Virginian Elk

 It all started with a chat while kayaking. Last year my wife and I went on a kayak trip at a local Nature Conservancy (TNC) property. There were about 15 of us, including a few TNC staff, in addition to our guide. During the three hour trip, I had the chance to chat with most of the participants. One of the TNC staff told me about a trip she had just taken to another TNC property in the far western corner of Virginia to see elk and said if we were interested, to let her know and she would get us included in next year’s trip. It sounded really interesting, so my wife and I put it on our fall trip-list and, after a few coordination emails, we were headed to Abingdon, VA to see elk this fall.

[Field Notes] Grafton Ponds Walk

 Recently I had a chance to take a guided walk with Zach from the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation's Natural Heritage Program at Grafton Ponds Natural Area Preserve (NAP). I've talked about Grafton Ponds several times in the past, most recently this past spring when I did a bird walk with some friends.

The walk was in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Natural Heritage Program and one of several they are doing around the state. Grafton Ponds is special because it has a large number of sinkhole depressions that collect water and then dry out annually. Sometimes called vernal pools or ephemeral ponds, this cycle of wet and dry throughout the year provides good places for amphibian to lay eggs. Fish are one of the main predators on tadpoles and eggs. Since the ponds dry out, the fish can't survive so there are fewer predators for the young amphibians to deal with. There are approximately 200 such ponds in Grafton Ponds complex with about 70 or so in the Natural Area Preserve proper. Depending on the water level, there may be three nearby ponds or a single, larger pond, making it hard to get a precise count. 

The ponds form when water collects and slowly seeps through bedrock that is dissolvable. Often that is limestone. Here on the coast, the bedrock is fossilized shells from a few million years ago, part of the Yorktown formation. Appropriate since the preserve is just outside Yorktown. The ponds continually form as the bedrock is removed and fill in as more sediment fills in the ponds. Zach told us that some of these ponds have been dated to 40,000 year ago while younger ones are around 350 years old. The older ones have a lot of spruce pollen in the sediment dating from the last ice age when spruce could live here. The younger ones formed around the end of a dry era that coincided with the arrival of European settlers. The settlers at Jamestown and other early colonies had trouble finding sufficient fresh water and that is attributed to salt-water intrusion to aquafers due to the extended dry period. As the rains returned, ponds started forming again. The Europeans also removed a lot of trees. The trees pulled up a lot of rain water. Fewer trees means more water to dissolve the shells and make sinkholes.

Some fossilized shells found along a stream bed

Rising With The Tides

They say rising tides lift all boats. Around here they also flood many roads. 

This week we have our first fall coastal storm of the year. It isn't a tropical storm but that doesn't mean we aren't getting strong winds driving up the tides. These are the types of events where flood mapping is particularly important. For the past 9 years, as part of Wetland Watch's Catch the King Tide activity, I've been going out and mapping how far high tides come up onto the land. There are multiple scheduled events each year based on the lunar affect on the tides. But these ad hoc events for storms, or just steady on-shore winds, that drive up the water level are important to capture the weather’s effect on the tidal flooding. 

Today, high tide came just after sunrise so I got up, prepped, and headed out first thing. On my way to my usual first stop I passed this flooded marsh. It passes under the road but get up into people's yards about 100 yd from the creek bank. 

Tides from Sept 24. Data from https://water.noaa.gov/gauges/FTMV2#hg=official

Usually there is a narrow creek here and lots of marsh grass

Not the type of watering you want for your garden

 My usual first stop is a boat ramp near home. Even though the city recently redid the parking lot, the entrance was flooded. After finding a dry place to park, I walk along the edge of the water occasionally recording the precise location in an app. I can record a point without really breaking stride making data collection about as easy as taking a walk. And in many places, I can do it without even getting my feet wet. 

