Southwest USA study trip

Just returned from studying wildflowers in the Southwest USA. 

At a wetland preserve area, we saw some of the birds that are wintering there but will return to Minnesota for nesting season.


top: Northern Shoveler male Anas clypeata

middle: Common Moorhen Gallinula galeata
bottom: Mallard female Anas platyrhynchos

January - winter buds

Bayberry Myrica pensylvanica

On winter days like these . . .  

cold and windy . . .  

it may look like the trees in the 

wild wild woods are bare, 

but when I take a closer look . . . 

Black Chokeberry Aronia melanocarpa

Viburnum (left), Forsythia (above), Lilac (below)

These deciduous trees and shrubs actually formed buds last summer during their active growing season.  To survive the cold of winter they have gone dormant.

But next spring's burgeoning leaves and flowers are already in place, so the trees won't need to use energy now to grow those complex leaf and flower structures. 

 
 

hawk watch

The Cooper's Hawk we often see in the wild wild woods was back again today.  First, we saw it sitting for several minutes in the sun on a branch of the maple tree.  With yellow feet tucked under feathers, it tried to fluff the down underlayer and stay warm on this 10F cold day.  After a failed attempt to catch a Junco in the understory, the hawk sat for a minute in the willow tree, then wandered off to another location.

fat food

The Pileated Woodpeckers come out of the wild wild woods occasionally to take suet at the feeder station.  Especially on a cold winter day, the extra fat is good warming nutrition for them.

tree harvest

 



Birds survive winter on available seeds wherever they can find a harvest.  Birch trees offer seeds hanging in clusters for American Goldfinches and Dark-eyed Juncos.

The seed pods on Boxelder trees are savored by Grey Squirrels too.

busy feeder station

The bird feeder station at the edge of the woods is a busy place on a wintery morning.

winter water

At the edge of the wild wild woods, I keep a bowl with open water for the birds.  Many species use it to drink and to preen their feathers even in cold weather.  Feathers do their job of insulating for warmth better when they are clean.  The Northern Flicker Colaptes auratus often drums on the ground to find ant larvae to eat.  That may make him thirsty.  The Blue Jay Cyanocitta cristata occasionally dives in for a full bath.

windblown

Bluejays love peanuts!  This bird was trying hard to get one even though the wind almost flipped him head over tail.

young birds

Several bird species were successful at hatching and fledging babies this summer in the wild wild woods. 



This young Black-capped Chickadee found a peanut too big for him, but he can peck at it to manage a treat.

This Downy Woodpecker male (with the red cap) is feeding a young at the suet block, hoping he will learn to help himself before winter sets in.




The two big guys below may look like a battling pair.  The brown one is a juvenile Common Grackle begging from his parent at the seed tray.  This is how young birds learn to fend for themselves.

juvenile or adult?

These two Northern Cardinals Cardinalis cardinalis look alike.  Both are females, so have some red feathers like the all-red males, but are mostly tan rusty brownish so they can hide better from predators in nesting season.

But notice the difference between the adult and juvenile?

The young first-year female Cardinal above still has her juvenile dark grey bill.  Her new adult feathers are just coming in to form her winter coat.

The adult female Cardinal at right is identified by her bright orange or red bill.  Her feathers look disorganized like her youngster because she is molting.  She loses her old worn feathers in late summer, so her new warm winter feathers are just growing in.

wild berries

The birds are not the only wildlife
enjoying berries in the wild woods. 
The squirrels hang upside-down
in the mulberry tree to reach
the berries as they ripen.

wild berries

At the edge of the woods, where sun shines on them part of the day, wild raspberries grow each spring.  The birds love the juicy berries so much that they usually don't get a chance to ripen fully to their darkest black-red. 
This year, I covered these with a net for a while in order to see them ripen. And, I got to taste them too!

germander

Germander Teucrium canadense self-seeded a few years ago where the slopes drain rainwater down to the swale and into the woods.  Tiny 3/8" flowers cluster on spikes that stand six inches above green leaves.  Bees collect pollen and suck nectar from Germander.  The leaves are bitter, so the rabbits and deer do not browse these plants.

