The Eagles have returned!

Last spring, Tom & Colleen Becker, local birding enthusiasts, discovered a pair of Bald Eagles were nesting in the Great Blue Heron Rookery on Shippingport Island. (Shippingport Island is where the McAlpine Locks are located). While it turned out to be unsuccessful, it was the first time in many years that Bald Eagles had attempted to nest in Jefferson County, Ky. Needless to say it was a very exciting event in Louisville!

Many of us in the birding community have had our fingers crossed for their return this year.

On March 6, 2011, my husband and I stopped by the Clark Cabin site at Falls of the Ohio to check the nest. (Clark Cabin site will provide you with the best vantage point to see the Eagle nest) Surprisingly, an Eagle was sitting on the nest! I immediately posted my findings to the listserves for both Kentucky and Indiana.

I know that Del Striegel, a local birder & volunteer at Falls of the Ohio, had checked on the nest approximately 10 days prior and saw no activity. So, we have to assume they returned and started sitting on the nest within that ten day span. According to the website www.baldeagles.org, the incubation period for Bald Eagles is approximately 35 days. Let’s all continue to keep those fingers crossed, and maybe in a few weeks we’ll have Eaglets to blog about!!

Just think, a little over a year ago, this blogger had never seen a Bald Eagle in the wild! Now, all I have to do is, go down to the river!

Posted in: Bald Eagle,Falls of the Ohio

Hummingbird Watch

Every year around this time I go to hummingbirds.net to look at the map that is posted there that tracks the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds on their migration north.  The birds arrive on the Gulf coast as early as February and gradually make their way north.  It looks like this year the first reported sighting was on February 23rd in southern Mississippi.  The first sighting in Kentucky was on March 19th with other sightings on the 22nd and 24th.  So it took them roughly a month to go from southern Misssissippi to Kentucky.  This cold snap likely has them rethinking that decision!  Keep an eye on the map because it is neat to watch their migration progress and it is interesting to see where they pop up next.

Louisville Naturalist: Volume 1 Issue 2

The second issue of the Louisville Naturalist is now available for download.  This quarter's installment is about the signals of spring and phenology.  Most people associate the beginning of spring with robins and tulips, but in this issue we explore some other species you may not know of that indicate spring has sprung.  You can download the newsletter by going to the newsletter tab in the sidebar or simply by clicking here.

Posted in: Louisville Naturalist

Garvin Brown: Sunset and a Loon

After the "storm" yesterday, my wife and I made a trip to Garvin Brown in the evening.  There were a lot of birds and critters about, making it an exciting evening.  We will start with our cold-blooded friends first.

I found this Black Racer relaxing all tangled up in a tree.  These guys get pretty big, up to six feet long.  I've seen more of these guys in the last few days than I have ever before.  They love to bask on roads and sunny paths, which is where I've seen most of them lately.  This guy caught my eye as we were walking by and seemed fine with our presence.  Only when I got too close for a head shot did he slither away.

The trees are in full bloom, and Garvin Brown is full of what I'm calling naturalized Bradford Pears.  They appeared to be the only tree in bloom but the sight of several of them lined up along both sides of the path was beautiful.  Spring Azures, a species of small bluish-gray butterfly, were flitting back and forth between the violas and the Bradford Pear flowers.  They would only stay for a second before erratically taking off and flying high in circles, only to land on the flower directly adjacent to the one they were just on.

The very tops of the Bradford Pears made a great spot to advertise your fitness and ability to breed...if you are a Red-winged Blackbird.  Their lovely songs providing a background chorus to the evening.

Red-winged Blackbird

Initially I wanted to go to Garvin Brown because I was hoping to see some Tree Swallows back at the nest boxes, bickering back and forth and fighting over real estate.  I observed at several boxes but was not lucky enough to find any Tree Swallows.  Looks like I will have to come back again soon.

