A Black & White Warbler gleans invertebrates from a willow trunk.

So with that in mind, Ranger Kristin and I tallied the following birds that stuck around for another day or who had arrived anew from the surrounding neighborhoods to feed in our little suburban island of wildness:

White-eyed Vireo, Northern Parula, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Pine Warbler, Prairie Warbler, Black & White Warbler, American Redstart, Common Yellowthroat, Summer Tanager and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. I also thought I caught a glimpse of a cuckoo, but can’t be certain of its identity.

I’m sure that there were some birds that we missed, some that eluded our watchful eyes and ears (I should say Kristin’s ears since I can no longer hear many of the high pitched calls of the birds).

There was a rather large flock of Chimney Swifts seen that day as well. There’s a National Guard Armory not far from the Museum (Stadium Drive) with a tall chimney that hosts swifts during late summer and early fall.

By the way, if you’re into birds, the willows in the Wetlands and the Mimosa Trees between Explore the Wild and Catch the Wind are full of tiny insects, psyllids and aphids and their eggs and larvae, mites and other small inveterbrates. The birds that are migrating through now are insectivorous.

One of six species of warbler seen, a Prairie Warblers gleans from a willow in the Wetlands.

For the birder, I saw 6 species of warbler this morning including Common Yellowthroat, Prairie Warbler, Black & White Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, American Redstart, and topped it off with White-eyed Vireo (not a warbler).

There were several individuals from each species and they were all very hungry, barely paying attention to me just below them in the trees.

And for the herper, or herpetologist…

What's that on the path ahead?

Apparently the thirty degree difference in temps from yesterday has prompted this Northern Water Snake to hit the pavement and head for high ground. I have a feeling that it’ll be back in a few days when it warms up again.

Making haste for the warmth of the rocks just a dozen or so yards away (9/16/11).

What more could one ask for, a cool day with no chance for a sun burn, a small group of warblers moving through, and a big fat water snake crossing the path in front of you.

At least four Mallards remain in the Wetlands. These birds are most certainly a family group, although the adult male is absent.

As is usually the case, the local Great Blue Heron was a regular fixture in the Wetlands throughout August. It’s apparently doing well in its hunting ventures catching frogs, small fish and even managing to catch a small snapping turtle on August 8, although it couldn’t quite get the turtle down its gullet. The turtle, being about 6 or 7 inches from the front to back of its shell, and nearly as wide, simply would not make it past the bird’s bill. There’s little flexibility in a turtle’s shell and try as the heron did it simply was not to be. After several attempts to swallow the turtle, which by this time had expired, the heron dropped the unfortunate reptile in the water and turned its attention towards preening.

As many as four Green Herons have been seen in the Wetlands on a daily basis. Although sometimes difficult to differentiate from the many stumps that have surfaced due to the low water level, they are there; you may have to search a bit to locate them. They will depart in mid-September for their wintering grounds.

A Red-shouldered Hawk has been present on most days of this month hunting from a snag in the Wetlands. If you read this Journal regularly you already know that the hawk typically hunts from this perch, its prey often Bullfrogs. On August 7, the bird took a most unusual prey item from the Wetlands, a Golden Shiner. I didn’t witness the event, although I did see the bird as it left its perch only to disappear behind a group of willows. Ranger Katie, who was at the top of the boardwalk at the time, did witness the actuall capture of the fish. As reported by her, she saw the hawk snatch the fish out of the water and fly off with it. The fish was approximately 8 inches in length. I’ve read reports of Red-shouldereds taking fish but have never seen it myself. It seems that I’ll have to wait a bit longer to do so.

A small number of migrants have passed through our area during the past month. One, a Solitary Sandpiper, was a first for the Museum. To my knowledge, only two other shorebirds have been recorded on the Explore the Wild/Catch the Windloop (Killdeer and Spotted Sandpiper), both of which simply circled the area and continued on with their flights. However, a Solitary Sandpiper was seen briefly on August 4 and again on August 19 when another was observed throughout the day at various locations in the Wetlands.

