Chateau Papillon Birding Update: Scarlet Tanager for Bird #62

It's been ridiculously hot and humid so far this summer in the Washington, D.C., area, so much so that we haven't spent as much time out in the yard as we'd like.  It's just no fun sitting out by the pond when the heat index is well into triple digits and the breeze, if not completely nonexistent, fails to do anything but send a few gnats and mosquitoes your way.  Earlier this week, though, braving the sauna yielded a new bird for our home list: the Scarlet Tanager.

In the wake of serious derecho storms and their 80 mile-per-hour winds, we lost power for several days, and thus I adopted a ritual of several daily trips out to refuel and tend to our generator--all that stood between us and total collapse of civilization (okay, so I engage in a bit of hyperbole now and again). During one of those service visits and the now-uncharacteristic silence as the roar of the generator's engine died away in preparation for topping off its gasoline, I heard a birdsong new to our back yard and immediately started thinking tanager, whereupon I scanned the trees above until I spotted a red with rather too much orange to be the common Northern Cardinal we see all year 'round, then spied out the black wings and excitedly ran inside to grab my camera and Beth so she, too, could enjoy our 62nd backyard avian species.

In addition to the Scarlet Tanager as our most recent addition, since my last post on birding at Chateau Papillon we have added several more birds--unfortunately few of which I got a photo of. Last fall, Beth and I saw a kinglet (probably a Ruby-crowned Kinglet) in the crepe myrtle between our front yard and our neighbor's yard.  Earlier that same season, I spotted a male Palm Warbler in the back yard and even got a few (poor-quality) photos, and I identified by ear a Northern Parula during the same timeframe. Subsequently, this spring, I identified by ear a Blue-grey Gnatcatcher--a long-expected visitor to Chateau Papillon and one I hope to get a chance to photograph the next time it passes through.  We've also at last had several Red-winged Blackbirds visit, and I know I'm forgetting at least a couple of other new species given my naturalist's speadsheet for our home currently lists 62 birds as compared to the 54 present when I listed the Red-breasted Nuthatch back in the fall of 2010--well, one of these days I'll post a full updated list (probably around the time I finish our plant census).

Updated Chateau Papillon Bird List

It's that time of year: Spring migration, and time to keep an eye and ear to the skies for any new birds for the Chateau Papillon list.  Although we haven't added any "life birds" via the yard in a while (not since the Red-breasted Nuthatch last September), April and May have nonetheless contributed three new birds to the yard list.

In addition to two more warblers (a nicely-colored male Palm Warbler a few days back and a Northern Parula I identified by ear this morning), a long-time expected species finally put in an appearance with a mixed blackbird flock in early April: the Red-winged Blackbird.  Though the latter is perhaps North America's most abundant bird and the Palm Warbler one of the most common wood-warblers, they're still welcome additions to the list.  I also heard a Great-crested Flycatcher several times today, despite never being able to get my binoculars fixed on him.

Male Eastern Towhee on the fence at Chateau Papillon

All of our work naturalizing the yard and making it as bird-friendly as possible is paying off, and I only expect us to see more new species ahead--we're only at three warblers so far, and we ought to be able to chalk up a dozen or more in time.

Spring has brought the early arrival of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds as well, forcing us to dig out the nectar feeder a couple of weeks before we usually would, along with several "old friends" passing through, including a large flock of Purple Finches, several Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, and a Northern Catbird.  The springtime evening breeze carries the calls of the Barred Owl from the woods behind us, and of course our friend the Pileated Woodpecker pays frequent visits for our suet.

Sally asking for a meal worm handout

And, of course, Harry and Sally--our resident Eastern Bluebirds--are hard at work on a clutch of four eggs.

We stand now at 59 confirmed species in the yard; maybe we can make 60 before the end of springtime:

