Showing posts with label Northern Mockingbird. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Northern Mockingbird. Show all posts
Sunday, May 25, 2025
Saturday, June 22, 2024
Thursday, February 25, 2021
Saturday, July 25, 2020
Sunday, July 5, 2020
Tuesday, June 2, 2020
060220 Young Birds Tip the Scale in June
060220 Juvenile Northern Mockingbird
Juvenile American Robin
Baltimore Oriole
American Robin
Plenty of juvenile birds were observed on this outing, however, no additional late migrants were discovered. Before the end of the month, some of the shorebirds should be enroute south, as they are the first breeders of the year. They also have the most distance to travel in general.
Writer always finds new life in the spring the most interesting aspect of nature. This has been the best migration in quite some time.
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Monday, August 19, 2019
Final Green Heron Photos and Mississippi Kites Versus Northern Mockingbird
Green Heron 2 out of 3
081119
0730-0811/81-82 F/heat index 87 F/partly cloudy/SE-6/75-7 % RH/29.89-29.91 Hg and rising
Clutch 3 Green Herons are growing well and are flighted. Their fledging has been rapid, considering that they were in the shaded area of the northeast segment of Heron Cove.
Green Heron 1 of 3
Green Heron 2 and 3 of 3
Solitary Sandpiper
081219
0722-0902/82-88 F/heat index 91 F/clear/SSW-10/67-62% RH/29.82-29.79 Hg and steady
Daily photos of young Green Herons will show their rapid growth while flight gets stronger.
The Solitary Sandpiper was located at Veteran's Memorial jetty on the north side. They usually prefer
to be on fresh water mudflats, edges of brushy ponds or ditches, and even on fields with shallow water. This behavior is slightly out of character, yet they commonly come to Boomer Lake area during fall migration.
2 out of 3 Green Heron Fledglings
081419
0727-0904/77-80 F/variable clouds/NW-7/74-72% RH/30.01-30.05 Hg and rising
Every day a few more downy feathers disappear from the Green Heron heads.
Mississippi Kite Vocalizing to Comrades
Hunting Area Insects Like Dragonflies
and Cicadas
081719
0720-0938/82-89 F/heat index 92/var. clouds to partly cloudy/ESE-10/66-61% RH/29.84-29.89 Hg and rising
Mississippi Kite (In Tree)
Northern Mockingbird (In Air)
Ditto, View 2
Mississippi Kite
081819
1040-1202/73-85 F/partly cloudy/S-12/80-74% RH/29.84-29.89 Hg and rising
Writer was out at 0720 and rain was imminent. The furthest I got was to Heron Cove, which was well checked. There were eight Yellow Warblers seen there, which is quite a bit for one area. During the second excursion, no others were found and I went beyond the east side restrooms.
Highlights observed were the Mississippi Kites that were hawking insects from both the power poles and bald cypress trees. The above kite had been harassed by a Northern Mockingbird, as this territory area is his.
Third shot of this kite showed it searching for larger insects like cicadas and dragonflies. When the insects are captured, the kite rapidly pulls off a wing or two to keep them within grasp so they can be consumed on the wing.
Monday, April 22, 2019
Boomer's Late Winter-Early Spring Bird Bash
Red-breasted Mergansers
Ditto
Ditto
Northern Shovelers in Flight
Assorted Ducks in Flight, Including Scoters
Song Sparrow
Killdeer
Male Brown-headed Cowbird
Canada Geese Effecting Landing
Baird's and Single Pectoral Sandpiper
Juvenile Bald Eagle
Ditto
Adult Bald Eagle
Eastern Phoebe
Irruptive Cedar Waxwings
American Robin
Dark-eyed Junco (slate colored)
Song Sparrow
Northern Mockingbird Mating Dance
Bonaparte's Gull
Ditto
mid-March/April 2019
Apologies are in order for such a late posting, but due to a challenging work schedule, it is the best that I could do.
Winter was somewhat difficult with lower and sometimes higher temperatures, and Mother Nature
did not give us expected birds at any given time. This meant that there were sleepers, like a both the White-winged and Surf Scoter. They can both be seen in the rear portion of the assorted ducks in flight photo above.
We also had late-arrival Bonaparte's Gulls in April and late Song Sparrows have also been located in assorted Payne county locations. Both their song and chunky countenance will keep them from being confused with the more normal and thinner Savannah Sparrow in mid-April.
