No raccoons (that I know of) yet. I did see my first Monarch of the season two days ago and saw two more yesterday. I guess it's time for them to migrate South. I was reading that Goldenrod is an important food source for them during migration, but I haven't seen them on the Solidalgo yet. The do like the Buddleia.

Steve

First of all... no photo of the skunk that our puppy briefly "met" a few weeks ago ..... you can all imagine what it was like having Brody around until the scent finally washed out of his fur. Don't think he'll be making that mistake again!

Jane.... soooo..... chicken love lobster shells .... who knew?Well, I guess that is one way to get rid of them, though I do love using the shells for lobster bisque.

Steve, I love the Monarch photo. I've also seen a few in the yard lately even thought I don't grow any of their favorite hosts.

Also spotted this morning..... an Ailanthus Webworm Moth on our Agastache. Anyone else have them? My DH took some shots of it with its curled wings, so we had no idea that it was a moth. I Googled "orange, black, and white insect" and saw this creature in all its forms and also found this information about them:

"The ailanthus tree has its own moth, Atteva aurea, the ailanthus webworm moth. The moth holds its wings rolled and close around its body while resting, so it looks a little like a long beetle."

{{gwi:268834}}

Molie

Such beautiful insects, Steve and Molie! The monarch is a classic photo and I've never even heard of an Ailanthus Webworm Moth, much less seen one. Very decorative additions to the garden.

I sympathize with Brody's mishap, both for Brody and for you. Probably a very embarrassed puppy for a while there.

No monarchs here yet, but the goldenrods aren't blooming yet so there's still hope.

Claire

How lucky can a girl get? Walked into the house and there, on the deck railing, was a female Scarlet Tanager. Ran down the hall quietly, grabbed the Rebel, and here she is below. No processing, straight out of the camera, only cropped the right side where the mullion had cast a shadow. What a surprise - heart doing the happy dance!
Jane :)
Got 8 shots of her before she flew up into the maple. Saw a male this past spring for the first time.

Wow - great! Didn't realize they were so colorful. On a rare occasion, spot the males when we are in VT, but I've not seen one close up.

Claire - hope you are still willing to have New England pictures posted here. If not, let me know. I think this may be a 2nd-w. Iceland Gull. On the Maine coast last week, I watched this guy catch his crab lunch. Two of many shots.
Jane

Jane: Marvelous pictures of the gull, whatever it is! Professional quality.

And to see a female Scarlet Tanager is really a treat (that's a misleading name considering her coloring). I've never seen either a male or female.

Pictures taken in New England, or by a New Englander visiting somewhere else, are always appropriate, so long as they're vaguely related to mobile features, preferably outdoors or capable of going outdoors.

Claire

Thanks, Claire. Seldom do I see loons, and this chap's black legs and web feet were just wonderful to watch. May have to go to New Hampshire to see a moose. Only saw stuffed ones; no fun for them or me, lol.
Jane

This post was edited by corunum on Tue, Sep 9, 14 at 6:29

Lovely loon pic, Jane, and the water has a great Jello quality to it! We occasionally hear loons calling here after they migrate to us and before they shut down for the winter (they don't seem to breed here so no haunting summer calls). Always startles me.

Did someone say that House Sparrows don't eat safflower seed? I took down the bee feeder and decided to move the safflower feeder to where I could see it. Suddenly the feeder started emptying out very quickly and I suspect this is the reason. Now that the myriad blackbirds are mostly gone more house sparrows are appearing.

They eat nyjer too.

Claire

They'll eat anything even if it is nailed down. They mostly left when I went to straight safflower. A few returned and apparently adjusted to the new fare and there were perhaps 6 that called my place home. However, yesterday, me being out of bird seed altogether, Agway had a sale on the fancy Lyric seed, 40lbs for $35, so I brought a bag home and filled the feeder. This morning, after reading the Sparrow Gazette, I guess, there were and remain now, some 15 of them. In addition to the sparrows, the woodpeckers also returned as did the jays, C.Wrens, etc. So, pick your battles, I guess. On sale for $20 off, I may go back and get more because I refuse to pay $54.95 for 40lbs of seed no matter who does or doesn't eat it. Mrs.Cardinal particularly seemed to really enjoy the safflower.

As steady readers may recall, I don't care for sn*kes - no matter what anyone else thinks of them. The picture below shows what Ivy brought onto the porch this afternoon to play with which I saw only as I began exiting the kitchen. Fortunately, the local heroine came to my rescue and holding it by its tail end, it was escorted across the street into woods. Ivy has been told that she will be replaced by a Golden Retriever if this happens 1 more time.
Jane

Nice picture, I'm amazed you managed to take it, given your feelings towards snakes. Sometimes the urge to capture and share is stronger than the feelings the subject elicits.