A Good Night and Good Night-Birds

This is the last post about our trip up to the Biggest Week in American Birding (BWIAB) festival. So I thought I would talk about good night-birds, and a good night birding,

One group of birds that I was not expecting to see much at the festival was birds of the night. [Also emus since they don't live anywhere near Ohio.] Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised that we ended up seeing 5 species of birds that are nocturnal.

One of the tours that we signed up for was a woodcock walk at dusk, so we were hopeful of seeing a woodcock. I've been out looking for woodcocks a few times in the past and never succeeded in seeing their aerial display.  I was prepared for us to either not see any birds or the display would be distant and infrequent.

Our woodcock group met up with a couple of guides shortly before sunset. One of the guides told us that the displays had been going on the last couple of nights so he had high hopes. The bird that had been displaying near our spot was showing up as the very last of rays of sunlight vanished. So we had time for the guide to regale us with his guiding stories. 

Water birds of the Biggest Week

Last time I talked about all the warblers we saw at The Biggest Week in American Birding (BWIAB) festival They truly are the highlights but there are many more birds migrating through the area during the festival. Today I’ll focus on the birds closely associated with water. Almost all of the festival locations are on or near the water. The festival headquarters is at Maumee Bay and the biggest draw is at Magee Marsh.

Shorebirds mainly nest in the Arctic tundra of Canada and Alaska so still have a long way to go after their stop in Ohio. They are in pursuit of the open habitat and lots and lots of insects the far north offers.

Black-necked stilt

One of the most striking shorebirds in the US is the black-necked stilt. Stilts take the shorebird characteristic of long legs to an extreme balancing a small body atop theirs giving the impression they might tip over at any time. Stilts also stand out for their coloration. Most of our shorebirds have a combination of sandy and rusty colored backs. The black-necked stilt has a striking black and white pattern. At one of the marshes we visited, there were a handful of stilts, each probing away in the mud and sand. They seem to have a knack for always being at the far side of any body of water. Luckily for me, this one moved in close to allow for some nice photographs. It was probably moving to the “far side” from a different group of birders.

Warblers, Warblers, Everywhere There Are Warblers (part 3 of BWIAB)

Warblers are the headliners of American bird migration. Even though many species of birds migrate through in the spring and fall, it is the warblers that get the press and the glamour shots. This post will focus on the warblers we saw during The Biggest Week in American Birding (BWIAB) festival. A later post will highlight some of the non-warblers that deserve attention too. Be sure to read about my experiences with tours and overall impressions of the festival too. 

There is a lot to talk about here as warblers are one of the largest families of birds that migrate through the eastern US. The festival checklist lists 37 potential warblers for the area. 

Our most frequently seen was the Northern yellow warbler. It is probably seen so often since they breed in the area instead of just passing through. These bright, all yellow birds with a bit of red streaking on the front are always a joy to see.

Yellow warbler high in a tree 

Tours of The Biggest Week

This is part 2 of a planned multi-part series about our trip to Ohio for the Biggest Week in American Birding. Part 1 talked about some general impressions and highlights. Today, I will share our experiences from the guided tours we took. 

We took advantage of a few types of guided tours. For some, you meet the guides at the location. Tours are generally 20 people plus two guides and last a couple of hours. We also took a couple of bus tours where you meet at the festival headquarters and they provide transportation. This is limited to about 10 people plus two guides and last half or the full day. These are typically further away and might include multiple stops. We chose two of each, and a night walk, although as I said in the previous post, we could have been just as happy with less scheduled time. 

Bird Photos [short]

 As I'm refocusing on this blog and my nature photography I will be doing bi-weekly posts here along with occasional short posts for special events or occurrences. On the off weeks, I will be adding more photographs to my Flickr feed. To help start things off, here are a few bird photographs from this year that I just uploaded. Check the feed for more. Enjoy, and be sure to return next week for the next installment from the Biggest Week In American Birding.

