Birds
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Garden Sightings
Great Spangled Fritillary 
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Outer Banks in June
I thought I’d posted these earlier in the summer. Better late than never! These are a few select pictures of a great experience at the beach.
To scroll through the photos manually, click on a photo and move forward or back in the sequence using the arrows.
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Robins
Youngster, chilling with Mom -
Sapsucker Woods
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365 Photo: Black & White
A friend of mine regularly posts photos for the 365 Picture Today daily prompts. It’s inspiring, so I thought I might try a few.
Today’s prompt is “Black & White.”
This is not a new photo, but it’s a favorite. Chickadees are one of my very favorite black & white things. They are brave little birds, so inquisitive and busy. This picture seems to capture these traits, along with the theme of this blog: “The more you look, the more you see.”
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Spring?
Yesterday, it felt like we lived in a snow globe all morning. Big flakes whirled around and drifted reluctantly to the patches of mud and color-starved grass that were emerging from the past weeks’ snow cover. It was just enough to restore a thin blanket over the ground.
Then, in the afternoon, the maple out front was suddenly filled with robins. They sat and hopped and clucked and fluttered to the holly to eat berries and generally reassured us that spring is around the corner.
As a child, the first robin was always the harbinger of spring. Some things you never outgrow.
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Sapsucker Stories
Dad greets Mom 
Shift change 
Mom ready to hold the fort for awhile 
Dad needs some fresh air 
Youngster 1 
Youngster 2 pleads for food 
Mom gets ready to launch for more food 
3 youngsters 
#1 ready to fledge 
Mom feeds #1 after a successful first flight 
3rd or 4th youngster still looking for delivery 
We have enjoyed being able to observe this woodpecker family in a dead tree in the back yard. At first we thought they were downies, but before long it became apparent that we were seeing Mr and Mrs Yellow-bellied Sapsucker switching off the incubation of the eggs. How many were there? How long would it be before we saw youngsters?
Eventually they switched from incubation to feeding, and by mid-June the pace had picked up tremendously. The nest cavity emitted urgent cries for food constantly. Then finally, using not the front door nest cavity we’d been observing but a secret trap door to the roof, Youngster 1 emerged! #2 and #3 followed soon after, each one eventually taking off to sail to a nearby walnut tree. We saw 3 in all, but the mother appeared to still be feeding a 4th chick that didn’t launch till the next day.
We’re kind of in sapsucker withdrawal now, since they don’t return to hang out at the nest cavity. I spotted one yesterday, looking like a small piece of moving bark as it moved up a tree trunk. I trust they’re all making their way in the big, unprotected world now! Hopefully we’ll enjoy some sightings over the next few months.
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Marley
My daughter took these pictures of the leucistic hawk nesting nearby. A few years ago, we named her Marley, after the ghost in A Christmas Carol. She’s a magnificent, powerful hawk.
One day last summer as I stood at the kitchen window, she swooped into view and landed at the base of the bird feeder, then took off and disappeared into the woods. It all happened in about 3 seconds; I didn’t see what she got, but I’m guessing a chipmunk. She left a gray squirrel mid-munch on the ground a few feet away, looking as dazed and disbelieving as I felt. If I hadn’t been standing there at that moment, eyes trained on that spot, I’d have missed it.
My daughter’s taking some great pictures. She’s inspiring me to learn more about how to use all the features on my Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ-300. Her camera is a Canon SX70 hs.
So far we’ve seen just one chick. In this picture, just a bit of its fluff shows at Marley’s feet.
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Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge
Before starting out to visit the refuge, I practiced on a few earth-dwellers in our yard.
It’s nice to know the critters have good personal hygiene…
Our aim in visiting the refuge was to see birds — usually raptors and waterbirds. The entry in seemed promising as we saw a bald eagle perched in a tree.
But generally speaking, it was the yellow warblers that stole the show.
We heard chestnut-sided warblers and yellowthroats, and we were hoping to see a cerulean warbler. The yellows were the only ones who cooperated, though. Good thing they’re so beautiful.
There were a few more common sights as well.
We saw several ospreys, some geese, a couple of sand hill cranes, some orioles and some cedar waxwings.
Returning home, we marveled again at the number of species frequenting our bird feeder. The most unusual visitor is the pileated woodpecker, but we’ve enjoyed the orioles this year as well.
There’s always a group of squirrels and chipmunks feasting on the dropped seed. This one kept rushing the others, and my daughter decided to fly her drone out from the kitchen window to see if it would startle him enough to have better manners.
He was, obviously, unfazed and applied himself steadily to eating.
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Window to the past
Walking a favorite trail the other day, we came across this.
Just another fallen tree?
No. This was a special tree. Back in 2012, when our family was exploring the nature trails around us for the first time, this tree hosted one of the most delightful wonders we’ve seen.
We were in the right place at the right time one day when we saw the male bird peeking out of this hole. As the weeks passed, small beaks appeared, grew larger and hungrier, and demanded frequent feedings from their parents. We would walk the trail every week, observing, photographing, and going home to draw and read about pileated woodpeckers. We felt privileged to be able to watch the story develop. We were in on a secret.
It’s been eight years, but the finality of seeing the woodpecker tree blown over was bittersweet. It was a reminder of something we didn’t know back then: the woods mark the passing of time. They carry the memory of past inhabitants and sights, so that even if we don’t see anything along a particular trail on a given day, we remember past sightings. This was an important memory, full of the excitement of discovery and learning together.
Whatever happened to the woodpecker family? I’m not sure. But we know the tree they chose as a home that spring still bears the marks of their story. For us, it’s a window to the past.
