This is why I went outside in the first place, to photograph this insect which I could see crawling around on this spider’s web in the window of my office with no spider in sight! It seems an appropriate harbinger of October and Halloween with its black body, orange antennae and a spooky spider’s web!
Happy Skywatch Friday!
Please go visit!
After days of busyness and family gatherings and a catching up on things I finally took a few moments to myself and ate my breakfast once again while sitting on my porch in the backyard. Autumn is certainly making its appearance now, though it has been sultry gray and muggy for the past week (which inspired a poem, see link below). Finally today the sun shone and it was drier and more pleasant to sit outside. Here is what I could see from my porch as I enjoyed this autumn day.
Please read my Poem: When Autumn Was Delayed on Kathie’s Poet Tree
Greater and Lesser yellowlegs are a variety of sandpiper found coast to coast in the United States. The Greater yellowlegs is taller, meatier, and has a longer bill that can sometimes be slightly upturned. The lesser’s bill is shorter and you can see the difference in this photo. However, Greater and Lesser can be very difficult to tell apart unless they are seen together for comparison, so many people just call them, “Yellowlegs.” I photographed these birds on my recent visit to South Beach in Chatham, Ma. You can read about all my adventures here by clicking on the “Cape Cod” label below, or just scrolling down.
Who knew that willets come in an eastern and western subspecies? I did not, until birding with Matt Malin and Jeff and Dawn Fine on South Beach. Apparently these subspecies are “geographically separate” during the breeding season, but during migration they are found together. The Western variety is taller with a longer neck and bill. While the western willet winters along the southern coast, the eastern variety does not winter in North America.
If the willet appears drab standing on the shore
gray bird, gray bill, gray legs,
its beauty is revealed in flight
when you see Willet Wings!
~Kathie Adams Brown (9-27-11)
When we were out at South Beach two weeks ago we came upon a group of seals lounging in the sun on the Atlantic side of the beach. As we drew nearer the seals all slowly lumbered into the water except this lone seal. It stayed there so long and was lying there so strangely that we thought it was dead, but as we drew closer it suddenly sprang to life and splashed off into the sea. It is a gray seal I believe due to its long head, but I could not decide if it was a young one or an old one. It was the only furry looking seal I saw and when I googled “gray seals” all the information I got was basically the same on every page. Nothing I found described this furry type of seal. All of the pages informed me of the cool fact that a gray seal's scientific name, Halichoerus grypus, derives from the Greek words meaning "hook-nosed sea pig." Finally I found one page that described the process of molting. This is when a seal sheds its skin and it can take up to six weeks to complete. According to the web site Seals-World the seals can get very cranky at this time. However, not one web site I visited noted that seals are mammals, which they are, and none of them told me what a group of seals is called. So I googled that question and discovered conflicting information. I read that a group of young seals is called a pod, but a colony of seals is called a herd! What? How many seals make a colony and why is it not just called a colony instead of a herd? Is there anyone out there smarter than the internet please?
Links to Gray Seal Facts and Info:
The black-bellied plover in autumn
is a black and white painting of a bird
an exercise in pointillism
by the God who designs birds
Feathered creatures who fly
and wade on ocean shores
Where wind and water shape their lives
and bend the light
‘til we see dots.
~Kathie Adams Brown (September 23, 2011)
The black-bellied plover is just one of 15 Life birds I saw while out on South Beach in Chatham, MA with Jeff and Dawn Fine two weeks ago. When looking at these photos, which are greatly enlarged and cropped, it made me think of the pointillism paintings by Seurat. I hope you enjoy the photos and the poem inspired by them.
Click on the link to view Serat’s Painting Sunday Afternoon on on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Click on the thumbnails to enlarge the paintings. You may click on my photos to enlarge also.
When I was out at South Beach on Cape Cod last week I saw so many birds and took so many pictures. When I saw the first shot of the terns in flight it reminded me of the pattern of musical notes on a bar graph. Then I realized that each of these photos reminded me of poetry and music. I hope you enjoy them as they seemed the perfect shots for…
Go Visit!
Last Tuesday I had the privilege of going birding on South Beach in Chatham, Massachusetts which is out on Cape Cod. While I was there I saw so many birds! Many of them were species I thought I would never see in my life. 15 were Life Birds! The Jaeger is one of them. So, imagine my surprise and delight when this bird flew in over the beach in pursuit of a Forster’s tern. I focused my 70-300mm lens on it and panned as it flew over the beach zigging and zagging and eventually flying right over my head! When I off-loaded the photos I was amazed, but I still needed the help of Matt Malin for a positive I. D. Matt birds around this area regularly and knows the species. Jeff and Dawn Fine and I followed him around the beach for the day and I will always remember it as being one of the best days of my life. I am letting the photos speak for themselves. They were all taken with the Nikon D80 set in Sports Mode for rapid firing and central focus. In this way I could lock on the bird and follow its flight. Not all shots are perfect but I think they will give you a feel of the excitement and the flight of both species of birds. I am amazed at the shapes their wings take as they fly and matt tells me the jaeger is missing its central tail feathers which it has probably molted. I hope you enjoy The Flight of the Jaeger.
