremely wary and were often looking around checking the surroundings.

I looked up the Massachusetts Wild Turkey Hunting Season and the fall hunting season is October 19 - October 31.

According to that site "Recently, the wild turkey was designated as the state's official game bird!"

"Spring gobbler seasons are a challenging way to hunt these wary birds.
Because toms can breed with several hens - and the season is timed to
coincide with the period when the protected hens are already on their
nests - gobblers can be taken without adversely affecting production. A
well established turkey population can easily withstand a limited
either-sex hunting season without adverse effects, however, and this is
the case in western and central parts of the state where the first fall
turkey season opened in 1990. Combined with the spring gobbler season,
this either-sex fall season offers hunters greater opportunities to bag
one of North America's premier game species. Spring or fall, turkey
hunting requires a high degree of skill in imitating the calls of the
birds to lure them within range. It is a challenge found in few other
types of hunts, and with fewer than one in fifteen hunters being
successful, the turkey is truly a bird of trophy status."

I'd be wary too if if I were a turkey.

Claire

Somebody hit the snooze button since houzz, BUT, we're still here. All the Catbirds have left. Can't tell you how much I do NOT want to see the Juncos (snow birds) arrive. Maybe they'll run late this year as many others have (fingers crossed). This afternoon I got to take some photos and look who graced me with their presence!

At the end of the lens's range, but a female Scarlet Tanager

And in the birch, a male Eastern Towhee - I don't see them often.

Couldn't resist this little guy with seed behind a web.

Jane

Today we had a good number of visitors: a half dozen turkey vultures kettling in the warm air rising off the roof (we were too busy watching to take photos), deer, geese, and turkeys in the field and a bunch of little tweety birds who were moving too fast to ID in their fall plumage.

Lovely habitat for all in NH!

I just found this on Facebook and think it's neat. Just passing it along in case fellow birders were unaware of its existence as I was. feather atlas - US Wildlife

A sparrow can't be a finch, but he tried.

Great picture of a sparrow that may really be a sort of finch.

Actually, some people believe the house sparrow is a weaver finch, but the documentation is all over the place. See the discussion: Is the House Sparrow really a Finch?

The most reasonable post to me is by fisherman1313 who said: "The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds
(originally published in the 50's, my copy is from 1980) places House
Sparrows in the Weaver Finch family but all other references I could
find to their taxonomy refer to them as "Old World sparrows". And National Geographic Complete Birds of North America states;
"Old World sparrows are not closley related to New World sparrows in
the family Emberizidae. Instead their closest alliance is with the
family Ploceidae, in which they were formerly placed." Ploceidae is the
weaver finch family. So, basically, House Sparrows used to be weaver
finches but recent research shows that they are only closely related to
them."

Probably too much information for most, but some of us enjoy that kind of nitpicking.

Claire

Well, you're right; some of us do like the nitty gritty details. I knew HOSP were Old World, but didn't know (or remember) that they had the finch connection. I simply had noticed that the chokeberry hangout, always filled with HOSP, held attentive watchers when the Am. GFs were riding the seed-heavy liatris to the ground. Naturally, when the HOSPs tried grasping the dried stalk, it was more of a fast kerplunck and quick flight back to the chokeberry, as shown by the chap above.

Good, Claire. Thanks. :)

Jane

Nooooo...please no snow. He's here. First observed on Oct.21, 2015. Later than last year by about 2 weeks, but he's here. (dark-eyed junco aka snow bird)

Jane

Not a good sign, Jane, given his habit of foretelling snowstorms. Let's hope he's one of the theatrical weather forecasters who hype everything and turn out wrong.

Claire

One of the winter residents who comes without ominous baggage is the White-throated Sparrow. I've been seeing two of them for a few weeks now. They're very wary and don't like to pose for me.

I happened to look out the window a few minutes ago and saw a flock of turkeys hurrying from the neighbor's yard to mine. I expected them to stop at the water bath but they kept going to the yard on the other side, running along the top of the coastal bank. It looks like one of the turkeys was waiting for the others and then followed them - probably a mother hen. I have no idea what the hurry was. They'd been hanging around my yard earlier in a very leisurely fashion.

