Mother Nature airs her dirty laundry

I've never been one for pulling pranks on April Fool's Day, and I'm not about to start now. However, after looking at some wildflower photos I took today, I couldn't resist sharing a few images that are joke-worthy all on their own.

One flower that is prolifically in bloom right now is Dutchman's Breeches. Unfortunately, these pendulous pairs of pantaloons can be tricky to photograph. Being white flowers, any imperfections show up very easily, so getting a nice "clean" set of of breeches is somewhat of a challenge. Some fun can be had with the bad shots, though. Due to the way the flowers dangle on the stalk, it's easy to infer the notion of laundry hanging out on the line.


For example, the dingy pair hanging off to the right looks like it was soaked in tea or coffee for a while, and just wouldn't quite come clean. Those stubborn stains!

I call this the "poopy diaper" shot. Shouldn't take too much of a stretch of the imagination to figure out why.
I didn't come away with too many shots of this flower that I particularly liked, but here's one shot where someone got the bleach right and all the pants are clean:

Happy April! Get out there and smell the dirty diapers wildflowers!

When the Grackles descended

A few weekends ago I started to see Common Grackles in large numbers in a few spots in this corner of southeast Ohio. Around this time I also started to see Red-winged Blackbirds reliably. American Woodcocks have been doing their display flights since the beginning of February. With each passing day, the bird song becomes more melodic and beautiful, ushering in spring in such a magnificent way. And every few days, I come across a new sighting for the season - Eastern Phoebes and Wood Ducks are now seemingly everywhere, and I saw my first Field Sparrow of the season yesterday. Spring is on the wing!

Following is an account of one of my grackle encounters, which I posted to the Ohio-Birds listserv (one of several "virtual" online birding communities for Ohio birders). Enjoy!

Greetings, Ohio birders! This weekend has been a bit of a Grackle-fest for
me here in Athens County! It started when I was leaving work on Friday,
when a flock of approximately 50 birds landed in a couple of trees in a
residential neighborhood in Athens. I heard at least one Red-winged
Blackbird singing among the group, so I assume it was a mixed flock. That
was the first large gathering of Grackles that I had seen so far this year.

Turns out that was nothing compared to what I would experience yesterday and
today. A group of several hundred birds caught my attention yesterday
afternoon (Saturday) when I was out filling bird feeders at my home in rural
Athens County (Albany). I could hear a rustling noise off in the distance,
quite a ways across the road actually, and even though it was windy, I knew
there was no way it was leaves blowing in the breeze. After a few squeaky
gate sounds reached my ears, it dawned on me that there was a large pack of
Grackles in the neighborhood. They were too far away for me to get any good
views even with my binoculars, but I could make out movement well enough to
estimate that there were probably 100-200 birds in the flock.

This morning, a similar event happened on the hillside right next to our
property, and I was able to observe the birds much better. Again, it was
several hundred Grackles, probably about 300 of them, with at least a few
Red-winged Blackbirds mixed in, but I was never able to spot one of them - I
could only hear them. I'm guessing they were on the outer edges of the
group? I felt very lucky to have them so close and to be able observe them
so well. They spent a large amount of their time rooting through the leaf
litter, stirring up whatever insects they could find. The noise was quite
amazing: we all know what it sounds like when one person walks through the
woods in fall or spring, kicking up dried leaves as they go - well, imagine
that you and 50 friends are doing that all at the same time, and that's what
these Grackles sounded like. Every once in a while they would all take off
from the ground together, making a fantastic whooshing sound with their
collective wings, and then land mere feet away from where they had just
been, only to begin the whole rooting in the leaf litter process again.

They were, of course, calling and vocalizing to each other during all of
this, but it wasn't until they ascended into the trees that they became
really loud. They were on our property by this time, and as I looked
through the trees with my binoculars, I could see that many of them were
preening. So it seems they had a quick breakfast, and then were off to hit
the showers, so to speak, and making plans for the day. At least I imagine
that was what all the raucous conversation was about.

I uploaded a short video to YouTube that tries to communicate the din
surrounding me. Even though you can't see the birds (my iPod Touch doesn't
take great video), you can at least hear them pretty well.

Good birding!
Heather Aubke
Albany, OH

Peents in the hood!

Wow, what a great day I've had, filled with many first signs of spring. I saw a Red-winged Blackbird alongside the highway today. I heard spring peepers this evening. But most importantly, I heard American Woodcocks displaying practically in our backyard.

