Birds of Forestville

My three trips to Forestville State Park last week were primarily for birding. My previous post about wildflowers showed you what was on the ground, but this post is all about the birds I saw. We were hoping to catch warbler migration, but the first two days were a little chilly for much warbler activity. Fortunately, Forestville State Park has lots of other birds to see and enjoy. I knew it was going to be a good day when we spotted these Turkey Vultures perched in the tree at the entrance to the park!
I have Mr. Johnson so well-trained now that he immediately knew to pull the car off to the side of the road so I could get out to take photos. Luckily for me, one of the TVs decided to leave its perch and give me some perfect fly-over shots.

So beautiful in flight! (Hi Lynne!)

Turkey Vulture doing its part for highway clean-up! (sorry about this poor quality photo--thru the windshield)

For the rest of this post, you may want to click on the photos to enlarge them.

Down by the river (where we sometimes see warblers) we found lots of Ruby-Crowned Kinglets, busily scouting among the rocks and tree roots for insects.
I was thrilled to get a couple of shots where you could actually see this tiny bird's ruby "crown!"

A Hermit Thrush was puttering around on the ground near the parking lot. I hoped it would sing for us, but this bird remained silent.

Hello Handsome Thrush!

They're easy to miss when they're lurking on the ground.

Here's a waterthrush I managed to photograph through a break in dense ground cover. Initial hopes were that this was a Louisiana Waterthrush, but upon further review, I think it's a Northern.

Lincoln's Sparrow

Brown Creeper

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher

Black & White Warbler

Another look at the B&W Warbler, this one reminded us of a tiny woodpecker, scooting in all directions around the tree trunk foraging for insects.

On our second trip to the park, I spotted this raptor perched in a small tree near the park entrance. Can you see it there?

I had no idea what it was, but when I got out of the car to take a better look, it decided to fly away. (I was thrilled with this shot and the fact that I managed to get the camera focused in time to actually capture the bird flying away!)

Luckily for me, the raptor decided to soar directly overhead for several minutes and I was able to get several nice photos that helped to identify it as a Broad-Winged Hawk!

This warbler was busy gleaning insects from a gooseberry bush. Can you give me a better look at yourself, please?

What do you think? I went with Orange-Crowned Warbler on this one based on what my Kaufman field guide says: "Often stays fairly low in leafy thickets.....Very plain.... No wingbars. Dark line through eye, faint broken eye-ring. Blurry streaks on chest."

Got to see my FOY Rose-Breasted Grosbeak on this day. Such a handsome bird!

Last week's third birding trip to Forestville was with my Sissy. Another chilly and overcast morning, but we were optimistic about the weather forecast and hoping for the chance to see some warblers. I did get this nice shot of a male Red-Winged Blackbird showing off for a female perched nearby. Who could resist a handsome guy like him?
Down along the river's edge, I saw this Spotted Sandpiper poking around a few rocks.

A lucky sighting, I think because it blended in really well with its surroundings.

Here's a not-so-good shot of a Blackburnian Warbler we spotted high in the tree top. The flame orange throat is such a dead giveaway to this warbler's ID (even on a cloudy day!)

Northern Waterthrush

Northern Parula (he just wouldn't sit still!)

One more try.......

American Redstart-bottom view

American Redstart-top view!

I think this was a Palm Warbler. If I remember correctly, it had a rusty-colored cap that didn't show up in this photo.

Thanks Sissy for driving on this trip and being a good sport while I had to keep stopping to take photos! Hope we can do this again next spring (or sometime sooner)!

Wildflowers of Forestville

Last week I took advantage of some fairly decent weather and headed down to Forestville State Park to look for spring migrants. Unfortunately the first couple days were chilly and cloudy, so the birds weren't flying around much, but there were still plenty of other things to see including lots of blooming early spring wildflowers. Here's what I was able to photograph on Monday and Tuesday of last week. (be sure to click on any of these photos if you want to see the *larger* version!)

