Cedar Waxwing Courtship Behavior
Cedar Waxwing couple
By: Pat Coate
In May the Cattaraugus Bird Club had some outings at the Eschelman Tract of Pfeiffer Nature Center. During one of these outings I had the opportunity to observe this pair of cedar waxwings. They engaged in the classic “side-hop” and mate feeding courtship behavior described in the Stokes Nature Guides A Guide to Bird Behavior Volume II.
This behavior consisted of the birds perched near each other. One, with food, would hop towards the other and pass the food to its mate. The second bird would hop away, then hop back towards the first bird and food would be exchanged again.
Red-bellied Woodpecker Nest
Red-bellied Woodpecker (male) at nest
By: Pat Coate
Biking along the Alleghany River Trail, I heard persistent chatter of hungry young birds. When I investigated, I found this nest cavity of a red-bellied woodpecker. Both parents were busy bringing food to the nest, though I only got pictures of the male. The female was a bit more wary, but neither seemed particularly bothered my presence and I enjoyed the constant foraging and delivery of food for over 20 minutes. The young bird popped its head out once very briefly. I only saw one young one, but there may have been more – sure seemed like a lot of noise for one baby bird.
Battling Crows
Crow with an agitated Grackle below it
By: Pat Coate
On a daily basis I’ll hear the grackles, sometimes joined by the piercing alarm call of the robin, raising a ruckus. Inevitably, there will be a clearly apprehensive crow pinned down at the top of a tree withstanding a squadron of brave grackles who are taking turns dive bombing it. Eventually the crow will make a run for it and be escorted out of the territory by a grackle or two who continue their assault on the airborne crow.
Singing in the Spring
Chestnut Sided Warbler
By: Pat Coate
The symphony of bird song has been truly wonderful this spring and here are a few shots of various birds in action. Some things to note about ‘singing in the spring’:
• Male birds of many species migrate first. They sing to stake out their territory and then to attract the females when they too begin to move north.
• In many species the females don’t sing.
• Birds also defend their territory against birds of the same species to reduce competition for food since both birds would hunt for food in the same manner
• It is believed that changes in sunlight/length of day trigger hormonal changes in birds that trigger ‘singing in the spring’.
More Baltimore Orioles
Baltimore Oriole
By: Pat Coate
We were very excited to have a Baltimore oriole visit our hummingbird feeder this year. First yard Baltimore oriole we have had.
Birding with Maddie
(photo by Dad)
By: Pat Coate
One of the benefits of a large family is that I have lots of nieces and nephews to enjoy and, as some might say, to try to brainwash. Of my 13 nieces and nephews, Maddie has shown the greatest interest in birding (and other critters) and is great fun to bird with. She is very adept at spotting birds and continues to impress her parents by identifying birds they see in their backyard and on various excursions. I recently got to spend a morning birding with Maddie and my father at White Clay Creek State Park in Delaware.
Here is the trip report from my favorite young birder:
More Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers in Allegany State Park
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (male)
By: Pat Coate
Spent a recent Saturday morning at Allegany State Park and was excited to see several Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers – yes, certain brother, that is their real name. And they really are well named as a major part of their diet is sap (along with fruit and insects) and they do have yellow on their bellies as can be seen in the pictures.
The male, identified by its red throat, in the picture above shared the tree with an aggressive European Starling as shown in the next three photos.
Eastern Towhee
Eastern Towhee (male)
By: Pat Coate
What a beautiful spring weekend we had! I enjoyed some hiking and birding at Pfeiffer Nature Center and got a nice look at this beautiful male Eastern Towhee. These birds are normally scurrying about deep in the brush and I rarely get more than a fleeting glimpse of them. This fellow, however, was most accommodating, staying in plain view for several minutes and repeatedly giving a very clear ‘towhee’ call.
He may have tired of me watching him as evidenced in the next picture.
Some FOYs
Grey Catbird
By: Pat Coate
We finally got some spring-like weather with the sun making an appearance (brief as it turns out) and temps reaching the 70s. Inspired by seeing my first of year (FOY) Common Yellowthroat Warbler in the back yard, I decided to take my FOY bike ride to enjoy the weather and see what birds might also be out and about. I got an hour+ ride in with about 20 species seen before getting stranded under a bridge waiting out a downpour. In my 20 species I did pick up a couple more FOYs: Chipping Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow and Grey Catbird.
