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.

We hear, and see, the nuthatches each year at this time as these little dynamos drill one, two, three or mores cavities into the soft wood of the pines. For all of their work they more than likely only use one of the holes to actually nest in. The other holes are often occupied by a family of chickadees, titmice, or perhaps other nuthatches.

This Brown-headed Nuthatch had three holes going at the same time in the same tree. One of the holes can be seen directly in front of the bird.

Ranger Kristin spotted the first-of-the-season Red-winged Blackbirds on February 12th as she walked down the boardwalk into the Wetlands. Red-winged Blackbirds can show up throughout the winter, it’s not until mid to late February when our first singing males show up.

The birds are a bit early this year. I heard the first singing male last year on the 19th of February. But, I may have simply not noticed their arrival last year, until they’d been on the scene for a week or so.

One of a hand full of Red-winged Blackbirds that dropped into the Wetlands on the 12th of February.

The male redwings arrive before the females, often two weeks or more before the females, to stake a claim on a territory. Red-winged Blackbirds nest in the Wetlands. I’ve only witnessed one pair actually spend the entire breeding season in our small wetland habitat, but each year in February we get a group of males which ultimately ends up in the willows on the north side of the Wetlands Overlook.

There are currently four such males in that location. They stay hidden throughout most of the day as they call out from the bases of the willows. All but one appear to be second year (SY) birds; their black feathers are edged with brown.

Still in their drab winter plumage the American Goldfinches are increasing in number as the season moves along.

There’s not a lot of space here in our little Wetland and it’s usually just a couple of males who call to each other and chase one another around a bit in their attempt to claim the Wetlands for their own. By the time all the fuss is over there’s only one male left.

At the bird feeders in Catch the Wind, American Goldfinch numbers are increasing and Pine Warblers are visiting the suet more frequently.

Now that the cold weather appears to be behind us, I’ve been seeing Honey Bees on the Mahonia on the Dinosaur Trail. The Mahonia started to bloom back in late fall but the sustained cold of this winter held it back. It’s now doing fine. Stop by the Alamosaurus and have a look.

Turtles are out basking, maple and elm buds are swelling, it’s time to get outside!

A male Pine Warbler at the suet feeder in Catch the Wind.

A Honey Bee takes nectar from the Mahonia in front of the Alamosaurus on the Dinosaur Trail.

Well, what are you waiting for, go outside!

Sure, it was colder than usual the first two months of this year. And, it seems as though it has snowed more this year than within memory. It’s predicted to snow today!

A recent snow in the Wetlands.

But, there’s much evidence pointing to a new season springing forth. The days are getting longer. Both the maples and elms are ready to burst open their buds and Hazel Alder is nearly in full flower.

Elm buds, swollen and ready to bring forth flowers.

The sun is coming up earlier and setting later. Chorus Frogs and Spring Peepers are calling and Pickerel Frogs have been seen slowly moving about the landscape. More and more turtles are coming out to bask in the afternoon sun, both Yellow-bellied Sliders and Painted Turtles.

Two Yellow-bellied and one Painted Turtle come out to bask in the afternoon sun.

I saw a solitary wasp in a sunny spot of the trail in Catch the Wind and a paper wasp flew by me in the Wetlands.

On my drive in to the Museum recently I saw two different Red-tailed Hawks carrying nesting material. The two Brown-headed Nuthatches that were digging a hole in a Loblolly Pine in Catch the Wind at the beginning of this month are at it again, this time on the opposite side of the same tree.

A Brown-headed Nuthatch digs yet another hole in a pine branch. Apparently the first hole didn't meet the standards of its prospective mate.

Listen for the nuthatch’s squeaky-toy calls in the pines as you walk around throughout the outdoor areas of the Museum.

Northern Cardinals have been singing for the past month and, according to Exhibits Tech David, one was seen carrying nesting material last week. I heard the first singing Red-winged Blackbird of the season on the 19th of February. Tufted Titmice are singing their clear-whistled, repetitive notes. Pine Warblers are in song. And, I heard a Song Sparrow briefly trying out its repertoire of rolling trills.

A small band of some two dozen Cedar Waxwings attempted to storm the small hollies next to the Ornithopter for their berries. The Leonardo da Vinci inspired ride in Catch the Wind was too much for the little waxwings; its huge white wings flapping back and forth next to the hollies kept the birds at bay.