Eastern Bluebird babies

Eastern Bluebirds hatched five babies in a nestbox near the wild wild woods.  Both parents feed them worms, flies, damselflies, and other insects of all sizes.  Here, one little bird tries to swallow the big bug he got for breakfast.

wrens nesting

The House Wrens Troglodytes aedon built a nest in one of the boxes near the woods.  The male carried twigs to fill the box, and the female found fluff to line her nest cup.

stream bed through the woods

Record rainfall in June so far!  During one downpour, the swale and the dry stream bed down through the wild wild woods was running full.  Good moisture for the wildflowers growing in the woods.

The neighborhood uphill from the woods feeds runoff water into a swale where cattails, blue vervain, bulrush, blue lobelia, and winged loosestrife grow.

Winged Loosestrife (Lythrum alatum)

Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)

last winter's snack

These galls are the "packages" left after winter birds pecked through to get at the treats inside.
Last summer, an insect laid eggs at the tip of the plant stem.  Each hatched egg became a larva that burrowed into the stem.  The larva chewing and its saliva caused the plant to build a gall.  This became shelter for the larva as it expected to survive winter and emerge in Spring.  However, winter birds often peck the gall to extract the larva.  This is one way birds find food in winter.

wildflowers

In the woods today, Solomon's Seal, Rue, Violets, and Trout Lily.  After the very cold wet months of April and May, native wildflowers seem happy to be emerging from the leaf litter. 

 

 

 

more migrants

Another wave of migrants stopped here for refueling:
Tennessee Warbler, Yellow Warbler
and Indigo Bunting.
 
  
They gorged on suet at the bird feeders, hunted insects
in the grass, and picked bugs hiding among tree
buds and blossoms.

first hatched

The post on 4/23/2014 was about a nest containing two eggs.  If you guessed it was a Northern Cardinal nest, you were correct.  Today the first egg hatched, after at least 14 days of incubation.  (Usually the eggs hatch after being kept warm and turned frequently by the female for 12 or 13 days, but we've had cool wet weather this Spring.)

In the photo at left, we see the hatchling's back side with sparse tufts of grayish down where more feathers will grow.  Other than these tufts, the baby bird is naked.

In the photo below, we see the front belly-side of this same baby bird. It already has the distinctive thick bill typical of Northern Cardinals. Note the amazing detail of its feet and claws!  Belly is transparent enough to show internal organs.  Eyes are not yet open, and it will be very clumsy for a few days but will flail around trying to reach food as a parent approaches.

migrants

Migrating birds stopped at the edge of the wild wild woods this week.  On Friday, one Yellow-rumped Warbler Setophaga coronata hopped around among the finches below the seed feeder.  On Saturday and Sunday, several more appeared.  A flock of 30 or so have been sharing the suet with our resident finches and sparrows. 
According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/yellow-rumped_warbler/lifehistory these warblers are able to winter farther north than other warblers, sometimes as far north as Newfoundland, because they can digest the waxes found in bayberries.  There are some bayberry bushes around here, but this is the first time we've hosted traveling Yellow-rumped Warblers. 

blooming trees and shrubs

 Larch, magnolia, maple, and pussywillow display their springtime beauty.

Larch Larix laricina branch with green needle tufts and female flowers

Magnolia flower buds ready to open

Maple tree blossoms

French Pussywillow Salix capria

nest watching begins

Nestwatch season has begun in Minnesota and the wild wild woods.
http://nestwatch.org/

Discovered today in an evergreen tree at the edge of the woods, a nest hidden among the needles protects two lovely eggs.  We'll watch for a few days to verify what species this is.  Can you guess?

beaks

Baltimore Oriole

Close up: the beaks of Baltimore Oriole, Red-winged Blackbird, and Common Grackle.  All three of these birds are in the blackbird family (ICTERIDAE).

Orioles have a long, thick-based, pointed bill.  They love ripe fruit and will stab the closed bill into a soft fruit, then open their mouth to cut in and drink with their brush-covered tongue.

Blackbirds have a very sharp slender bill to glean seeds from weedy plants like cocklebur. Sometimes they probe at the base of aquatic plants, prying them open to get at insects hidden inside.

Grackles devour crops like corn, eat garbage, and can saw open acorns.  Their bill is long and pointed, but slightly curved down, with a hard keel on the inside of the upper mandible.

Grackle (juvenile on left)

Red-winged Blackbird