A Red-tailed Hawk leisurely sails over the Wetlands on 15 April.

The hawk peers over its right shoulder at something approaching from above and behind.

A while back I mentioned that Red-tailed Hawks are not often seen over the Museum’s outdoor areas during the summer months. Its not quite summer yet, but trouble is already brewing for the big red-tails.

A crow sneaks in from the rear.

The hawk wheels around to avoid the crow's dive-bombing aerial attack.

Crows seem to delight in harassing any hawk or owl they come across, especially during the nesting season when the crows are raising their young.

Another crow joins in as the hawk turns, talons drawn and ready.

The crows are brazen, but they’re not dumb, and these two gave up their pursuit once the hawk left “their” airspace.

Keep your eyes to the skies!

A few hours after posting the above, I was out in Catch the Wind and observed a pair of Red-tailed Hawks performing their aerial courtship flight. I didn’t get the whole sequence of events on film (digital), and the birds were way up there requiring a bit of enlargement, but hopefully you’ll get the gist of what the birds are doing.

One bird (on right) comes in from above the other bird, which is slowly gliding into the wind

The upper bird lowers its talons and drops in closer.

It's just about at this point where the lower bird inverts itself with talons raised, the two locking talons and tumbling through the air.

The next image should show the birds tumbling through the air, but unfortunately the birds went behind a group of tall pines and we’ll have to wait till next time for that one. Sorry.

Later the same day, down on the ground, a group of some fifty American Robins were feasting on worms and other invertebrates.

Some of the robins that have stopped in to rest and feed on their journeys north.

A closer view of one of these very familiar, handsome thrushes.

Although our avian visitors were eating invertebrates at the time, American Robins relish berries and other small fruit. Northern Mockingbirds (NOMOs), who also like fruit, and who stake out and protect winter territories where their food source is plentiful, get rather anxious when a group of fruit eating birds settles in nearby.

This Northern Mockingbird appears a bit bothered by all of the robins that decided to stop and feed in its territory next to the Ornithopter.

See you outside!

Turkey Vultures are a daily sight as they soar, dip and bank across the Museum’s airspace.

Note the small head, gray flight feathers, and rather long tail on this Turkey Vulture sailing over the Museum.

The slightly smaller Black Vulture, while seen at least once a week here at the Museum, is not as often encountered as the Turkey Vulture.

A short tail, small head, and white or gray primaries (the feathers at the tip of the wings) are trademarks of the Black Vulture. Black Vultures flap their wings more often, and more rapidly, than do their larger relatives, Turkey Vultures.

Hardly a day passes without seeing or hearing a Red-shouldered Hawk at the Museum. They are most often encountered while they’re perched in the woods silently watching below for prey.

A Red-shouldered Hawk sits quietly in the swamp between Catch the Wind and Explore the Wild.

Red-tailed Hawks are seen above at least once a week in winter, but there is a two month period during summer when they may not be seen at all. Whenever they do show up, a Red-shouldered Hawk is often there to greet and escort them out of the airspace.

Although larger and more powerful than Red-shouldered Hawks, Red-tailed Hawks are often chased out of the Museum's airspace by the smaller hawk.

This Cooper's Hawk was seen January 28th hunting over Catch the Wind.

Copper’s Hawks have successfully nested here at the Museum for the past two years. I see one of these brazen, bushwhacking, aerial hunters nearly every week of the year, certainly every month. Last week was a double; I saw one (most likely the same hawk) on two different days. Each time, the hawk was hunting from above, settling down into the pines north of the Lemur House.

On February 3rd, a tap-tap-tap-taping sound high in a Loblolly Pine in Catch the Wind signaled the workings of a Brown-headed Nuthatch excavating a nest hole. A pair of these tiny pine dwelling nuthatches had dug two holes in a pine not fifty feet from this location last year, only to give it up (or lose it) to a pair of Carolina Chickadees several weeks later.

One nuthatch quickly exits the hole as the other waits to inspect his handywork.

This pair seems to be a bit ahead of themselves. Last year’s nuthatches were first spotted on February 20 as they had just begun excavation. From the apparent depth of the current hole it appears as though they’ve been working on this one for several days, if not more.

I’ll keep you posted on their progress.

Ravens are large birds, much larger than crows. I would compare their size to that of a Red-tailed Hawk, although their wings are not as broad as the hawk’s wings. Their call is distinctive, especially the croaking call. Listed as Very Rare in our area (Triangle), they are being reported with increasing regularity. I’ve seen a raven on more than one occasion at Occoneechee Mountian Natural Area in Hillsborough, NC but not here in Durham.

