Days of Their Lives

                                                                  Great Blue Heron

                                                                     Snowy Egret

                                                         Double-crested Cormorants

                                                                Spotted Orbweaver

                                               2nd Summer Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

                                                                            Ditto

                                                                     Great Egret

                                                                 Clay-colored Sparrow

                                                                     Bewick's Wren

                                                                     Carolina Wren

                                                               Juvenile Eastern Phoebe

 

Red-spotted Purple

These are shots over the past several weeks, as there hasn't been a lot of migratory

movement.  Weather has a way of being a deterrent, but one also must be in the right

place at the right time.  It cooled down for a little while, long enough for a few more

ducks to come through the area, and temperatures are finally quite seasonable and 

pleasant.  May those people that had to endure Hurricane Matthew be all right and may

you recover from that ordeal as soon as possible.

As a general synopsis, our young Yellow-crowned Night-Heron stayed with us at

Heron Cove for the better part of September, and chose the best willow to rest in

during the day, the same one that the strongest Green Heron chicks were hatched in.

Both Boomer Lake and Boomer Creek hosted more different species of herons than

normally this year, including a strong possibility of the Little Blue Heron, as well.

Larger than normal woodpecker numbers stayed at the creek, and many of them

were hatched here, including one female adult red-shafted Northern Flicker as a parent.

  It is not known if there are any red-shafted offspring as a result of this uncommon union.

There were also good numbers of the Red-bellied Woodpecker young, and a few Red-

headed Woodpecker juveniles.  No Pileated Woodpecker young were observed.

The Clay-colored Sparrow spent about a week with us on Boomer Lake and there were at 

least two of them in our midst.  Good numbers of the Carolina Wren were seen over the

season, and Bewick's Wren is once again in our midst.

Sadly, butterfly numbers were down by half, but on the positive note, this was the first

year that I have noticed the Red-spotted Purple in the five years that I have been in 

Stillwater, and I only observed it on the Kameoka Trail at Boomer Creek.

Ambient water temperatures have risen two degrees F in the time that I have been in the

area.  If this continues to increase, birds and other animals are expected to remove 

themselves in a northeastern pattern.