The Northern Mockingbird is quite an interesting bird for its behavior, which can include sounding just like other birds, as well as wing-flashing to confuse insects with what they might consider nightfall. They also have a very entertaining dancing ritual during mating season, which can be difficult to photograph but most interesting to observe.
Many irruptive birds came to visit over the winter, including quite normal groups of Cedar Waxwings as well as Purple Finches and Red Crossbills. Don't be surprised if the list of crossbill subspecies keeps growing due to the fact that harsh winters send them to assorted locales for food. They will develop better attributes over short periods of time to assist them in gleaning cone crops depending upon where they hang their hats and coats over bitter and snow laden winters.
Over the past few years, it had come to my attention that our local Payne County Bald Eagle pair raised young more than once. This three-year-old youngster pictured above was in the company of an adult over Boomer Lake in early April, which was my first actual time to see it, let alone photograph it. I apologize for the poor quality, but we must take what the birds give us.
Shortly after the northern winter storm Wesley arrived, some shorebirds did a reverse migration right around this time. Subsequent birds took a more eastern transit to their breeding grounds, but those that we hosted had to do their best under more trying circumstances, like many shorebirds and swallows. Luckily, I was able to capture a Pectoral and a few Baird's Sandpipers in one photo. Some of the birds spent several days on Boomer Lake to gain strength to enable them to move onward to the breeding grounds.
Many ducks also were a little late in coming though like the ducks pictured above. Several varieties will actually breeding in the northern parts of the south, but the Red-breasted Mergansers shown were in high breeding plumage and most anxious to continue on to do their duty. Unfortunately, weather events like we will only experience more in the future, will hinder breeding birds and make some of them miss insect crops to feed young. However, most ducks will avoid this situation due to their nature.
Sunday, June 24, 2018
Sunday, June 17, 2018
Monday, April 9, 2018
Boomer Lake's Year of the Bird
Common Loon
Franklin's Gulls Amid Ring-billed Gulls
Purple Martin
Double-crested Cormorant
Adult in Breeding Plumage (head tufts)
Eastern Bluebird
Brown Thrasher (FOY)
Northern Mockingbird
Greater White-fronted Geese
Close Up Greater White-fronted Goose
04-07 - 04-08-18
This was the weekend that is proving that winter birds meet spring birds, and it was amazing.
The main winter birds were both the Common Loon and The Greater White-fronted Goose, neither of which are here the entire winter. Both usually pop on by either in the midst of the coldest part of the winter, or while in transit to their northern breeding grounds, and none of the pictures show the birds well due to the distance. Both species tend to be in the middle of the lake, but not this year. As you can see, both of them were fairly close. This was the first time that the Greater White-fronted Goose has come onto land, and it is about two weeks late on its breeding territory. I assume that the adult male waited for the juvenile female to grow in most of her adult plumage and they will be northbound shortly. This now makes her a second year bird.
The Franklin's Gulls are migratory birds, breeding on either side of the US/Canadian border.
The Purple Martins began trying to settle in last weekend.
If you look closely on the head of the Double-crested Cormorant, you'll note its namesake crests, which denotes a breeding age bird.
The Eastern Bluebird breeds in Oklahoma and stays with us year round, just like the Northern Mockingbird.
This Brown Thrasher showed up on Saturday, as did the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and the Scissor-tailed Flycatchers.
There will be many more birds to see as time progresses.
Sunday, February 4, 2018
January's Birds of Boomer
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Adult Cooper's Hawk
Northern Mockingbird
Female Belted Kingfisher
Brown Creeper
Northern Cardinal
on bradford pear tree
Red-shouldered Hawk
Ring-necked Duck
January 2018
The weather was very unsettled and very dry this month. However, there were a few warmer
and springlike days where there was a little action.
The White-fronted Goose was on Boomer Creek just off Goose Island with a Canada Goose pal, and there appeared to be more Cackling Geese than usual for the month, even though there was so little
cold weather. There lake barely froze this winter.
This also means that it is highly likely that with unseasonable weather there will be a greater amount of feeder bird illness this winter. This will bear watching and most likely a lot of feeder cleaning and seed changing to keep up with this problem.
Hawks have been visiting the area frequently, so there could be a need to stop feeding for a period of time, as songbirds could easily fall victim to a swift and hungry hawk.
A few ducks have been visiting with us on and off, for they prefer colder weather.
Many songbirds seem to be affected by the springlike weather that has been with us. Will we have an early spring with early birds? Time will tell, but it appears rather probably. Now all we need is a few
good rains to give us a good crop of spring fruit.
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