A Bunting Named Piper

The thing I like most about being able to work from home (besides being able to open the fridge or flop down for a nap or be there for my kids when they're sick) is being there to know the birds in my yard, to be in on their lives.  Piper is our indigo bunting, and he arrived in April and fooled around for a couple of months doing who knows what. Then he got serious in late June and proclaimed his territory from the top of Dump Hill to the farm bell in back to the willow and sycamore on the side, to the ash in the driveway. Our yard was his and he wasn't going to let anyone forget it.

I had watched him all summer in the Bird Spa. Piper was nothing if not a clean little bird.

On hot days it seemed that every time I looked out, Piper was doin' his thing. I stopped everything each time I saw him there. He is so beautiful.

As the summer wore on and the juvenile birds began to disperse from their natal homes, Piper had to share his bath with American redstarts (like this one) and common yellowthroats

and once in awhile even a scarlet tanager!

who of course was in his drab winter plumage. More's the pity.

If it offended Piper to share his bath, he never showed it. Even with four American goldfinches!

It was late summer before Piper and his mate really got going. Other birds, like our yard bluebird, were on their third brood before the indigo buntings began to think about breeding. 

This male bluebird is thinking about taking a bath. See how worn and shabby his feathers look, with gray-brown showing through? 

He'll start his molt soon, as soon as the kids are out of the house and finding their own jobs. 

Not a minute too soon, huh, Raggedy Dad?

Next: Piper and Mrs. Piper get serious.

#71 for the Bird Spa List!!

Scarlet tanager is the one we see lots in our yard, sometimes right out the studio window. We get gobs of young scarlets blowing through in late summer and fall. Nearly all are in dull plumage, but they are beautiful nonetheless, and it's such fun to see them sport and play.

And then this character appeared. Now, when you see dozens of scarlet tanagers, the little things that are different about this bird jump out at you. First, it's larger. A different green, tinged orange. Longer wings, longer tail...less contrast between wing and body than a scarlet shows. Tail's not blackish like a scarlet's, either. It's all adding up to...just missing one part...

Ah! the Jimmy Durante nose! It's a juvenile summer tanager!

Well, look at you, looking at me!! You're makin' my day here, darling. Keep it up.

Umm.. would you consider a quick dip, getting yourself on the Spa List of species who've bathed or drunk at my special bird bath?

I'll think about it. After all, that's what brought me in, that googurling water.

That goldfinch certainly seems to be enjoying himself. Doesn't seem afraid of the bubbler, either.

And neither is the titmouse...

Don't mind if I do.

Dingdingdingdingding!! #71 for the Spa List!! Summer tanager, August 1, 2012. 

What are we, chopped liver? Anyone have a guess on the brown bird in the middle? Just a little quiz. You knew there'd be a quiz.

Following the Butterfly

The first pipevine swallowtail shows up on the cardinal flower, 7/31/12.

Meanwhile, back in my yard, the fun never stops. Blogging is like following the butterfly. And I think that that's part of its appeal. You want to see what happens next, however random. Well, rest assured it's still all happening in my backyard zoo. The action wasn't limited to one July afternoon! The challenge is winnowing out all the good stuff, editing it, cropping it, getting it ready, finding time to whip it into shape for presentation. The greater challenge is fitting in all the stuff you really MUST blog about to fulfill obligations, while the durn redstarts and swallowtails are flittering just outside your window. South African birding or backyard? Ack! Can't choose! So....Both!

Some like it shallow, like this little peachstart (what Bill calls young male redstarts).

Bluebird dad is looking mighty worn, too, like his little brown mate in a previous post. He's ready for a molt, but he's got two boys and a girl about to fledge (8/7) in the front yard box. Then he'll finish feeding them for another three weeks, and only then will he drop into the Barco-lounger and have hisself a well-earned beer and a good molt. Three broods this season, whew! How's he going to pay for all that college?

You had to mention college. You mean I have to take them all around to look at schools this fall?

Yes. In a flock. Show them the Spicebush School down by the creek. And don't forget Sumac U. It's right out the meadow; they could live at home and commute.

The rare spurred cardinal. Not sure how both these little underwing coverts got symmetrically turned out, but you can be sure I'll be watching for this girl to see if this aberration persists over days or even months. In my experience, a bird can show a turned feather for quite some time, often until it's molted out. I like this! She is workin' those spurs!

A young ruby-throat, annoyed by leaves in front of his Salvia guarantica "Black and Blue," takes matters into his own tiny claws and clings to the leaf while feeding. Oh, I love moments like this. Innovation comes from the young of mind.

For to those who've suggested a supertyduper webcam for Indigo Hill to capture moments like these...well, it's still a distant dream, because we are as yet in the grasp of the cruel Overlord known as Hughes.Net which, having a monopoly as the only Interwebs provider in much of rural Washington County, feels free to charge us nearly $100 a month for our Internet, yet limits us to 475 MB per day in downloads. It's slow and spotty, the stuff of weekly cranky calls from the Peasants to our Overlord to complain. "Dave" in Mumbai always ends our calls by asking me if there's anything more he can do for me. Oh, the temptation...

Frinstance, I've had to go back five times and re-upload the photos for this post alone when the connection was broken. I can only listen to Spotify for a blissful two hours a day, and if anybody watches videos (if they have the patience to wait for them to load) it sends us over the brink immediately. No software downloads possible, no updates...they all eat our bandwidth. And then when you cross the Megabyte Bridge of Doom, having stolen the Troll's Gold by downloading more than 475 MB of material in 24 hours, the Web is down for another 24 hours until you  tithe $11.00 to the Overlord. On top of the $93 he's already taking out of you every month for the awesome Interwebs service described above. You can tell it's down because it goes from Slow to Slowest.

