The Biggest Week in American Birding...part too...

 All the leaders, drivers and volunteers that help The Biggest week be a success! I'm in the back row, far right...obviously not my political views...

What a great event it was! Everyone had a great time, at least no one complained to me...yet. I had the privilege to drive some wonderful folks and guides all around northwestern Ohio in search of birds. I was even lucky enough to find a couple lifers for some lucky birders! You can't ask for more than that. I am so looking forward to next year...starting a little later on May 9th! Mark it down and I'll see you there!

In the meantime, here's a few photos from my first weekend...or was it the second...anyway...birds!

It's always good to find nesting birds like this Orange-breasted Ground Thrush.

(uh, American Robin...)

As you can see, I'm a pretty crappy photographer some days. But I try to capture every bird I see...such as this Baltimore Oriole.

This Blue-winged Warbler was a rare bird and a lifer for many! This photo was highly enlarged, and that's not my finger at the top...

This Canada Goose had one lone fuzzy beebee following along.

This was the first time I got more than one decent shot of a Clay-colored Sparrow! I had to trust everyone that this bird is clay colored because I'm red/green color blind...ha...

I know that this is a dragonfly...with very fresh wings...I still have to find out which one...

I like Eastern Bluebirds. Blue is one of the colors I can see best!

Eastern Bluebird from behind because that's what I do.

I also love Gray Catbirds because of the simplicity of their outfit and the goofy nature of their singing!

Purple Martins don't appear to be purple in this photo, but I guess they are.

Another of my favorites is this relatively common Silver-spotted Skipper butterfly. fairly tiny, they are often overlooked or mistaken for a moth.

Another great find was this Spotted Sandpiper next to a farmers field. It's always good when you spot a sandpiper...

I was trying so hard to get a nice photo of a wonderful Song Sparrow and he turned to be a creep and dove for cover as I clicked the shutter. Burds...sheesh...

Anyone for a bowl of spider?

A curious Tree Swallow checking out his new crib...from behind...

 Once again, I thank you for visiting my bloggity! I forgot how much fun it is to share my photos and some occasional silliness! Until next time...happy birding!!

 

 

Moths and More!...

 This is the fantastic meadow at Wood Hollow Park in Hudson, Ohio.

Seeing that it's National Moth Week, I thought I would go out and get more moth pics to share. I headed to Wood Hollow. This is a wonderful little park used mostly by joggers and walkers and very few birders. I've seen all of our common woodpeckers here, along with a few warblies, bluebirds, my favorite song sparrows and more. In the summer months when the wild flowers start to pop, you can find lots of insects buzzing all over the place!

Today I found dozens of Clearwing Moths, a few butterflies(their numbers seem to be way down this year) and dragonflies eating those pesky little biting insects. The bad news is the Deer and Black Flies were trying to eat me alive...and we won't get into ticks...where's my Deet?!

Oh...I saw a couple of birds when I finally looked up...

 MWAHAHA!

Actually, this Imperial Moth was a visitor at work, a couple miles away this week. 

But, being moth week, I had to share it!

 This guy was as big as my hand!

 Not the greatest shot of a Clearwing Moth, but I love how it curled it's tongue as he zipped off to another flower.

 1/1600th of a second shutter speed to slow down those wings!

Love that fuzzy buddy!

 Bugs From Behind!

These are wonderful pollinators. They look like a cross between a hummingbird and a bumbly bee.

 Speaking of Bumbly Bees!

 I looked up long enough to see this Chipping Sparrow. 

He was giving me the crazy eye while I was swatting flies and clicking pics...and trying to chase bugs...the non-biting ones...

 I had a staring contest with this Common Wood Nymph.

He won...my attention span isn't very long...

 I saw a few Common Wood Nymphs, they all seemed to be working through the lowest flowers.

This one has a few nips taken out of his wings...life must be safer lower in the scrub away from the hunting birds.

 This Eastern Amberwing posed nicely in front of a mass of wildflowers.

 This is the female Eastern Amberwing...looking for her man...

 Eastern Pondhawks are fierce hunters! Lucky they aren't bigger or we'd be in trouble!

 This was the lone Halloween Pennant I spotted. Lucky find for me!

 The Honey Bees seemed few and far between.

I wonder when they'll find out what's causing their crash?

We need to cut back on the use of chemicals in our gardens and farms!

Those pesticides kill more than pests!

 I chased this Spicebush Swallowtail all over the meadow. 

I had better luck getting ticks than his photo...

 I believe this is a species of Sweat Bee...maybee...ha!

 There's lots of thistle around to feed the American Goldfinches!

 When I looked closer I found this tiny spider and his crazy web works in there!

Any ideas what kind of spider?

 You can tell this is a Twelve-spotted Skimmer because of the pattern on his body.

(Did you think I was going to say "cause he's got 12 spots on his wings?)

I leave you for now with a pretty flower...still don't have a field guide for them...one day.

Until we meet again!

THE BIGGEST WEEK IN AMERICAN BIRDING...well maybe just a day...(part two, 'cause I had sooo many pics!)

 Let's start off with an American Redstart, a young boy trying to sneak in to pick up some babes!

Yepper, crappy weather sure is great for gettin' them warbly pics! I think it was one of the best days I ever had for shooting, now as far as being comfortable? I am waterproof, so no problem. Enough of the babbling, here's some pretty little feathery friends!

 I even got a nice selection of birds from behind!

A Bay-breasted Warbly for instance...

 And after chasing him for a bit, he even let me get a photo of his north side!

 If you've ever tried to photograph a Black-and-White Warbly, you know they are non-stop moving and eating machines!

 He peeked out from between the branches for one shot!

 A number of the species were represented by well under a dozen individuals.

Blackburnian's on the other hand were quite numerous AND down low!

 Looking for that next meal...

 This gorgeous male was singing up a storm...must be why it was raining on and off...

 As you can see, the sun came out on and off, just enough to make this female Blackburnian Warbly really pop!

 Did I mention there were TONS of Cape May Warblies?

 This handsome male Cape May is eyeing up that spider above him...

"Hmmmm...looks good enough to eat to me"

 "Oh yeah, I'm a lean mean bugging machine!"

 This female was impressed with his skills!

 The happy side of a Chestnut-sided Warbly.

 The cranky side of a Chestnut-sided Warbly.

 I was told there were birds other than warblies again...

Fine.

Here's a Downy Woodpecker eating a spider.

Okay?

 Oh look, another non-warbly!

This time it's a surprised Eastern Wood-Pewee.

There. TWO non-warblies...!

 I gave up playing peek-a-boo with Magnolias today...he wore me out.

 Yep, Nashville Warblies thought it would be funny to play peek-a-boo with me also...

Some days, those warblies...ooooo!

 Another surprise were the Northern Parula numbers and how easy they were to photograph...

...for a change.

 Warming up in the sun.

I was doing the same thing!

 When they're out you have to get as many pics as possible!

 Tennessee Warblies can be shy at times...

 Yea! A butter-butt!

They don't like that name, they prefer Yellow-RUMPED Warbly.

Very proper...

 Singin' in the rain!

Nothing stops a Yellow Warbly from belting out his favorite tune!

"Feet, feet, smell my feet!"

Listen closely... 

Next time kiddies, back to our regular programing...