House Wren and Warblers at Mt. Auburn

I'm trying to catch up on some back-logged photos from Mt. Auburn Cemetery last week. I was so excited to post my pictures of the Indigo Bunting I didn't have time to put up the others.

House Wren:

Yellow-rumped Warbler:

[I even have a mystery warbler. I remember it was yellowish and fairly drab. Here are the only pictures I got]. UPDATE: Thanks to Grant for identifying this warbler as a female American Redstart! I didn't see any males that day so it didn't even occur to me!

Comments

Dawn Fine said…

Howdee,
Cant help you out with the mystery warbler..I am curious to find out.
I liked the photo of its tail coming out from behind the tree!

May 19, 2009 at 11:46:00 AM PDT

Grant McCreary said…

The mystery bird is a female/1st year male American Redstart. The picture of the tail is the most important one, since the tail is the most obvious field mark on the bird. If you see a tail like that, which it often fans and flips about, then you know you've got a redstart.

May 20, 2009 at 7:31:00 PM PDT

Cathleen Voss said…

@Grant- thanks for your input! Of course it is- that makes a lot of sense now. Sometimes I forget how considerably different the males and females are. I was hoping the shot of the tail would be a big help! Thanks Grant.

May 20, 2009 at 8:51:00 PM PDT

Well, Here We Are — Back to Birding Girl After 11 Years

Well, here we are—after an epic 11-year hiatus, I’m sitting back at my Adirondack chair, overlooking the picturesque cranberry bogs we live on now. I've swapped my super strong coffee for a hoppy, locally-brewed IPA to celebrate the end of the work day, and starting work again on my personal project- BirdingGirl. Honestly, it feels a little surreal. If you’re popping in and thinking, “Wait, she’s posting again?”—yep, it’s me! The binoculars are still close by, the dog is snoozing nearby, and yes, the birds have kept me company all along. Life Lately: Birding (Mostly) at Home Let’s get this out of the way—I never stopped birding. Not for a minute! Sure, life looks a bit different now. Marriage and kids will do that to you, right? These days, “getting out in the field” means looking up at the trees lining the trails leading to the cranberry bogs I walk my dog on, listening for great-horned owls and wood thrushes, or watching a flash of yellow as the warblers return each spring. I ...

Difference Between Grackles and Starlings

I saw a sad sight today during my lunchtime jog—a dead grackle. Or was it a starling? I'll get to that in a minute. I was making my way down to the trail along the Charles River when I saw what I thought was an injured bird in the middle of the road. It was just sitting there and I figured it was just stunned or maybe had an injured wing. The bird probably didn't have much of a chance, but the least I could move it out of the road. As I got closer to the bird I saw it had its mouth open and then I realized the gruesome truth—it was dead and was frozen in that position. I just got shivers thinking about it. The poor thing. Anyway, so it got me to thinking 'What is the difference between grackles and starlings?' I use the two interchangeably and haven't really made an effort to sort it out. Until now. I like to use All About Birds from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as an online resource. The site is comprehensive and easy to use. (I also really like the 'Cool ...

Large-billed Crow pictures from Japan

These large-billed crow pictures come courtesy of my work colleague Phil who lives in Japan. He told me he had some great Japanese crow pictures, and the first thing I noticed about the bird was the large bill. I started doing some research to come up with the correct crow name. First I thought it was a carrion crow since those are a common type of Japanese crow, but the bill wasn't big enough. Then I found pictures of the large-billed crow and those were a match! Duh- "large bill"- it couldn't have been any simpler. These crows are also called jungle crows, but most of the birding sites call them large-billed crows. Phil said they can get really big, which I believe since American crows are huge sometimes. I have vivid memories of standing my in my parents Cape Cod kitchen doing dishes and getting spooked by something huge in my periphery on the deck. All it ever was was a giant crow, but really they can be scary when they get so big! Here are some interesting thing...

BirdingGirl

Search This Blog