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.

Summer is on...

About a month early...It's HOT! My day has been beginning early and ending pretty early too...by 9 am it's too sticky and uncomfortable to enjoy being out...it's Memorial Day Weekend...which reminds me that the beach in Brooklyn where I lived would be having opening day...and it would be cold most likely...BUT here it is Summer time and the living is easy..

Last weekend we went to Mays Lake it's in the Sandhills Refuge we had it all to ourselves.   But this weekend we can't seem to get motivated to go anywhere...we have the blahs!

The birding has been good but totally dipped on any new species the past 11 days! Honestly I have not tried as hard as I should it's too hot and the birds are laying low except for the usual crowd...

Some new arrivals...to this world

Worried Mom...protecting her clutch

Don't recall ever having so many Yellow Breasted Chats around my area as this year I think it's the many successional (?) growths from all the timber cutting the past couple years. 

The Orchard Orioles have been busy too I haven't spotted a nest but I know they are out there...

And already seeing the weird immature birds that make you go hmmmmm...I'm going with Chipping Sparrow on this one shown below...

Finally got a shot of the Eastern Wood  Peewee...

and a "still" swallow is priceless...

Barn Swallows

There is really only one thing to do when it gets this hot...

As Jimmy demonstrates this for us...

I wonder what lucky bird lives in this house?

                                 Liberty Hill Tree House

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

3rd Week Apr update

When you're writing a post do you write the whole thing in one sitting, or do what I do and work on it little by little?  I come back and add to it as the story develops unless I'm traveling and I know I will only have internet for a limited amount of time.  So this post has been building since the end of week 2 and here it is the 3rd week of April, our migrant arrivals are moving along quickly! So the 5 mile radius numbers continue to grow!!

A bluebird pair seem to be settled on this plastic gourd in the yard for a nest spot...

they took turns going in with very small bits of nest material...almost one small blade of grass so I will check later to see if this was a false start or a practice run or the real McCoy!

The very next morning I went to check out the Sorghum field area and found my FOY (88) Eastern Kingbird up on a wire...

Checked out my hotspot on the following day and BAM..got that Prothonotary Warbler to show himself..(89) Now no longer "rare" as I know he was here earlier than his normal arrive by date, but I don't need any unwanted attention preferring to remain in the background of life rather than be paving the way for others. 

"Finally got you on pixels!"  I made a recording of his call too...

Also while I was trying to pick this warbler out, the Northern Parula and the White Eyed Vireo were all over the canopy again...gleaning little tiny gnats and caterpillars off the leaves and branches. 

northern parula male

and the female!

she had me with going nutz for a while trying to figure out wtheck she was... finally it hit me!

                                                                          white eyed vireo

ALSO look who else is in Adams Mill Pond at my hotspot...

I've heard for years there are gators in that pond but this is my first sighting! Most of his body is hanging below the water I'd say he was a 4-6 ft specimen..I thought of sharing my find with the ranger but then I had this image of the gator being harassed so I kept it on the QT i have never heard of any issues with people and alligators here.  

We took a ride over to Lee county to do some cemetery survey work and we stopped to check out my new found wetland where the beaver pond is



...the eagle nest had 2 juveniles in it...happy to report, I had seen the one but there is two!! I don't know if they have fledged and still hanging in the nest I have not seen them flight testing or out of the nest...they will continue to use the nest and depend on the parents for help for a while yet. 

My priority this week was to find those cattle egret in my radius and that I did pretty easily! First I found 3 with cattle then a field where cows had been moved recently and there was at least 25 Cattle Egrets (#90) in there along with 4 PIGEONS! I was almost as happy to find the pigeons as the egrets.  

here's 2 of the 4 rock dove.  (feral pigeons) (#91) 

that same field had a flock of geese coming in...

This is a stretch of road where I pull over and look for warblers in the swamp I bird from the road...I had a red eyed calling but he would not come out for a photo opt yet! I'm trying to get his call to share but he stayed so far back it was not a good recording. 

Back at home that night I got up for a bathroom visit about 4 am and through the open window heard a Chuck Will's Widow!! (#92) And then last night I took a walk and recorded his sound...I couldn't figure out how to upload it to blogger. 

At home in the afternoon the wonderful sound of the Summer Tanager (#93) came floating in and soon I spotted him..

Then Sunday Morning whilst most were putting on Easter Bonnets, I was grabbing my binoculars and heading to one of my fav spots...it's only 1 mile away and it's more roadside birding but it's not a busy road...I got out and phished a little bit and got the attention of 2 Orchard Oriole, (94) one a first year male and one mature male..

They came in flying like Luke Skywalker in that scene of Star Wars, Return of the Jedi....when they flew at incredible speeds and taking runs down those narrow channels of the Death Star!  So I snapped a couple fast ones missed the immature male altogether. 

It is now going to get tough...Hope I can pull it up to 100 but most of my expected arrivals with a few exceptions are accounted for...

7 new additions this past week!  Total 94.  Im hoping for the Blue Grosbeak soon saw him on Sunday but not in the radius! 

Heard in the yard additions this week:

35. Chuck Wills Widow

36. Summer Tanager
37 Northern Parula

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.