Breaking Out

I've been dying to see what the heron hatchlings look like and, by gum, they look very heron-like, no? I guess it's all in the beak!

Herons

I'm doing a good job of not mentioning weather or climate, here or anywhere. In that overly used phrase, "It is what it is." I'm am however going to express my admiration for the Great Blue Herons nesting on the pond at Sapsucker Woods in Ithaca. Since the peregrine falcons in Syracuse don't appear to be having any success again this year, I've been checking this heron nest in the morning. Monday it was barely visible through the snow and there could be more of the same tomorrow but the herons seem to take it all in stride.

I'm trying to follow their example.

Repeat Performance

Of course I have no way of knowing if it's the same bird but I'd like to think the Carolina Wren that was here last February has been back again this year.  He put on quite a performance one morning last week, singing his full song rather than just the usual raspy call. I never saw more than the one wren last year and he was gone after a few weeks but but I'm hoping he'll attract a mate this spring and stick around.

New Neighbors

Several weeks ago when I was out back repotting veggie starts I thought I heard a faint call that I've never heard around the yard before, I thought I heard a bluebird. I listened but didn't hear it again, didn't leave my pots to go looking because I couldn't believe there were bluebirds in the neighborhood. I heard the call at least a second time but again didn't take the time to look for the source.

Monday morning I heard it so loud and clear that I had to look and there he was, a beautiful male blue bird on the top of the feeder pole! And then I saw a female on a little stake at the edge of the new bed! I tried to take some pictures but the light on my dirty window made it hard to get a clear image. They spent about an hour repeatedly dropping down to the grass where we could see every bit of their bluebird-blue.

We aren't seeing them often so I think we're on the periphery of their territory. It didn't seem like they were feeding nestlings somewhere and there weren't any fledglings around so I don't know if we'll see anymore this season or not. I'm just grateful for their visit.

Meanwhile the two houses that have been on the market for the past year or more have sold so we wait to see what the new human neighbors are about...

Wet

photo by Genie Dibble

The owlets are wet just like everything else in upstate New York. After the wettest April on record this last week has put me hopelessly behind. Moss and slugs, that's about it. There is some particularly good rhubarb but I still don't have any fava beans sown or anything else for that matter.

Still I marvel at the green of it. Everything is so very, very green, shades of green that we only see this time of year.

On the Wing

I didn't spend much time looking for great horned owls this spring but Genie did. Once again the crows eventually lead her to a nest but the two owlets were already close to fledging. She kept me posted with photos including those above.

I wasn't able to get over to the park until yesterday and I went primarily just so Genie could show me the location of the nest since the owlets had fledged a couple of days before and the new leaves were filling in the canopy. The crows were mobbing something so I watched for awhile but couldn't see any owls. Then just as I was climbing up on my way out I turned and took a last look with my binoculars. There they were in the top of a hemlock, a clear view of both fledglings almost at my eye level.

I was especially pleased to see young owls again since the peregrine falcons in Syracuse didn't produce any young this year. It's actually been difficult to watch the female, Fancy, at the empty next box. I hope this is just an off-year for them and not the end of their tenure.

A New Visitor

photo posted by dypepper on Weather Underground

What a treat, a lovely Carolina wren poking around the wood pile this afternoon. I just hope it sticks around for awhile and maybe even vocalizes a bit...

Reflection

My friend lives on what used to be open farmland, what is still wonderful bluebird habitat. She's taken a lot of good photos but this recent one is by far my favorite.

Who?

Green Lakes 2008

Everything has frozen again this week. The poor geese haven't been able to raft on the lakes at the park the past few nights because the ice isn't thick enough to support them and they would be in danger of getting frozen-in in the areas of open water.

Despite the cold I went out late yesterday and for the first time in a long time, I heard a great horned owl. I lingered hoping to hear a second voice but I think they may be past the courtship phase if this bird is one of a nesting pair.

Being out in the woods at dusk with the first quarter of the wolf moon, the snow and the call of the owl was a perfect antidote to an otherwise miserable week.

Or is the moon waxing gibbous?

Buckeye 1996-2009

Buckeye, believed to be one of the country's oldest and most prolific male peregrine falcons, died last week after apparently striking a building near its urban nest on the Terminal Tower in Cleveland, Ohio.

I've been following the falcons on the Terminal Tower since they were first provided a scrape maybe twenty years ago. Szell and Zenith were the first I remember. At that time peregrines were still migrating every year and one year when Szell didn't return Zenith bonded with a young falcon from Columbus, Ohio, Buckeye.

Bam!

While I was still sitting here this morning this sharp shinned hawk chased what I think was the jay I heard just before the impact, into the window at high, if not full, speed. My heart is still racing.

The hawk finally flew off without any apparent difficulty but I haven't been out to see if there's another bird on the ground below the window.

...no sign of the jay.

Warblers

hanstoom

Warblers have also returned to the park this week including a number of black-throated green and black-throated blue warblers.

Hummingbirds are still moving through central NY; we saw one at the feeder last night.

