Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have arrived!

On March 1, I posted a message on the arrival of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds to the coastlines of Texas and Florida. (As reported by people like you and me on http://www.hummingbirds.net/) Well, yesterday, on April 28, some finally arrived to my backyard. Or should I say, I saw my first Ruby-throated Hummingbird on April 28 because (based on reports as posting to hummingbirds.net) these fast, flashy, and tiny birds arrived in my area of the state about two weeks ago.

Who knows?

Maybe my backyard visitors are simply more leisurely in arriving than others? Whatever the case, I’m glad to see their return and look forward their company throughout spring and summer.

So if you haven’t yet put out a feeder, there’s no time to delay. To learn how, visit the Web site above. Until next time . . . happy birding!

Georgia Anne

Eastern Towhee

Eastern Towhees arrived to my backyard a couple weeks ago, so it’s high time I wrote about them. I like towhees because their songs are easy to recognize:

Drink your tea!

Of course, not every bird will sing the entire phrase. If fact, last evening, a towhee kept singing . . . Your tea . . . Your tea . . . Your tea. And I couldn’t help but think—Well, what about my tea?

Like people, birds are individuals and so they don’t always follow the “script.” I’m sometimes confused when a bird’s interpretation of its species song isn’t quite like I’ve heard other birds sing it. So learning to identify a bird by its song is always a bit tricky. Of course the task is easier with a song you can translate into words. For instance, once you've learned the Barred Owl’s song--Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all—it’s hard to forget. Same thing goes for the Eastern Towhee.

Towhees are actually large, colorful sparrows. The males are black and reddish-brown with white bellies and white spots on their wings. Females are less dramatic in shades of brown and white. Both have red eyes. (Photo is courtesy of Charles H. Warren).

Towhees like tangles of shrubby growth, for instance the multi-floral rose or forsythia. Towhees are rummaging birds so look for them on the ground, under cover of sprawling vegetation.

Till next time . . . happy birding!

Georgia Anne

Enchantment at the Champion Tree

During my week exploration of the White River National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), the experience I’ll always remember is time spent sitting in the company of a millennium-old Bald Cypress and a Barred Owl.

My park liaison, Matt Connor, who early in the week gave me a tour of Moon Lake and Indian Bayou, suggested that I visit the Champion Tree, a Bald Cypress estimated to be between 1000 and 1500 years old. He and the Youth Conservation Corp, high school student volunteers, built the trail to this truly ancient tree in the summer of 2007.

Read Connor’s article on this endeavor in his Refuge Writings at
http://www.fws.gov/whiteriver/

From the park office, I traveled several miles (on Rt 17) heading to the small hamlet of Ethel and then a few more on a narrow country road, which led to Refuge Road and my entry point. Within the refuge, I traveled a mile on a gravel road, crossing a car-width bridge over high water and shortly after arrived at the trailhead. The hike in was a mere 1.2 miles and this on a beautiful April day. I heard many birds, recognizing only some. However, I can tell you that woodpeckers thrive in the refuge! Pileated and Red-bellied Woodpeckers as well as Northern Flickers were everywhere calling.

Walking along this beautiful—though sometimes wet—walk (recent heavy rains had turned portions of the trail into lagoons), I heard two Barred Owls calling one to the other. I felt right at home; these owls often call within the woodlands adjacent to my property.

And so I arrived, reverently approaching the Champion Tree, majestic in its size and age. I sat on the ground, back propped against the trunk of a more ordinary tree, and stared at the Bald Cypress, who even then stood within a channel of water. The photograph I provide here, taken from a brief video, reveals the buttresses of its massive base. (Read my April 7 post, “Notes from Arkansas” to learn more about the species of Bald Cypress.)

I tried to imagine the world from which this mammoth tree sprang as a seedling. At that time, native peoples inhabited the continent; Europeans would not turn their attention to North America for another five hundred years, that is, if the tree were only a thousand years old. If 1500 years, then those people across the Atlantic Ocean would yet be living in the Dark Ages! And yet before me this same tree grew, alive and strong.

I knew the place must be sacred.

