We provide habitat for breeding birds at Bobolink Farm, our NH home.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak, female, comes frequently to feeder, she may be breeding nearby.

Hairy Woodpecker, male (right) taking hulled sunflower back to his nest to feed young. Mr. Cardinal comes for a seed and feeds Mrs. Cardinal as part of courtship and breeding.

Cosy pair of Gray Catbirds, who love the oranges! We have 2 pairs of nesting Catbirds.

Bobolink Farm, our NH property. View from our deck.

We have Bobolinks nesting in our fields and make sure our farmer does not hay the field until late August, after all the Bobolinks have fledged.

We have 15 nesting pairs of Tree Swallows in the bird houses we provide. That's great, as this is a declining species near us.

Lots going on here at Bobolink Farm, our NH home of 48 acres. We feel like bird farmers. Breeding birds are everywhere, with many taking advantage of the habitat we have created, our bird feeders and bird houses. It's a great time of year to sit on our deck and watch the show around us. So many baby birds in the works. It gives us great pleasure to know we are helping so many birds, especially since many of these birds continue to have population declines due to lack of suitable habitat.

Birdathon!

Orchard Oriole, female, made property bird number 201 for us!!

Brown Thrasher walked right up to us

Baltimore Oriole at end of day

Did the NH Audubon Birdathon yesterday and had a great day. Here are some of the best and prettiest sightings.

Warbler Mania is Headed Your Way!

Magnolia Warbler

Black-throated Green Warbler

Blue-winged Warbler

Blackburnian Warbler

Cape May Warbler

Nashville Warbler

American Redstart

Stokes Field Guide to Warblers

Here they come! Migrating warblers and other songbirds have gone through FL and southern areas and now are in the middle of the country and beginning to flood into the upper part of the country. Be on the lookout for these beauties at your nearest birding hotspot. For help identifying the warblers you will see, get one of our field guides to birds or our Stokes Field Guide to Warblers, it is super easy to use and the color tabs will help you find your bird. Have fun and tell us what warblers you find!

Cape May Warblers coming your way!

These Cape May Warbler males have migrated through south Florida and are on their way to their northern breeding grounds in Canada and the very northernmost part of the eastern half of U.S. Soon you will be seeing them coming through warbler hotspots near you. Such a beautiful warbler, we wish them safe journey and a good breeding season.

Blackpoll, Prothonotary Warblers.

Blackpoll Warbler

Blackpoll Warbler

This Tennessee Warbler was eating fruits.

Prothonotary Warbler

Seen over the last two days at the Sanibel Lighthouse, Sanibel, FL, these migrant warblers had stopped to rest before continuing on their migration journey. Most were seen at the picnic area on the right at the entrance to the parking lot.

Blue-winged Warbler with Prize!

Blue-winged Warbler, male, migrant at Sanibel Lighthouse, grabs a caterpillar and flies away. Cool underside pattern!

Blackpoll Warbler Migration Underway, Sanibel, FL

Blackpoll Warbler, male

migrant arrived at the Sanibel Lighthouse

and helped himself to a well-earned meal, having come all the way from South America where he wintered!

Yesterday and the day before we saw migrant Blackpoll Warblers arriving at the Sanibel Lighthouse park, Sanibel, FL. This bird is a male and he looks like a cross between a chickadee and a Black-and-white Warbler! These birds breed in the northern boreal forest then fly all the way to South America to spend the winter. In winter Blackpoll Warblers look nothing like this and are streaked olive-green above with pale yellow or whitish underparts with indistinct olive streaking on flanks, white undertail coverts and dark or pink-sided legs and always yellow soles of feet. Yes, you can see the yellow soles of their feet if you look! See our The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America for complete photos and ID information.

Black-billed Cuckoo, Sanibel Lighthouse park, FL a Wow Migrant for here!

Black-billed Cuckoo

There are slender white tail markings, very different than the bold white tail spots of a Yellow-billed Cuckoo.

Birders went cuckoo today over the sighting of a migrant Black-billed Cuckoo at the Sanibel Lighthouse park, Sanibel, FL. This is a rare bird for here and many birders and tourists lined up to get a view or photograph while keeping a respectful distance from the bird. The cuckoo put on a show and posed in the shrubs, a few times going down into the grass to grab a small lizard for a snack. 

We see Black-billed Cuckoos on our NH property although not very frequently. Here in Sanibel, where they have Mangrove Cuckoos in Ding Darling NWR, and Yellow-billed Cuckoos as migrants, the Black-billed Cuckoo is the one that steals the show.

Blue-Winged Warbler, Common Nighthawk and More Migrants, Sanibel Lighthouse

Blue-winged Warbler

Common Nighthawk

Yesterday this beautiful Blue-winged Warbler was among the migrant birds landing at the Sanibel Lighthouse, Sanibel, FL and thrilling birders. The Common Nighthawk was resting on a branch of a tree. Storms out in the Gulf of Mexico and north of us made it a wise choice for these migrants to land, rest and feed. We also saw Blackburnian, Worm-eating, Prairie, Palm, and Cape May Warblers and Common Yellowthroat, Eastern and Gray Kingbirds, Indigo Buntings, Orchard Orioles, and, at dusk, many hundreds of Barn Swallows and some Northern Rough-winged, Cliff, and Bank Swallows staged at the lighthouse and some began moving to the mainland, awesome sight!

Tennessee and Blackburnian Warblers, Sanibel Lighthouse Today.

Blackburnian Warbler

Blackburnian Warbler

Tennessee Warbler

These  showed up today at the Sanibel Lighthouse Park, Sanibel, FL, migrants who crossed the Gulf of Mexico! The Tennessee was eating the fruits of the fig trees there. Birders were thrilled with the beauty of the Blackburnian.

Indigo Bunting Fallout, Sanibel, FL

Indigo Bunting, male

feasting on fig fruits

 Indigo Bunting, female, she needs a napkin

When the light shines a certain way, the blue is electric

They were all over the ground also. How many buntings can you find in the photo?

Birders looking up at the native plantings at the Sanibel Lighthouse.

There were also Blue Grosbeaks, another blue bird but they are larger than the indigos and have rust colored wing bars.

Here a male (r.) and female (l.) Blue Grosbeak who have just crossed the Gulf of Mexico and landed in the sea oat grasses at the edge of the beach. A big congratulations to them for making it!

Everywhere you looked there were beautiful, blue, Indigo Buntings at Sanibel Lighthouse park, Sanibel FL. Hundreds of them had come in off the Gulf of Mexico that they have just migrated across. Landing on the ground and in the fig trees the hungry migrants devoured the fruits and seeds. Blue fallout, a birders dream!
In addition to the buntings we also saw Blue Grosbeaks, orioles, kingbirds, warblers, swallows and more. Migration has been great and more is to come.

Worm-eating Warbler Migrant, cool bird!

Just saw this Worm-eating Warbler migrant on Sanibel Island, FL. It eats mainly caterpillars "worms" from dead leaves during wintering and from live foliage during breeding. It breeds in the East in forests with dense shrubby understory and nests on the ground. It is a more unusual migrant here, we do not see many of them, so seeing this one was very special.