Category: Categories

Male call

The red-winged blackbirds are showing off in the marsh these days. They have a loud, sort of chortling song and this guy was calling to a female on a nearby cattail. The males of the species sport bright red and yellow epaulets. The brown females are dull by comparison, though the chirping males don’t seem to think so.

You call that a nest?!?

DH found these nestled in our now dry winter pond as he mowed the other day. In fact, he discovered them after he’d gone over them with the mower, luckily doing them no harm. These are future progeny of kildeer, which are not particular about nesting locations nor staying with the eggs. (A neighbor found kildeer eggs in their gravel driveway.)

The eggs are very small; the keys are for comparison. We’ve heard kildeers around but seen more of other birds than we have any relatives of these eggs. The eggs should hatch in 22 to 28 days.

Him again

We’ve had great sightings of Harrier hawks lately. I caught this one flying not far from the aerial show that I partially captured here so it might be the same guy. This one was flying normally.

While not the kinds of closeups with exquisite detail, these shots give you a better idea of the look and color of these gorgeous birds.

In case it isn’t obvious, I’ve been watching birds a lot this spring.