A very quick spring migration

Posted on July 22, 2017 by dinajohnston

The mangroves along the road at Fort Desoto Park were full of female indigo buntings. They were the most accommodating birds. All of the others were staying hidden.

There were yellow warblers all over the park.

We had one lone bay breasted warbler in the mangroves.

A single black throated green warbler kept us entertained for a while.

I’m not sure if this is a eastern kingbird or an eastern wood-pewee.

The ruby throated hummingbirds were out this morning. There were several females hanging out at the firebush.

We only had a small sprinkle of birds stopping over on their way north for the summer in April. On the first Friday in May we had a big storm come through the area. On Saturday morning I got up early and headed down to Fort Desoto to see if any birds had landed to take a break before heading north. The park was full of little birds. Most were hiding but I managed to get a few shots of them deep in the bushes. There were a lot of barn swallows flying around but after torturing myself for a few minutes trying to get pictures I gave up.

More birds passing through

Posted on June 1, 2016 by dinajohnston

A very young Baltimore oriole way up high in the tree. He didn’t have all of his adult feathers in yet.

A black throated blue warbler.

A black throated green warbler.

A few blackpoll warblers in the mulberry bushes.

I think this is a female black throated blue warbler.

Brown thrashers were eating the mulberries.

Summer tanagers were in the oak trees.

This is either a female scarlet tanager or a summer tanager.

A lone indigo bunting.

Spring migration felt a little slow this year. It was much harder to find the birds at Fort Desoto. It felt like there were more people than birds in the woods. It was still a fun morning out. No new birds this spring but there’s always next year.

Migration can be a pain in the neck – Skywatch Friday

Posted on May 15, 2014 by dinajohnston

My first blackpoll warbler of the season.

Cape May warblers were everywhere.

Red-eyed vireo.

A first-summer male orchard oriole with mulberry stains on his chest.

I think this is a female orchard oriole.

I think this is a first year female Baltimore oriole.

Another red-eyed vireo.

I saw one northern Parula that morning.

Baltimore oriole.

My first black throated green warbler.

A male orchard oriole taking a berry break.

Prairie warbler doing some weird acrobats.

Bye,bye, orchard oriole.

A female rose breasted grosbeak.

It was a busy day in mid-April. A big fall out day. Spring migration was in full swing and I knew I’d come home with a neck ache from staring up in the trees all morning. I was right. Birds were everywhere but they did not sit still very long. There were almost as many people at Fort Desoto that morning. Everyone was yelling out bird names: “there goes a female blah blah”, ” I just saw an immature male blah blah”, ” has anyone seen the yellow blah blah?” All of the little birds were starting to looking alike, especially the yellow and brown ones. Let me know if I got any of the above wrong. People had driven from all over the state to check birds off their list. I met a ton of new people and ran into people I hadn’t seen since the last migration. It was catch up day. The next couple of weekends still had a few birds but not like this big weekend. I also saw a lot of little red birds and blue birds. More on those later.

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