Magnolia

Magnolia Warbler, male, looking at you.

More eye candy. I just love Magnolia Warblers. If you want to remember how to ID them, I think of them as the "everything warbler." In spring they have just about every type of field mark warblers can have — dark mask, eye-crescents, white eyebrow starting above eye, white wing-bars, yellow throat, yellow underparts with black stripes forming almost a necklace, white undertail coverts. They have white spots part way up the black tail, so when viewed from underneath, the tail has a black tip.

Eye Candy Warblers

We're just back from Crane Creek/Magee Marsh, Ohio warbler birding hotspot. Here's a photo of a beautiful, male, Cape May Warbler I photographed there. The place was dripping Cape May Warblers this time. Until now, I had not gotten a decent photo of one, so I was a happy camper. The black strips on yellow are tiger-like, hence the scientific name for Cape May Warbler is Dendroica tigrina.
There are few places in the eastern U.S. where you can see so many warblers during migration, so close. I will continue to post more "eye candy' warblers during this week.

The Stokes Field Guide To The Birds of North America

Coming this Oct. 2010, The Stokes Field Guide To The Birds of North America

The biggest, most complete, national photographic field guide ever published!

The ultimate field guide birders have been waiting for, with more species, more identification text, more stunning photos of birds showing every important angle, and a cutting edge emphasis on shape that will fast forward your birding to the next level, no matter what level you're on. Size 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 inches.

Retail price, $24.99, 815 pages. Pub. Little, Brown & Co.

We are very excited to bring to you our new, national Stokes Field Guide To The Birds Of North America, that has been 6 years in the making. This will be the most comprehensive national photographic bird guide ever published, all in one portable volume. Features include:

- 854 North American bird species, including everything from beloved backyard favorites to the latest high-interest rarities birders most want to see.

- Well over 3,400 stunning color photographs (over 1000 more than any other photo field guide) from America’s top bird photographers, including many from Lillian, are clearly presented in an uncluttered, well-organized, easy-to-view format. Photos cover ALL significant plumages, including: male, female, summer, winter, immature, morphs, important subspecies, and birds in flight. Difficult species are shown from every important angle. The date and location each photo was taken are included with each photograph.

- We give more (not less) space, photos and identification information for the hard-to-identify species because that is what birders want.

- The most up-to-date, detailed and complete identification clues of any North American field guide. Finally birders will have all they need to know in one place.

- The FIRST national field guide to emphasize "quantitative shape" as a new cutting-edge method of bird identification. The comprehensive account of each species shape and proportions provides a more accurate and understandable way to use shape in identifying birds.

- The FIRST field guide to include ALL subspecies with complete information on their range, identification and common and scientific names. This will help birders understand important regional variation in a species’ appearance.

- The newest range maps available detail species winter, summer, and year-round ranges as well as migration routes and extra-limital vagrancies.

- Special help for identifying birds in flight through important clues of behavior, plumage, and shape.

- The very newest scientific and common names, splits and lumps. Yes, we have included Pacific Wren.

- Detailed descriptions of the song and calls, important behavioral information, and key habitat preferences of each species.

- Other user-friendly features that will help birders and much, much more.

PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY NOW, click Here:

Blogger Phoebe's Birding Tip

Black-capped Chickadee

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Hi there, Bloggger Phoebe here,

Usually I don't give birding advice, I leave that up to my owners, Lillian and Don Stokes, 'cuz they're the birding experts. However, here's a tip I can't pass up and best of all, it has to do with me. My owners comb me (then give me a cookie and tell me "good girl") and take my nice soft fur and put it in a suet cage holder. The little birdies just go nuts for my fur. Chickadees, Red-breasted Nuthatches, Tufted Titmice, White-breasted Nuthatches, even American Goldfinches grab big mouthfulls and take them. They fly to their little birdie nests and line them with my fur, turning them into little perfect birdie nests, 'cuz, y' know, I'm perfect.



