Three Little Birds

A lot to see today, but the highlights were a few different little birds, all showing lots of yellow color! The first was a Yellow-throated Vireo I located almost directly over the wood chip trail on the south side of the park. He (I'm assuming) was singing away which is how I came to notice him.

The light was pretty harsh and I was darn near underneath the bird so I backed up as much as I could and zoomed to make up the difference. He put on a good show for me, staying on basically the same little twig, while turning his other side to me more than once. This is the first Yellow-throated Vireo I've seen this year, and it's very possible it might be my last for the year. I just don't seem to see this species much at all and I count myself luck to see one per year. Next I spotted a bright male Yellow Warbler hopping around a Common Elderberry shrub. Having noticed the myriad of small insects attracted to the tiny, white flowers atop the plant, I'm thinking the bird was looking for bugs to eat. It was tough getting unobstructed photos of this guy when he was basically inside the plant. The third bird was also a Warbler showing a lot of yellow. This Common Yellowthroat was perched in what I think is native Red-osier Dogwood and may have been doing just the same by looking for small insects attracted to the shrub. I'm always amazed at how quickly warblers and vireos both can search individual leaves for insects. I generally only see it with binoculars but they are pretty darn good at finding the bugs or caterpillars and gobbling them down as fast as they can find them. Other sights today included; Ebony Jewelwing (damselfly), Green Heron, Great Egret, Great Blue Heron, and an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (butterfly).

Extra Day

Today is Labor Day so I was able to sneak in one extra morning visit to the park. Apparently all the wildlife was also on holiday as I saw barely anything of interest. I have noticed over the course of the summer that the Egrets are in much smaller numbers than last year. I think the most I saw at one time this year was 2 or 3 compared to groups around 15 last year. I wonder if their numbers are being affected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. About the only thing I saw a lot of today were Bumblebees. They are everywhere on the bright yellow flowers -which I think are Goldenrods. I actually don't remember seeing so many of these yellow flowers in years before. Maybe that is due to all the rain we've had this year. The timing is certainly right though as referenced on Wikipedia: "In Midwestern states in the mid-twentieth century it was said that when the goldenrod bloomed, it would soon be time to go back to school—the blossoms appeared in mid- to late August, shortly before the traditional start of school on the day after Labor Day."