Bloodroot (almost to the end of their bloom season)

Virginia Spring Beauty

Trout Lily

Virginia Bluebells

White Violet

Common Blue Violet

Squirrel Corn (I call it Bleeding Heart)

Marsh Marigold

Hepatica? Blue-Eyed Grass?I can't find any flower like this with 7 petals....if anyone knows what it is, please leave me a comment so I know too. Thanks!

Swamp Buttercup

One of the Anemones (Rue? or Wood?)

Dutchman's Breeches

I'd like to dedicate this post to my Mom who used to love taking us out to the woods when we were kids to search for spring wildflowers. I remember dutifully traipsing along with Mom all those years ago, but luckily some of her enthusiasm stuck with me all those years and now I look forward to searching for spring wildflowers. Unfortunately, Mom is unable to hike over the uneven terrain anymore to enjoy these spring wildflowers. I had some prints made of these pictures and put them into a framed photo collage for her Mother's Day gift, so she can enjoy them every day of the year.

Narceus americanus

It was a gorgeous late summer day and perfect for a family picnic at our favorite spot: Forestville State Park. In the picnic shelter, we found this large millipede (Narceus americanus). Normally I'm a bit squeamish about bugs that are larger than an inch, but this millipede was really interesting and after my brother and nephew said it was really cool to feel all those millipede legs walking across their hand, I had to experience the sensation also.


It was a really neat feeling and so fascinating to watch all those little legs propelling this millipede forward and backwards! Sorry this video isn't longer......hopefully you'll find a large millipede of your own someday and experience the wonder of this amazing bug!

Friday Morning Birding

When I heard on the weather forecast that Friday was supposed to be a nice, sunny day, I rearranged my work schedule to have the day off. My plan was to wake up early and head out for a morning of birding in Fillmore County and hopefully check some warblers and other spring migrants off my list. It was a beautiful morning and since I had no schedule, I was able to stop and enjoy some non-bird sights during my journey.

Mammals always provide good photo opportunities because they don't move nearly as fast and are much larger and easier to capture with a camera than birds. I had to stop the car and turn around when I spotted these longhorn cattle in a small pasture. Cool, aren't they? Scroll down for closer looks..... What a beautiful animal. They're a little different than most of the cattle I see around here because they weren't the least bit curious about me and never approached the fence like most cattle would. Good thing my camera zooms!

I thought this one was so pretty -- looks like maybe a cross with White Park cattle (I'm basing that assumption on the black ears and nose). I noticed its left horn had some fuzzy stuff stuck on the end.....wonder if they use their horns to scratch their back and this was some fur??

In the field right across from the longhorns, there were some horses. It was a little chilly this morning, so you can see the steam from this horse's breath.

These horses came right up to the fence for me to pet and get a closer look at. I really like the way horses smell, don't you?

Here's another cute little mammal -- the red squirrel. It's not very often they sit still long enough for a photo, so I felt particularly lucky to get this picture.

Down at Mystery Cave State Park, this little bat (I think it's an Eastern Pipistrelle) was sleeping in a high corner outside of the visitor's center.

There were lots of spring wildflowers blooming at Forestville State Park. Flowers and plants are also much easier to photograph than birds, so I took advantage of that.

Wild Blue Phlox

Wood Anemone (Mayflower)

Wild Ginger

Virginia Bluebells

Jack-in-the-Pulpit

(I loved the way this picture turned out - backlit with the sun!)

And now finally, I've gotten to the birds! It was an amazing morning, filled with all kinds of birds and their beautiful songs. Thankfully, I remembered to bring my BirdJam and field guides along, and was able to identify almost every bird that I saw and heard. I spent most of the morning at Forestville State Park under the canopy of deciduous forest and along the river. It was a most perfect day for birding!

Eastern Meadowlark on a fencepost

Song Sparrow preens his feathers after taking a bath

And then interrupts his preening to sing a pretty song!

Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher

Green Heron (and reflection!)

I love their crazy yellow feet!

Here's a listing of the birds I saw this morning in Fillmore County -- a total of 60! I was pretty happy with this total for my 5-hour birding adventure.

Hope you get a chance to enjoy some good birding adventures this weekend too!