green heron

 

 

Green Heron stood on the log, soaking up the sun and looking for lunch in the water beneath. 

Suddenly, he stuck out his neck and grabbed a morsel from the pond.

sora chicks

 

Described as "secretive" birds and rarely seen, we have a pair of Sora Porzana carolina living in the wetland around the pond.  I saw a lone egg a few days ago, and thought it was the start of a clutch. Today, this little black cotton-ball with orange/red tufts under his big beak appeared!  Soras start incubating eggs when they have only a few in the nest, and go on laying eggs (one a day) until they have around a dozen eggs. Consequently, each chick hatches on different day. One parent tends to the hatchlings and the other continues incubating the remaining eggs until each hatches.

Sora

This very secretive bird, that usually hides among vegetation, today revealed itself at the edge of the pond!  I hope this one will find a spot to nest among the dense vegetation of rushes and sedges.

Not often seen in the open, the Sora is a small chubby bird of freshwater shallow areas with plants such as cattails, sedges and rushes.  Sora Porzana carolina is brown and gray with a mottled patterned body, 8-10" long.  Despite their camouflage feathers, the bright yellow bill gives them away.  It is stubby, thick, glowing yellow in a gray face with black mask.

Soras feed by pecking at the water surface for seeds, aquatic insects, or invertebrates. Long toes help them to rake through submerged vegetation for food items, and help them walk on floating mats of plants. They nest among dense plants at the pond edge.

hummingbird 2021

 

The twig hanging over the water is a favorite perch for birds.  

This Ruby-throated Hummingbird sits on the twig to rest on her way to the Lonicera blooming nearby.

meal for green heron

This bird is at it again!  The Green Heron visits the pond several times a week during this hot season.  They are year-around residents of Florida and tropic regions, but migrate to breed in the eastern half of the US nearly as far as the Canadian border.  

Green Herons nest in trees and shrubs near water, or dry woods and orchards as long as it provides seclusion and there is water nearby for foraging fish or frogs.

Last year we saw a Green Heron Butorides virescens several times here on the pond shore, hunting for a meal. To see those previous photos and information about how these birds use tools to hunt, enter heron in the search box at top left then press return.

green heron

This is the first time we've seen a Green Heron this year.  Last year, posts on this blog showed the Butorides virescens several times --  describing what they eat, how they hunt for food, and how they use tools.  (see posts on 7-09-2020,  7-15-2020,  and 9-8-2020.

Green Heron is a small bird, usually 17 inches long.  When stealth is necessary, the neck is pulled in towards the body, but this bird pictured has it out half-way. It can extend the neck even longer to snap up prey.  Adults have a glossy, dark greenish iridescent cap, a greenish-grey back and wings, a chestnut neck with a white line down the front.  Legs are yellow, and the long bill has a sharp point. 

spotted sandpipers

A flock of shorebirds stopped today at the pond on their migration trip.  Spotted Sandpipers Actitis macularius, catch food in several different ways.  Like most other sandpipers, they probe into sand or mud with their bills looking for food -- aquatic larvae of insects, beetles, worms, snails or crustaceans.  And like herons, they also lunge at moving small fish in the water, pick insects off plants, or snap at flying prey.

hooded mergansers

Hooded Mergansers Lophodytes cucullatus are the smallest of the three native Mergansers. They migrate in early Spring along the Mississippi River and arrive on breeding grounds as soon as the ice is melted.  On this pond, they rest and find nourishment in aquatic insects, crustaceans, amphibians, and vegetation.  Pairs form in winter and they will find a tree cavity or wood duck box to built their nest.

lovey doves

Mourning Doves being lovey-dovey.  A small flock has been here all winter, coming to the feeders for nourishment. These two hang together now since it is mating season. One was feeding the other a morsel, a sure sign of courtship.  The male of this species is slightly larger than the female, and he has a pink chest.  

hooded mergansers

Late on this balmy Spring day, a pair of Hooded Mergansers landed on the pond. They might be migrating, needing a place to stop and rest. We watched them paddle around a bit near the far shoreline. As the sunlight dimmed, the turtles who spent the afternoon warming themselves on the rocks started swimming back into the pond. Neither species seemed to be bothered by the other. This turtle sat comfortably with the ducks for a long time, each enjoying the end of winter.

phoebe nestlings

Eastern Phoebe Sayornis phoebe is a small member of the flycatcher family that nests near water in open woodland and suburbs.  Phoebes are about 6-1/2 inches long, and mainly eat insects.

We've been watching this one since April as she sits in a tree or on a branch overhanging the pond.
Once she spots an insect, she flies off the branch, snatches the insect mid-air, and returns to the branch to eat it.  This is called “hawking”, a behavior shared with other members of the flycatcher family.

Once she started flying under a deck nearby with freshly caught food items, we suspected she was feeding babies.