A Cedar Waxwing patiently waits for the Ornithopter's wings to stop before alighting on the holly bushes below. Note the red markings on the bird's wing, like tiny drops of red wax.

These waxwings arrived four days earlier than last year’s nomadic troop of over 400 that descended on the hollies growing next to the main Museum Building.

Purple Martins have been observed within our borders. These birds are early arrivals, for sure, but the rest of their species is definitely on its way north.

From this point on things will move quickly. New arrivals from the south will appear, fresh new leaves will begin to emerge, snakes, insects…I can’t wait!

I’ve yet to see juvenile Ruby-throated Hummingbirds at the Bird Feeder Exhibit. There have been reports of recently fledged birds coming to feeders in South Carolina and in the Sandhills of North Carolina but it should be a week or so before we start seeing them here.

The Belted Kingfisher has returned. As was true last year, there was a four-week period when a kingfisher was neither heard nor seen in the Wetlands. The only explanation that I can come up with for the female’s absence is that it was off sitting on eggs, although both male and female share incubation duties, which last about 24 days. I think, though, that the female does the bulk of the egg sitting.

On June 13, I saw a kingfisher carrying a fish in its bill. This is not an unusual occurrence, for sure. However, the bird did not swallow the fish on site, which is usually the case, but was headed off to the west when last seen. What does that mean? It probably means that there are hungry little kingfishers sitting in a dark burrow somewhere along a stream bank (Ellerbee Creek?) waiting and squawking with bills agape.

Fledgling Downy Woodpeckers, Tufted Titmice, Brown-headed Nuthatches, Northern Cardinals, Song Sparrows, and Brown-headed Cowbirds have all been seen at the Bird Feeder Exhibit or elsewhere around the Explore the Wild/Catch the Wind Loop, the cowbirds being hosted by Eastern Towhee and Pine Warbler foster parents.

The female Belted Kingfisher, usually a daily fixture in the Wetlands, disappeared until the 29th when I heard its raspy call coming from the trees on the far side of the Wetlands.

It may be cold outside – hardly an insect in sight, reptiles laying low, groundhogs (usually) sleeping it off  - but there’s always birds to entertain the winter hiker. On Monday the 19th, at least three frogs were caught by the Red-shouldered Hawk who frequents the swamp across from the Wetlands Overlook. The hawk may have taken more frogs that day, but I was only witness to three. There was ice on the water, but enough free water remained to allow the hawk to continue hunting frogs. With the water frozen solid on the 21st, I didn’t see the hawk on its now familiar perch in the swamp. However, I saw it take two more frogs on the cold and raw 25th of January. I don’t know if it has any relevance, but it seems that the frogs that this hawk is now catching are smaller than the frogs I’d seen it take previously.

This hawk is becoming a much sought after feature of the Explore the Wild/Catch the Wind Loop. Museum guests are coming down to the Wetlands with the expectation of seeing the hawk and are disappointed when it’s not there. Some ask whether the hawk is part of an exhibit! I suppose that in a way it is: it’s part of the Wetlands’ fauna, free to come and go as they please.

As I was making my last round of the day on the Explore the Wild/Catch the Wind Loop on January 25, I heard an abbreviated call (the last two syllables, “you-all”) of a Barred Owl coming from the tall Loblolly Pines behind the Meadow across from the Bird Feeder Exhibit. I called back. The owl answered. Then silence. I looked but couldn’t visually locate the owl. I walked on. The owl, I assume, went on with whatever it was doing.

An Eastern Phoebe can still be seen on nearly every visit to the Explore the Wild/Catch the Wind Loop.

The cold weather quickened the pace at the Bird Feeder Exhibit. Six Pine Siskins (see Pine Siskins, January 1-15, 2009) were at the feeders during the first week of this period. That number doubled the following week. Pine Warblers have also been very busy at the feeders.

A Winter Wren was in the woods across from the Lemur House on the 18th of the month.

A Hermit Thrush was seen below the bird feeders. I saw two of these winter thrushes together near the Wetlands Overlook and another behind the Lemur House.