Dave and I had just come back from a nice evening walk. I stayed out to fill the bird feeders and then to spy on a tree that I think MIGHT be hosting a Barred Owl nest (this is not yet confirmed), and then I heard it - the unmistakable twitter of an American Woodcock descending from its aerial display high in the air. I ran inside to tell Dave (I probably shouted it, actually, because I was so excited): "You gotta get out here - there's Woodcocks!!!" The funny thing is, we had just been talking about Woodcocks during our walk, wondering if there is any suitable habitat for them around where we live, and it turns it they are just up the hill from us!

For those of you in the audience who aren't birders, the "peent" referred to in the title of this post is one of the characteristic sounds the male Woodcock makes during his mating display. Quoting from Cornell University's All About Birds site:

"The male American Woodcock has an elaborate display to attract females. He gives repeated "peents" on the ground, often on remaining patches of snow in the early spring. After a time he flies upward in a wide spiral. As he gets higher, his wings start to twitter. After reaching a height of 70-100 m (230-328 ft) the twittering becomes intermittent, and the bird starts chirping as he starts to descend. He comes down in a zig-zag, diving fashion, chirping as he goes. As he comes near the ground he silently lands, near a female if she is present. Then he starts peenting again."

We contacted our neighbor whose property the birds were actually on, and some evening soon we're going to go up there and observe them more closely. One of them flew overhead this evening, looking like an over-sized bat, but that was the only view we got. Hopefully we'll be able to get some better views up on the mating grounds.

Stay tuned!

P.S. One thing I forgot to mention when I originally put this post up: I sat outside for a little while longer after all the peenting stopped, and I could hear the earthworms and other creepy crawlies moving around under and among the leaf litter. At least I know there is plenty of food available for the Woodcocks. As to hearing the sound of the soil moving... that only creeped me out a little...

Waiting

The first day of spring is tomorrow, but we still have some cold weather to make it through. The lows are forecast to be below freezing for the next several nights, with the highs projected to be only in the 40s and 50s through the weekend. Yes, right now it is all about waiting.

All of the pretty daffodils and crocuses that have already bloomed will be very sad-looking in the morning.

Emerging crocus flower

I have so many flowers that are sprouting right now. Unfortunately I'm pretty bad at keeping track of what I've planted, so some of the shoots that are coming out of the ground will be a complete surprise!

Stella D'oro daylilly sprouts

There was a Lowe's flyer in the paper today, and they were advertising flowers already. I would love to buy some, but it's just too soon. Even April is still a risky venture as far as buying hanging baskets and such - May is much safer. =sigh=

I long for the color, and the fragrance of the flowers. Some of the monarda that I planted last year is sprouting now, and the leaves of one particular strain already smell heavenly.

A tattered leaf intertwined with the many trailing arms of Vinca

Almost every day now I poke through the thick layer of leaf mulch that accumulated during the fall and winter, wondering what the next item of green will be to force its way through the soil. Will it be the hostas, or that other columbine? Some of the irises are starting to peek through, but not the others. And what of the Lilly of the Valley?

The remnants of winter's carpet still remain, but all the while the ground is waking up with new hints of green here and there. The yellow flowers of Coltsfoot line the ditches along our road, and I wait for more spring wildflowers to come in. We always start off with white, yellow and purple - wild violets, coltsfoot, dandelions, garlic mustard, daisies and geraniums.... then there's the red of Fire Pink, the pink of the Redbud trees, maybe even some spiderwort (AHA! I just remembered one of the mystery flowers that I planted last year - a cultivated version of spiderwort). And then there's the ferns... oh the ferns!

Yes, spring, I'm waiting....




Happy Vernal Equinox!

Arrival of the Phoebe

There is a very special bird call that tells me spring has arrived: "FEE-bee... fee-BEE!"

Yes friends, I heard my very first Eastern Phoebe of the season this morning. I was so excited that I literally jumped up and down.

I didn't actually spot the bird, but there is no mistaking that sound! Right on time, too. Looking back over the past few years, the Phoebes have arrived in our woods right around the 15th of March.

They have reliably nested along the side of our house, under the eaves, for several years, and hopefully they will do so again this year. We would love to turn our live feedercam into live nestcam!

I don't know if you can see it, but there are some fuzzy baby Phoebe heads just barely sticking up over the top of the nest! (click photo to enlarge)

Oh Phoebes - I'm so glad you're back!

All Phoebe photos from spring/summer 2006.