Upon the realization that there was a raven nearby, I halted my futile attempt at photographing Butter-butts (Yellow-rumped Warblers) and went off to investigate. The call had come from the area between Catch the Wind and Explore the Wild, above the Lemur House. As I walked up the trail I saw, through the pines, a large black bird fly off in a southerly direction. The bird had the unmistakable wedge-shaped tail of a raven. I quickened my pace, I wanted a photo.

As I came up through Catch the Wind I saw the raven harassing a Turkey Vulture beyond the trees near the Traveling Seeds Exhibit. The bird was moving farther away from me. I moved faster.

A minute (hours) passed before I again saw the raven, this time the bird was quickly moving towards the southwest and was some distance from where I stood. I managed to squeeze off two shots before it disappeared over the pines. Unfortunately, neither image is Pulitzer material, but they’ll have to do.

Common Raven flying over Museum.

From the direction that the bird was heading it must have flown right over the main building of the Museum.

The following day I was alerted by a radio call from Joe Nucilli of the Facilities Department that there was a group of vultures hanging out near the swamp between Catch the Wind and Explore the Wild. I was on my way.

As I walked upon the scene, there were Turkey Vultures circling above and a small group of Black Vultures in the trees; there was something dead in the swamp.

Four of the seven Black Vultures in the swamp between Catch the Wind and Explore the Wild.

Looking closer, I noticed one of the vultures next to a drain pipe which is close to the base of the dike that supports the trail. The bird was feeding on a carcass, a Raccoon.

A Black Vulture feeding on a Raccoon carcass (the animal's ribs are visible just in front of the bird's feet).

Turkey Vultures often find a carcass, but it’s the Black Vultures that usually finish off the animal. Turkey Vultures have a highly development olfactory nerve (they can smell well) and it’s usually the smell that draws them in to a dead animal; the Black Vultures follow them in.

Vultures usually hang out in groups in search of carrion and perch together in trees at a kill site or at their night-time roosts. One of the hazards inherent in these large birds traveling and roosting in groups can be seen in the image below.

Communal roosting has its hazards especially when you perch below a large bird like a vulture. The "whitewash" on this bird's feathers is excrement from a bird perched above it.

This was the same location that I had heard the raven calling from the day before. The raven that I saw had been harassing a Turkey Vulture. Was it a coincidence that I had seen the raven at this spot the day before, and that it had been chasing a vulture. Ravens eat carrion, are well know for scavenging whatever food they can find, and are often accused of being “mischievous.” I think it reasonable to suggest that the raven had been attracted to the activity around the raccoon, stopped in to investigate (or for a bite) and chased off a vulture or two when it left, just for spite. But I could be wrong.

]]> http://blogs.ncmls.org/greg-dodge/2009/12/18/the-raven-and-the-vultures/feed/ 0 http://blogs.ncmls.org/greg-dodge/2009/12/16/at-home-in-the-wetlands/ http://blogs.ncmls.org/greg-dodge/2009/12/16/at-home-in-the-wetlands/#comments Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:01:23 +0000 Greg Dodge, Ranger http://blogs.ncmls.org/greg-dodge/?p=3023 Two bird species that have become regular fixtures in the Wetlands, at least during the winter, are Red-shouldered Hawk and Hooded Merganser. Both species can be seen daily, or nearly so, depending on the weather conditions.

The Red-shouldered Hawk is present year-round and is the most common hawk species seen at the Museum, often hunting from a perch somewhere in the Wetlands or up in the swamp between Catch the Wind and Explore the Wild on the back side of the trail that winds through those areas. In winter, due in part to the lack of leaves on the trees, the hawk is a bit more obvious as it sits silently (most of the time these hawks are quite boisterous) in one of the Wetland’s Willows ready to pounce on any frog, small rodent, or bird that happens to make a false move.

Red-shouldered Hawk silently perched six feet above the waters of the Wetlands.

While I stood and watched the perched hawk (no more than 20 feet or so beyond the path) hoping to see it in action, a Red-tailed Hawk called loudly and persistently from above. Red-taileds are another hawk regularly seen during winter. Red-tails are larger that red-shouldereds. They are also typically much less vocal, and I thought it odd that this one was sounding off so with such gusto.

Red-tailed Hawk soaring above the Wetlands.

Apparently, the Red-shouldered Hawk thought the other hawk’s enthusiasm was odd as well as it seemed distracted by the Red-tailed Hawk, peering up at it as it circled above.

Red-shouldered Hawk hawking a very exciting Red-tailed Hawk circling above.

I never discovered why the Red-tailed Hawk was so excited, but I saw it (I assume it was the same bird) later that day circling above the Wetlands with another Red-tailed Hawk. It was a rather spring-like day and perhaps the hawk’s display was a premature (by a couple of months) attempt at courtship.