Noteworthy was a Gray Catbird seen next to the Ornithopter on January 24 as it dined on holly berries. Although most catbirds vacate the area during winter, migrating as far south as Central America, there are often a few that linger in our area each year. Still, not having seen one at the Museum since October, I was excited to see this bird. Northern Mockingbird and Brown Thrasher, the other resident mimic thrushes at the Museum, can be seen throughout the winter months, although the mockingbird is the standout, the thrasher a bit more reclusive.

I first noticed Northern Cardinals in song on 24 January and occasionally thereafter. Cardinals often start singing early in the year. By the end of February they should be in full swing. It’s not unusual to see them singing amongst newly sprouted Red Maple buds. Females sometimes sing as well, although not quite in the same manner as the males, who, intent on being seen and heard by everyone, in all their redness, seek out the most prominent of perches, stretch themselves out to appear as tall as possible and belt out their song, their bodies shaking with every note. No, the female’s song is more of a whistle-while-you-work kind of song, like a happy worker busy at her craft who can’t help but to start whistling a tune while she goes about her business among the branches of the trees and shrubs.

Besides the cardinals, the lengthening days are apparently having an effect on other avian hormonal flow. Song Sparrows began singing during the last week of January. Evidently, one male was successful in attracting a female, at least temporarily. I watched as a female (I assume it was a female) landed on the ground at the base of a cedar. The male, who had been singing from a perch in a small sycamore next to the cedar, dropped down beside her. The male began to run back and forth in front of her, doing semicircles around her while singing his song. He sang not the loud “here I am” song he caroled from the perch, but a shorter, softer, more subdued version of the same. The female, for the most part, remained stationary, occasionally sidestepping to the left or right, all the while her tail flicking up and down, her wings now and then flashing open, a blur. At times, the female would fly off a few feet, the male quickly following until they were eventually fifty feet from where they had started. The song and dance went on for nearly ten minutes. And then, it was all over, the female flew off and the male resumed his post on the sycamore. He was still singing when I left at the end of the day.

Three Field Sparrows were seen in the tall grass next to the Sailboat Pond. A group of White-throated Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos have been seen foraging in several locations along the path around the Explore the Wild/Catch the Wind Loop throughout the winter, lately concentrating on the area between the main entrance to Catch the Wind and the Bird Feeder Exhibit. There is a large, four-trunked Sweetgum on the south side of the path. Look in this area for the birds. Towhees, Song Sparrows, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and other birds are often mixed in with this group. Still no Fox Sparrows. I thought that the cold weather would bring in one or two of these large, handsome sparrows. There’s still time, but it’s running out quickly.

The Ring-billed Gulls that we see in our area are migrants from the north, most likely from the Great Lakes area. They are named for the dark ring around the bill of the adult birds. The ones in the photo at left were on a beach at one of the local reservoirs.

On December 14th, approximately 46 Ring-billed and 3 Herring Gulls flew over in two separate flocks, all heading in the general direction of Falls Lake.

Pine Warblers have been coming to the suet at the Bird Feeder Exhibit in Catch the Wind on a regular basis. Unlike the Myrtle Warblers that migrant to our area for the winter, Pine Warblers are here throughout the year. Since they spend much of their time high up in the pines, the best place to see them is at the bird feeders. The suet feeders are your best bet. However, if you happen to see a group of small birds (Chickadees, Titmice, White-breasted Nuthatches …) moving through the trees, take a closer look, you may see a Pine Warbler among them. They’re common on the Explore the Wild/Catch the Wind Loop, although not always seen.

Cooper’s Hawks and, since the second week in September, Red-tailed Hawks have been seen consistently. Some are locals and some are migrating through – I’ve seen adults and immatures of both species. An adult Sharp-shinned Hawk was seen 29 November.

A true sign of winter’s arrival, or at least it being at the doorstep, was the appearance overhead of an adult male Northern Harrier in the clear blue sky of 26 November. The nearly all gray adult males are the last in line to migrant through, following the brown-hued immature and female harriers. It was the first of its kind that I’d seen at the Museum.