I did manage to find and photograph several other birds however.  The most numerous being Brown Thrashers, most numerous except the grackles and starlings.  Brown Thrashers are in the same family as mockingbirds (Mimidae) and have a similar song.  They both mimic other birds, but Brown Thrashers repeat their song in sets of two phrases, while Northern Mockingbirds repeat the same phrase three times or more.  Check out the other birds I found below.

Brown Thrasher

Northern Cardinal

White-throated Sparrow

This Northern Mockingbird wasn't as vocal as the thrashers, but he did let me get a lot closer for some pictures.

Perhaps the most exciting thing to happen last night was the eerie sound coming from the river.  I've been wanting to hear this haunting call for some time and was in the right place at the right time last night.  The call was that of the Common Loon.  They are fairly common on the Ohio River but this was the first time I had ever heard one.  Watch the video below, the call is at the very end. 

Posted in: Black Racer,Bradford Pear,Brown Thrasher,Common Loon,Garvin Brown,Northern Cardinal,Northern Mockingbird,Red-winged Blackbird,video,White-throated Sparrow

Naturalized Bradford Pear

More trees began blooming over the weekend.  The tree below appears to be a Bradford Pear tree or some other ornamental growing wild and naturalized.  There were several species of beetles, bees, and flies buzzing around the flowers, which might explain why there was an Eastern Phoebe, a species of flycatcher, singing from the bushes adjacent to the tree.

Posted in: Bradford Pear

Red Maple

Several species of trees are in bloom right now and color is once again entering nature's palate.  One tree that I have been seeing a lot of is the Red Maple.  They have beautiful and bright red flowers, check out the pics below and see if you can find any around you today.

Posted in: Red Maple

Butterflies, Frogs, and Swallows

I think spring has officially arrived. I saw several signs this week to persuade me of this fact. I saw my first butterflies of spring, several Eastern Commas, flying around a wet woodland. This butterfly belongs to the "Anglewings" group because of the jagged outline of the wings. This butterfly gets its peculiar name because of the comma shaped marking on the underside of its wing.

Another sign of spring came Thursday when two new voices were added to the frog chorus. I have been hearing Chorus Frogs singing for a couple weeks now, their song sounds similar to the sound made by running your finger along a fine-toothed comb. This week I heard Southern Leopard Frogs as well as a few Green Frogs.  Click on the links to hear their calls.

The Red-winged Blackbirds have been around for a few weeks but have really stepped up their singing in the past few days.  This call was one of four birds displaying back and forth, trying to establish a territory.  The first part of the Red-winged Blackbird's song is used to attract females and the end of the song is an advertising to nearby males that this territory is taken. Check out this site to hear their songs and calls.

And finally, yesterday I saw my first swallow of the year, a Tree Swallow!  Always exciting to see these guys come back because they are just the beginning of a wave of warblers, thrushes, and sandpipers.

Posted in: Eastern Comma,Red-winged Blackbird

Sunflower Sunset

This is my first attempt at time lapse video.  I would say it is decent for a first try.


This is actually the second video I made, but the first one did not show enough motion so I deleted it.  I had the amazing experience of sitting in the truck, watching the camera click away on the tripod, when all of a sudden a Sharp-shinned Hawk landed directly on top of my camera.  He must have been intrigued by the sound of the shutter repeatedly going off.  I opened the door to the truck and he flew off.  I was hoping this would all be captured in the video, but much to my chagrin, it was not.

Posted in: time lapse,video

Presentation for the Beechmont Garden Club

I will be giving a presentation to the Beechmont Garden Club on Thursday, March 10th at 10:15 A.M. at the Iroquois Branch Library, 601 W. Woodlawn Ave. in the Meeting Room.  The presentation will be titled "Gardening for Birds" and will be about how you can improve your garden for songbirds.  I will be discussing what trees, shrubs, and flowers to plant and in what seasons these plants will benefit the birds in your backyard.  If you plant even a few of these plants you will have birds and critters descending on your garden in no time.  So come if you can, and if you can't, I am making my presentation available for download.  Just click this link.

Or if you would like to view it online in Google Docs,  click this link.

Posted in: gardening