At one point the sandpiper, having been rousted by the activities of the visiting Mallards, circled the Wetlands and landed on the exposed mud just below me as I stood on the boardwalk, no more than six feet’s distance. It was a pleasant distraction from the stifling heat of the day to see such a bird feeding at close range.

The Museum’s Wetlands is not conducive to certain shorebird feeding behavior. I don’t expect very many other shorebird species to pay us visits. If migrating shorebirds pass over us during their southward journeys and do not find an exposed mudflat to land on, most will simply move on. However, the water level in the Wetlands has fallen enough to allow shorebirds to feed in the shallow water and mud surrounding the pond.

Still, even with the exposed shoreline, I wouldn’t expect to see hoards of shorebirds sweeping down on the Wetlands, although a Least Sandpiper or two is a possibility. I’d be excited, but not totally surprised, to see one of these peep in the Wetlands.

A family group of Great-crested Flycatchers was heard and seen feeding on the backside of theExplore the Wild/Catch the Wind loop during the first two weeks of August. This is the same area they were seen last year at this time.

An unknown Empidonax flycatcher was observed on the north side of the Wetlands (8/6).

Blue-gray Gnatcatchers were very active during the first half of August. I noticed family groups on the Dinosaur Trail and in Explore the Wild.

On August 25, a Chestnut-sided Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, and American Redstarts were seen on the Dino Trail (Nathan Swick). These birds were obviously migrants.

A Hooded Warbler was seen on 8/13 in the company of a Pine Warbler, Carolina Chickadees and White-breasted and Brown-headed Nuthatches. The warbler a migrant, the others local.

During this period, I was able to get a few peeks at a Red-winged Blackbird female and juvenile. This may not seem like a great event in the annals of birding, but up until now I’ve not seen proof of nesting by this species in the Wetlands. This, the sighting of a juvenile, is proof. The male is often seen (or heard) among the willows in the Wetlands or atop a pine next to the Bird Feeder Exhibit, the female remains hidden most of the time, but until now I had only assumed that they were nesting among the willows. Now I know they were.

Keep your eyes opened for American Goldfinches as you stroll the paths of the outdoor exhibits. They are currently in the finest of plumages with jet-black wings and cap and bright yellow bodies. I often hear them singing from the trees behind the Fossil Dig or down along the path on the north side of the Wetlands. Stop by Flying Birds, the Bird Feeder Exhibit, and you may see one of the juvenile birds feeding along with the adults. Notice the juvenile’s buff-colored wingbars and dark bill in contrast to the adults.

For nearly a week after the passage of the cold front that moved through on the 18th/19th of October the skies were mostly clear with high cirrus clouds making it easy to pick out high flying birds. The 18th and 19th were busy bird days with lots of familiar avian visitors returning from the north. Warblers and other passerines rode in on the back of the front. The rest of the week was busy as well, mainly with high altitude hawks, but with a few other bird types as well. A flock of 13 Double-crested Cormorants in classic echelon formation flapped their way south on the 23rd of the month.

Turkey Vultures and Black Vultures sail over Explore the Wild and Catch the Wind daily, but on the 23rd they were truly soaring high. A group of 8 Turkey Vultures glided by at “little black speck” altitude with a few Black Vultures mixed in. Turkey Vultures (TVs) and Black Vultures (BVs) are fairly easy to separate (images at left). TVs have relatively long tails and soar with their wings held above the horizontal (dihedral). Additionally, TVs tend to teeter, or rock back and forth while soaring, giving them an unsteady appearance in flight. BVs have very short tails and although they sometimes hold their wings in a dihedral they are not consistent in doing so. They also tend to flap their wings rapidly, then glide, rapid flaps, glide. There are other differences, but at great distances these two characteristics are easy to see.

The 23rd was an interesting day for raptors. A Sharp-shinned Hawk and at least two Cooper’s Hawks (at left) were seen soaring high above. Cooper’s Hawks were seen each day following the front. Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks were both up and soaring high and were fairly easy to pick up visually with the lofty cirrus clouds as a backdrop.