The pictures were taken during the bike ride.
Bird Bath?
Wash Cycle1
By: Pat Coate
Note: I started posting weekly to Tom’s blog about 1 year ago – this was my first. I decided to celebrate my ‘anniversary’ by taking the week off and re-publishing this first posting – still one of my favorites.
I recently got to spend some time in Allegany State Park and had the pleasure of watching some fun behavior within a flock of about 25 Canada geese. It was a Sunday and it appeared to be bathing day. First, the geese would flip themselves upside down.
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Northern Saw-whet in Owl Woods
Northern Saw-Whet (adult)
By: Pat Coate
Due to an early morning flight for a business trip on Monday, I stayed in Rochester Sunday night. I decided to head up early and spend the day visiting some of the Rochester-area birding sites including Owl Woods and the Braddock Bay Hawk Watch. I am extremely thankful to Jim Adams (http://ayearinoatka.blogspot.com/) for meeting me, providing such a wonderful tour of the area and for sharing his experience and knowledge (and scope).
We found this Northern Saw-whet Owl, nestled in an evergreen tree, resting up to finish its northern migration. These owls are quite small – only about 7-8 inches tall and weigh less than ½ pound .
Please note that the pictures were taken with a telephoto lens and we kept our observation time brief.
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Another Osprey Encounter
from Pat Coate –
My sister, Lynda, lives near the Rappahannock River in Virginia and emailed me this recent encounter she had with an osprey (and company). What an interesting encounter with nature to have witnessed!
“The other day the girls and I were walking back home from across the street and we hear a noise and looked up and swooping down over the roofs of the townhouses right next to us comes an osprey with a big fish in his talons, being chased by an eagle, being chased by a crow!! It was so incredible! They were maybe 25 feet over our heads right in front of us!
The osprey gave up just then and dropped the fish with a splat onto the parking lot. It slid under a car. The eagle and osprey both kind of looped up and looked for it but couldn’t see it and flew away. I ran and grabbed the fish out from under the car and put it in the park across the street but they didn’t come back. It would have been cool to just chuck it up there to the eagle! : ) He started to move like he was going to dive for it after the osprey dropped it but he was just too low already to make a dive for it. We were stunned! You probably would have gotten awesome pictures of it! I’ve got an incredible one in my head though!
So there’s lots of fun bird watching around here right now. April is always my favorite month for the eagles around here. They are always chasing each other around in the sky and right now the river literally looks like it’s boiling with the shad running!”
Osprey Back and Building
Osprey adding to nest
By: Pat Coate
I am so glad I decided to set aside weekend chores for a bit and squeeze in some birding because I had a wonderful encounter with this osprey. Though I am sure it was aware of my presence, it did not seem to mind me watching it. I spent about 30 minutes watching and got to see it repeatedly snap off branches and carry them to this nest. There was only one osprey present, so I presume this is the male prettying up the place for the female’s arrival.
Ruffed Grouse
Ruffed Grouse feeding on tree buds
By: Pat Coate
A friend from the bird club and I spent a Saturday morning birding at Allegany State Park where we came across a pair of ruffed grouse feeding on the buds of this tree. I had never seen a ruffed grouse in a tree before and I must say it was a much more pleasant way to see them than the usual encounters with these birds. The normal encounter, of course, occurs while hiking when your peaceful bliss is briefly but emphatically interrupted by a sudden burst of feathers and squawking that for sure reduces your life expectancy by a few weeks.
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Hocus Crocus – Has Spring Really Sprung?
Crocus are in bloom
By: Pat Coate
Or are the blooms just a teasing illusion…….
The birds give us hope as they seem to think spring is arriving:
Great Horned Owls
Great Horned Owl with prey, shot taken at dusk
By: Pat Coate
While in Florida we had the great pleasure of discovering the nest of a pair of Great Horned Owls near my parents’ condo. My parents had been hearing owls in the evenings and had seen owls nesting in the area a few years ago, but weren’t quite sure if and where the nest was this year.
Persistence and binoculars paid off as we found a few feathers up in a split of a live oak tree right across the street. Searching up from the feathers deeper into the crook of the tree led to the tip of not one but two baby owls’ heads.