1. Blackbird, Red-winged
2. Bluebird, Eastern
3. Bunting, Indigo
4. Cardinal, Northern
5. Catbird, Grey
6. Chickadee, Carolina
7. Cowbird, Brown
8. Creeper, Brown
9. Crow, American
10. Crow, Fish
11. Cuckoo, Yellow-billed
12. Dove, Mourning
13. Finch, House
14. Finch, Purple
15. Flicker, Northern
16. Flycatcher, Great Crested
17. Goldfinch, American
18. Goose, Canada
19. Grackle, Common
20. Grosbeak, Rose-breasted
21. Hawk, Cooper's
22. Hawk, Red-shouldered
23. Hawk, Red-tailed
24. Heron, Great Blue
25. Hummingbird, Ruby-throated
26. Jay, Blue
27. Junco, Dark-eyed
28. Kingbird, Eastern
29. Mallard
30. Mockingbird, Northern
31. Nuthatch, Red-breasted
32. Nuthatch, White-breasted
33. Owl, Barred
34. Parula, Northern
35. Phoebe, Eastern
36. Robin, American
37. Siskin, Pine
38. Sparrow, Chipping
39. Sparrow, Fox
40. Sparrow, House
41. Sparrow, Song
42. Sparrow, White-crowned
43. Sparrow, White-throated
44. Starling, European
45. Swallow, Tree
46. Thrasher, Brown
47. Thrush, Wood
48. Titmouse, Tufted
49. Towhee, Eastern
50. Vulture, Turkey
51. Warbler, Palm
52. Warbler, Yellow-rumped
53. Waxwing, Cedar
54. Woodpecker, Downy
55. Woodpecker, Hairy
56. Woodpecker, Pileated
57. Woodpecker, Red-bellied
58. Wren, Carolina
59. Wren, House

Birding Kaeng Kracharn National Park: A Day Trip with Tony "Eagle Eye" & Co.

Although the primary purpose of my trip to the erstwhile Kingdom of Siam was for dental work, I couldn't let such a long trip to such a wonderful birding location go without an excursion to add a few birds to my life list.  So I booked a day trip to Kaeng Krachan National Park with expert local bird guide Tony "Eagle Eye."

Kaeng Krachan is Thailand's largest national park, encompassing around 45 square kilometers near the border with Burma (aka Myanmar), and is about a 3 1/2 hour drive from Bangkok; it's home to over 300 species of birds, almost all of them potential "life birds" to me (meaning I'd be seeing them for the first time in my life).

As every birder knows, the day often starts before dawn, and facing a long drive from Bangkok meant an even earlier one: Tony picked me up at the hotel at 4:00am local time, and together with his wife and his brother as a driver, we set off for our day trip.  We made a stop for coffee and some breakfast along the way at a 7-11 (yes, they have 7-11s in Thailand), and the sun was just starting to come up as we neared Kaeng Krachan.

The mountainous forests at that hour are alive with sounds that I as a birder from the United States (with a smidgen of birding in the Caribbean and Europe under my belt) to be totally novel, like something out of a movie.  On familiar turf, I rely on birding "by ear" fairly heavily, helping me know which birds are hanging out in the trees and brush... but in Thailand, I was on completely unknown ground.  (I did, later in the day, recognize what had to be a woodpecker's short, high chip--that was nearly the only familiar bird sound of the trip!)  Noisier than the birds were the many gibbons, which made an unearthly racket.

A Dusky Langur

Speaking of the various primates we saw--including, I think, the noisy Black-handed Gibbons--were some Dusky Langurs, one of which I caught on film as it perched right above our car.

From the very start of our morning birding, Tony was an incredible professional.  He'd have his spotting scope out and set up before I even had begun to guess at where the birds in the dense forest canopy were.  Now, I know I'm a middling-good birder at best and have frequently found myself awed by the birding skills of friends like expert Florida birder Adam Kent (and his wife Gina), but I have to say that Tony really, really impressed me with his birding.  We'd be driving along the dirt roads through the park, and he'd signal a stop and almost immediately have a new bird in sight, no matter how thick or dense the forest above us--and he knew them all by ear and name.  I'd studied my copy of Birds of Thailand before the trip to at least familiarize myself with the sorts of things I'd see, but I would have been all day flipping pages without Tony.

As all of the birds would be new to me, I didn't have a list of particulars I just had to see (though to be fair, I kind of did want to see a Flameback, as the similarly-sized and appearing Pileated Woodpecker is one of my personal favorites back home).  So, pretty much from the outset of the trip, I was chalking new life birds on my list--as I explained to Tony, even the most common of birds would be exciting to me for this first time birding in southeast Asia.  Indeed, I recall my first visit to California, when I saw a Western Scrub Jay for the first time and was just mesmerized by a bird which is as common there as the Blue Jay is back here in the eastern US.

An Emerald Dove

In most parts of the United States, we typically see only two or three dove species with any ease, and the most common, the Mourning Dove and the imported Rock Dove (aka the ubiquitous park bench pigeon) are indeed so ordinary so as to be not worth a second glance.  I've indeed never been much interested in doves, outside the one time a Mourning Dove tried to nest in the tree outside our window in Vienna.  Yet in Thailand, the dozens of dove species struck me as beautiful and unique.

Mountain Imperial Pigeon

A White-browed Scimitar Babbler (I think!)

