Birds of a Feather is back with our new blog, Birding and Bonding! Our previous objective remains the same. Our goal is to find all birds that live on Long Island year round. The only rule is that in order to add a bird to our list, we must see it when we are together. That's where the bonding comes in. Life can get so hectic that we sometimes fail to enjoy the more important things. This gives us a wonderful outlet to make sure we take the time.

Of course, Long Island has many migratory birds, as well. We certainly don't want to ignore them. We will blog about them as well. Armed with new cameras and renewed incentive, we look forward to getting back on the birding trail!

Monday, October 25, 2010

Grackles, Grackles everywhere!!!

Each Morning my yard is a sea of black iridescent birds with hundreds more in the treetops.  They are loud and intimidating at times.  This time of year the Common Grackle is out in full force taking over many a backyard. 

You’ll often find Common Grackles in large flocks, flying or foraging on lawns and in agricultural fields. They strut on their long legs, pecking for food rather than scratching. At feeders Common Grackles dominate smaller birds. When resting they sit atop trees or on telephone lines, keeping up a raucous chattering.

Common Grackles are resourceful foragers. They sometimes follow plows to catch invertebrates and mice, wade into water to catch small fish, pick leeches off the legs of turtles, steal worms from American Robins, raid nests, and kill and eat adult birds.

Grackles have a hard keel on the inside of the upper mandible that they use for sawing open acorns. Typically they score the outside of the narrow end, then bite the acorn open.  Since my yard has an abundance of Oak trees, we have quite the feast for these noisy birds.

I found this fact to be quite interesting.  You might see a Common Grackle hunched over on the ground, wings spread, letting ants crawl over its body and feathers. This is called anting, and grackles are frequent practitioners among the many bird species that do it. The ants secrete formic acid, the chemical in their stings, and this may rid the bird of parasites. In addition to ants, grackles have been seen using walnut juice, lemons and limes, marigold blossoms, chokecherries, and mothballs in a similar fashion.  What a wonder of creation!


In winter, Common Grackles forage and roost in large communal flocks with several different species of blackbird. Sometimes these flocks can number in the millions of individuals.  This explains why there are so many of them this time of year.

Common Grackles are large, noisy, and gregarious birds that often flock with other blackbirds, cowbirds, and starlings, especially in winter. At feeders they tower over other birds and push them aside to get at food. Grackles typically forage on the ground and roost high in trees or on power lines. Common Grackles sometimes nest in loose colonies of up to 200 pairs, showing little territoriality except when nesting in the spring.  No wonder large groups of Grackles are referred to as plagues!

It's about time!

Who ever heard of a birder without a decent camera!?  Well the San part of Arsan finally has gotten up to date.  Here are my first three bird pictures.  A Song Sparrow, a Blue Jay and a Finch.  Can't wait to share more.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Impromptu Birding Adventure

We have been trying to get together for a few hours of birding.  We found out that there were quite a few sightings of birds at Sunken Meadow park.  All we had to do now was find the time.  We vacillated endlessly about do we go or do we re-schedule 


Red-Winged Darter Dragonfly
 We finally agreed to go on this past Sunday, but we choose a closer birding spot.  The weather couldn't have been more picture perfect.  The air was crisp, the breeze was warm and we were making time to go bird watching.  


Armed with a list of potential birds to spot, off we go back to Caleb Smith's Park.  The leaves were beginning to turn, the park was a buzz with activity.  We studied our trail map, and decided to go where Cedar Waxwings are normally spotted at the park.  

Sadly, no Waxwings to add to our list, but we did find an Eastern Phoebe.

Perhaps the most familiar flycatcher in eastern North America, the Eastern Phoebe nests near people on buildings and bridges. It can be recognized by its emphatic "phee-bee" call and its habit of constantly wagging it tail.  Even though we can't add them to our list, it was a great sighting. 


 







We continue on, and we see the typical water fowls such as Canada Geese and Mallard Ducks. Mallard Ducks are dabblers.  

Dabblers, filter-feed at the surface of water, tips-up in shallow water, and makes occasional dives in deeper water.  We were able to catch two of them doing just that!

As we slowly move on the Yellow trail we come to this field with birds flying in and out of the bushes.  This is where we see White-Throated Sparrow's which winter on Long Island. 


We also saw Junco's which also winter on Long Island.  Although they look nothing alike and aren’t particularly closely related, the White-Throated Sparrow and the Dark-eyed Junco occasionally mate and produce hybrids. The resulting offspring look like grayish, dully marked White-Throated Sparrows with white outer tail feathers.
 
As we get deeper into the woods, we spot a bird that fellow birders tried to tell us wasn't what we thought it was.  Needless to say we were right.  

We spotted a Yellow-Rumped Warbler, they too winter on Long Island.  Yellow-rumped Warblers have two main calls. The more common one, a sharp chek, differs between the myrtle and Audubon's races. Both forms are quite recognizable and are a key call to learn for a bird watcher hoping to start sorting out migrating warblers in fall. Both sexes make this call frequently, both while foraging and while flying. Yellow-rumped Warblers also make a soft psit and a high tsee in flight.  Based on the song we heard these Warblers were from the Myrtle race.  
 
Before we knew it, it was 4pm and the park was closing.  We have made tentative plans to return.  We had a wonderful few hours, and it was close to home. 


We are very glad that funding was found to keep Caleb's Smith park open to the public.  It is definitely worth the trip. 

Friday, October 1, 2010

A day at Robert Moses with the Seagulls

A beautiful summer like day in the fall, home on a staycation, what to do?  Let's go to the Beach!  The waves were spectacular.  The birds were as enthralled with the magnificence as we were.  The waves kept most of us out of the water, so that gave us the opportunity to watch the Seagulls.


As we meander back to the car, we see something amazing.  A Seagull at the water fountain.  Now you may wonder why would that be amazing, well how often do you see Seagulls drinking from a water fountain!  The Herring Gull regularly drinks fresh water when it is available. If none is around, the gull will drink seawater. Special glands located over its eyes allow it to excrete the salt. The salty excretion can be seen dripping out of the gull's nostrils and off the end of its bill.

The Herring Gull is part of a complex of large, white-headed gulls that breed across the northern hemisphere. Some people consider all of the forms as one species, while others would recognize 10 or more species. The Lesser Black-backed and Yellow-legged gulls currently are recognized as different species, but birds intermediate between them and the Herring Gull occur. Only one form, the American Herring Gull, is common in North America.  It was a great day for all.