To read the Overview of this day please scroll down one post or click on the link: South Beach Birding Overview
(click on the link to see more amazing birds!)
My journey to South Beach on Cape Cod’s barrier island began at five a.m. on September 9, 2011. I was suppose to get up at 4 a.m. but due to an unfortunate twist of fate I set my alarm clock to the wrong time. It put me an hour behind schedule and though I missed out on having coffee with Jeff and Dawn we drove down to the harbor anyway and were fortunate enough to get the ferry out to the island after all. Another birder named Matt Malin was headed out there also and as we rode across the waves with the wind whipping in our faces we struck up a conversation and became fast friends for the day. Matt tells us he has birded the island several times and often comes here to count birds. Apparently he is an eBirder also, so he and I have something in common. However, I am feeling very lost as far as identifying species out here on this island. Not only do I not know what to expect, I know I have little to no experience with most of the species and I also know that many of them are molting to their fall or winter plumages, which makes identification even more difficult. So, I am trusting Jeff and Dawn to guide me this time, and now, Matt Malin.
(Matt Malin politely pointed out that this is not a jaeger at all, but rather, an immature laughing gull! So, I have corrected myself and added in the photo of the jaeger below with more jaeger photos to follow tomorrow after Matt has reviewed them. I did not have his email address until today. We saw the jaegers out over the open ocean and then one that flew over the beach. I compared my photos to photos and info in 4 bird guides but still could not figure it out! I still have so much to learn! Thanks for your help Matt!)
It is when we are on this side of the beach that we see our first of many Jaegers. A Jaeger is a seabird that steals its food from other birds, especially terns. It does not hunt for itself. On this side of the island we also see Wilson’s Storm Petrels bouncing off the waves and one Northern Gannet flying low along the horizon. I was so thankful for Matt’s help and the use of the scopes which allowed me to get a good look at these birds, all Life Birds for me.
After walking back to the west side of the island we find many plovers and sandpipers in a little cove. We set up out scopes and watch birds at this location for quite awhile. While we are here a little savannah sparrow climbs in and out of the grasses and gave us a good look when it darted across an opening between the grass clumps. the lengthening shadows of the grass make us aware that time is slipping away. As the sun continues its arc across the sky we decide that we should start to head back north to the ferry pick-up sight. With the wind at our back and sand scrunching beneath our feet, we head north. Soon we are walking through what I call the green snot mud, which is really the dried algae blanket which the shore birds love but is treacherous to walk through. It is my one unpleasant memory of this day. We had to cross some of it several times and Dawn and I walked slowly so as not to slip and fall on our bums! The guys must have had better shoes, for it didn’t seem to be a problem for them and they were carrying the scopes! Me? Well, I am ashamed to say, I only had flip flops, the kind with a canvas band which soon wore a blister onto the bridge of my foot!
We have seen a Northern Harrier coursing over the dunes throughout the day but now we are seeing white egrets rise and fall in flight. From a distance it is hard to tell whether they are Great Egrets, or Snowy Egrets, but when this flock passes close to shore we can see the black beaks and legs with the characteristic yellow feet of the Snowy. It makes me smile to think of them as “Snow on the water in summer!”
It is while we are hiking through even more dune grass that someone spots a Saltmarsh Sparrow. We all freeze and train our bins on it, for this is a shy and elusive bird. I am told they usually fly up and back down into the grasses, disappearing swiftly, but for some reason this one stayed up and out on this grass mat giving all of us a relatively decent look and me some okay photos. Still, I am pleased to see yet another Life Bird!
We are seeing so many birds and when we come upon a trio of willets it is Matt who points out that one of them is the western subspecies while two are eastern willets. For now the two are lumped together as one species but you never know when they will be spit into two separate species. The western willet is taller with with a longer neck, longer legs and a longer bill. This bird species appears rather plain and dull looking until it takes flight which is when it shows off its spectacular black and white wings.
My legs feel like they are about to fall off as I wade out to the boat and climb in. Though I am tired and ready for a hot meal, I am reluctant to leave this island wilderness. I want to linger longer. As the boat pulls away from the shore Matt points out the thousands of Tree Swallows swarming over the dunes. From where I sit, and without my binoculars raised, they look like swarms of flies or mosquitoes, but I know they are something more pleasant than that. They are birds. I cling to the colors of this day. I carry the memory in my heart and relive it as I drive home. There is salt and sun, sand and sea, and kelpies in the waves smiling at me as I watch the birds.
Thanks Dawn, Jeff and Matt for a truly magical day! And don’t you think every day should be magical in…
Helpful Links:
*Life Birds: As mentioned I added 15 Life Birds to my Life List on this trip. For those of you new to birding, a Life Bird is the first time a birder has seen a particular species. These are the new Life Birds I saw on this day:
