I hear them frequently in the woods surrounding my cabin. Making a call that sounds like a Catbird saying, “Myaaah!” Or more of a melodious song, that I use a mnemonic to remember, “Here I am! Where are you?!”
As with other birds that I wouldn’t see ordinarily, the Red-eyed Vireo (Vireo olivaceus), is looking for insects in the woods. I can’t provide them with their meals but I can provide them with water, in the form of a large birdbath with a dripper. That’s what has drawn this beautiful little bird to my camera’s range.
The female Chickadee (Paridae) has built her nest. I expect by now the eggs have hatched and both the male and the female are out searching for caterpillars, spiders and insects for their young.
A bit of a timeline: One to two days after the female builds the nest, her eggs are laid. She incubates the eggs for about twelve days before they hatch. All this time the male Chickadee takes care of his mate by bringing her food.
Upon hatching, these new birds are naked and blind but within a week, though still with eyes closed, they are growing feathers. The female now goes out searching for food as well.
At eleven days old they have grown their feathers and have opened their eyes. At two weeks, or just a couple days longer, the fledglings are able to fly short distances. After a couple weeks of guidance and feeding by their parents the juveniles are on their own to face the wide world.
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula). They spend their summer in far northern North America and the western mountains. Winters are spent in the southern and southwestern United States and Mexico. Some mountain populations in the West relocate to lower elevations during the wintertime. And now they’re here on my mountain. I’ve seen one or two the past few days looking for insects in nearby trees.
Their diet throughout the year is mainly insects but during the winter months they’ll also eat berries and seeds.
The male has the distinctive ruby crown. Other distinguishing features of both male and female are the white wing bars against black bars, the white incomplete eye ring, and the habit of constant wing flicking.
The measurements of this bird – a length of 4 inches and weighing just .25 ounce makes it one of the smallest songbirds in North America. I sure am glad to have these tiny creatures back in my woods.
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Juvenile Skinks enjoy scampering up and down the cedar siding, and running back and forth across the porches of my cabin as they look for their next meal. It’s like having my own personal pest control company on duty! They eat insects, spiders and other invertebrates. As youngsters, my Skinks sport a cool looking shiny tail of a marvelous blue color that can be detached if the Skink is caught by a predator. AND the tail will continue to wiggle as the Skink escapes, frightening, diverting the attention of, or at least entertaining the predator. AND most of the time the Skink is able to grow a new tail. This one is either a Common Five-lined Skink (Plestiodon fasciatus) or a Broad-headed Skink (Plestiodon laticeps). At this young stage these two species are nearly indistinguishable. Whichever it is, I love having them around.
The Red-eyed Vireo (Vireo olivaceus) is a summer resident here at my Virginia cabin. They are constantly reminding me that they’re around, though I seldom see them. Their normal place to be is high up in the tree tops while hunting for their meals, out of sight. Their summer diet is predominantly insects of all sorts, including mosquitoes, flies, caterpillars, as well as spiders and small snails. They’ll also eat plant materials like small fruits, and an occasional flower or leaf bud.
They remind me that they’re up there in the tree tops by singing to me. I use a mnemonic to remember the males’ song. They sing over and over again, “Here I am! Where are you?” Keeping that mnemonic in mind makes it easy to recognize their song. Both the male and the female will participate in their calls which are a Catbird-like “myaah.”
The Red-eyed Vireo spends its breeding season across forests of southern Canada and throughout the woodlands of the northwestern, central, and eastern US. As they migrate they fly long distances at night in groups of up to thirty, sometimes including other species like warblers, tanagers and flycatchers. Their fall migration destination is northern South America and the Amazon Basin.
A large sparrow with a long tail. The Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus) fills the edges of the woods here with their beautiful song of “Drink your teeeeaa” all day long. For me, a constant companion.
Here in Virginia these Towhees have haunting red eyes but in Florida and northern Georgia they will have light straw colored eyes.
