Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Birding Is Getting Good

Spring and fall when so much birding activity is taking place is so much fun and almost overwhelming at times. Fortunately I have a little flexibility at work and can adjust my hours somewhat to take advantage of the morning feeding frenzy.

The last three days have been simply wonderful to the point of what to photograph first before it flies away. Tomorrow morning I have taken a little leave time to take full advantage of the wonderful birds that are coming in. This is my long work week of 12 days straight so I think a couple of hours out early one morning are deserved. Beautiful weather this past weekend and of course, with the upcoming weekend off, it is suppose to rain.

As I was walking this morning I saw a bright flash and at first thought it was a Cardinal. But then I realized, orange! I saw the female Summer Tanager the morning before and wondered about the male. Well here he was in all his glory. He had a cicada that was just about to get the better of it. I watched for quite some time and he would work on it for a while then lay it on the limb to seemingly rest.

Walking a bit further, a Red-Eyed Vireo. It seemed very shy but curious. It would peer over a leaf then under a leaf but never come fully out in the open. As I walked on, in a moment it flew by, stopped and once again repeated the behavior.

The Red-Headed Woodpeckers were rowdy and loud flying from tree to tree. There were also several young ones around who are just starting to get their distinctive red feathers on the head.

Lots and lots of Pine Warblers and Prairie Warblers but none of my pictures are very good. That is my goal tomorrow.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Nice birds! I've not seen two of those you show here, but there's a small chance I can see both this weekend at the Midwest Birding Symposium.