The Hooded Mergansers arrived on the scene the first week in November. Their numbers fluctuate between two and about a dozen, although I’ve seen as many as 15 in the Wetlands.

Hooded Mergansers taking up their old familiar resting and preening spot in the Wetlands.

When these ducks arrive they begin to form pair-bonds and can put on quite a show in their courtship displays. The males (from two to as many as six or more) follow the female around the water, strutting, pumping and chasing around, at the same time uttering a rolling, croaking sound as they vie for the female’s attention.

Four male Hooded Mergansers surround a lone female (dark object in center) as they vie for her attention.

Males strut their stuff while the female swims by.

The birds give a low-pitched croak-like call as they literally bend over backwards in an attempt to persuade the object of their attention, the female, that they are worthy.

The birds don’t actually mate at this time, but simply form the bonds that will hold them together until the breeding season arrives. The Copulatory Display (and actual mating), will probably take place in February or March just before these birds head back north, and is quite another show entirely. Oddly, considering the effort put into the pair-bonding, the male departs the nesting area after incubation begins, leaving the parenting duties to the female.

Red-tailed Hawks continue to be seen daily and Cooper’s Hawks have been noticed flying and perching in the vicinity of the previous year’s nest site. And, as mentioned above, Red-shouldered Hawks are once again showing up in the Wetlands.

Eastern Phoebes are calling regularly in and around the Wetlands. Phoebes nest on ledges. I’ve witnessed the birds investigating potential nest sites both under the boardwalk and in the vending area near the Red Wolf Enclosure. There are numerous crossbeams under the boardwalk for the phoebes to build a nest upon. The structure that houses the vending machines also offers many suitable ledges.

An American Crow was seen carrying nesting material on 1 March. Fish Crows had been seen (and heard) throughout the period.

The Brown-headed Nuthatches, which last month had so diligently excavated nest holes in a Loblolly Pine along the path between the entrances to Catch the Wind and Explore the Wild (see Brown-headed Nuthatches, Explore the Wild Journal, February 16-28, 2009), have apparently presented the holes to, or have been evicted by, a pair of Carolina Chickadees. In the images at left you can see a chickadee in the process of renovating one of the holes by first entering the hole, then exiting with a beak full of wood chips from the cavity’s interior.

During the first few days of this period, two Brown-headed Nuthatches were spotted working on a hole in a dead pine behind the vending area next to the Red Wolf Enclosure. They were not seen at that location during the second week of March. Are these the same two nuthatches that bored the holes for the chickadees? Have they abandoned this new hole too?

There have been numerous reports over the past several weeks of large numbers of American Robins throughout North Carolina; the robins are on the move north. So, it’s no surprise that hundreds of American Robins joined the already present, and equally numerous, Cedar Waxwings in an assault on the Museum’s hollies which began at the end of February (see Cedar Waxwings, Explore the Wild Journal, February 16-28, 2009). The birds were mainly concentrating on the hollies along the side entrance to the Museum’s main building, although few hollies anywhere on the grounds were immune to the onslaught (two trees out in front of the Museum seem to have been ably defended by a Northern Mockingbird, with most of its berries intact). Some of you may have noticed that all of the berries are missing from the small hollies behind the Ornithopter. The hollies in front of the Ornithopter were spared due to the human traffic through the area, the birds being reluctant to feed where people frequently pass. By the end of the first week in March, the waxwings had departed and only a handful of robins presently remain on site.

The first Red-winged Blackbird of the season appeared on the 7th of March. This lone male was seen and heard singing from a willow in the Wetlands.

Two Pine Siskins were observed at the Bird Feeder Exhibit during the period. Eight of those slender finches were seen in an elm tree behind the Sailboat Pond on the 3rd of March. It won’t be long before they leaves us.

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.

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.

A young Red-tailed Hawk, leisurely soaring over the Wetlands, was met by a Red-shouldered Hawk intent on clearing the air of the former. An American Crow flew up to roust the Red-shouldered Hawk. Finally, a Cooper’s Hawk entered the fray. All four were last seen chasing each other off to the northeast. A Hooded Warbler was singing behind the Lemur House and a Red-eyed Vireo and Eastern Wood Pewee were heard near the main entrance to Explore the Wild. A dozen or so Cedar Waxwings breezed through the area on Saturday the 17th during the final day of Bear Aware Week. In my last journal installment I reported a Ruby-throated Hummingbird’s nest above the boardwalk in Explore the Wild. The hummingbird was last seen on May 18 as it sat on the nest, occasionally flying off to gather nesting material. I’ve regularly checked the nest since the last sighting but have not seen the bird.