Birding Trip to Radnor Lake

   I had business in Nashville, Tennessee. When I had some free time, we found a delightful natural area in southern Nashville, called the Radnor Lake Natural Area and Wildlife Refuge. Berry and I immediately felt at home. The autumn leaves were yellow and red, contrasted by the evergreen cedars along the bank. There was a small unpaved path around the lake. It took us about an hour to circumnavigate the lake. There had been a flood last year in the area and the paved part of the path was crumbling. Here are the birds that we saw.

• Pied Billed Grebe
  
• American Coot
  
• Mallard
  
• Lesser Scaup
  
• Ruddy Duck
  
• Ring Necked Duck
  
• Canada Goose
  
• Great Blue Heron
  
• Red Tailed Hawk
  
• Red Shouldered Hawk
  
• Downy Woodpecker
  
• Turkey Vulture
  
• Black Vulture
  
• Tufted Titmouse
  
• Carolina Wren
  
• Carolina Chickadee
  
• Northern Cardinal
  

Several times during our walk we encountered White Tailed Deer grazing very close to the path. At several points during the walk the starkly autumnal trees were abuzz with avian activity. It was delightful.

Robert

Beautiful Juvenile Flicker

   My job is changing. My duties are evolving. I am spending more time in my office, at my desk. I saw a beautiful juvenile "Yellow Shafted Northern Flicker" (Colaptes auratus) dipping into the fresh water of our birdbath. I did not have a camera, but this photo is a good representation of what I saw.

Yellow Shafted Northern Flicker

   The "yellow-shafted" version of the Northern Flicker found in the eastern United States has feathers with yellow shafts. It also has a black molar patch on its cheek. The "red shafted" version found in the western U.S. has a red patch. I got a real long close-up view of this beautiful woodpecker. It made my day.

Robert

photo courtesy of epeterson

Birding Trip to Helena, Arkansas

   We made a picnic lunch and drove the "Bird Mobile" south through northern Mississippi to the Tunica Museum with its various historical exhibits. We birded the abandoned Capri casino and Mhoon Landing sites. Then we drove across the bridge to the little town of Helena, Arkansas. We had lunch in the wooded Confederate Cemetery on the bluffs of the Mississippi River. Lunch was cold fried chicken and grapes with San Pellegrino.

   Then we made our way north on the Arkansas side of the Mississippi River. We found a small ox-bow lake named Cow Bayou where we deployed our spotting scope and peered through the trees. Then it was home again through West Memphis, Arkansas. The cool October wind had left us very wind-blown and tired.

Great Egret

   Here is a list of the birds we saw today :

• Carolina Chickadee
  
• American Robin
  
• Great Egret
  
• Great Blue Heron
  
• Bank Swallow
  
• Canada Goose
  
• Northern Mockingbird
  
• Killdeer
  
• Turkey Vulture
  
• Northern Flicker
  
• Common Ground Dove
  
• English Sparrow
  

Robert

photo courtesy of cmayfield

"Meow!"

   I was working at my desk when suddenly, on the birdbath just outside my window perched a handsome Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis). This has happened once before, but it is such an uncommon event that I called for Berry to come to the window and see.

Gray Catbird

   The Catbird call sounds like a small kitten. What would be the evolutionary advantage for that? We did not have a camera, but this photo is a good representation of what we saw.

   Berry and I have seen the Gray Catbird several times in the wild. We were peeking through the underbrush on President's Island in Memphis and saw one. We were walking on a wooden boardwalk through a swamp in Florida and saw a flock of them. For birders Gray Catbirds are a delightful find.

Robert

photo courtesy of jsottolano

Birding Trip to Wapanocca

   We got up early. 5:30am is early. And drove to Arkansas, to the little national wildlife refuge called Wapanocca. It has canals, swamps, boggy areas, duck ponds, a small lake, all tucked inside a southern hardwood forest.

   We saw plenty of birds.

