Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar

Monarch Caterpillar, Charles River Peninsula, Needham, MA

My little girl, Lily, took these pictures.

(She also told me what to write).

Bluebirds!

Eastern Bluebird, Charles River Peninsula, Needham, MA

It's bluebird season again at the CRP. If this year is like last year, they'll be around for another month or more. Early morning is the best time to see them.


Here's my favorite shot, of a youngster, nicely lit. I just missed getting three of them assembled on that branch.


This one has more dramatic lighting.


And finally, a shady shot of one of the yellow-throated vireos. It occurs to me that I've been mistaking this one, two falls in a row, for a migrating pine warbler.

Millennium Park Mudflats

Great Blue Heron, Millennium Park, West Roxbury, MA

You'd think with so much rain overnight, the Charles would be swollen. But it appears that water level is more a matter of management than natural supply and this morning the mudflats at Millennium Park were back. Along with the peeps.

Immediately, something interesting: a small group of spotted sandpipers. I managed a long distance photo before they were chased off.

By this red-tailed hawk (after sandpipers, really?).

Adding to the curiosity, this hawk appears to be dragging something. I can't quite make out what it is. (These guys are supposed to be migrating, not nesting, this time of year). At any rate, a gang of blue jays quickly mobbed it.

I got relatively close to a solitary sandpiper on the near bank.



Medium distance was mostly populated by killdeer.


Hey! What's that in the background. That's not a least, semi-palmated, spotted, or solitary sandpiper! (Finally, my "one of these things is not like the others" activity pays off.)


I mustered several more shots, the clearest of which (you can click on the images to see them a little bigger) is unfortunately a heads-down shot. I'm going to say tentatively: pectoral sandpiper.

Marblehead, on a very very hot day

Great egret, Forest River, Marblehead/Salem line

Back to work today. Arrived a little early, so off to Marblehead Neck to see what could be seen (late morning). Nearly melted.

Fall warbler migration is underway. I managed a few redstarts, a black and white, and this obscured view of what is probably a female blue-winged. Apparently there are even greater riches to be found there right now, if one is willing to put in the time (and arrive much earlier!)


Of particular interest, this non-willow (strong eye-ring) empid flycatcher hanging around the main pond.


And coming back towards SSC (or rather SSU), low tide at Forest River. Ridiculous numbers of egrets (at least 20, not all shown).


And the mudflats were studded with plovers and sandpipers.

A grebe and a green heron at Millennium Park

Green Heron, Millennium Park, West Roxbury, MA

I really enjoy early mornings at Millennium Park, especially in this weather--cold at dawn, bright and warming up by 8. (Despite the chattering joggers and the occasionally irresponsible dog walker). Right out of the car, I immediately spotted a Cooper's hawk, heard a great blue heron bark, and watched a rattling kingfisher fly across the path. And robins everywhere--in the air, on the ground, in the trees.

This little green heron was by the bridge and was not terribly pleased to see me. Is this its way of showing displeasure?


The most pleasant surprise, a pie-billed grebe just floating along, easily seen through a gap in the stream-side brush. Unlike most of the grebes I've encountered, it didn't dive or fly right off but just kept calmly swimming on. This is apparently an uncommon sight this time of year at Millennium Park.

Bird numbers building at the Charles River Peninsula

Great Blue Heron in a tree, Charles River Peninsula, Needham, MA

The Charles River Peninsula was extremely birdy this morning, most notably mourning doves, robins, goldfinch, catbirds, phoebes, and bluebirds (hooray!). A sign of the abundance--not one but two yellow-throated vireos singing away.

Here's a cute (if grainy) phoebe sample.


It was nice to see a gnatcatcher (relatively uncommon sight here).


And the kingfisher continues to rule the powerlines over the river.

Pockets of DC nature

Bartholdi Park, US Botanic Garden, Washington, DC

In DC for a couple of days finishing up my sabbatical research (success!), I had a few moments to stroll through some natural settings. Bartholdi Park, across the street from the US Botanic Garden building, is a beautifully landscaped oasis. I witnessed a song sparrow try to catch a sphinx moth (I broke it up, unintentionally, trying to get a photo; quite a meal for a bird if successful!)

There is a fuller garden featuring native US flora adjacent to the Botanic Garden building. Here is the "wetland."


Nearby, there is a larger wetland that is part of the Museum of Native American History.


I was staying in Rosslyn, so I had a chance to stroll through Theodore Roosevelt Island one morning. Very birdy, with Carolina chickadees and wrens, robins, cardinals, and red-eyed vireos galore. Except for the joggers, dog-walkers, and traffic noise, a pleasant escape from the city.


Coolest moment: bizarre red-eyed vireo behavior. I tried very hard to get video footage but all I had was my iPhone camera. I looked it up--it is documented in Bent. I'll let him describe it:

Several times in the course of the past 30 years or so, I have seen a red-eyed vireo acting in a very odd manner. It has occurred when an adult is feeding a full-grown young. The old bird suddenly departs, for a moment, from its normal behavior; it draws its feathers tight to its body and sways slowly from side to side through a wide arc, certainly as great as 90 ^o. If the two birds are facing each other, as they usually are, the bill of the adult points successively far to each side of the young bird, over and over. The old bird gives the impression of being in a sort of trance, or as if it were trying to influence the other bird in some strange way, although the action probably has a more prosaic explanation. Behavior of a similar nature is described under "Courtship." I have never seen any other species of vireo act in this manner.