As I sat thinking, looking high into the branches of a neighboring Bald Cypress, perhaps only a few hundred years old, I saw something perched on a limb. Grabbing my binoculars, I guessed at its identify, based on the stocky build, and then to my delight discovered the reality—a Barred Owl! (See a beautiful photograph of a Barred Owl (by Robert Synder) in the Meet the Birds page of this Web site.)

I have often heard but never seen a Barred Owl in the woods. The creamy-colored, round-face owl (striped by the bars from which it gets its name) stared down at me for a bit. But, apparently, I was not that interesting and so he resumed the business of an afternoon nap.

Now I knew the place to be sacred. I sat there a bit longer, thankful of the company, and then rose to leave.

Until next time . . . happy birding!

Georgia Anne

Carolina Wren

For the last several mornings, in my yard, a Carolina Wren has been singing from high in a walnut tree to attract a mate. Wrens are small birds with BIG voices. Every spring, both House Wrens and Carolina Wrens nest in my yard. Despite its name, the Carolina Wren is a year-round resident to Pennsylvania as well as other mid-Atlantic, central, and southern states (including, North and South Carolina, of course). However, the House Wren actually winters in the lower southern states and then comes northward to breed.

During my week visit to Arkansas early this month, I was also treated to the exuberant singing of the Carolina Wren. However, I didn’t recognize his song, described by Tory Peterson as “a clear 3-syllable chant. Variable; tea-kettle, tea-kettle, tea-kettle, tea.” And that is exactly what I heard while in Arkansas. But the song of Carolina Wrens singing in my yard (these many years) sounds different. And before my trip south, I never recognized the distinction. (Photo courtesy of Charles H. Warren.)

Checking Peterson’s A Field to the Birds East of the Rockies for an explanation, I found it. Peterson actually provides two forms of the song, one being “tea-kettle” and the other sounding like so: chirpity, chirpity, chirpity, chirp. Now chirpity is the song of the Carolina Wrens I know. The key word in the description provided above is “Variable,” meaning that individual Carolina Wrens can sing their songs differently.


So here’s my question: Do Carolina Wrens in Pennsylvania sing chirpity while those in Arkansas sing tea-kettle? Or are there wrens just miles away from my home also singing tea-kettle?

If you know the answer, why not post it as a comment to me? Let’s get this mystery solved!

Until next time . . . happy birding!

Georgia Anne

Notes from Arkansas

(Note below written on Thursday, April 2)

While I write this, a Northern Mockingbird sings melodies outside my window from his endless repertoire. He doesn't seem bothered by the heavy rain, which today keeps me inside the cozy quarters of the Schoolhouse Lodge. I’m writing to you from Bayou Meto, a tiny community east of the White River National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in Arkansas County, Arkansas. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by Ryan Hagerty.)

I arrived on Monday (3/30) for a week of birding and to learn something of the habitat of the refuge, a tract of bottomland hardwood forest (3 to 10 miles wide) bordering the White River. As a floodplain within the Mississippi Delta, the refuge (approximately 90 miles in length) contains lakes, bays, sloughs, and bayous—an incredible wetland habitat to some 231 species of birds (as recognized by the American Ornithological Union).

On day 1 of my visit, Matthew Connor (USFWS) provided me a boat tour of Moon Lake and Indian Bayou, explaining the system’s hydrology and identifying for me various tree and bird species. (Read his wonderful essays at www.fws.gov/whiteriver/stories)

Interesting to me are the baldcypress, slow-growing trees (which can live hundreds of years) adapted to survive in standing water. These trees do not suffocate because their root systems obtain oxygen through a host of woody, conical-shaped projections that grow up from the underground roots to the surface. These root "extensions" grow up through the water and allow respiration to occur through their exposed tips. Matt related their function to that of a snorkel, something we can all understand. Oddly enough, these woody protrusions are called “knees,” though I don’t know why.

I have a video of several baldcypress tree growing on the edge of Burnt Lake, one of many lakes within the refuge, which I’ll post soon to the What’s New page. In the coming video, you’ll see dozens, even hundreds, of these “knees” growing like mushrooms up through the water, crowding the trunks of these old trees.

Look for more notes on my Arkansas trip.

Until then . . . happy birding!

Georgia Anne