Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Oh yellow warbler


Yellow Warbler, Charles River Peninsula, Needham, MA

A perfect May morning.


Wildflowers blooming (anyone able to ID this one? Blue-eyed grass)


Yellow Warblers singing and fighting.






The fringe benefit of warbler fights is inattention to the photographer standing nearby. These two were down in the leaf litter grappling. Still no obvious victor by the time I left.

Other scenes of bird conflict and conflict resolution.

1. A meeting of four chattering Baltimore orioles in a tall tree at the tip of the peninsula. Perfect overlap of songs. One by one they dispersed until there was one left.

2. Two song sparrows, one singing loudly. Spots another nearby, quickly flies and perches next to it. Sings loudly. The two fly down into the grass (at this point I'm wondering if they are mates). They fly out. The first resumes singing loudly. The second one remains nearby but sings very softly. My question: what happened in the grass?

The orchard oriole scene gets more and more awesome. Today I got to witness one's bobolink-like flight song.

2 comments:

Mattenylou said...

Such gorgeous photos!

Is that flower blue-eyed grass, maybe? Is it small, dime size?

Peter Oehlkers said...

Yes! Thank you! Blue-eyed grass it is.