Ivy looks pleased with her capture, you should be pleased with yours.

Claire

Jane,

I am with you on the reptile issue. I appreciate their place in the ecosystem and don't wish them harm. I just don't want them in my space or even near it!

Susan.

Claire said, "Ivy looks pleased with her capture, you should be pleased with yours. " Bear in mind I was safe behind a closed, glass French door. Chicken heart when it comes to those things.

The finches are still feeding fledglings and Papa looks like he's just about had it. Many broods this year for both finches and sparrows.
Jane

Jane, wonderful coastal Maine photos!

I am seriously amazed at your photo of Ivy's snake, even with an intervening glass door. Perhaps you are slowly becoming acclimatized to our scaly friends?

nhbabs, Glad you like the Maine birds, but no, unequivocally, I am not becoming acclimatized to anything reptilian. Anything that slithers is out of the question. My Brahman Indian friend says my fear is totally a Western-induced fear. Big subject; maybe yes, maybe no, but I've got it! Claire was right - the desire to share (from behind glass) momentarily rose above my fear.
Jane

Claire: the article about hawks getting mobbed made perfect sense. Our very narrow tidal river draws so much bird life ... of course, they all have to learn how to "share" it or at least to tolerate their neighbors. Now that it's mid-september, all the Osprey have left. Instead, mobs of Canada geese call out and challenge each other on the river. Is there anything GOOD about Canada geese?
Your raccoon shots are darn cute. Poor little guy .... looks like his feelings are hurt.

Jane: Loons... nice! I'd much rather have them around than the geese. You took so many great photos in Maine. The one of the gull "crabbing" reminds me of the scene with the seagull holding the crab aloft as bait in "Finding Nemo."

But....heh, heh!... my favorite has to be the one of Ivy and the snake. I can just picture your terror and trembling hands as you aimed the camera. (I guess I shouldn't tell you about the garter snake nest at the bottom of our deck stairs?)

We don't get many Scarlet Tanagers around here, so I showed your shot of the female to my DH. His comment: "Very cool!"

As for "Cool".... that's what we've got outside today. What's happened to Indian Summer?

Molie

Molie said, "(I guess I shouldn't tell you about the garter snake nest at the bottom of our deck stairs?) " Your mean streak still needs a bright red parka, Molie! At least Susan agrees with me. And, I like Canada Geese, so there, lol. Anyway, poor Claire, she may be ready to shut us down here.

This morning I noticed a brightly colored House Finch only to see that the little guy has eye disease. According to what I read online, the Cornell survey and citizen reporting of the disease has ended, but can still be reported if you are member of the Project Feeder Watch program (thank you, Claire, it's been 5 years of reporting). Regretfully, this bacterial disease is now found in other birds, so citizen reporting is again important - see link below, if interested.

Did I miss anything here, Claire?

Jane

Here is a link that might be useful: Cornell Ornithology, eye disease

Jane: I have no desire to shut down free-ranging discussions so long as they're vaguely related to the original topic. The idea is to have a place to ramble on about gardening-related issues such as snakes and birds and whatever moves us.

That's sad about your House Finch having the eye disease. I didn't know it was so wide-spread, affecting forest birds as well as feeder birds. I wonder if the mycoplasma can be spread through water sources used by many birds. Wikipedia has a disturbing article noting widespread distribution including sinusitis in turkeys.

Molie: I'm ready for some Indian Summer myself. My bay-side deck which is wonderfully cool in summer with the sea breeze is getting downright chilly now. I may bring in a few houseplants if the nights get down to the low fifties they're muttering about. The street side of the house is much warmer.

Claire

We may be in 'Squaw Winter', so hold on to your mukluks. For those of us who do not want to do anything this afternoon other than look things up on the net and take bird pictures, interesting (according to me) 'Indian Summer' link below.

I don't know which insect makes the cocoon under aronia leaves, but watching this BC Chickadee moments ago, only when dreaming of flying can I imagine being THIS light.
Jane

Here is a link that might be useful: BBC -Indian summer: What exactly is it?

jane, when i was in 3rd grade, we lived in a Norfolk VA neighborhood w/ a small swamp behind the houses across the street. My friend's family had brother and sister Siamese cats who were known to be great hunters. Well, one of my most vivid childhood memories is of the adult MUSKRAT they brought up to their yard. The tail was 2" caliper at its widest point!