Until later,
Blogger Phoebe, "Woof"

Visit us at Crane Creek/Magee Marsh OH Sat. May 10th

Magnolia Warbler

Golden-winged Warbler

Bay-breasted Warbler

Hi there,
Come see spectacular warblers and meet us on Sat. May 10th. At 1pm we will be at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, signing books and demonstrating our Stokes Birding Series binlocular line. Ottawa NWR is on the south shore of Lake Erie right next store to famous warbler hotspot Crane Creek/Magee Marsh where we will be all weekend when we're not signing books. The warblers are heading north and pause on the lake shore waiting for favorable winds. The trees along the Magee Marsh boardwalk next to the lake can be dripping warblers.
Hope to see you there.

Phoebe sleep

What can we say, we came back from an errand, opened the crate Phoebe was sleeping in and she just continued to lie there for a while in her upside-down, mellowed out, zen state. Owning a Corgi brings us a laugh-a-day (at least)!
Phoebe loves her crate and "asks", by sitting in front of us and staring, to go to bed in it each night at about 8 pm. Of course, it does't hurt that she get a cookie when she goes in.

Evening Grosbeak Party

At the Stokes Birdfeeder Restaurant, the Evening Grosbeak party of 4 has been seated. The male is the bright yellow "space cadet," the females are wearing more sublte gray and yellow. A tray/platform birdfeeder such as this has the advantage of accomoding birds of many sizes, from smaller chickadees to these plus sized grosbeaks. The feeder in this photo is our Stokes Select 3-in-1 Platform Feeder which can be hung, mounted on a pole or set on the ground and is listed in the new Duncraft catalog as their pick for "Best New Bird Feeder."

Tom Turkey

In our meadow in front of our house, for the past 2 days, this resplendent male Turkey has been displaying to 2 females. They seem (at least on the surface) totally uninterested.

Morning Moose

This morning, this moose, this magic.

Early this morning we were treated to large moose trotting across our meadow next to the lake. We feel so lucky to live in a place where this can occur. Shot with a 300 mm telephoto from a distance.

Have a nice weekend, go look for some birds, warblers are already being seen in some locations. Yellow-rumped, Black-throated Green and Black-and-white Warblers have already been noted in NH.

If you don't have your hummingbird feeders up yet, get them out. Fill with a 1 part white sugar, to 4 parts water solution that is boiled for 1 min, then cooled. Hummers have been reported from as far north as southern NH, MI and MN. See their migration map here.

See you Monday.

Bird Migration

Yellow-rumped Warbler in flight

Bird migration is underway now and will continue in full force, through mid-May. Millions of songbirds will enter the southern U.S. in places such as the Texas and Florida coasts when there are favorable wind and weather conditions. Clear skies, and southerly winds will launch them from their wintering grounds in Central and South America and the Caribbean. Dust off your binos and get ready to go outside, whether in your backyard, or to a nearby, or famous birding hotspot, to see the grand parade.
Here are a few web page links to migration information and radar information about migrating birds.

Florida migration and radar

Timing of spring migrants

About birds and radar

Nexrad and birds

Neotropical migratory birds

GO GREEN

B & B, Birding and Breakfast

This weekend, eating breakfast and birding at the same time. Times like these are our favorite moments of the day. Do you have a place on your property where you can sit a moment with binoculars and look at birds? Think about creating one, even if its a bench looking at your bird feeders that you sit on for a few moments a day or a weekend. If you have a place, you will sit, see more and enjoy more. You will feel less stressed, more connected to nature. It will nurture your soul and enhance your life. Really.

Housing Market

Tree Swallow pair

Eastern Bluebird, male

Do you have your bird houses up and all cleaned out, ready for this year's tenants? Here's an Eastern Bluebird, male, recently exploring one of our bird houses. There was a female bluebird nearby watching him and his job was to convince her they should take out a mortgage for this house. A good nesting box is often hard to find.

