I always have my eye out for the small birds, watching for darting movements through the trees and undergrowth. This summer they were elusive, always hidden by leaves or behind a limb.
Now at the end of September the grasses and brush have started to thin and drop back making a shot more attainable.
This Warbler lit on a beautiful muted scene just as I was glanced that way. His coloration doesn’t quite match the samples on the identification resources.
…I think. Or maybe a Vireo.
It looks a lot like the Gnatchatcher drawing in the Peterson Field Guide and less like the photos on Cornell’s All About Birds website. The eye ring points to a Vireo.
Either way, it was a perky energetic bird that mostly stayed hidden by branches of the trees he was inspecting. A dead limb let me get a few clear shots.
A flash of the tail and he was gone.
I’ve been calling these small birds “Song Birds” but have learned while trying to identify this bird that as members of the order Passeriformes they are “Perching Birds.” The arrangement of their toes, with three pointing forward and one backward, facilitates perching. Somehow I’ve been skipping over that in my bird ID activities.
A familiar sight to many, the Red-winged Black Bird is found over most of the continental United States year round and extends its range into a big swath of Canada for the summer.
The males are always vying for attention with a flash of their shoulder patches and constant singing. This one’s tail feathers flared out every time he called, something I hadn’t noticed before.
On this rather dull day his eyes appeared as black as his feathers.
This warbler was busy collecting little worms from the undersides of leaves and kept darting out of a clear view.
I didn’t know what it was, but the yellow chest was quite pretty when he did pop into the sun, so I kept trying to get a shot.
All About Birds used the words “furtive” and “skulking” to describe the Common Yellowthroat’s behavior. I was fortunate to get a few shots with him in place.
The USS Yorktown (CV-10) is covered with attractive nooks and crannies if you are a bird. This includes the twelve historic aircraft on display on the flight deck.
Grackles were particularly abundant this week, using all openings for their homes.
An Osprey nest is perched in the tower. I hope it is a little sturdier than it appears here, at the top of the ladder.
A small flock of House Finches was perching off the edges of the flight deck on safety netting. I wasn’t able to see where they might be nesting as they zipped back and forth, somewhere below the edge of the deck.
The USS Yorktown (CV-10) is the centerpiece of Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum, Mount Pleasant, SC. Towed to this spot in 1975 the Yorktown itself is a museum and additionally houses a number of exhibits associated with its history dating back to World War II.
Northern Cardinals have a wide range across much of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains and down into Mexico and northern Central America. I frequently see them but rarely get a good shot.
This male Northern Cardinal was singing loud and clear in a tree above me but I just couldn’t spot him. I expected him to fly away as two people approached from the opposite direction. They could hear, and see, him, and seeing my dilemma kindly pointed him out.
This Chickadee was zipping around in the tree line and surprised me when he landed very close. Too close to get him all in focus before he flitted away.
I watched him go in a hole in a dead tree branch. He spent some time enlarging the hole, paused again for a look around, and then flew away. I waited but he did not return. I’ve been by the branch a few times since then and don’t see any sign of activity.
I’m calling it a Carolina Chickadee based on Cornell’s explanation that the range of the Carolina and Black Capped versions do not overlap. They also say there are differences in their voices, but my ear is not that good to distinguish a “a four-noted song, and a faster chick-a-dee call.”
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The tree lines around Magnolia Plantation are active with small birds going about their business.
These Yellow-rumped Warblers have a chirpy song that gives you a hint where to look, but they don’t stay in one place for long and I didn’t get any good shots of the patch of yellow on their rump.
They seem oblivious to the herons, egrets and other water birds carrying on in the pond just to the edge of these trees.
This time of year before the trees leaf out is likely the best chance to photograph them.
Magnolia Plantation, Charleston, SC, 02/13/2017.
The Swamp Sparrow is known to stick his head in the water to find food but this one was content to stay dry on this fall day.
He zipped back and forth across a small pond at the edge of the swamp from the marsh reeds to the grass.
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On the walk across Bull Island from the ferry landing to the beach we were entertained by a number of small songbirds like this Phoebe singing his heart out.
Others were busier looking for their next meal in the reeds
or the underbrush.
A single Yellow-bellied Sapsucker seen working a palm tree out in the open defied the bird size trend of the morning.
Bulls Island, Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, Awendaw, SC.
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