Mindy - that's one big muskrat. I'll settle for Ivy's smaller offerings and be grateful.
Jane

I wonder.... am I seeing more unusual animals and bird sightings because the animals are getting ready for migration or for the colder weather? Today we saw "parallel' grooming" of an osprey and a heron. They sat side-by-side for quite a while at the edge of the river .... preening and grooming themselves and ignoring each other.

Molie

Jane: That chickadee looks like it could float away like milkweed fluff - great pic.

Mindy: Those must have been two proud cats with the muskrat capture. What does a person do with a gifted muskrat when the cats are watching?

Molie: That "parallel grooming" is fascinating! Maybe it's a territorial display? (This is my territory but I'm not going to attack you because I'm not sure how fierce you are so I'll just stand my ground being nonchalant) - or maybe it's something totally different.

Claire

Today lived up to the billing of a real “bluebird day”. As we sat in the yard in the late afternoon, a flock suddenly showed up. They never totally left us this summer, but they are not always around. We counted at least 10, but I couldn’t capture them all at once. Glad that I actually had my camera with me!

Susan

Molie - seems natural that peaceful coexistence would be on your river - great shots.

Susan - now THAT's bluebird heaven! Wow. You're a lucky duck. Keep the camera nearby - wonderful!
Jane

Wow, Susan! Those are amazing shots of "Bluebird Day" in your yard ... great that the camera was so close. As I've said before, I've never seen even one bluebird in our yard.

With your permission, I'm showing that last photo to my DH? He paints and would, I know, love to use that bluebird closeup in an oil or pencil sketch.
Molie

Jane, if I had your skill at capturing birds in flight, this picture would not look so much like a blue squirrel coming in for a landing. lol

Susan

Molie, thank you. Feel free to share the pic. Susan

Great photos of the blue bird convention, Susan! It's impressive how they can perch on a barbed wire fence without piercing their little feet. It must be a hasty last minute foot placement as they come in for a landing. That last pic does look like a blue squirrel tail - at least the bird didn't have to deal with barbed wire.

Claire

MOLIE,i don't know enough to know if this is even a valid question, but is it possible that the grey bird is an immature version of the adult white bird?
mindy

Mindy... although egrets and herons are from the same family .. .Ardeidae... and although egrets are a form of white heron, they are different species. (I think I got that right.... biology was not my major.)

I believe that the bird on the left is a Great Egret (Casmerodius albus...yellow bill and black legs) and the one on the right is a Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax). I know there are others on this thread with more knowledge of these birds and can certainly correct any misidentification.

We get lots of both along our river but don't see them together. Here's another shot I took that gives a closer look.

Molie

Susan - just keep shooting, that's the main thing. I credit my lens and sometimes good timing for the better bird shots. But I still erase most of them.

Here is the little male Rose-breasted Grosbeak who was born here. That's a Downy on the other side. Have not seen his 2 sisters, but the suet was just put out. Can't believe I went into Agway today and came out with 120 lbs. of seed, but I did. A sale is a sale.
Jane

After seeing pixie-lou's tithonia last year, I planted some seeds in a raised bin on the deck this year. Pixie's were much, much better, but this little orange-bottomed bee seemed to find them attractive.

He carefully and enthusiastically flew in

Then seemed to have had a crash landing

When he came up for air, I wondered if he could drive home with a face full of pollen

But apparently he could

Thanks, Susan.... I did share your photos.
Molie

Molie, we were posting at the same time, apparently. Yes, I agree the dark charcoal crown certainly looks like a black crown heron.

Claire, I wouldn't worry about the bluebirds feet. They seem to like the barbed wire! It's just an old section of pasture fence that survived, but they have a great vantage point between two veg gardens and the insects that reside there. They have a lot of other choices for a perch. The only things we saw them have a problem with were smooth surfaces (ceramic garden markers I put on the end of my tomato garden fences)! They were back in force again today. I think the fact that yesterday we tilled one of the veg garden plots to prep for planting winter rye might have stirred up the insects.

Susan

This post was edited by homegrowninthe603 on Tue, Sep 16, 14 at 9:36

At noontime today, Fluffy arrived under my office window by way of one of his thunderous, broad-sweeping approaches. He's quite theatrical, and IMO, very good-looking. He left empty taloned (?), but not before posing. I think it was decided last spring that Fluffy is a Sharp-shinned hawk. Edit: somebody on Facebook said it is a juvi Cooper's. It's just my yard, I'm not his owner. Whatever he is, we'll still call him Fluffy.
Jane

This post was edited by corunum on Tue, Sep 16, 14 at 16:52

Just stunning, Jane.

Great pics of the bee rolling in tithonia pollen, Jane, and Fluffy looks majestic. I'm leaning towards Cooper's Hawk also (lower belly is pale, tail is rounded) but accipiters are notoriously deceptive.