One of the reasons you see two boxes close together in the above photo is the fact we "pair" our boxes. We have found that this is an effective method on our property for lessening the competition between species for nest boxes. We have a lot of Tree Swallows who nest on our property and they compete with the bluebirds, and even sometimes the chickadees and titmice, for boxes. A Tree Swallow will defend a small circle around its nest box from other Tree Swallows. If another nest box is placed within that circle, it will be defended from other Tree Swallows. Since the Tree Swallow can only nest in one of the boxes, that leaves the second box available to another species, not another Tree Swallow. We have often had a Tree Swallow and a bluebird nesting side by side. We will put a second "pair" of boxes 200-300 feet or more from the first "pair". We actually have a large trail of paired boxes and last year more than 10 pairs of Tree Swallows nested here as well as many other bird house species. It gives us great pleasure to follow the family life of these birds and to know we are, in a small way, helping sustain these species.

It's not too late this weekend to put up birdhouses. Go and purchase one or build your own. Click here for bird house plans. Many bluebirds, Tree Swallows and others are still searching for a home. So see what you can do to enhance the real estate market in your neighborhood. The birds will thank you.

(click on the words highlighted in blue to take you to other webpages with more information.)

100+ Ducks and more

Common Merganser, male

So many birds are here now. Many migrating ducks are on our lake, raptors are migrating through, some songbirds are arriving, life is good! Seen in about the past week here:

2 Bald Eagles (1 ad., 1 imm.)
3 Osprey
3 Northern Harriers ( 1 ad. m., 2 imm.)
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk
1 Turkey Vulture
1 Common Loon
9 Common Goldeneyes
14 Black Ducks
2 Wood Ducks
50+ Common Mergansers
4+ Hooded Mergansers (one f. laying eggs in our nest box)
2+ Mallards
50+ Ring-necked Ducks
25 Canada Geese
1 Northern Shrike
14 Tree Sparrows
1 Fox Sparrows
2 Chipping Sparrows
1 Great Blue Heron
1 American Bittern
30+ Tree Swallows
1 Pine Warbler (ad. m.)
2 Bluebirds
2 Kingfishers
1 Killdeer
2 Ravens
1 Barred Owl
2 American Goldfinches
4 Eastern Phoebes

plus the bird feeder regulars like chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, Red-winged Blackbirds, Downy Woodpeckers, Blue Jays and more.

Goldfinches Are Back!!!

Finally, the American Goldfinches have returned here to southern NH!! Three days ago Don said to me "do you want to bet when the first goldfinch arrives?" The words were hardly out of his mouth when we looked out the window and there at the feeders were the first two goldfinches. You can see the male goldfinch above at our Stokes Finch Tube feeder, filled with Nyjer Plus mix i.e., sunflower chips and thistle (nyjer) being enjoyed by a Downy Woodpecker and the goldfinch. He is still turning from his drab winter coloring into his bright yellow breeding plumage.

In our recent blog post, "Do You Have Goldfiches" we pondered the mysterious disappearance of the goldfinches from NH and other northern areas this winter. Was it because of lack of seeds here, the invasion of more northern finches such as Common Redpolls, because they knew this would be a record-breaking severe winter and decided to leave, or other reasons? Many of you from all over the country wrote and told us you had goldfinches this winter. The Zen Birdfeeder blog in upstate NY just told us that their goldfinch numbers were down all winter and their first goldfinches just reappeared. Have your goldfinches just arrived?

And More Ducks

Today lots of ducks were on the lake and most of the ice has melted. We had about 60 ducks of various species including Hooded Mergansers, Common Mergansers, Buffleheads, Ring-necked Ducks, Mallards, Black Ducks and Wood Ducks. Above is a male Hooded Merganser displaying where he raises his crest to reveal the white "fan." We sat on the deck in the morning with a cup of coffee and looked through our scopes at the duck bonanza. Wonderful!