Florida is the Life
Black Skimmers
By: Pat Coate
We had a great time visiting my parents in Florida for a few days over my husband’s winter break. It was nice to temporarily trade in the heavy coats and boots for the summer wardrobe appropriate for the 70+ degree days (and it was nice to know that the summer wardrobe still fits).
We spent our first afternoon exploring Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge located next to the Kennedy Space Center. It is a birders dream with over 140,000 acres comprising a wide range of habitats including coastal dunes, saltwater marshes and freshwater impoundments. There is a nice visitors center with a friendly staff and miles of wildlife drives and hiking trails. We saw only a small fraction of the refuge including the visitor center, the manatee observation deck and the Bio Lab Road driving trail.
Despite being told by the ranger at the visitor center that birding was slow – between seasons – we saw lots of activity and even picked up several life birds. The life birds were Black Skimmer, Glossy Ibis and Reddish Egret.
Merritt Island NWR must be a truly amazing place during peak seasons and it is an area I would love to get back to some day.
Scenes from Lake Erie
Snow dunes at Presque Isle
By: Pat Coate
A few random winter shots of Lake Erie while waiting for spring……..
Bonaparte’s Gulls
Bonaparte’s Gull with fish
By: Pat Coate
While recently visiting the Dunkirk Harbor on the eastern edge of Lake Erie, I was able to observe a flock of Bonaparte’s gulls feeding near the docks. There were at least 30 birds flying very near the dock. With good regularity, one would plunge down into the water and come out with a small fish. It would immediately fly away from the flock to try and enjoy its meal in peace. Only once did I observe another gull give chase and successfully make the hunter drop its prize. Neither gull ended up with the fish – clearly making it the true winner.
Christmas Count Hits the Road
Touch down! (WI)
By: Pat Coate
Inspired by the Audubon Christmas Count, on a recent trip to the Midwest with my daughter we decided to count the number of species of birds we saw while traveling. In keeping with time-honored traditions, we also decided to keep track of the various license plates we saw (trucks don’t count, Canadian provinces do) to see if the count of license plates or bird species would be higher.
Some of the highlights included:
• Bald Eagle in WNY
• Peregrine Falcon flying right down Michigan Ave in Chicago
• Red-tailed hawks all along the way, including many pairs
• Mallard pulling a Bambi on a frozen Milwaukee River
• 100s (if not 1000s) of Canada Geese in fields in IL
• “UGLE PL8” on a car with the new NY license plates
• Number of deer in Eastern IN
• Number of nests you see when there are no leaves on the trees
• Virtual tie on species vs. license plates
Red-throated Loon
Red-throated Loon (juvenile)
By: Pat Coate
I was passing through the Buffalo area on MLK day and made a stop at the Dunkirk harbor. There were plenty of birds around including this juvenile red-throated loon – a new bird for me. He spent the whole 20 minutes or so that I was there actively preening.
There are only occasional reports of red-throated loons in our area, so I was very happy to have come across it.
Say what?
Road sign on I-94
By: Pat Coate
I’ve made a couple trips to Milwaukee recently and couldn’t help but notice this sign in southeastern Wisconsin along I-94. The highway department had to have fun making this one. On my last trip, curiosity got the best of me and I decided the 10 mile side trip to check out Bong Recreation Area was a must. Turns out it is a very interesting place:
Lunch Time
Red-tailed Hawk with prey
By: Pat Coate
I’ve been having fun going through files of pictures I took over the summer and fall that I hadn’t had time to do much with yet. The end of August I went to the ‘Photographer’s Dream Day” at Letchworth State Park (actually the dam site). On my way home I came across this hawk while exploring some of the back roads.
He was chowing down on what appeared to be a mouse or mole, of which he made short work, and allowed me to snap off a few pictures. I believe it is a red-tailed hawk.
Barnacle Goose
Barnacle Goose
By: Pat Coate
Cleaning out the files a bit and came across these pictures from October. We saw these geese down at the Duke Gardens in Durham, NC while visiting. I had never seen this species before and finally got around to pulling out the field guide for the ID. Much smaller and stouter than a typical Canada goose, the barnacle goose is native to Greenland. Vagrants are occasionally reported, though these birds were captive.
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