Spring Migrants at Herrick's Cove

ruby-crowned kinglet

One of the smallest songbirds, the ruby-crowned kinglet has been singing up a storm this spring. His song starts out with 4 or 5 high pitched notes, followed by a warbling repertoire of sounds that only gets louder as he sings!

Ruby-crowned posing pretty!
Our other kinglet, the golden-crowned (click on the link to read my posting), is around in the winter. Only hummingbirds are smaller than these songbirds.

osprey

Herrick's Cove is a favorite stop for osprey, where they can be observed hanging in the air or "kiting" over the water, then diving, feet first, for a fish.

great blue heron

Another common bird is the great blue heron, showing how he tucks his long neck when he flies.

bufflehead

Here's a cool fact about buffleheads; they nest almost exclusively in holes excavated by Northern Flickers and, on occasion, by Pileated Woodpeckers.

palm warbler

Palm warblers are quite common in the spring, with their rusty colored caps and habit of bobbing their tail.

northern flicker

This flicker is probably looking for ants, its preferred food.

Saxtons River Christmas Bird Count

On Saturday December 14th, we had good but really cold weather for our annual Christmas Bird Count. Temps were only 4 degrees when we started out! brrrrrrr!!

 Our first stop was at the seep in Bellows Falls, the water is always warm and filled with ducks, mostly mallards and American blacks. 

Cedar Waxwings were abundant, filling up on all the fruit.

This shot was taken the day before in Walpole when we were scouting out the area. The flock had over 60 birds although none were seen at this spot on Saturday.

Rock Pigeons are always plentiful.

A nice flock of Horned Larks at one of the NH farms.

On the far left is a Lapland Longspur, to the far right is a Snow Bunting, the rest are Horned Larks.

Lots of crows around.

One of my favorite winter birds, the tiny Golden-crowned Kinglet. Here's their story on a blog by Kent McFarland. onemeter2.wordpress.com

 

Not sure exactly what kind of bird this one is, I may need help with the ID!

Golden-crowned Kinglet

 Our tiniest winter bird (barely larger than a hummingbird) is the golden-crowned kinglet. We see them all winter in conifers, particularly hemlocks and pines, actively flitting around finding insects. Yes, insects! They don't eat seeds, these bird are insectivores.

They move around so fast, Gerry had a hard time getting one to stay still long enough to focus and shoot.

This is a great shot of the golden stripe on his crown. 

Bernd Heinrich's book "Winter World; the Ingenuity of Animal Survival" has a great section on this bird and is well worth a read if you haven't already done so.