Monday, August 30, 2010

Return of the Warbly Things...

Our first Black-and-White Warbler of the fall!
A good sign as this is the mascot of the Black Swamp Bird Observatory(cheap plug!)...


Since I haven't been in the mood to post much lately, I thought I'd make you all suffer greatly by putting too many photos for you to look at in one sitting. Ha!

When we heard from Julie at BSBO's Navarre banding station that they had a great number of migrant warbly things flying through with a few stopping by to visit the nets, we knew we had to make a visit to Magee Marsh. So here ya go, a few a the many things we saw at Magee this weekend.

This female American Redstart was playing hard to get, like most women...and warbly's...

There's nothing confusing about a fall male Black-throated Blue Warbly!

A female Black-throated Blue Warbly will make you pause for a moment at any time of year.

There's nothing like seeing a Maggie at Magee!...a Magnolia Warbly that is!

Another Magnolia Warbler, this is a young male. Watch out next spring!

The Doodles is giving her toe a rest.
She managed to break both of her little toes this summer! That slowed down her bird outings...

Yep, this is a bug. It's a young bug. A nymph. Yep.

Our friend, Edna, a Magee volunteer, pointed this out for us.
It's an Owlet Moth...now I have to buy a Moth guide to figure out which one...great...


And there's his beady little eye!

It's summer so there's a lot more than birds to watch.
This is an Eastern Comma butterfly.
Not much to look at in this pose...


...but wait until he opens his wings!
If you click on the closed wing photo you will see the whitish 'comma' on it's wing.

Good luck getting a photo of a Summer Azure with it's wings open!
He is way too fast for me...


Since it was only 90 in the shade we thought we would walk the beach at Magee...in the sun.
The birds were smarter than us and hid in the shade.
This is our friend Judy standing in the shade of my camera.
It didn't work...

The Belted Kingfisher is one of those birds I am having a heck of a time trying to shoot.
They're very skittish, and just plain dislike me(not unusual.)

This juvenile Carolina Wren begging was a real unexpected sight for us.
We didn't realize they bred in this area.


Very stoic.
Eastern Wood-Pewee.
Sit still. Be invisible.

The skinny guy will go away.

We saw these flashes of shorebirds zooming around.
What a pain in the a** trying to get a shot of them!
I think they were all a bunch of nervous Lesser Yellowlegs...white butt...too much time in Canada, eh...


I haven't forgotten the 'behind' shot!
This is a Philadelphia Vireo showing its good side.


There were a gang of Red-bellied Woodpeckers along the boardwalk.
This one didn't like heights...or banging on the trees.
He preferred the easy pickings from the leaves down low...and safe...and quiet...


What would the Lake Erie shoreline be if it didn't have the Ring-billed gang chillin in the sun?

Peeky-boo!
A juvenile Yellow-billed Cuckoo waiting for mom to fly in with a big juicy caterpillar!

***SNAKE WARNING***
This is a warning, especially for my friend Chris in Iceland...he doesn't appreciate scaly things.

I'm not a herpetologist, but I do believe this is an Eastern Fox Snake.
And I'm sure someone will let me know if it isn't...thank you.


Okay, here's a quiz:
Who's head is shinier?
I heard that? Wrong!

He was out sunning himself...in the middle of the road.
He wanted to be a speed bump, but we didn't think that was such a good idea.

He moved. Smart snake.

Wow, you actually went through all of the photos!
You must be really bored. Butt thanks for taking the time!

11 comments:

  1. Hi Dave,
    Firs what.... there is not behind of birds there or almost none ;-) Second, what a beautiful post full of beautiful birds. I love the Black-throated Blue Warbly.
    Thanks for the link to my blog, and you're right mate, i would never have been able to get close to this snaky thing.. How brave you were ;-)

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  2. Thanks Bob!

    Poor Chris...I'll have to send you a snake...I wonder if will go through the mail?

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  3. Well I guess it will not and you will go to jail then, cause Iceland has terrible rules for that. No import of indigenous animal sir!!

    Oh by the way, I like scaly things, you know, I'm kind of working with fish everyday, but snake... I just can't since I've been working with eels... sluggy, frightening and so on... That's probably why I work on whales nowadays ;-)

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  4. Chris, I shall behave and not send any snakes your way. You can keep your eels and we'll call it even.
    Thanks!

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  5. No no no eels anymore... and it is kind of hard to stay on whale, but it is much more fun than fish genetics anyway ;-)

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  6. Great serie of verry diversified images! The little red bug is verry interesting ;)

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  8. (I pushed the wrong key, oops. Where was I?...)

    Thanks Dominic! I was hoping for an answer about that bug...

    Hello again Chris...and they say scientists have no sense of humor...ha!

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  9. Excellent group of shots, a lot of interesting things. Im fond of female Black throated Blue,I don't know of another bird that has that green tone.

    It looks good for Eastern Fox Snake, I just saw one at Long Point Ontario (http://www.ontfin.com/Word/eastern-fox-snake-elaphe-gloydi/) and they seem to be found in Michigan and Ontario, and not common in either place.

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  10. Thanks Harold! That is a rare snake for our area.

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