Common Merganser, female

And here is the Common Merganser, female. She looks different than the male show in our last blog post.

Common Merganser

Common Merganser, male

The ice is partially gone from the cove part of the lake we front on and ducks have moved in. Yesterday we saw 33 Common Mergansers diving down through the water and popping up in holes in the ice. Watch for migrant ducks and geese on water areas near you. This is a big migration time for them.

Photo © Lillian Stokes

Friday Phoebe

Blogger Phoebe here,
I'm just lying in my little bed, chewing my bone, while Lillian and Don are finishing their new book. They're so busy they let me have the blog today. I'm glad the snow is melting some here, so Lillian and Don can take me for long walks in the fields, one of my favorite things. Did you know there's a bird named a Phoebe? Yup, they actually named a bird after me. That's 'cuz I'm perfect. Do you think I have too many toys?

Til' later,
Blogger Phoebe, "woof"

DO YOU HAVE GOLDFINCHES NOW?

If you came to this blog post because you were expecting answers about why you are not seeing goldfinches in any year, here is the answer.
Goldfinches are erratic about where they occur. They move around in winter depending on food sources. They may not appear in winter, spring, summer or fall in areas where they were previously. So at any time of year you may not be seeing them when you saw them before.
In addition, Goldfinches breeding range includes most of the northern two thirds of the country and into Canada. In winter, they leave the northernmost part of that range and are found in the rest of the U.S. including down into the South. Thus do not expect to see them in the far northern area of their range in winter, or the most southern part of their range in summer. Goldfinches change color in winter from their breeding yellow plumage to a brown-gray.
The best way to attract goldfinches is to keep feeders full of hulled sunflower, one of their favorites, or you can use thistle (nyjer) seed, make sure it is fresh. I have a new book coming out this fall, Sept. 17, 2024, The Stokes Guide to Finches of the United States and Canada. It includes everything about American Goldfinches and all the other finches; ID, breeding, food, migrations, conservation, and more. You can Pre-Order it now HERE!

SNOW

Early this morning I took this photo. It was so dim, the flash went off, capturing the big snowflakes of the heavy, wet snow which is falling. At least 6 inches predicted. That's on top of the 18 inches already here. So lets see...we're expecting spring in August.

'GBH

Great Blue Heron, that's what we saw this morning. There is a little open water at the mouth of a brook that feeds into our lake and the Great Blue Heron was trying to land in the open water. Just a tad too early. It's understandable that this bird would be testing to see if its feeding grounds were available. We suggest it come back in a week. We always wonder about these early arrivals who come to their breeding areas and find there is just too much snow and ice still here. They come and then often we don't see them for awhile. Do they reverse migrate for a spell? One would hope so.

Mountain Corgi

This morning, Don said, "good news, we're down to 18 inches of snow." This is relative good news, since there was 24 inches when he put a measuring stick in the snow a week ago. So it has melted 6 inches.
Speaking of relative, there is a relative mountain of snow, still on our deck where it has been piled from shoveling, if you are Corgi-sized. Here is Phoebe, our Pembroke Welsh Corgi, demonstrating.

Bluebirds Today!

Eastern Bluebird, male

Eastern Bluebird, female

Today, in the early morning 16 degree temperature, with 2 feet of snow on the ground, we saw a male and female bluebird going in and out of our birdhouses. Wow! Hello bluebirds. We had so many questions. Where did you come from? Had you been sleeping nearby or did you just migrate last night and arrive this morning? Are you the same bluebirds who nested here several years ago, in the same boxes you were now exploring? What are you eating, the berries and crabapples are mainly gone, consumed by all the "irruptive species" who visited this winter. Where will you go today, where will you sleep tonight? Will you really stay and nest, and is this just house hunting in ernest, or just dippping your toe in the water. So many questions. We wish they could talk.