Pair of hooded mergansers on a local pond

Of course I include a great blue heron

Black skimmers returning to settle on the beach

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LOTS of butterflies (and some other insects too)

 I have several posts planned about my experience at the Biggest Week in American Birding; however, I'm already interrupting that to talk about a recent, fabulous day of butterflying.

For several years now, my wife and I have been joining butterfly counts sponsored by the North American Butterfly Association. These counts are similar to the Audubon Christmas Bird Counts. Except they are in the summer instead of around Christmas. And of course, looking for butterflies, not birds. So maybe not all that similar. But in each, teams go out defined areas year-after-year and count all the individuals they can find and identify. 

The Biggest Week is HUGE

 This Spring, my wife and I were able to attend the Biggest Week in American Birding (BWIAB) festival in Ohio. We have been to several other birding festivals including some in pretty special and bird-dense locations but none of those compare to what we found at the Biggest Week. The first thing that stands out is the Biggest Week is 10 days long. I think that is part of the "biggest" title; too big to fit in a seven-day week. There were also several dozen tours and events to choose from with most tours happening 5-8 times during the week. Way more options than our previous experiences. Plus a lot of lectures and classes. We limited ourselves to a big tour or a small walk plus a class most days. We were also surprised by the sheer number of people participating. There was a decent crowd at every place we visited and visiting the world-famous Magee Marsh was more like going to a AAA baseball game or a concert than going to a park for bird watching. 

A pair of Northern yellow warblers, the most abundant
warblers seen at the festival 

The actual birding lived up to all the hype. I'll dive into some of the specifics in later posts but we saw a lot of birds, a lot of species, and great views of almost everything. I had four life-birds plus maybe another dozen of best-ever views. There were also several birds that we saw repeatedly that we had only ever seen a few times before. 

Including a stop by my parents after the festival and an overnight stop on the drive up,  we ended the trip with 149 species seen; all but five of those were during the festival. I was able to photograph nearly half of those.

Cape May warbler taking flight

Wednesday was the highlight of the festival for many participants, after a front that moved through on Tuesday, causing large numbers of migrating birds to "fallout" into the last feeding habitat before crossing Lake Erie to wait for better wind conditions. Luckily for us, Wednesday was the one morning we hadn't scheduled a tour; it was great to have flexibility on a fallout day. Magee Marsh was an obvious choice for where to start birding that day, but being a little intimidated by the stories of crowds on the boardwalk, we aimed for some less-traveled trails nearby that had been called out as good alternatives by the festival organizers. On our drive out there, we passed the visitor center with police doing traffic control around an overflowing parking lot. This was going to be a crazy day all right!  Before hitting the trail at Magee Marsh, we looked in on the tent with the giant festival checklist. Lots of great sightings already, including a Kirtland's warbler! A volunteer shared with us that it had been seen at the visitor center and that the parking lot was now closed to additional visitors-- so that's what that mega-crowd had been all about, because Kirtland's warblers' breeding habitat is one of the most restricted in North America with only about 2000 breeding pairs. Outside the breeding range, a migration hotspot is the best chance to see one, but many years not even one bird is spotted on migration. When reading up about the festival, we dreamed about Kirtland's as a stretch goal, but were still somewhat shocked that the response was a crowd so large that the parking lot would be closed to further visitors, so we wrote off that one, unwilling to wait hours for what might be only a glimpse, potentially losing out on a lot of other exciting and wonderful sightings on the festival's best day.

So we headed out on the Magee Marsh trails and saw a lot of great birds! After lunch we walked the boardwalk and saw many more! However, by this time the weather was getting downright nippy; many people had already left, and those who remained gave off a tired and cranky vibe, stressed in a way that only people who have had way too much of a good thing can be. As we were packing up, my wife suggested one last gamble, a stop at the visitor's center to see if the parking lot was open and if so ask about whether the Kirtland's was still around. As we approached, there were no traffic guards--good sign or bad? We pulled in and the lot was still quite full but we could probably find a spot. We saw a very friendly guide from one of our earlier tours on his way out. We stopped to ask Patrick if the bird was still around; not only did he confirm it was and give us directions, he gave us his parking spot, and tips for seeing the bird when we got to the crowd. 