For the past few weeks, at least six of our local Blue Jays have been busily flying back and forth over Catch the Wind. They’ve been observed daily flying to large Willow Oaks well behind the Ornithopter, each with an acorn in its bill on the return trip, and probably several more stuffed in its throat. They’re burying, or caching, the nuts. Willow Oak acorns are small and, although I don’t know for sure how many acorns these Blue Jays can stuff into their gullets (perhaps 5 maximum), they’re likely carrying more than one at a time. I once watched a Blue Jay cram 16 sunflower seeds into its throat and one in its bill before flying off to cache the seeds.

I haven’t determined where they’re going with all of those acorns, where they’re burying them, but the cache must be quite large considering the amount of trips observed. Blue Jays will fly several miles to cache nuts. Many of the nuts cached by birds (and squirrels) are never relocated, leaving them to germinate and grow into trees. In effect, the birds (and squirrels) are planting trees. In a paper I read many years ago, one researcher theorized that Blue Jays played a significant role in the reforestation of eastern North America following the most recent period of glaciation. Some have suggested that squirrels were the real heroes of the reforestation story, but squirrels don’t carry acorns far from the mother tree before burying them, perhaps fifty yards if at all. While it’s true that acorns don’t fall far from the tree, Blue Jays will take them there (far from the tree, that is).

Picture the landscape 15,000 years ago when much of North America was under a thick sheet of ice at least as far south as Long Island, NY (Long Island is a terminal moraine). At that time the great eastern deciduous forest was much further south, hundreds of miles south of where it is today. Moving north from this ancient deciduous forest you would probably encounter boreal forest with spruces and other conifers (remnants of which can be seen today on the highest mountain peaks of western North Carolina), scrublands, perhaps steppe or vast dry grasslands, tundra and finally the glaciers themselves, a much different landscape then we see today. As the climate warmed and the glaciers slowly retreated northward at the end of the glacial period, those habitats or biotic zones moved north with them. But how did they move north, and so fast (10-12 thousand years is not a long time)? The trees couldn’t simply uproot and walk north.

As noted, most seeds or nuts that fall from trees, fall directly under the tree. Even the maples, ashes, and poplars with seeds that are carried by the wind and “helicopter” to earth don’t travel very far from the source tree. Left to their own devices deciduous trees would have taken perhaps hundreds of thousands of years to move north to their present locations. Squirrels would help somewhat by carrying off seeds and burying them at least some distance from where they fell to earth. And, as alluded to, it’s well documented that squirrels (or birds) that cache nuts don’t relocate many of the nuts (more than half, if I remember correctly), those nuts later growing into trees. Even with the squirrel’s help, this reforestation would still be a very slow creep north.

A bird that could carry nuts and seeds perhaps half a mile, 2, 5, or even 10 miles from where they originated, and of course, later forget where they were buried or simply just not have enough time to recover them all, would quicken the process considerably. There are many studies showing that Blue Jays will and do carry vast amounts of acorns and other nuts miles from where they were gathered, to be buried and subsequently forgotten, or in which the nuts buried germinated on their own before being used as food. And, the birds don’t put all of those nuts into one hole, but spread them out over the area so there could be many trees sprouting over a relatively wide area. In one study observers witnessed a group of jays move 133,000 acorns. In another, 150,000 acorns in just under a month’s time. That’s a lot of nuts! How many of those were never dug up and eventually grew into trees?

I saw the first-of-the-season Winter Wren and Golden-crowned Kinglet on the 18th of October. I consistently see Ruby-crowned Kinglets foraging with groups of warblers.

A Hermit Thrush was seen on the 29th and was the first one of the season. This bird, and perhaps a few others, will stake out a claim at the Museum near a good source of berries and stay the winter.