Get the picture?

If it sounds medieval, it is. It's better than dialup, I'll give it that.

Soooo...nice idea, but ain't no way we have the Webpower to support a birdcam. You'll have to settle for still photos until a magic leprechaun comes throwing gold coins and gives us Peasants some real broadband that we can afford. We can't even afford the lousy service we do get. 

Oh my. Did I just rant? I seem to...I am sorry. This is a happy shiny place full of bathing birds and clinging hummingbirds. They slip out, those Rants.  Usually when Art rams its head against Technology, or lack thereof. Hughes.Net is boasting about its new satellite (Wow! It looks so high-tech! So many doo-dads on it!) that it claims will be orbiting Ohio as of this fall, giving us all the exact thing we want. Which would be decent, fast Internet service.  Maybe they'll let us download 500 MB/day then, and charge us $150 a month. To pay for the new satellite, you know.

Oops, I did it again.

Oh look! Stackup at the Spa!

I'm done now, I really am. Except that I have to tell you about the 71st species to bathe in the Spa. Next time.

Chicken Soup for the ADD Birdwatcher's Soul

My "work" day started at 9:54 with a white-eyed vireo and a couple of brown thrashers. Now it's 2:11 pm July 30, 2012, and a juvenile male American redstart is headed in for a real bath. A perfect spotlight of sun lights his way.

This is very nice.

I am getting very wet and floating around like a little orange leaf.

Vireo. Why? This is a very large bath and you don't need to crowd in.

You're right. Sorry about that. I'm red-eyed with embarrassment. Your spray was so alluring...

2:26. Our resident female eastern bluebird, feeding three five-day-old young in a box in the front yard, stops in for a well-deserved drink. Her plumage is so worn she's barely blue any more.  But come October she'll be vibrant and glossy again, these brown summer weeds replaced with fall cerulean frost.

3:10. Piper the indigo bunting stops in for yet another bath.

3:11. A monarch comes to nectar at the butterfly weed which is reblooming below the studio window. A tiny beautiful bee flies by.

3:11:39: a ruby-throated hummingbird slams into the monarch and knocks it into the air. Hummingbirds can be so rude!

3:41. A juvenile scarlet tanager drops in for a drink and bath.

It actually goes up to the bubbler and drinks out of it just like a child at a playground. Score another favorite photo!

I'd taken 360 photos in 2 hours 20 minutes on one July day. I probably missed half the action when I was looking down trying to work. On days like this, I'm thankful that I can be here, seeing things like this right from my drawing board. My only regret is that there's no one here to share it with.  But people who can sit at a window all day and stare out of it are hard to come by. People who will  do that are even harder to find. So I roll it in my hands for a few hours and make a little mud pie of words and photos, just to try to show you how cool it all is, and how the show just goes on and on and never stops at all. It's not just here. It's everywhere. Birds are migrating, right now. All you have to do is look.

And putting out a freshly scrubbed bubbly birdbath on a hot summer day doesn't hurt either.

The Ten-Ring Bird Circus Continues

We left our heroine just before 1 PM on July 30, 2012. She was nearly limp with excitement at the incessant bird circus going on outside her studio window. But it was not close to over.  At 1:09, the juvenile hooded warbler decided to try bathing in the Spa.

The bubbler is attractive but very, very scary to a small warbler at the same time. The hooded made about a dozen passes at landing before she screwed up her courage to do it.

It helped to have a friendly tufted titmouse enjoying himself right there in front of her. If he can do it...

The Warbler has Landed. But she's too shy even to drink. Knock-kneed with fright she is.

At 1:38, the juvenile orchard oriole returns. It still hasn't bathed, but it's watching a male northern cardinal with great interest. What a beautiful sleek bird. Reminds me of my Ora Lee, who lived in my studio for 17 years.

Turns out that the oriole's watching the cardinal because it wants to drink and bathe in the spray from its bath!

It drops down beneath the bath and laps drops off the Creeping Charlie leaves with its long, feathery tongue. Then it wallers around in the wet leaves a bit. That'll count for the Spa bird list. It landed and drank from the bath. #70 it is!!

At 1:43, the juvenile hooded warbler finally works up the courage to bathe!

And glory be, she preens it out in the birch right where the worm-eating warbler was earlier.

 She makes sure every feather is just so before she leaves at 1:44.

1:46. A young male American redstart comes to check out the thistle feeder, as a redstart has several times each day for the last week. I don't know if it's the same redstart, but the curious young birds figure that if the goldfinches are eating from the feeder, there might be something there for them, too.

Such a gorgeous plumage, this young male born this spring. See the peachy orange breast patches? That would be yellow if this were a female. And it's a bird hatched this year, showing no black speckling in the head or back as it would if it were a 2011 model. Can you see the flattened, flycatcherlike bill and rictal bristles at its corners? It catches flies and other insects right out of the air. Hence the flycatcher bill.

1:53. A common yellowthroat, again a juvenile, shows up and skitters through the saucer of water I keep for those birds that prefer still, shallow water to the deeper, more challenging Spa.

It preens and preens, rearranging its mussed feathers right under my nose.

1:53. I get one of my favorite shots of the day from our little male redstart. Just beautiful, like an avian butterfly he is. 

  1:59. That gorgeous orchard oriole bombs back through. Who knows. It could be an entirely different individual. I'd believe anything today. All these birds in less than an hour. At this point I've given up trying to get anything done on my article.

Man, I love late summer. Spring is fun and pretty and exciting, but fall birding is THE BOMB. Get out there, people!! Or, if you've got a good window, stay in!!