Kirtland's warbler at eye level

About a third of a mile down the trail, we encountered a group of about 30 people. Patrick's suggestion was to figure out which way the bird was moving and settle in at that end of the crowd and let the bird come to us. All the cameras were pointed our way, so we settled at the near end. About five second later, the bird moved into view at about eye level and 10 feet back from the path. For one of the rarest birds in North America, we had to put very little effort into seeing it, and were rewarded with exceptional views! We watched for several minutes as it fed, moving through the brush right in front of us and then back towards the other end of the group. 

A few other notable observations about the festival included the friendliness of the participants. Almost everywhere we went people were helpful pointing out birds. Even professional guides who were there with clients would help others nearby find and identify birds. Our first day on the boardwalk (Tuesday) was one of the kindest birding trips we have ever had. With people chatting, pointing out the birds and sharing sightings and information.

A friendly welcome at Maumee Bay State Park

The other amazing thing was the local welcome from the community. At the several other festivals we've been to, it really felt like we were invisible to the local community. At one of the first big festivals we attended in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, all week all the local signs welcomed runners to a race on Sunday. No mention of birds or birders even though they make up a good part of visitors during the off-months including festival time. But in Ohio, there were welcome signs all over the place and several businesses welcomed birders with open arms. We have never felt so welcomed.

Banner welcoming birders about 
20 minutes from festival headquarters

This was one of the top birding trip in our lives. As I mentioned, there was a lot of birds and lots of photographs that I'll share across some follow-up posts so keep an eye out for those. You can subscribe to the blog using an RSS reader or send me your email through the Contact Form at the bottom and I'll add you to posting notifications.

Of Shorebirds and Sparrows

As part of my efforts to ensure I stay engaged and active in retirement, I set a goal of exceeding my previous top Virginia bird count for the year. As spring migration wraps up, most birds that will visit Virginia have shown up somewhere. I saw a lot of ducks and wintering birds and a fair number of spring migrants here along the coast. A recent trip to the mountains brought me several more species, especially warblers, that are hard to find along the coast. At the end of May I was within 20 species of my goal. However, I have probably passed the point where it is easy to see several new species at once. We are now in the period where each new species needs to be searched out and focused trips are used to see them. A quick review of species seen locally that I haven't seen yet highlighted three that are in the same habitat so could be seen on one trip. My wife and I decided to combine that with another aim of ours which is to visit birding spots we haven't been to before or at least not in a long time. eBird showed these three species were seen at two marsh/beach areas about an hour north of us where we haven't been in over a decade. Our target birds today were a pair of shorebirds, semipalmated plover and semipalmated sandpiper, and the seaside sparrow. None are unusual in our area but you need to be in the right habitat at the right time to see them. 

The first stop was New Point Comfort Natural Area Preserve and the road leading out there passes through some open marsh. As we drove along, I saw a large shorebird sitting in a dead tree. As we stopped it flew off to a power pole and was soon joined by a second.

Pair of willets on a power pole

Back on the side of the road where the willet had been sitting there was a small pool that had some small shorebirds at the back side. They were too far away to clearly identify with binoculars so we parked on the side of the road and grabbed a spotting scope. As we watched them a few moved closer and a few more birds flew in. In this group was a black-bellied plover, a few dunlin, and several semipalmated sandpipers (target bird #1).

Black-bellied plover with some semipalmated sandpipers

Back across the road my wife heard the song of the seaside sparrow, our second target species. These are cute birds but they sit at the top of short grass in the marsh as they sing. So you have to look along the tops of the marsh grass and hope it isn't blocked by taller grass. We searched for several minutes and eventually saw the sparrow shape just peaking up. It was still pretty far off and we wouldn't have been able to identify it by sight along (although there isn't much else that would sit up like that in the marsh grass).

We continued on down the road to the end point of land that has a short boardwalk and a boat launch. Down here things were pretty quiet. A few terns flew around and we saw a couple of kayakers fishing.  We walked back along the road to a wooded stretch and saw several nice song birds and this northern flicker just sitting on a branch up against the trunk.

Flicker 

While it seemed quiet, we did see 38 species and two of our three targets.

Moving on to Bethel Beach, the day had become quite hot and the walk along the beach was a bit of a slog. At the far end of the beach we saw a couple of birds poking around a flooded puddle. Here we saw a few more semipalmated sandpipers. Around the backside of an inlet was a part that is roped off and a bit of research revealed that piping plovers had nests there. We looked around but didn't have any luck seeing one. We really needed to stay and do a long search and hope for movement as they blend in to the sand very well. We did see a lot of least terns flying over the inlet and end of the beach.

On the way back to the car there were royal terns flying up and down the beach.

Royal tern on the wing

The day ended with some refreshing ice cream as well as two of our three target birds. I'll have to find another time or location to see a semipalmated plover.

Life and Death in Grafton Ponds

Grafton Ponds Natural Area Preserve is a unique ecosystem here in coastal Virginia. The area has sinkhole vernal pools, ponds that fill up in the wet season and generally dry out in the summer. Vernal pools are critical habitats for a wide-range of amphibians who can lay eggs and grow up in this pools without having to survive hungry fish. Since the pools dry out every year or two, they can't support fish populations. The amphibians either leave the pools and live on land or bury down into the mud and leaf litter during the dry season.

One of the vernal pools that has already dried out

Through the Master Naturalists, several years ago I was part of a vernal pool mapping project and had the chance to go out and look for animals using the pools. This year we have started up a bird life survey of Grafton Ponds. My wife and I were joined by a couple of Master Naturalist friends to do a first survey. We were hoping there would be a good range of migrants coming in and using the area as a stop-over. Unfortunately, the weather hasn't been too conducive to migration around here for a while and the species count was below what I was expecting. We ended up with 25 species in the area. We also encountered several butterflies and dragonflies and a couple of snakes [WARNING: potentially disturbing photos, including snakes, below].

This spring has been quite dry, so several of the pools were already dried out. I hope the tadpoles had a chance to grow up before all the water left.

And a pool that still has some water

As we were approaching one of the pools, we started seeing some feathers on the ground. Soon there was an entire pile, and then another, bigger pile. And more scattered even further. 

After investigating them, we concluded these are turkey feathers and likely came from one unlucky individual. There wasn't much else left of the bird and were aren't sure who the predator was. Perhaps a coyote? Not sure any other bird would be able to take down an adult turkey and leave so little.

We also happened upon this black racer snake eating what looks to be a worm snake. My wife and I had never encountered a worm snake before but they came up in conversation early on the walk. Then our first encounter is one being preyed upon.

Swallowing prey

Gone

Yum

The day before our walk a big cold front passed through and dropped the temperature about 20 degrees (we were out on another bird walk then and everyone was putting on jackets during the walk). It was still chilly but the sun came out and we saw several animals enjoying the sun's warmth including several butterfly and dragonfly species.

Red-spotted purple (top left), eastern tiger swallowtail (top right), common whitetail (lower right), and common green darner (lower left)

Of course, this was meant to be a bird walk and we did encounter some birds. As mentioned, the birding was a little slow and we had to identify more birds by sound than sight. But there were a couple of birds that gave us good looks. 

First was this great egret that circled over one of the vernal pools. It made three or four passes and was catching really nice light.

Great egret

Great egret

Later we heard an ovenbird calling in the distance. They are just arriving in the area and I was the only one of the group to have seen one so far this spring. We tried tracking the bird but either the call was off in the distance or deep in some undergrowth. Even with extended searching, we couldn't find the bird. So we just moved on. A few minutes later my wife glanced around and saw a small bird sitting at eye level just off the path. The other three of us had walked right past it. A quick look confirmed it was an ovenbird. A second hopped up from the ground and then flew off but the first just stayed seated on the branch. And it posed for a long time letting me get a good range of photographs. Finally, we had our fill and let it be. Neither of these ovenbirds ever called; interesting!

Ovenbird

Ovenbird, notice the nice striping on the head

All in all, it was a good trip. Not as many birds seen as hoped for but more snakes and insects than expected. It has been several years since we have been back to Grafton Ponds and it was good getting reacquainted we the beautiful landscape. Looking forward to more survey trips out this over the next year or so and discovering other aspects of the Preserve.

30 years of birds

 Thirty years ago on Easter Sunday my wife and I joined the Hampton Roads Bird Club's Sunday bird walk. It was our first time doing anything like birding. We had seen a poster announcing the semi-monthly walks while hiking at the park and thought it would be interesting to see what this bird-thing was like. Two things stand out in my memory about that walk. First, I saw a lot of things I didn't know what they were but the patient birders on the walk happily helped identify them.

ME: there's a bird on the ground

OTHER: That's a starling

ME: What's that bird on the sidewalk?

OTHER: That's a starling

Five minutes later

ME: What's that in the tree

OTHER: That's a starling

Five minutes later

ME: There is a bunch of birds flying by

OTHER: Those are starlings

Ten minutes later

ME: What's the bird on the railing?

OTHER: That's a starling

Another 10 minutes

ME: Is that a starling

OTHER: No, that's a robin

Luckily, no one lost patience with the new guy who quickly became the starling finder 😀

The second thing I remember is seeing a great blue heron. That became my spark bird, the one that focuses your initial energy and excitement and hooks you into this all-encompassing hobby. Driving around town and going on other walks in parks nearby, I saw a great blue heron each of the next seven days and I was hooked. And if you can't tell by the name of this blog, it became my special bird identity.

A recent great blue heron, not one of the spark ones

I didn't keep records or anything so all I know is that we saw at least two different species on that walk.

This past weekend we went on that walk again to celebrate. Not sure there was anyone here this time that was there the first time. Perhaps the current walk leader was, we don't remember. Over the years as the group as changed leaders and participants, the walk has expanded to cover more and more of the park and last longer. This week we spent about 6 hours birding, including walking a trail that usually isn't part of the walk in hopes of finding more migrating warblers. There weren't great warbler numbers but we still saw 56 species; at least a dozen of them were by call only. That concept would have blown my mind 30 years ago. 

Highlights today included seeing a pair of barred owls, a belted kingfisher with a fish, a prothonotary warbler about 20 ft away, and hearing several common yellowthoats singing. Only the kingfisher was in a position to get a decent photograph. 

Belted kingfisher with a fish for breakfast

Kingfisher whacking the fish to subdue it

Appropriately, there was also a couple of great blue herons. They are probably one of my most seen birds. I've recently been doing a data dive into my eBird data so I should be able to answer that question.  

I'm still amazed at how that decision to go on the walk, and the welcoming, helpful people on the walk, started a new hobby that has seriously changed my life (and usually for the better). I sometimes get lost in thought of how I would be spending my time if I didn't enjoy birdwatching. I've never came up with a good answer.

 

Gardens at Winterthur

 On a recent trip back from Philadelphia, my wife and I stopped at the wonderful gardens at Winterthur. Winterthur was the estate of Henry Francis du Pont, an avid antique collector and gardener in the early to mid 20th century. On the grounds is the massive, 175-room house that now is open as a museum highlighting American antiques. We focused on walking the gardens; over 60 acres. There are also 25 miles of hiking trails that we didn't explore this time but may stop back by to explore. Apparently some of the land is still old-growth forest. Something hard to come by here in the east. 

