BirdingGirl

I had been watching a couple of red-winged blackbirds during a walk in Stiles & Hart Conservation Area last month. The male flew into the reeds growing in a small pond and I decided to take some video since it was interesting to watch what he did. This video isn't terribly exciting, but you can hear the dry "chek" sound he's making in the beginning of the video, and then toward the end he climbs sideways up the reed, starts to display the red on his wings and then flies toward the camera. Some interesting red-winged blackbird habits taken from Cornell Lab of Ornithology : When defending territory or trying to attract a female the male displays its epaulettes (red on its wings- "shoulder decorations" is the literal translation) They are highly polygynous (keep multiple breeding partners) and males can have up to 15 females in their territory A male might spend more than a quarter of all the daylight hours in territory defense Red-winged blackbird populati...

I took a walk at the Charles River Sunday and had quite a few exciting spring sightings. The first of which as a yellow-rumped warbler. I spent some time up close to it on the bank of the river. I took a lot of pictures but need to perfect my craft since I only ended up with one good shot: I was also excited because I was able to locate the songbird that I recognize from the beach at the Cape. I spent some time listening to it and attempting to photograph it at the very top of a tree. Here are my best attempts. Based on what I can see in the photo, but mostly thanks to its call I think it's a Savannah Sparrow. Another familiar bird I was able to stop and capture was a Red-winged Blackbird- a regular at the River: I also spent some time photographing a pair of Song Sparrows (?). Sparrows can be tricky though- I spent a lot of time with my guidebook and this was my best guess. I also followed the call of a Northern Flicker and got these pictures from far away: It was such a beautif...

It's been a while since I've been able to do this, but I went for a walk during lunch last Wednesday (April 9th) and was surprised at all of the birds I heard and saw. Unfortunately I didn't bring a camera but I'll do my best to report on what I saw. I came across several ducks, and interesting ones that included a Common Goldeneye pair (or so I think- male had a mostly white body and black head), as well as a pair I saw in which the male had white rings around its all-black neck. My Sibley Guide is really helpful since I encountered the ducks as they were taking flight, and it includes illustrations of ducks in flight. The Harlequin Duck has the same white rings I saw, but according to the description it's a coastal bird, so it's unlikely I would have seen it in an inlet of the Charles River. But currently, that's the best guess I can make. I heard many red-winged blackbirds throughout my walk. At this part of the Charles River the banks are very close to o...