Blueberries At Their Best

Blueberries at their best? Does that mean blueberries in a pie? Or in a bowl topped with vanilla ice cream? Mmmm. Maybe that is the berries themselves at their best. That, for sure, is when the berries are at their best.

But what I’m actually speaking of in this blog post is the blueberry bush. A blueberry bush is wonderful in each and every season. Spring with its blossoms, summer with its profusion of berries, autumn with its shout of autumn colors and winter with bare burgundy stems and scarlet buds covered in ice or snow.

Each season brings something special, but autumn, along with so many other tree leaves celebrating the colors of the season is certainly the very best of the blueberry bush.

Winter Wren

A Winter Wren (Troglodytes hiemalis) after a bath. A winter resident. Tiny. Much smaller than a Carolina Wren, weighing in at .3 to .4 ounce. Their favorite foods are insects and arthropods, and eat berries such as Juniper berries during the winter.

They’re full of energy as they search through dense underbrush looking for a meal. I find The Cornell Lab’s description of them to be amusing -“These energetic birds often bob their entire bodies as if doing squats while they nervously look around in the forest understory.”

So glad they come to spend the winter here.

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Few Dogwood Leaves

As the days tick away, the leaves turn more beautiful with each of those ticks. The Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) leaves however, have been turning from emerald to garnet since the end of June and have begun to fall away. Leaving berries, also known as drupes.

And those drupes gladden many species of birds, along with bunches of mammals. Each of those drupes with high fat, low sugar content. Just what is called for as winter approaches.

Here a Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) delights in the buffet it sees on every branch.

Year Round Resident

I’ve not had any bird feeders out for a while, with the exception of Hummingbird feeders. But the birdbaths bring the birds. Today’s bird is a year round resident, the Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia).

They have a diet of grass and weed seeds, insects and invertebrates and fruits and seeds. When I have the feeders out Song Sparrows prefer to find their seeds on the ground. I’ll soon have feeders out again. Looking forward to seeing more of the little birds, the winter residents and the year round residents.

Swainson’s Thrush

I saw it yesterday. Thought for sure it was a Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus). The Hermit Thrush is a common resident here during the winter, but there was something wrong. Something not quite right. I did some digging around on the Internet and was able to figure it out.

Looking so very much like the bird I was expecting to arrive, but not quite. This particular bird is a Swainson’s Thrush (Catharus ustulatus) migrating through on its way to its winter home in southern Mexico or perhaps even going further south in Argentina.

The difference in looks is pretty subtle. The Hermit Thrush has a thin, barely there, white eyering, while the Swainson’s Thrush has a more pronounced ecru eyering. And the difference that I noticed is the coloring of the whole bird. A Hermit Thrush is a rich dark suede gray-brown with a distinctive cinnamon colored tail. This Swainson’s Thrush is pure gray.

I’m hoping I’ll see more as they make their long journey to their winter homes.

Thank You Phoebes

This is an Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) visiting my birdbath today.

There are three species of Phoebe that live in North America. The Eastern Phoebe lives in the mainly eastern portion of our continent from the Northwest Territories to Mexico. There is the Say’s Phoebe that lives in the western half of the continent from Alaska to Mexico. And the third, the Black Phoebe that lives on the western coast from Oregon to Mexico.

The Eastern Phoebe is a year-round resident here in the Blue Ridge Mountains where they are on insect duty, eating many insects, caterpillars, millipedes, spiders and other arachnids such as ticks. During the winter they eat berries and small fruits. Being insectivores, I really appreciate having them around.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet Migration

Here for the winter? I hope so. I saw a tiny Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula) a couple days ago. Normally there are some that spend the winter here. I’m hoping this one is not just passing through.

Their breeding range is far northern North America. They spend their winters in the southern US and the Southwest, some going further south to Mexico. Populations in the mountains of the west take the easy route, just going from the higher elevations to lower elevations where it is warmer.

I’ve never seen them at my feeders but others with feeders have had better luck. These Kinglets eat spiders and insects, as well as berries and seeds. Leaving my gardens go to seed has great benefit. Here, during the winter, these Kinglets are a big fan of seeds of spent Goldenrod and other flower seedheads that I leave for them.

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Black-throated Green Warbler

A migrating visitor yesterday. A female Black-throated Green Warbler (Setophaga virens) making her way to the birdbath.

An insect eater, especially caterpillars during the mating season. B-TGWs eat berries during migration. Poison Ivy berries being a favorite.

Their breeding territory is eastern North America, western Canada and cypress swamps along the southern Atlantic coast. Their winter destinations are Mexico, Central America, the West Indies, and the extreme southern tip of Florida.

Hoping she’ll stop in again, on her way back in the spring.