• Starling
  
• Killdeer
  
• Mourning Dove
  
• American Crow
  
• Indigo Bunting female
  
• Northern Cardinal
  
• Great Blue Heron
  
• Prothonatory Warbler
  

Prothonotary Warbler

• Eastern Wood-Pewee
  
• Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher
  
• Carolina Wren
  
• Yellow-Breasted Chat
  

Yellow-Breasted Chat

• Snowy Egret
  
• Great Egret
  
• Peregrine Falcon
  
• Pied-Billed Grebe en famille
  
• Horned Grebe
  
• Red-Winged Blackbird
  
• Bank Swallow
  
• Northern Rough-Winged Swallow
  

   And here are some digital photos from the trip.

Pier at Lake Wapanocca

The Swampy Bog

Reed Beds

Giant Lily Pads

Careless Fishermen Hung Their Lures

Black-Eyed Susans along the Highway

   We had a great time on Labor Day. Very exciting to see all the birds. But we had gotten up very early, so when we got home we had a meal, and then, both fell straight asleep.

Robert

photos courtesy of lspitalnik, rhoward, and rfowler

Trip to Baltimore

   I had to go to Baltimore on business. I ate swordfish with pineapple-mango salsa with crab stuffed mushrooms in a restaurant next to the harbor. After dinner I took snaps of birds in the harbor area. There were Mallard ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) and a lot of Ring-billed Gulls (Larus delawarensis).

Ring-billed Gull

Baltimore is home of Edgar Allen Poe. I walked around downtown and saw this large blue-tiled bird along the avenue. It did not look like a Raven.

Unidentified Bird

   Robert

   photos courtesy of rfowler

On the Grapes

   I saw a female Northern Cardinal trying to nibble a grape with her seed-cracking beak. I got a photograph of the ripening grapes.

Grapes

   It's that time of year.

Robert

photo courtesy of rfowler

The Mighty Hunter

   I was eating lunch at Panera and sat right next to the window. What caught my eye was a male English Sparrow (Passer domesticus) which landed on the patio next to my window but then quickly changed its position. It jumped immediately to the right... then made a big hop to the left. I've never seen a more frenetic Passer domesticus.

   The English Sparrow has a thick beak ideal for breaking open seeds. At times, I have seen this bird use that large beak to peck at a cylinder full of stale bread. It is a nutcracker type of beak and really not suited to hunting prey. But today there was an insect on the menu.

   The intrepid sparrow leaped down to the pavement and stabbed once at the bug. The frightened bug ran to the left. The bird jumped once and stabbed again at the bug. The fleeing bug squirted away under a chair. The hungry bird pounced one last time, hopping directly on top of the bug and tweezering it in his beak at last.

   Another sparrow flew down next to him, to see what he had captured. The mighty hunter adjusted the bug in his beak and flew off to enjoy his lunch under a nearby bush. I went back to enjoying my own repast. I have a photo of neither bird nor bug because I was eating lunch at the time.

Robert

Mute Swan

   Today I had to go to Olive Branch, Mississippi on business. During the trip I drove through a small city park. In the pond, along with the Mallard ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) and the Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) and a couple of Snow Geese (Chen caerulescens), I spotted something a great deal larger than anything else on the pond. Very unusual here and a delight to see and photograph, an adult Mute Swan (Cygnus olor). Very impressive.

Mute Swan

   These are truly majestic water birds. The white body and long white neck glide through the water. The way to differentiate it from other swans is the diagnostic color pattern of the head. The adult has an orange beak and a black face. This bird is very unusual for this area, which is why I took a picture. I saw this one in Desoto County in northern Mississippi. Last year Berry and I spotted one behind a storage building here in Memphis.

Robert

photos courtesy of rfowler

Lovely Figs

   The Northern Mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos) living in our magnolia tree are enjoying the figs as the first crop ripens in the sun. I walked near the fig tree and spooked someone. A mockingbird squawked sharply and flew from the fig tree to a branch of the magnolia. Moving up under the shade of the tree and looking up, I could see what had been happening. And I knew who the culprit was.

Part of a Pecked Fig

   The mockers may nibble some of my figs. They are delicious. I planted it in the yard to share the fruit with the birds. Just yesterday I snagged a dozen figs off the tree and served them with ice cream when my family came to dinner. Bon appetit, indeed!

Robert

photo courtesy of rfowler