How to spend a Late Summer day
Today was the kind of day I wish could have gone on forever. Before heading to Pheasant Branch, I stopped by a boat landing to watch the sunrise over Lake Mendota. Sitting on the pier, camera in hand, I reflected on my life's recent changes – my marriage is finally ending and I no longer live in Waunakee; it's Middleton once again. Though deep down I know this has been coming for years, somehow I thought this day would never come. I'm sure there are going to be difficult days ahead, but I already feel as if a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Today was all about me, my friends and how much the bunch of us love nature. I snapped a few more sunrise photos and headed off for the conservancy.
We were victims of comfort
Got no one else to blame,
I'm just a victim of comfort,
Cryin' shame.
-Keb' Mo'
New England Asture
Viceroy
Like most fall migration mornings, I met up with several of my birding friends at the stream corridor trail entrance; Jesse, Dottie, Sylvia, and Bill. There were others, too. Our adventure started with a comparatively subdued warbler status. We struggled to find a Wilson's Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, American Redstart, Black-and-White Warbler, and a very skulky Mourning Warbler – migrant birds were pretty scarce. Dang it all! And I was totally in the mood to digiscope! We eventually gave up on the corridor and moved to explore the prairie and oak savanna parcel on the north side of Pheasant Branch. This turned out to be a great decision because we were soon rewarded with a Red-headed Woodpecker – a species I haven't seen for almost two years:
It was entertaining to admire the woodpecker's incredible flycatching skills (I'm pretty sure it was grabbing cicadas on the wing) as well as cracking open acorns into the tree branch. Unfortunately, there just aren't as many of these amazingly beautiful woodpeckers as there once were (50% decline since 1966 according to Audubon's Watchlist). At one time, over a decade ago, they actually nested at the conservancy, but no more. These days I'm lucky if I see one Red-headed Woodpecker per year during spring or fall migration. Perhaps this particular bird is a member of the Necedah NWR colony to the north and on its way south for the winter.
Though not everybody in our group could stay, I spent nearly the entire day at the conservancy observing and photographing; listening to Sylvia identify wildflowers and insects. Her knowledge of nature is encyclopedic and never ceases to amaze me with her ability to recite even the Latin names of wildflowers and plants. Recent rains made everything seem fresh and new, and yet more change is in the air; falling leaves. There may not have been as many birds today at the stream corridor, but the flora and fauna we saw at the prairie and oak savanna were special. We finished the day with 60 bird species.
Bottle Gentian
Canada Goose
Mallard
Ring-necked Pheasant
Turkey Vulture
Cooper's Hawk
Merlin
Sandhill Crane
Killdeer
Ring-billed Gull
Mourning Dove
Common Nighthawk
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Red-headed Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
Great Crested Flycatcher
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Sedge Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Eastern Bluebird
Veery
Swainson's Thrush
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Tennessee Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Mourning Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Wilson's Warbler
Clay-colored Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Common Grackle
Baltimore Oriole
House Finch
American Goldfinch
All image © 2008 Mike McDowell
9 Comments:
what lovely photos, specially of the woodpecker. I'm in the wrong part of the world to ever see that particular species. Sad that is one of the too many species in decline
Love that Red-headed Woodpecker! I remember them as much more common in my childhood (the 60's) and don't recall seeing Red-bellieds then - I wonder if there is there any connection? Now that I know where to look, I can find Red-headeds if I search, but I usually only get one or two a year.
We had two fly-over Red-headed Woodpeckers (probably the same bird twice) at our bird walk on Sunday at East Fork State Park, and I noticed how white their bodies are. When you see them perched, the red and black dominate, but in flight there is so much white visible.
Thanks for the photos and the video.
~Kathi
Hey, did you hear about the Winter Wren Split? Exciting!
http://slybird.blogspot.com/2008/07/
winter-wren-is-multiple-species.html
P.S. I've never seen a Mourning Warbler that wasn't skulky!
Here's a link to the winter wren post mentioned above.
Mike
WOW! Thanks for the sunrise photo. Got to watch my last one with our dog Angel on Saturday before she left us. My thoughts are with you on your new direction too. Blogs like this one are so rare. Thanks for sharing your late summer day.
Great photos. Being out in Nature this summer has made the difference in surviving and thriving for me so I know what you're talking about.
I, too, remember when Red-headed Woodpeckers were very common, at least out in Wisconsin's equivalent of the Ozarks where I grew up. They seemed to like the wooden telephone poles that lined the unpaved road in front of our house. Only last weekend I saw my first one in twenty years, I'm sure. It flew over Hwy 18 as we were trucking to Gov. Dodge and it was unmistakable.
A gorgeous day! I'm enthralled w/ that red headed woodpecker!
As always, an impressive list and beautiful woodpecker photos! Maybe I'm just lucky here in Central PA, but I know of several spots in my area where red-headeds abound. There's even a spot where we've had them nesting in the same tree for three years running.
As a fellow marriage ender, I offer you my condolences and my best wishes.
Red-headed woodpeckers are also at the Pleasant Valley Conservancy near Black Earth. They are pretty easy to spot though you have to do a little climbing to get to them.
See http://pleasantvalleyconservancy.org/pdf/redheadedwp.pdf
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