While we had a map of the grounds, much of our tour focused on the "white arrow" tour. Henry Francis used to set out white arrows to point the way for his visitors to see the areas currently in bloom. The museum continues that tradition.

Spring was still waking in many areas when we visited and a cold front moved through the day before so we were well bundled to enjoy the early bloomers. Flowering magnolia trees were one area of focus. We came across multiple group plantings of different cultivars with different color patterns. They made really nice combinations.

A focus of the early spring blooming flowers are ground covers. There were several places throughout the garden blanketed with flowers making the most of the available sun before the trees overhead leave-out. These included a huge bank of one of our favorite spring flowers, ipheion. At one of our first stops there was a bank of Italian windflower moving ever so gently in the day's breeze.

ipheion

Italian windflower

Near the ipheions on the edge of the sundial garden is a mix of flowering quince. Again, the mixing of the colors, ranging from deep red, to pink, to orange, is really beautiful.

And while many of the daffodils were starting to fade, there was this wonderful combination of daffodils and forsythia looking out over a golf course (yes, Henry Francis had his own, personal golf course).

Winterthur has truly wonderful gardens and I'm glad we decided to stop by. Maybe next time, we will get to see the fairies that live there.

Fairies cottage. Unoccupied during our visit

A Study of Pine Warblers

This winter we have been hosts to three very distinct pine warblers. And they are all coming to the feeder station we have out. This year I have a hopper with mixed seeds, a small dish that usually has dried mealworms, and recently I have added back the Bark Butter feeder. The Bark Butter feeder is a fallen limb that I drilled 1" holes all the way through. It used to hang from a pine branch that I could reach with a long stick. This offered good protection from squirrels and other mammals. But then that branch fell in a storm and there isn't anything else that is within good reach that would also offer mammal protection. So it had been in the shed for a couple of seasons. 

This year we have been getting a lot of activity at the feeder including a family or two of bluebirds and the western tanager visitor talked about in my last post. That, plus being home most days now that I'm retired, means I can better keep up with the full suite of feeders. 

Among the many visitors are the pine warblers. We have pine warblers in the yard year-round and they would occasionally come to the feeders. But this year they are being regular visitors and with the distinct plumages, we can readily keep track of them. It also has been fun to watch their interactions. One day I had the camera out and took a lot of pictures. Here are some of the highlights including the plumage variations and some of their interactions.

This is the palest of the pine warblers. On the front (see image below), there is only a slight hint of yellow. When we first saw it from the front, we were thinking it might be something like an orange-crowned warbler. But the wing bars and overall behavior make it clearly a pine warbler. 

Pale pine warbler on Bark Butter feeder

Palest pine warbler on the mealworm feeder to the right

This is the brightest and the middle pine warblers both on the feeder pole. A downy woodpecker comes in and flushes the middle one.

The brightest and middle pine warbler both on the feeder

A downy flushes one off

The brightest has very strong, distinct streaking along its sides. Very pretty.

Brightest pine warbler showing streaking on its sides

The warblers like the mealworm feeder too. But it is small enough that they usually don't share. First we have the brightest pine warbler displacing the palest. And then the palest coming back but failing to displace a bluebird.

Palest pine warbler leaving as the brightest comes in to the feeder

Pine warbler approaching bluebird already on the feeder

And not being successful in displacing the bluebird

And finally, the palest attempting to approach the Bark Butter feeder that the brightest is defending

While the palest seemed to have a rough time of it accessing the feeders the day I had the camera out, that does not seem to be a regular pattern. Just a little run of bad luck.

It appears that we have two mixed flocks with different makeups of species and a few times a day, they arrive at the same time. Or maybe it is a large one that sometimes splits into two?? The middle and brightest often travel together while the paler one is the lone pine warbler in its smaller group. The groups have different numbers of chickadees and bluebirds as well. When they get together there doesn't seem like there is much fighting so that's good.

'Til next time ...