Olive-sided Flycatcher v. Monarch 8/21/2021

 

   Yesterday I added the 170th bird to the yard list when 3 Olive-sided Flycatchers stopped by to feed on the local flying insects.  Dave Dister says that 3 represents the high daily count for the county, breaking the old record of 2. 

    This morning the Monarch that formed a chrysalis on the exterior of my basement wall, broke out and grew some wings.

   The newly emerged butterfly left the local Monarch population with a net zero gain for the day, as a lingering Olive-sided Flycatcher started the day by taking a taste of one of the newbie's unwary brethren.

       As caterpillars, monarchs only eat milkweed which contains toxins that give the insects a bad taste throughout their life.  Therefore it came as no surprise that flycatcher ended up dropping the Monarch after mouthing and mangling it for a couple minutes.   

   On a happier note, warblers have been migrating through my yard this week.  Today's Cape May Warbler shown below beat the county's old early fall date by 8 days.

  The Magnolia and Nashville Warblers were seen on Wednesday.

Cerulean Warbler 5/13/2018

       The snow pile at the end of my street has been gone less than two weeks.  But the inconvenience of a prolonged winter is paying its dividends now (for me anyway).  Although leaf-out of the trees is a couple of weeks behind schedule the birds continued to march unabated toward their breeding grounds.

      Last spring, through a check on ebird, I discovered that there is a reliable Cerulean Warbler territory about 30 minutes from my house.  Last May, I took a couple of trips out there, heard two singing males but they remained hidden among the leaves in the Manistee National Forest canopy.  This year's delayed spring presented a more promising opportunity to view and photograph these elusive little guys.

   I was able to find three singing males but only the one in these photograph came lower than 50 feet off the ground.

    Through millions of years of evolution the battle between predator and prey has yielded a number of strategies.

   If your go-to move is to look like a twig.....your mom better have laid hundreds of eggs so that at least a couple of your siblings can carry on your dumb genes.

Game....Warbler

Want Flies With That? Magee Marsh 5/16/2014

  The Magee Marsh boardwalk was loaded with warblers yesterday affording everyone up-close views and photo-ops.  In anticipation of the close encounters I added newly purchased extension tubes between my camera and 500 mm lens.  The 32 mm of extension tubes render my camera rig near-sighted to a point where the far focus (normally ∞) is down to 35' but an advantage is gained on the close focus range which drops from 16' 5" down to 10'8".  Did I miss not being able to focus past 35'?  Not really, because almost any bird farther than 35' was partially or fully obscured by vegetation.  The 6 feet of gained close focus enabled me to get photos of some very cooperative feeding birds  

  

Chestnut-sided Warbler eating caterpillar 

And an order of flies

Bay-breasted Warbler

Scarlet Tanager

You got a little something right there.

 Here are some photos of warblers without their mouths full.

Golden-winged Warbler

Prothontary Warbler

Female Cape May Warbler

Blackpoll Warbler craning for a view

Northern Parula

Common Yellowthroat

Blackburnian Warbler

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Mrs. Black-throated Blue Warbler

Bay-breasted Warbler

No, you're sideways.

  Some interesting non-warblers were also seen.

Sora