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 ...

A Rare Start to the Year

My wife and I like starting the new year by spending time with the birds and seeing all the new-this-year species. We will pick a local area and spend most of the day visiting several birding hot spots. This isn't "Big Day" style birding but a day focused on being out there and seeing birds. And if the weather is decent, all the better.

This year our day started with watching the morning flock at our backyard feeder. For the past couple of days we had been hosting a Western Tanager. The tanager would generally show up with a big mixed flock of bluebirds, finches, several sparrows species, cardinals, pine warblers, and many others. This morning, the visit was cut short by a Cooper's Hawk swooping through the yard. But we still managed to see 13 species in 5 minutes of watching.

Western Tanager

Western Tanager

That was one rare bird seen to start the new year. Our next stop was at an fellow birder's who was hosting a rufous hummingbird. The hummingbird, like the tanager, is a western US bird that migrated east instead of south. We don't normally chase rare birds since we feel the payoff of seeing it and adding it to a list doesn't offset the usual long wait that frequently ends in totally missing the bird. This was the exact opposite. When we arrived at the house, two other people were there. After introductions and some small talk we started watching the feeder. A minute or two later, one of them turned to us and said, "you know that it is right here in this tree" and pointed about 20 feet away. And there is was sitting on a branch. It soon took to the air to grab a bug and return. It continued perching and flying around for the next ten minutes or so. Only then did it go to the sugar water feeder. That was rare bird #2 for the day and we had spent about 15 minutes of watching time. We also saw several other backyard birds sharing the space with the hummingbird.

Rufous Hummingbird

A couple of years ago we had good luck at a local farm where you can bird along a driveway through the fields. That time we saw snipe and Killdeer in the fields and several hawks species overhead. My wife wanted to see snipe to honor the those of last year and the first one we ever saw together, also coincidentally on New Year's Day.  However, this year the fields were really dry, it hasn't rained here in about two weeks, and we didn't see any birds in the fields. There were many turkey vultures in a neighboring field and a handful of rock pigeons on the wires. So we moved on.

While it wasn't particularly cold, there was a biting wind making standing in the open uncomfortable. So our next stop was a small boat launch park that was well protected. We saw four woodpecker species and our first American Robins of the year. After a coffee stop, we drove along a parkway that travels along the James River. 

After a couple of quiet stops we came across a mixed flock that gave us a lot of good views and hung around for a while. The flock was mainly White-throated Sparrows. Traveling with them were a pair of White-breasted Nuthatches, a pair of Hermit Thrushes, and three Eastern Towhees among more typical members like chickadees and titmice. 

Further along the parkway as we drove past a mowed patch, my wife saw a handful of Tree Swallows feeding. There is no parking on the side of the road there so we u-turned and passed back by slowly. And by slowly I mean creeping along at zero miles per hour as our attention was on the swallows. The swallows are eBird-rare, meaning they are unusual enough we have to provide additional justification. At a later stop we also saw a Laughing Gull that is also eBird-rare. Both are typical fall birds that probably winter only a little south of us so it isn't uncommon to see them in early winter or even through winter. But unusual enough to feel like a special treat. 

By this time the light was starting to fade and the cold was seeping into us, so we headed home with a total of 51 species seen. 

Great Blue Heron seen along the shore

A wonderful way to start the new year, in which I am now fully retired. So I plan to post more-- keep an eye here.