Unfortunately the only window without a screen on it had spots on the window.

Claire

So have you discovered whether a fox or a dog might have encouraged the fast turkey trot? Videos really make the point - good job.

We also have juncos now, and last weekend had a few flakes of snow, though nothing significant.

The turkeys are visiting on a regular basis, and the groups are getting larger than in summertime, and seem to be including a bit of establishing of the pecking order. Our regular group that's wandering the corn field and behind the house is up to about 15 now. In this photo, the one to the left is chasing the others. He wasn't hassling all the other turkeys, just the ones in this group.

Jane: I don't know what scared the turkeys but I don't think it was a fox or a dog. Turkeys fleeing critters fly to the trees. I suspect some churlish humans were chasing the turkeys away from their yard/garden and they were just running to a more hospitable place. Of course, they may have flown to the trees and then come back down when the immediate danger was gone; deciding to get far away from the unpleasant disturbance.

NHBabs: Pretty junco pic! Turkey pecking order is really intense.

Last summer I noticed one smallish poult feeding all by itself for several days. One day it was in the yard when the large group of hens and poults came by and I watched to see if the lone poult would join them. Instead the large group attacked it and it ran away. I remembered earlier seeing a hen pecking at a little poult in the flock and I wonder if this is the same one - either ejected or escaped. I hope it found a friendlier flock.

Claire

Interesting article from The Nature Conservancy on Angry Birds: Why Molting Makes Our Feathered Friends Grumpy

"Perhaps you’re familiar with having a “bad hair day.” For birds, “bad
feather days” – what we call molting – are a part of life. And those
days are not easy. In fact, it can make birds downright grumpy.
Seriously."

Claire

Good article, Claire. Three months+ is a long to be grumpy. Birds are tough! Speaking of . . .

For the past couple of weeks there has been morning, east light tapping (woodpecker style) on the deck. The deck floor was replaced about 4 years ago and when I heard that familiar tapping, I remembered writing the check and thought, "NO"!, and shot out to the kitchen to investigate.

Through a kitchen window, a Downy

Finding and using the space between two boards to hold maple seeds in place while she eats.

They are smart - - can't take that away from them. She should be busy for weeks to come.

Jane

Nice observation, Jane! At least the downy is just using the deck boards as a tool - I've had damage to my deck boards in two places that I think was caused by a raccoon trying to scratch out a peanut that was caught in the crack. Probably the same raccoon that used to empty my deck hummingbird feeder every night. I've taken that feeder down but I've seen the raccoon a few times checking to see if the feeder is back up. (I hear a thump on the deck around 9PM and I turn the outside light on to see what's there).

Claire

Boy, to me it looks as though this red-bellied chap got the full headdress. Doesn't the nape look more like hair?

Jane

I'm half expecting your next pictures to be of the red-belly with his hair pulled back into a ponytail. Either that or a hair comb over...

Claire

No, no comb over - too many (1) of those around right now, lol.

Just 1 new guy can make a day. So new to me that I had to make a 'Warbler' folder. Yellow-rumped right outside my window. (small happy dance)

Yup, that's a yellow tush.

Jane

Great pics of a great little bird, Jane! I miss the Yellow-rumped Warblers, known as "Butter-Butts" in some circles. I used to see them every winter when I had suet cages on the wisteria just outside my kitchen window. The butter-butts would get territorial and try to guard the suet from other, bigger birds. They didn't attack, they just glared at the others.

I had to move the suet cage away from the wisteria, since the squirrels would eat the wisteria flower buds while they were up there, and the butter-butts moved too. They may be still around but aren't as visible.

Claire

Actually, the rumors of their disappearance are greatly exaggerated. I just checked my warbler folder and found a lot of photos from 2014, although none from the winter of 2014/2015. Maybe that harsh winter kept them away. I hope it didn't decimate them like it did the Carolina Wrens.

February 18, 2014

Claire

Pushing the envelope a bit again, but maybe these spiders will wash ashore in New England some day.