Vision

We are envisioning spring, as we sit here with lots of snow on the ground, cold, and howling winds today. Photo of our garden May, 16 '07. Have a nice weekend, try and watch some birds.

Spring inside

Today, its spring inside, winter outside with snow and sleet. A Robin got some of the last crabapples and a Junco showed up at the feeders. We told it to go south for a few more weeks.

Red-winged Blackbird

This morning, while walking across our snowy field, we heard a Red-winged Blackbird singing. With our 2 feet of snow on the ground, and frozen lake, it seems too early for him to be back. The dilemna for male birds returning to set up territories is — if you return earlier than your compeitors you may get the best territory, but bad weather may make survival questionable.
Hope he finds our bird feeders when the snow and icy weather arrive tomorrow.

Sno' Fun

Here back in NH, from southern GA, the snow is 2 feet deep. In GA, the dogwoods were just about out. As we drove through the Carolinas and VA, daffodils were in full bloom, in PA daffodills were just about to bloom. The snow line is around Northhampton, MA. As we said, latitude matters.

And today the snow turned green for -

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY

Barn Swallow, Tree Swallows

Barn Swallow

Tree Swallows

We just saw some migrating Barn Swallows in southern GA, another sign of spring. We saw 2 of them them on the coast, gliding over some dune areas with ponds where there were some insects, which they were eating. When we have been in FL in March, we have also seen Barn Swallows migrating along the coast, flying singly or in a very small groups.

Contrast this with our experiences of Tree Swallows, who we see wintering and migrating in impressively large flocks, sometimes numbering in the thousands. Perhaps this difference in migration strategies has to do with these different swallow species food sources. In winter, Tree Swallows eat insects but especially Bayberries, and in the south, Wax Myrtle berries. The advantage of traveling in a large flock is that you have many eyes to search for the erratically located berry bushes. We have seen Tree Swallows in FL find a patch of Wax Myrtle and descend like a cloud, then gobble 'til the berries are depleted. During breeding, Tree Swallows eat insects, just like Barn Swallows.

Turkey Vulture

Believe it or not, the return of Turkey Vultures is another sign of spring. Turkey Vultures have been spotted in NH and other northern areas. Their big black "V" shape while soaring is a great ID clue. This is a bird I think of as pretty from a distance, kind of ugly up close. A valuable avian contributor is this 'nature's garbage collector.' Turkey Vultures feed on carrion. They're one of the few birds that have a well developed sense of smell and that helps them locate dead animals obscured by foliage. Keep looking up for this sign of spring.

Photo © Lillian Stokes, 2008

Signs of spring

Daffodils on a GA roadside. In GA, flowers such as azaleas are starting to bloom, Mockingbirds and many other birds are singing and severe storms punctuate the warm weather. In more northern areas, Cleveland is getting a record snow storm and New England has the endless winter. Latitude matters.

Hummingbirds are coming!

Believe it or not, hummingbirds have already started arriving in the southern part of the U.S. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have been spotted in Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas, so time to get the hummingbird feeders up in those areas. If you're in the snowy northern parts of the country, it seems like a long time before hummingbirds will be enthralling you. These photos may help you dream about it. You can track their progress and see other people's spring hummer sightings on this fun website, go here:

Mockingbird

I took this Mockingbird photo recently in GA. Not easy to get. I love the challenge of photographing birds in flight. You have to watch them carefully and anticipate what they will do. You need as much advance time as you can get, usually seconds at best, to get the camera up and focused on them. I watched this one as it watched for insects on the ground. Then it went down to grab an insect. I had to be patient, wait for it to fly, then, as fast as I could, center the camera on it and hit the button. This is where the Canon Mark II excells, with it's super fast autofocus and multiple frames per second capture. Voila!
Not only did I get this cool shot, even showing it with an insect in its bill, but I had the enjoyment of taking the time to get into the life and mind of this Mockingbird.

Photo © Lillian Stokes, 2008