If you like sorting through hundreds of warblers, the 18th and 19th of the month was the day to be at the Wetlands. Magnolia Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warblers, and Palm Warbler, were all seen on those two days. Butter-Butts, or Yellow-rumped Warblers, arrived en masse on the 18th, making it difficult to sift through them all to pick out the other warblers in the bunch.

Yellow-rumped Warblers should be around for the duration, or at least until they’ve devoured all of the Wax Myrtle berries at the Museum (see Wax Myrtle, Explore the Wild Journal, September 1-15, 2008). While they do quite a bit of flycatching, these warblers can stay farther north than most of their fellow warblers, which for the most part, are strictly insectivorous and need to follow the season south. Besides feeding on the Wax Myrtle, you may catch a glimpse of a Yellow-rump at the bird feeders slurping suet along with one of the the local Pine Warblers.

Yellow-rumped Warblers are named for the yellow patch of feathers on their rump, just anterior of the tail (image above). Although much less colorful in their drab winter plumage, they also show a patch of yellow on each side of the breast. The yellow on the breast varies in brightness according to the age, sex and current plumage of the individual bird but there is usually al least some yellow present.

A few sparrows also showed up during the past few weeks. Chipping Sparrows arrived with the warblers on the 18th of October and a Field Sparrow was seen the following day. Several Song Sparrows were also observed. White-throated Sparrows have returned (see image), and should be with us until early May.

A male Rose-breasted Grosbeak flew in on the 18th and flocks of Red-winged Blackbirds were seen winging by overhead.

There are many young American Goldfinches about. For the past month they’ve been seen at the bird feeders and foraging among the ripening seeds, especially the Tick-seed, alongside the path in Catch the Wind. While the adult Goldfinches have molted into their drab winter plumage making them difficult to separate from the immature birds, the young finches can be differentiated by their buff, or tan-colored, wingbars.

Traditionally, the third week in September sees a push of migrating hawks through the region when the winds are from the north. More often than not, the winds were from the north during the third and fourth weeks in September. Unfortunately for those of us who like to watch hawks and also reside in the piedmont, most migrating hawks move along the ridges in the western part of the Carolinas. On 20 September, one observation site in the mountains saw over 3,000 hawks pass by on their way south with another 6,000 or so the following day, most of those being Broad-winged Hawks.

Here at the Museum the numbers were not quite as impressive. However, three Bald Eagles were observed during the period. An adult and a sub-adult were seen soaring overhead, slowly moving in a westerly direction on the 19th of September. Another adult Bald Eagle was seen in a glide to the southwest on 24 September. Besides the eagles, a Sharp-shinned Hawk, a Red-tailed Hawk and several Red-shouldered Hawks (our local Red-shouldereds) were seen on the 19th of September. The eagle in the image at left is not one of the birds that flew over, but it’s a good illustration of what a sub-adult Bald Eagle looks like.

I’ve not seen a Green Heron in the Wetlands since the first two weeks of September. Have they moved on? A Great Blue Heron is still making frequent visits to the area.

Chimney Swifts continue to forage above the Wetlands. They’re often quite high so you have to strain a bit to see them, or you can use binoculars (recommended, but not required, for wildlife observation on the Explore the Wild/Catch the Wind Loop).

I saw three Ruby-throated Hummingbirds during the period. Neither was at the feeders in Catch the Wind. I think that they were migrants.

The local Belted Kingfisher is showing up in the Wetlands daily and staying longer. Its visits had been sporadic during the summer, but now she seems to be settling in for the duration.

A handful of Northern Flickers and a Red-headed Woodpecker were seen on the 24th of September.

Twenty or so Fish Crows were observed flying off to the west on 18 September.

Two House Wrens were seen during the period, flitting about in the underbrush that lines the Explore the Wild/Catch the Wind Loop. These birds were probably locals, one was a juvenile.

Several White-eyed Vireos were seen on September 24th & 28th as were a Magnolia Warbler, American Redstart, and Common Yellowthroat, with a Wilson’s Warbler making an appearance on the 28th of the month only. Also seen on the 24th were a Rose-breasted Grosbeak and a Scarlet Tanager.