Sure enough, two small Phoebes peeked out over the edge of the nest.

red-winged blackbirds hatched

The female Red-winged Blackbird has been constantly hunting and making frequent trips back to her nest.  This signaled to me that her eggs have hatched.  This species usually lays 2 to 4 eggs per brood.  Sure, enough, there are three chicks in the nest.  They look out-of-focus because, while the other material in the frame is still, the new babies are fuzzy and wriggling.  Their beaks are pointed to lower left in this photo.

With help of tall boots and a pole for my camera, I was able to peer into the reeds and see the beauty of her architecture skills.  Blackbirds wind stringy plant material around several upright stems, then weave in a platform of coarse, wet vegetation. She adds more wet material to shape a cup, plastering the inside with mud. To protect her babies, she lines the cup with fine, dry grasses.

swallows

There are two kinds of swallows that regularly hang out near our pond.  Both species are aerial insectivores, which means they are so agile they can eat and drink all they need while flying.  They “swallow" food with their mouth open as they soar through a group of flying insects.  They dip their beaks to sip water as they glide low over a pond or lake.  They eat mosquitoes, flies, grasshoppers, beetles, moths and other flying insects in mid air.  Small birds with long wings, they can make sharp turns at high speeds in order to catch hundreds of insects each day. Swallows are most often a welcome sight with their voracious appetite for flying insects – a good mosquito control method.

Tree Swallows Tachycineta bicolor are iridescent blue with a white front and underparts  nest in cavities . . .  old woodpecker holes or a nestbox like Bluebirds.

The Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica has a deeply forked tail, dark feathers and rust colored throat and  under parts.  This 6" long bird lives in farmlands, suburbs, and wetlands. Because they make nests of mud in barns, on ledges, or under eaves, the location of their nests sometimes make them a pest.
Photo below: Barn Swallow

Mallard chicks

A pair of Mallards showed up with ducklings on the pond.  There were only six ducklings today, and they looked older than the brood of eleven  that we saw on May 15.  We can't know if this is the same or a different brood, but it seems like the young here are appropriately more mature.  The bills are longer and their feathers seem smoother than the ducklings we saw before.   (right: closeup of one of the 6)

grackle and turtle

Grackles Quiscalus quiscula forage on the ground. Food items might include seeds, acorns, fruits, and garbage. In summer their diet includes grasshoppers, beetles, caterpillars, spiders, mollusks, fish, frogs, salamanders, and mice.  

Maybe this Grackle was so intent on diet he did not notice the Painted Turtle passing nearby on the shore of the pond.

Sandpiper

This morning a Spotted Sandpiper Actitis macularius was finding a meal -- small invertebrates,  crustaceans, or insects -- among the reeds on the shore.

They nest on the ground near water, so we will be looking for Sandpiper nests as we do citizen science for NestWatch this season.
https://nestwatch.org/

Red-winged Blackbird

Red-winged Blackbird Agelaius phoeniceus is setting his territory around the pond.  The water is surrounded by grasses, rushes, shrubs, and wildflowers -- perfect habitat for the nests that female blackbirds will build.  But this bird is a bully -- he chases every other songbird.  The Tree Swallows tried to inspect the nestbox intended for them and the Blackbird displayed his beautiful wing epaulets while screeching at them.

Grosbeak

This Rose-breasted Grosbeak Pheucticus ludovicianus
male paused on the deck rail for a moment after he helped himself to sunflower seeds from the bird feeder.

It is always easy to tell adult males from females -- he is a black-and-white bird with a brilliant rose-red chevron extending from his black throat down the middle of the breast.

A female adult is not black and white, but heavily streaked brown shades with a lighter eye stripe.

But juvenile males are not easily recognized.  Their first plumage is like their mother, streaky brown with gold brown breast.  In their hatch year, male Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are streaky brown overall with white patches on the primary wing feathers and pink patches on the underwings.  Females in their hatch year are streaky brown overall with small white patches on the primaries and yellow patch on the underwing.

RBG usually nest in a vertical fork or crotch of a sapling.  There are plenty of saplings around the pond.

merganser pair

A pair of Hooded Mergansers Lophodytes cucullatus stopped on the pond for a few hours. They are "diving" ducks - -  each dives totally under the water to eat vegetation.  They also will eat small fish, aquatic insects, crayfish, amphibians, and mollusks.  Their eyes are specially adapted to seeing underwater.  They locate prey by sight, and propel themselves with their feet.  Grasping prey underwater is easy with their long, slender, serrated bill.

Bluejay bully

A Northern Cardinal was enjoying safflower seeds at the tray feeder this morning.  The Bluejays wanted the peanuts from the same tray.  The Cardinal held his ground, barking at the jays to go away.  They barked back, and grabbed peanuts as they could, then flew away to bury each one.

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