The Eastern Towhee is a bird that is here year-round, scavenging in the undergrowth for whatever it can find. Insects, spiders, snails, berries, millipedes, all could be on the menu.
If your bird feeders are close to the understory of the woods you might be fortunate to find a Towhee under those feeders scratching about for sunflower seeds or mealworms. If they feel safe.
Brown Thrasher (Toxostoma rufum). Quite the handsome bird. It makes me think of a Roadrunner with its very long tail and long curved bill. They’re here during their breeding season but are year round in the deeper Southeast. The feeders here at my cabin don’t tempt them, not even the suet, but they love my blueberries. Down in Florida at my Mom’s feeders they are constantly eating the suet at her feeders. Omnivores, Brown Thrashers eat insects, berries, seeds and nuts, earthworms, snails, and an occasional lizard or frog.
Much to my surprise it just showed up one day on a path behind my cabin. A tiny Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina). They have a reputation as having a combative disposition but this creature was so little I could hardly think of it in those terms.
A short distance from where I first saw this little critter is where I saw him the second time, in my little man-made pond. And from then on, for five years it was a constant resident of the little pond.
Common Snapping Turtles eat a wide variety of things. Insects, spiders, worms, fish, frogs, small turtles, snakes, birds, crayfish, small mammals, and carrion. But their diet is mainly plant material.
These turtles are almost entirely aquatic and spend nearly all their time in water. They’ll emerge and roam on land during mating season and to lay eggs. That’s about it.
Twenty to forty ping-pong ball-sized eggs are laid in May or June in a shallow depression dug by the female turtle using her hind legs. She choses a well-drained, sunny location for the nest which she covers after laying her eggs and returns to the water.
The sex of these turtles is determined after fertilization. The temperature of the developing eggs is what decides whether the baby turtles will be male or female. Eggs in an environment of 68°F produce only females; eggs maintained at 70-72°F produce both male and female turtles; and those kept at 73-75°F produce only males.
I don’t know what happened to that first little Common Snapping Turtle. Maybe one day another will come by to take up residence in my pond.
Hooded Warblers (Setophaga citrina) have been delighting me here in the mountains for many years. They spend the breeding season in eastern North America, and the winter in Central America and the West Indies.
If you feed the birds during the summer, these birds generally won’t come to your feeders. They spend all their feeding moments gleaning insects and spiders from the leaves of the dense understory. And occasionally showing off by catching a flying insect in midair.
My strategy to get frequent glimpses of these beautiful birds is to provide them with a birdbath, including one that has a dripper. The bird at the birdbath in the picture above is a female Hooded Warbler looking a bit disheveled after taking a dip.
And here a male Hooded Warbler considers taking a dive from the dripper into the water.
And here he is dripping wet. Believe me, birdbaths are quite the draw for birds. My birds really need a birdbath, for my sake.
Wild blackberry bushes (Rubus allegheniensis) have just finished blooming up here in the mountains. The list of insects, game birds, songbirds and mammals that these bushes benefit goes on and on. Needless to say the ecological benefit of these bushes to wildlife is quite high.
Many insects benefit from the pollen and nectar available in the flowers, others eat the leaves, sip the sap, or chomp on the canes. Game birds and songbirds eat the fruit. Mammals enjoy the fruit as well as eating leaves and canes. And the bushes themselves provide sheltering protection and nesting sites for some birds.
What I’m waiting for though is my fill of the berries. They are just at the very beginning stage. Many weeks to go as they get big enough, juicy enough and with that perfect wild in the woods blackberry flavor.
Many blackberry bushes up here. No need to search. They seem to be everywhere. The bushes spread thanks to animals distributing the seeds, rhizomes spreading underground, and as the canes reach out and touch the ground they take root. If you want some growing in your yard, you’ve got to keep a close eye on them. Otherwise they’ll run rampant.
Several weeks from now there will be loads of blackberries and maybe if I’m lucky there will be pears on the pear tree too.