Male Coastal peacock spider from Australia, dancing to attract a mate.

Claire

Just incredible. It's such an amazing world.. TY

Claire - He brings to mind the bar scene in Star Wars. Incredible colors and behavior, and those eyes . . . ! I wonder about the silk that is periodically visible - if it is making something or just akin to cheerleaders' pompoms. One of the things I really like about this ongoing thread is that I learn so much about critter behavior.

The turkey flock has grown to more than 20, with ongoing working out of the pecking order via displays.

I've also been seeing hawks more, perhaps because there are fewer leaves on the trees. Our turkey vultures and broadwing hawks seem to have left, but the red-tails are still around along with one smaller hawk that I couldn't ID - looked like an immature of some kind.

Claire, On Facebook this morning someone posted a picture of an immature Snowy Owl which he took yesterday at the CC Nat'l Seashore near Wellfleet. After he took the picture, he said the bird headed toward P'town direction. Have you seen one, ever? Seems early in the season to me.

Turkeys displaying already, NHBabs! Cue the chest-thumping and Tarzan ape calls.

Jane: I've never seen a snowy although they were seen in Plymouth last year.

I just found one link at NatureScapes.Net that says that the snowies are appearing around the Great Lakes and in Canada. There's some talk about the owls staying over the summer in some areas so maybe that explains the Wellfleet sighting, but it could easily have just zipped down the eastern coast and gotten diverted by the Cape swinging north.

OntPhoto said:

"I don't expect a lack of snowy owls. Those large numbers for the past 2 winters have to go somewhere, again."

Maybe this year I'll see one (being lazy, I really want one to show up in my yard while I have my camera ready).

Claire

The song sparrows are enjoying the miscanthus seeds.

And a few of the seasonal migrants have stopped by:

Claire

A week late, I just noticed that your pumpkin has a bat mouth. That's really good carving, Claire!

I've not noticed Yellow-shafted Northern Flickers on dogwood before. He scoffed down a few berries. They are beautiful, IMO.

OT totally - my computer is making strange fan noises even after cleaning it. Oh, the thought of having to get used to a new OS and getting all those bird pictures over to a Mac from a Windows backup, ...sigh...I used to care about documents, now it's bird pictures, lol. :)

Jane

"Umm, what's the white background?", she said with some trepidation. Love the flickers, though.

Susan

Hi, Susan, it's a light gray sky. I was shooting upwards through dirty garage windows.

Great shots of the flicker, Jane, but I see what Susan is hinting at (the S*** word). And you did see a junco a week or two ago....

Claire

That's not funny! Juncos are still here looking forlorn, like they got the wrong Triptik from AAA.

Maybe your juncos thought they were flying to my yard and got lost. I usually see them by the end of October/beginning of November. We just had one night hovering around freezing though, and it's been relatively warm since - fine with me.

Claire

With the temps we have had, I knew there had to be an explanation! No need for the heated birdbath yet.

No juncos so far, and haven't seen a flicker for months, no cardinals for a while either. Haven't put up any feeders yet, but they will go up later this month. Lots of resident bluebirds are still around, as well as nuthatches, chickadees, downys, some blue jays. Goldfinches have been scarce ever since they pretty much stripped the sunflowers. That will change as soon as the thistle feeder goes up. Hoping the abundant crabapples will bring in the waxwings like they did year before last...nothing last year.

And there is an upside to the leaves falling...better visibility. Too bad there will be so little daylight. Trade-offs!

Susan

Jane, handsome flicker photos, and I only noticed today the lovely foliage backdrop of the yellow-rumped warbler you posted a couple of weeks ago. I was so amazed that you had a warbler still that I didn't look beyond the bird.

I saw a lone turkey vulture last week, though it was over on the seacoast. I think that perhaps the late Indian summer has kept them here longer than usual. At home I am mostly seeing winter birds - chickadees, mourning doves, turkeys, grouse; the insect eaters have all left. I am not ready for the white stuff yet . . .

I just started a new thread, 2015 #10, since this is getting a bit long.

Claire