Claire

What cool photos!I have looked through all the black crowned night herons on this linked site, below, but none look like that big grey guy to me. He is as big as the egret, isn't he?
mindy

Here is a link that might be useful: extensive photos of herons and egrets

Great website, Mindy. Thanks for sharing. Yes, he is as big as the egret. And as I've said, I hope that someone who knows more about birds than I could correct any information I gave, especially those with great bird identification skills and better field guides than mine.

We get many large birds like osprey, turkey vultures, blue herons, cormorants, ibises (at certain times) and other birds along the river, but the egrets are the most prevalent.

Jane, great bee shots on the tithonia. That plant's color surely says "Fall" and must look great on your deck. Fluffy is also strikingly handsome.

I thought I posted here... but obviously didn't... that we had some deer at our bird feeders the other day. They came in the early morning, headed downriver and then later in the day, going upriver. A few nibbles on my roses and some weeds. I'm guessing they were mighty impressed with the convenience of the feeders as well as beverage nearby.

Molie: When in doubt about bird ID's I post photos on the Bird Watching Forum. There are a few experts who regularly check that forum and can definitively identify almost any bird in this country and elsewhere. There are also a few well-meaning but not very knowledgeable people, but that's easily weeded out.

Nice of you to hang the feeders at deer browsing height. They look very well fed.

Claire

molie, what a very beautiful place you have there. I have to tell you, I am partial to egrets, so i love tp hear about all the diff birds and widlife you have there. what a treat for you and all of us who get to see your photos!

Mindy, on my iPad I stretched Molie's first egret/heron post, and in the 2nd picture of that first post, the black crown on the heron is very clear. If you Google ' egret , heron together', there are pictures of other egrets and herons chumming, preening, and stealing fish from each other. Not that unusual apparently.
Jane

Thanks, Claire, for the suggestion about posting on the Bird Watching Forum, which I'll do later today. Most of the time I'm often not sure what's out there, but it sure is fun watching them.

Mindy, even as winter comes, we have great sightingss along the river . I never realized how interesting and fun it would be to live along a tidal river. Because it's so narrow and not easily accessible, there aren't many folks on it ... just those with kayaks and canoes.

Does anyone ... especially those up north....get moose, mountain lions, bear or fox on their property as the seasons change? We took a drive yesterday up to MA through the Mohawk Mtn. areas, staying off highways, but only saw one turkey.... not even a squirrel! That was surprising to us.

Molie

Molie: I would suggest a Great Blue Heron, perhaps a juvenile, for the darker bird.

These are photos I took in August of a rather mangy looking Great Blue Heron preening in Ellisville Marsh. The dark crown is visible.

Check out All About Birds - scroll down to the Field Marks section and then click on the arrow to see more photos. About five photos in is a juvenile.

Claire

Edit note: One thing that bothers me about the Black-crowned Night-Heron ID is the fact that they mostly hang around at night. According to All About Birds:

"Black-crowned Night-Herons are common in wetlands across North America - you just may have to look a little harder than you do for most herons. True to their name, these birds do most of their feeding at night and spend much of the day hunched among leaves and branches at the water’s edge. Evening and dusk are good times to look for these rather stout, short-necked herons flying out to foraging grounds."

This post was edited by claire on Thu, Sep 18, 14 at 15:06

Good shots, Claire. The day I was at Ellisville, there was one duck in sight. Same trouble at Molie's. At least I got some Terns in Plymouth. On the heron ID, it's the dark crown and maybe juvi status that adds to the confusion. Then again, I still mix up Cooper's and Sharp-shinned, but Great Blue certainly looks correct. Nice birds and a lucky places to live, you two!

Sometimes when focusing so much on one bird, I don't see a spoiler until the picture is up on the computer screen and enlarged. Such was the case in the daily sparrow bath today. The expression on the guy on the left is priceless.

Jane

"It's my turn, hurry up and get out of the bath!" Very cute!

You really have to time the tides to see birds at the Ellisville Marsh. If the tide is low enough that the mudflats are exposed there are usually a number of birds, except when there isn't. And the time of low tide in the marsh is a few hours delayed compared to the bay so it's tricky to use a tide chart. During GBBC I always agonize over the time and I usually end up making several counts on different days, which are often quite different.

I take a quick look at the marsh when I drive home from wherever.

Claire

This thread is getting long so I'll set up a new one (2014 #10) very soon. As always, people can continue the discussion on this thread if they want.

Claire

Molie - Was just reading thru the end of this thread. Just thought Id post a great blue heron photo I took in mid July. You can see the dark head on this guy. Did you ever get a proper ID on the bird watching forum?