A Whistle and a Trill

PLEASE stay away from each other!! Our older citizens deserve to be safe! If you work in a nursing home do not work until you know you are not carrying this virus. Demand to be tested. Thank you for caring. 

I'm trying to catch up to real time...hence the 2 posts per week...April and May was so good weather wise I think I was on an outing every day..so I have lots of fun things to share and chronicle about My Journey around this Sun. 

I kept seeing lists containing Bachman's Sparrow, not rare for this place or time... coming from the Sandhills NWR where I go pretty regularly.  Mainly because it's not crowded there.  You can actually hike a trail and not see anyone else.  Great for me to social distance.

The trouble I was having is this...people turned in the Bachman's Sparrow and this is a LARGE park, so even tho in ebird it is not sectioned off, probably should be, it's under the one name, Carolina Sandhills.  BUT most people put the area where they concentrated their efforts in the comments.  So upon reading those comments when I saw someone list a Bachman's I'd go the very next day in that area and get nothing...that just does not add up.  Maybe they were confusing the song with the many Chipping Sparrows in the refuge. 

chipping sparrow

Similar but the Bachman's Sparrow has a sharp whistle then a trill to the song...so 3 different days I searched for the bird till I was sick of listening to their song  had it memorized now!  Then I gave up. 

...it was the highlight of the Common Nighthawk, nesting  I suppose, as they zoomed over head making their Preent and Boom sound.  Here is a cropped shot of the Common Nighthawk...

If  you find it on the ground or on a tree it will look similar to a Whippoorwill...it's a Nightjar. 

So they can be up hundreds of feet in the air and it sounds like they are right over your head  I couldn't  get the Boom on video but it sounds to me like  an 18 wheeler zooming down the road but from a distance...And they make that sound with their wings...IN Person when you hear it at first you can't figure out what's going on...then it all comes together...you must click this and go hear for yourself...click the one that says Preent and BOOM.  At first I thought it was  Bigfoot following me. Because I hadn't heard one in  a while. 

Cornell Labs Sounds 

I like to get off the trails and just go bushwacking sometimes, and I followed some birds upon this small ridge...the forest was so pretty back there...the bird sounds led me to a small creek trickling along, and some nice things..

By the creek it was lush and green...

Sensitive Brier

I pulled this Blue Headed Vireo out of the tangle of the canopy he seems to have some spiders web he is probably going to use on his nest building. 

So very curious, this is why I love birds they will interact with you given the right circumstances...

almost back to the waiting van from the ridge...

After all my fun with the Nighthawks,  I turned down one of the many roads of the refuge, this time it's Wire Road to the left.  I stopped and found quite a few of the rare but not to me, since I see them almost everytime I go here now,..the Red Cockaded Woodpecker, a success story as they are still on the endangered list.  

Im going to include some video here because static is not always as educational as the sight and the sound...so here is the Gray Catbird singing and preening his feathers...

After I come back to the main Wildlife Drive I cross the road and go to the other side of Wire Road and driving with my windows down I hear one! 

The Bachman's Sparrow!  One comes right up for my Lifelist photo and the other calls from a safe distance.  It may seem like a drab bird but to me it's like the prize egg...

wonderful...so not only is the song a way to know this is Bachman's it is the rusty head but not a rich color like Chipping Sp.  and the little rust colored stroke at the back of the eye, the non streaked chest...and the 2 tone bill... pinkish legs

watch him sing his song  press in the middle of the video...

PLAY
You can hear the other one answer him in the distance...and  you can hear the Nighthawk preent also..

STOKED

So then Im off to the Oxpen Lakes area in the park.  






Before I knew it the sky changed...and the winds are picking up a bit and this thunderhead came up fast....


I see an Orchard Oriole singing in the trees, In case you wonder why we have so many orioles in our area? It's the wild plum and the blackberry! They love them. 

you can see this oriole has something on his beak that he wipes off, it looks like wild plum to me..

Play

 A Buckeye Butterfly on the ground and this very striking dragon, maybe you know the species...

I came across this fledgling Blue Jay, his parent was calling nearby...

This is how baby birds get rescued when they don't need to be, if you can hear or see a parent nearby they are in good hands...

But then the wind really picked up and the rain came down in sheets!  Wow that came up quick...

PLAY

What a day eh?? 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Latest Patch Finds

After a slow start the first week in February things did pick up!  In January I finished up with 55 species.  (my Feb tics are in Bold) I had 3 new species at the beginning of the month the Wild Turkey and the Loggerhead Shrike..and the Hairy Woodpecker I almost forgot to list! I haven't done too well with taking photos for the challenge, but I sure have enjoyed the search.  I have sought out the soggiest, swampiest, and wettest areas in my patch and it helped get my numbers up...also got some gnat bites...and soon it's going to be mosquitoes as we have standing water everywhere thanks to the wet winter we had.  

I have been taking nature walks about every day...and that's because I need the exercise, and to clear my head of rust.  Im about half way through the month...and I know that migration has already begun here in my area...it's not in full swing but it has started!  Got the Cooper's Hawk he flew right across my path as I drove down the road, then 2 Great Egrets were spotted in one of the private wetlands where I have found a decent viewpoint from the highway, along with the Ring Neck Duck!!  He is not real close to the edge so not a great photo...But I will take it.  And he was there everyday since.  That marked up 6 additions since Feb 1st, then another wetland that straddles a road got me some great birds and some really fine behavior.

This wetland is created by the Thoroughfare Branch...and this spot is about 1 mile north-west of me.  I heard a bird calling and although it seemed familiar, I just couldn't bring to mind what it was so I phished out and got a look though the binoculars of the Common Yellow Throat...
I did not get a photo of him stay tuned to the video at the bottom to hear him....he was too quick for me. I pulled a photo out of my archives for the video...and  Literally hundreds... no thousands of Common Grackles!

I also heard a chip call and on the other side of the road and found...

the Swamp Sparrow.   He really blends in with the reeds.  

The next species I found in my 5 MR was also a common bird but one I rarely see since Im in such a rural area and this bird tends to like more populated areas, but I found the House Sparrow! Got one really awful shot through the windshield of the car, since I was pulling out onto a highway when I spotted the bird.  

I headed back over to the wetland on Memory Lane...parked, got out and started phishing.  Didn't take but a moment to get 2 Blue Headed Vireo's chipped at me...one took off immediately and one let me get some not so clear shots of him UP so high in the tops of the big trees...

And at first I thought I had white eyed...and my photo is not too good, but when I finally got it up on the screen... I saw the little dark patch below the wing bar, and no yellow on face.  And today passing by a private pond just down the road, a pair of Wood Duck drake and hen...love is in the air! 

I've been trying like crazy to find a rock dove! Hope to see some around cattle but so far; nope...yesterday almost got the turkey's displaying...

Really hope I can ride by at just the right time...

down at the clear cut area there is a yellow eyed Eastern Towhee...so that's been fun to find, and he has a mate with him...she is very aloof so have not gotten a decent photo of her so I can study her up close.  

if you enjoy videos, here is my morning at the Thoroughfare Branch.  

Oops I missed an O in the video title spelling ...I will do a month wrap up at the end...hope to add several more species. 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.