Peregrines 2009

On Tuesday they banded the four young Syracuse falcons: three were judged to be female, but they're uncertain about the smallest bird.

Meanwhile somewhere in or around the Cleveland Clinic, a 2005 Syracuse fledgling named Cade is tending her first brood of four.


Unfortunately the fledging I had the close contact with last year, Matilda, was euthanized after she was found badly injured earlier this year.

Another Season Begins

http://www.voydanoff.net/albums/crane-creek-birds/c_bobolink2.sized.jpg

The bobolinks have returned to the meadows at the park and are performing another concert of sorts as they do their aerial loop de loops. In some areas it devolves into an odd battle of the bands when they try to out do their neighbors, the red winged blackbirds, but up on Farmers Hill there is one male who has a spot pretty much to himself and he put on a lovely show yesterday.

Genie's Bluebird

White Winged Crossbills

First I saw a female. I'd heard reports that some birds were dropping further south presumably because of the unusually cold temperatures so I'd been keeping an eye out for siskins, grosbeaks and such. When I got my binoculars I knew this bird wasn't one I'd seen before and I actually had to pull out a field book to identify the small flock as white winged crossbills.

I couldn't get any decent photos myself because (#1) they were moving around so much, (#2) it was 13 freakin' degrees and (#3) I still don't really know how to use the camera. Thank you Cornell Lab; they didn't stay long so I'm glad to have access to these photos.

A Small Loss

She hit the window at the kitchen sink which I've never known a bird to do in the twenty years I've been here. I suspect she was fleeing one of the hawks. I wasn't home when it happened; I saw a trickle of blood on the window when I got back from the park yesterday.

I had a bit of a meltdown. I'm practically labile these days. On the surface life around me seems to continue unchanged and people seem blithely unconcerned about the things that leave me paralyzed for longer and longer chunks of time.

Street Theatre

Fancy during the 2006 banding

For my birthday lunch with a friend who's a real birder, I'd requested we go downtown and look for falcons while we were there. The outing turned out to be the best gift I could imagine.

We knew the two males had fledged on Saturday and that the females had left the box as of Wednesday morning. After they leave the box they spend some time on the balcony before they take to the air so we weren't sure if they were all on the wing or not. We saw a falcon in the air before we parked and then as we were walking, we saw several in a matter of minutes.

We stopped and were standing around looking up to the sky and the Verizon tower where the young falcons spend a lot of time on the platforms when we suddenly realized there was a falcon on the sidewalk across the street from us. Within seconds two men were there, members of the group of people who keep watch during the first flights. One was George Marleau from the NY DOT who has taken the lead on all things regarding the Syracuse peregrine falcons and it was a pleasure to finally meet him in person.

George identified the bird as Matilda and said she had just taken her first flight that morning. She appeared to be stunned but uninjured. She didn't really try to fly but she did move away from efforts to capture her. We helped warn off motorists until George finally got close enough to toss a blanket over her and scoop her up into a box but the whole time all I could see was her huge feet and those incredible talons.

By the time his wife arrived to take George and the bird to a veterinarian for a check up, Matilda was much more active in the box but it was only after they left that the real drama began.

Obviously, it was fortunate that Matilda was grounded and captured before either of the adults realized what was happening. Shortly after George left, Jennifer and I heard Fancy, the adult female, in the air over the tower building where the nest box is located on the 20th floor balcony. Her alarm calls easily overrode the traffic din. We watched as the three juveniles came in and perched in various spots on the tower but of course Fancy continued to call for the fourth.

Although we have no idea how Fancy determined something was amiss, it was amazing to see her 'call down' her brood and see the youngsters respond. We don't know how long she kept at it because after several minutes we found it difficult to watch and listen any longer. We walked over to Armory Square and had a lovely, quiet lunch.

When we returned to the tower building Fancy was still on and around the balcony, still calling, but her behavior was different and we couldn't see any other birds. We spoke to another falcon observer and she confirmed what we suspected: Matilda had been returned to the balcony and Fancy was trying to call her out but she was having none of it.

My only regret is that I never expected to get anywhere near a falcon so it didn't occur to me to take my camera but there was a photo of Maestro in The Post Standard after his first flight on Saturday and there are those fabulous feet...

Bubby

I enjoy several blogs written by women who have chickens. I'd love to have a few chickens but I doubt I ever will. I 'have' crows instead. They perch in various places watching the house presumably waiting for me to come out with something for them. Now there's Bubby, an injured juvenile I think, who's been hanging out at the back doors, usually with another watchful crow nearby.

Meanwhile I feel defeated by the early heat wave and the thunderstorms. I have eggplant and peppers in but no tomatoes. We've gone to AC before the fourth of July and we rarely do that. Today is likely to be the worst of it; it only got down to 75º/24º last night and we don't have the cloud cover that helped yesterday.

Two Males, Two Females

The young falcons were banded on Friday. The Syracuse Post Standard has published photos by Gloria Wright including this one of 'Matilda' named after Matilda Joslyn Gage, the suffragist who lived down the road in Fayetteville in the day.