Harriers are birds of open country – extensive farmlands and coastal marshes are more likely places to see them. There, they cruise low over the vegetation watching and listening for small mammals and birds to prey upon. Harriers have an owl-like facial disk (B&W image at left) which aids in picking up faint sounds coming from potential prey below them as the hawks sail and hover a few feet above the fields and marshes. It’s not likely you’ll see a Northern Harrier at the Museum except in passing, so keep at least one eye skyward, especially after a few days of northerly winds!

Crows are well know for harassing hawks and owls whenever they can. So, it’s no surprise that on November 29, a small group of crows (about 5) couldn’t resist ganging up on a Barred Owl when they spotted it perched in a Loblolly Pine in the swamp just below the entrance to Catch the Wind on the back side of the Explore the Wild/Catch the Wind Loop. The owl, after several minutes of cawing and badgering by the crows, was rousted from its perch and took off flying with the crows in hot pursuit – much to the amazement, and delight, of Ornithopter Operator John as the owl flew within ten feet of his head.

A pair of these dark-eyed owls were spotted earlier in the period by two of the Museum’s Animal Keepers near the main entrance to Catch the Wind. Keep an eye out for these birds as you stroll along the Explore the Wild/Catch the Wind Loop!

The resident female Belted Kingfisher has been spending considerable time at the Wetlands. Even when she can’t be seen splashing and diving in the water for fish, her raspy rattle of a call can usually be heard somewhere back among the trees on the far side of the Wetlands.

While standing on the Wetlands Overlook video taping the local Great Blue Heron gently preening its long blue-gray primaries, I heard a splash in the water to my right. As I turned to see what had made the noise, the kingfisher was already up and flying towards the boardwalk in front of the Black Bear Exhibit. It had something large in its bill. A kingfisher is not a small bird, a little over a foot from end to end. As the bird landed on the railing of the boardwalk I could see that it had a sizable Golden Shiner in its bill (image at left). The fish was easily half, or more, the length of the bird.

After several unsuccessful attempts to flip the fish head first so that it could swallow it, the kingfisher flew off to the far side of the Wetlands to perch on a low willow branch. Through the eyepiece of the video camera I could see the bird again and again try to turn the fish around, all the while the fish struggling to get free of the bird’s grip. Finally, the bird lost its hold on the shiner and it fell to the water below, the bird crashing in behind. When the bird flew back up to its perch, only scales remained in its long dark bill. Apparently, the fish was not mortally wounded by this encounter. I’m not sure whether the bird could have swallowed such a large fish had it been able to hold on to it, but it would have been fun to watch it try.

There was a flurry of bird activity with the approach of a low pressure system on the last Saturday of November. Birds often feed heavily ahead of impending inclement weather. Among the birds seen was a Brown Creeper (photo at right), the first I’d seen at the Museum since last January. These small, secretive, brownish birds creep up tree trunks gleaning small invertebrates along the way. Their presence is often given away as they fly from a high point on one tree to the base of another to start a new ascent.

Also seen feasting that day were Brown-headed Nuthatches, Hermit Thrush, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, several sparrows including Chipping Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, and Dark-eyed Junco (image here), Pine Warbler, and a lone Common Yellowthroat. With the cooler weather and the lack of flying insects to hawk, the Myrtle (Yellow-rumped) Warblers have been feasting on Wax Myrtle berries.

A wandering of Cedar Waxwings sailed over the Wetlands on 20 November. You don’t often see waxwings alone; this group consisted of about twenty-five individuals. Unless there’s a reason to stop, like a good supply of berries or crab apples to eat, these traveling bands of birds are usually seen flying overhead in search of the same.

The in-flight flocks look a bit like starlings as they wheel and whirl about. Although noticeably lighter in color, in outline the individual birds appear starling-like as well. However, that’s where the similarity ends. Cedar Waxwings are one of the most elegant of birds (image at left). Their soft fawn-beige plumage fading to yellow on the belly, their yellow-tipped tail (sometimes orange), black facial mask, and crest make it hard not to find them attractive. They appear to never have a feather out of place, always neat and trim. The name waxwing comes from the small, red, wax-like spots on their wings (not shown).

Closing Shot

As anyone with a bird feeder in their backyard can tell you, Northern Cardinals are usually the first to arrive and the last to leave the party. The photo at left shows a female grabbing one last meal of sunflower seeds from the feeders in Catch the Wind before calling it a night.

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.