It's been raining for 2 days straight but this Thursday it finally stopped just long enough to squeeze in a walk around the park. It wasn't that nice out and the ground was still soaked therefore I was one of just a handful of people out walking. Something I've noticed a lot this year is that if you want to see a good variety of birds, you'll never be disappointed if you go out after rain has moved through. After being hunkered down while enduring the weather, every bird seems to come out when the rain is finally over. A bird that has captured my attention every spring for the past few years is the Common Yellowthroat.
These Warblers are abundant in the park, easy to identify by sound, but super hard to photograph. Like other Warblers they don't sit still for more than a second or two before changing direction. The one thing though that gives you a fighting chance at photographing one is that they tend to be feeding near the ground or just above it. You're way more likely to catch a Common Yellowthroat at eye-level versus say a Yellow Warbler or American Redstart who are often high up above in the tree tops.
Tonight I was lucky enough not only to catch the male -with the familiar black face mask, but also a less-obvious female in an Oak tree. Lately I've been attempting to lure them in by imitating their call "wickety-whickety-whickety" and have found it a slightly easier sound to whistle versus some of the other more high-pitched Warblers. I gotta admit though that I had some help with recorded sounds from Stan Tekiela's "Birds of Minnesota" audio cd that I have downloaded to my iphone. I'm sure birders with more experience will hate me when I say this but I often pull it out after hearing a bird call to confirm what I've heard. Though I have found that all the variations of songs & calls aren't included -such as some completely new songs I heard today from a Baltimore Oriole.
Later I was able to see some other good sights such as an American Redstart, Cardinals, Golfinches, Catbirds, a Flycatcher and a pair of Deer. On the west side near the baseball diamonds I noticed an oddly speckled little bird running through the grass and realized it was an immature Robin. He had only just the faintest hints of orange on the breast and I thought it was kind of neat to see.
These Warblers are abundant in the park, easy to identify by sound, but super hard to photograph. Like other Warblers they don't sit still for more than a second or two before changing direction. The one thing though that gives you a fighting chance at photographing one is that they tend to be feeding near the ground or just above it. You're way more likely to catch a Common Yellowthroat at eye-level versus say a Yellow Warbler or American Redstart who are often high up above in the tree tops. 
Tonight I was lucky enough not only to catch the male -with the familiar black face mask, but also a less-obvious female in an Oak tree. Lately I've been attempting to lure them in by imitating their call "wickety-whickety-whickety" and have found it a slightly easier sound to whistle versus some of the other more high-pitched Warblers. I gotta admit though that I had some help with recorded sounds from Stan Tekiela's "Birds of Minnesota" audio cd that I have downloaded to my iphone. I'm sure birders with more experience will hate me when I say this but I often pull it out after hearing a bird call to confirm what I've heard. Though I have found that all the variations of songs & calls aren't included -such as some completely new songs I heard today from a Baltimore Oriole. 
Later I was able to see some other good sights such as an American Redstart, Cardinals, Golfinches, Catbirds, a Flycatcher and a pair of Deer. On the west side near the baseball diamonds I noticed an oddly speckled little bird running through the grass and realized it was an immature Robin. He had only just the faintest hints of orange on the breast and I thought it was kind of neat to see.
No comments:
Post a Comment