Tuesday, May 08, 2012

More from Braddock Bay

Warbling vireo, mid-warble
Visiting Braddock Bay near Rochester, New York, offered me a good opportunity to see birds I don’t get to see on my mountain. May is prime migration and birding season. It’s hard to tear myself away from my own patch during May, but I'm glad I did as the trip turned out to be worthwhile for birding, though I didn't have nearly as much time for it as I would have liked.

The area where sawgrass ends and the solid ground begins is marked by a narrow strip of vegetation, a kind of hedgerow. In this narrow band, lots of birds gathered and found cover. The narrowness also presents a good opportunity for birders to see birds that usually prefer to stay hidden.

The first bird is warbling vireo, noted mostly for being drab and nondescript—until they start to sing. The song is lovely and repeated often. These birds are usually heard and not seen, so finding one out in the open and singing was a real treat for me.
Palm warbler







Also on hand and virtually everywhere else were palm warblers.





White-crowned sparrow eating dandelion


Another bird I don’t often get to see, let alone get to see well and be very cooperative, was a white-crowned sparrow that was very engrossed in those dandelions.

Now that I’m home again, I need to catch up on my cabin birding! When you’re a birder, as I am, May is no time to be sitting indoors.




6 comments:

Cathy said...

Glad to see you had a good time adn got some good pictures

Anonymous said...

Nice find on that Marsh Wren! Funny you mentioned the Warbling Vireo being drab, I saw one this weekend at Lake Redman and honestly had no idea what it was until I got home and compared pics. It's a shame I didn't get to hear it sing!

Jan's Travel and Tours said...

Very nice photos...I like the picture of the white-crowned sparrow eating dandelion...please do keep on posting!

Carolyn H said...

Cathy: If I'd spent the days birding instead of sitting in meetings, I'm sure I would have seen a ton of birds. Maybe next time!

Carolyn H said...

thebirdingjournal: I was tickled with the marsh wren. I can spend years hearing them and never seeing them and then to have one jump out and sing right in front of me was pretty cool. Basically, with warbling vireos: if there's no marks to look at, it's a warbling vireo.

Carolyn H said...

Jan's T&T: I would have liked to sneak up closer to the sparrow, but it was starting to act skittish, so I didn't want to chance it taking off before I could grab a photo!