A Life Bird on a Cold, Wet Day

Saturday May 17, 2014 and it was raining off and on. After eating a bowl of Robert’s very nice asparagus soup for lunch, we decided to go for a drive. We went to the Wolf River Greenland area in east Memphis and walked down the paved path into the woods next to the Wolf River.

We heard many birds singing in the dense woods. Robert spotted a Summer Tanager (Piranga Rubra) high in the canopy of a hardwood tree. The Summer Tanager is a medium sized songbird in the Cardinal family. They eat bees and wasps. Adult males are red. Females are orangish on the underparts and olive on top, with olive-brown wings and tail.

As we continued to walk down the path, while we were looking out at the Wolf River, we heard a song we don’t usually hear. Spotting this bird was a challenge, but Robert finally found the Swainson’s Warbler (Limnothlypis Swainsonii) perching on a branch. Swainson's Warblers are a small bird with olive brown above and white below. It has a brown crown. We had never seen this bird before. This was a life bird for us.

While we were still zooming on the idea of having seen the Swainson’s Warbler, we bumped into the Prothonatory Warbler (Protonotaria Citrea) on a limb high in a tree next to the Wolf River.

The Prothonotary Warbler has an olive back with blue-grey wings and tail with yellow underparts. It is the only warbler in the eastern United States that nests in natural cavities in trees, sometimes using holes made by the Downy Woodpecker (Picoides Pubescens).

Further down the same path, we started hearing the familiar zipper like song of the Northern Parula (Setophaga Americana).

As we were heading back to the car, we heard the liquid whistle of the Indigo Bunting (Passerina Cyanea). It was sitting out in the open on a branch without any leaves, making him very easy to spot and identify. The Indigo Bunting is a small bird. The male is a vibrant blue and the female is brown. The diet of the Indigo Bunting consists primarily of insects during the summer months and seeds during the winter months.

Of course, the "Bird of the Day" is the Swainson’s Warbler because it was a "Life Bird" for us.

Robert and Berry

photos courtesy of wikipedia, audubon.com

Bird in the Boot

My sister and her husband left a pair of large boots on the front porch of their house near Nashville. They went on a short trip and came back and peeked into one of the boots. Surprise ! There was a small nest built right inside the boot. My sister noticed a small brown bird flitting around the rim of the boot, which she could not identify, so she telephoned us.

She described to us a Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus), which is so common a bird in this area that we also have one in our backyard. It is a smallish bird, reddish brown in color with a distinctive white stripe above its eye. It forages for insects in the dry leaves under bushes and in the undergrowth of forested places.

After several e-mails discussing the nest in the boot situation, my sister noticed that there were five eggs inside the small grass nest constructed inside the boot. The gray eggs had a dark strip on one end of the egg. She described a Carolina Wren flying to and from the boot, fetching worms and insects to the boot.

We started making calculations for a gestational calendar for the Carolina Wren, when my sister reported finding another nest inside her horse barn. It is springtime and birds are busy making babies. We told my sister that after breaking out of the egg, a Carolina Wren nestling usually takes ten to sixteen days to fledge. She tried to calculate when they might leave the boot. She was scared that something had happened to the boot babies. Even though the other nestlings inside the barn had left the nest and were gone, thewren babies back on the porch inside the boot were deathly quiet. What was wrong ?!? Where were the birds ?

My sister telephoned me with updates about a pencil sized stick having been brought to boot and stretched across the top of the boot. She surmised that this looked like some kind of perch for a bird. Then, she reported that the Carolina Wren had dragged one end of the stick down into the boot. This was perhaps her step ladder for the nestlings to get out of the boot.

Today, we are pleased to report that the babies have left the nest. The hiking boot is empty. Nature took its course. The pregnant Ms. Carolina Wren had just borrowed the boot.

Robert and Berry

photos courtesy of cfowler, wikipedia