Return of the Red-Winged Blackbird
My previous post was to be the last for February, but this morning I heard a familiar call at Lakeside Park.
A bird call I have not heard since October of 2019 (https://wildlakeside.blogspot.com/2019/10/text-text-photos-copyright-wildlakeside.html), and a reminder of warmer months.
The calls of red-winged blackbirds pulled me out into the reed beds at the very top of the lake this morning. I could hear two male red-winged blackbirds calling back and forth across the frozen expanse of the lake. The closest to me was perched on a dead bush surrounded by cattails. The beds of cattails are a criss-cross of long reeds that seemingly wrap tighter around your boots the more you struggle. I am not joking when I say that I had to fight my way through the reeds for these photos and when I finally emerged, I was covered in fluff from the cattails. Thankfully the -12 C temperature this morning kept everything nice and solid underfoot.
Apparently, the male red-winged blackbirds return first to establish their territories and the females will join them when warmer weather is more predictable. It was a welcome surprise to see the red-winged blackbirds again and I am hopeful they will herald some milder weather.
While still entwined in the reeds embrace I couldn't resist the chance to capture this female cardinal in the same bush as the red-winged blackbird.
The first bird I saw after I left the reeds behind and dusted off the fluff from the cattails was another black bird, although much larger.
It's really hard to get a good exposure when the camera is focused on something so dark, but a couple of photos were acceptable. I love the iridescent sheen on the feathers of these American crows.
I'm going to go back to the start of my morning at Lakeside Park and what drew me to the top of the lake and the bank beside the children's play area. This red squirrel was making so much noise that I had to investigate. I never did find out what it was complaining about, but I did end up with a well-lit photo of the red squirrel, who for obvious reasons I decided to name, whiskers.
While watching the squirrel, to my left a chickadee caught my attention. It was toying with the thought of tackling one of the seedheads of a burdock plant.
The chickadee grabbed it, dropped it a few times (it didn't like it when the seedhead stuck to its feet) and finally ended up in the safety of the branches of a bush with a secure grip on the seedhead.
Then began the job of getting into this prickly sphere, which I have to say, the chickadee made short work of and soon had the burdock seedhead in pieces.
The chickadee then discarded the empty husk of the burdock seedhead (it's just visible in the bottom left of the next photo), and what was it left with?
Surely that is not what the seed looks like. A little digging when I returned home came up with what the chickadee is holding. It is, Metzneria Lappella, otherwise known as the burdock seedhead moth. The chickadee is holding the larvae of the moth which overwinters in the burdock seedhead. A good source of protein and well worth the effort.
I'm going back to the previous and much cloudier day (Feb 28th) for the next photos. It was a fiercely snowy and blustery day. The wind made it feel much colder than -6 C, and the snow was blowing everywhere. I have to say that I thought twice about going to Lakeside Park, but in the end, I really enjoyed the experience even though these were the only photos I took at the lake that day.
The photos are of a downy woodpecker who didn't seem to want to move from its branch at all. I was able to get quite close to the little woodpecker who between just sitting there would occasionally peck at the branch.
It wasn't until I returned home and processed the photos that I realized what was so interesting about this branch. The downy woodpecker was feeding on black ants hidden inside. There's one black ant in the beak of the woodpecker in this photo.
Copyright © wildlakeside.blogspot.com 2020 Scott Atkinson All Rights Reserved.
A bird call I have not heard since October of 2019 (https://wildlakeside.blogspot.com/2019/10/text-text-photos-copyright-wildlakeside.html), and a reminder of warmer months.
The calls of red-winged blackbirds pulled me out into the reed beds at the very top of the lake this morning. I could hear two male red-winged blackbirds calling back and forth across the frozen expanse of the lake. The closest to me was perched on a dead bush surrounded by cattails. The beds of cattails are a criss-cross of long reeds that seemingly wrap tighter around your boots the more you struggle. I am not joking when I say that I had to fight my way through the reeds for these photos and when I finally emerged, I was covered in fluff from the cattails. Thankfully the -12 C temperature this morning kept everything nice and solid underfoot.
Apparently, the male red-winged blackbirds return first to establish their territories and the females will join them when warmer weather is more predictable. It was a welcome surprise to see the red-winged blackbirds again and I am hopeful they will herald some milder weather.
While still entwined in the reeds embrace I couldn't resist the chance to capture this female cardinal in the same bush as the red-winged blackbird.
The first bird I saw after I left the reeds behind and dusted off the fluff from the cattails was another black bird, although much larger.
It's really hard to get a good exposure when the camera is focused on something so dark, but a couple of photos were acceptable. I love the iridescent sheen on the feathers of these American crows.
I'm going to go back to the start of my morning at Lakeside Park and what drew me to the top of the lake and the bank beside the children's play area. This red squirrel was making so much noise that I had to investigate. I never did find out what it was complaining about, but I did end up with a well-lit photo of the red squirrel, who for obvious reasons I decided to name, whiskers.
While watching the squirrel, to my left a chickadee caught my attention. It was toying with the thought of tackling one of the seedheads of a burdock plant.
The chickadee grabbed it, dropped it a few times (it didn't like it when the seedhead stuck to its feet) and finally ended up in the safety of the branches of a bush with a secure grip on the seedhead.
Then began the job of getting into this prickly sphere, which I have to say, the chickadee made short work of and soon had the burdock seedhead in pieces.
The chickadee then discarded the empty husk of the burdock seedhead (it's just visible in the bottom left of the next photo), and what was it left with?
Surely that is not what the seed looks like. A little digging when I returned home came up with what the chickadee is holding. It is, Metzneria Lappella, otherwise known as the burdock seedhead moth. The chickadee is holding the larvae of the moth which overwinters in the burdock seedhead. A good source of protein and well worth the effort.
I'm going back to the previous and much cloudier day (Feb 28th) for the next photos. It was a fiercely snowy and blustery day. The wind made it feel much colder than -6 C, and the snow was blowing everywhere. I have to say that I thought twice about going to Lakeside Park, but in the end, I really enjoyed the experience even though these were the only photos I took at the lake that day.
The photos are of a downy woodpecker who didn't seem to want to move from its branch at all. I was able to get quite close to the little woodpecker who between just sitting there would occasionally peck at the branch.
It wasn't until I returned home and processed the photos that I realized what was so interesting about this branch. The downy woodpecker was feeding on black ants hidden inside. There's one black ant in the beak of the woodpecker in this photo.
One more photo of the downy woodpecker up-close to show just how beautiful it looked.
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