The dense forest coupled with the grey skies of the day made photography a bit of a challenge, necessitating high ISOs (I ended up putting my Canon 50D in "auto ISO" mode, where it could range up to a noise-plagued ISO 1600 if needed) and quick reflexes.  I do have to say that my Canon 300mm f4L coupled with 1.4x teleconverter--my normal "poor man's" birding setup as I've never had the spare change to pick up a 500mm or 600mm lens (any generous patrons out there?!)--wasn't quite up to the challenges of autofocusing in such conditions.  If I could have spared the extra 120mm of focal length, removing the 1.4x teleconverter would have probably helped a lot, as it noticeably slows autofocus on non-1-series Canon bodies.  Actually, I think digiscoping might have been the way to go, given what a great job Tony did getting the scope onto the birds.  But, I got a lot of "record" shots and a few real keepers, too--I was pretty happy overall with my day of bird photography.

A Bulbul--I think it's a Flavescent Bulbul

After a great morning of birding which included spotting a pair of Great Hornbills--massive birds which can weigh up to 9 pounds and which are best described to the non-birder as looking a bit like a Toucan--and some impressive Greater Racket-tailed Drongos among the many other species we saw, we stopped for lunch near a stream.  Tony provided lunch and had brought along a nice selection of fresh fruit, including apples, oranges (which in Thailand are green-skinned), grapes, and some persimmons from China.  We had packets of steamed rice to combine with chicken, egg, or a vegetable mix Tony warned was quite spicy when I reached for some (and it was--but I adore spicy food and had in fact had some super-spicy kaeng khiao wan or green curry for lunch the day before).

Butterflies at a Mineral "Lick"

Appropriate for someone coming from Chateau Papillon, nearby was a spectacular sight: dozens of butterflies gathered at the edge of the water, apparently collecting minerals from the red clay soil (that red clay was too-familiar as well for someone living on the piedmont-side of the fall line in Virginia).

We birded in the lower elevations alongside the streams and rivers throughout the afternoon, and as Tony had promised earlier in the day, we indeed did get to see some Greater Flamebacks--a group of five of them, all told!  Although I didn't get a photo of these beautiful woodpeckers (they were so deep in the foliage it was a challenge making them out at all), getting to see them was in and of itself a wonderful treat.  (The photos in the linked Wikipedia article above really do not do them justice.)

Red-bearded Bee Eater

One of the noisier birds of the day was the beautiful Red-bearded Bee Eater.  I can't describe its sounds, other than to say that much like the Carolina Wren, the bird's volume is far greater than its body size would suggest.

Tony patiently pointed out the locations of several species I had a hard time spotting in the forest, using a green laser pointer to help steer me in the right direction.

Tony "Eagle Eye" (Thanaphat Kinglek) and his wife

In contrast to the morning, the afternoon was fairly quiet--though as I said above, we did see several great birds in the afternoon, including another hornbill, this time an Oriental Pied Hornbill. Though my photo wasn't the best I could have taken, it was again a great spotting for a Thailand birding newbie like me.

Oriental Pied Hornbill

On our way back to Bangkok, we stopped along the Bight of Bangkok to look for the rare and critically endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper, which winters in southeast Asia.  Just as the sun was about to set, Tony found one amongst the flocks of plovers and other shorebirds and called me over excitedly to his scope.  Though it was too far off for me to attempt to get even a "record" photo of, I still got to see a fantastic species; there are less than 2500 of them left in the world.  The sandpiper's spoon bill is unmistakable.

Plovers along the Bight of Bangkok

After that magnificent spotting, we climbed back into the car for the drive home, stopping for dinner at the ubiquitous 7-11, with some hot dogs and some sort of sweet-filled fried pasty for dessert.  It was a long day of birding, starting at 4:00am and wrapping up around 8:00pm, but a worthwhile trip.  Overall, I added several dozen new species to my "life list," including in addition to those I've pictured and mentioned: the Vernal Hanging Parrot, the Asian Fairy Bluebird, several flycatchers (Tickell's, Verditer, Ferruginous, and Hill Blue, I believe), the Sultan Tit, and the Little Spider-hunter which buzzed me while I was looking for a different bird entirely.  (And many others!)

Sunset over the Bight of Bangkok

It was a great birding expedition, and I cannot stress enough what a great guide Tony "Eagle-Eye" was.  I do hope I can talk Beth into making the long trip to Thailand in the future, and that we can both spend a couple of days birding under Tony's expert eyes.  I'd love to be able to bring our friend and fellow birder Adam Kent along, too, and share the experience with him and put Adam's birding acumen to the test.

Transforming Chateau Papillon's Landscape: Building a Wildlife Sanctuary & How You Can, Too!

Videographers Alison Fast and Chandler Griffin

Not too long ago, I blogged about some of the steps Beth and I have taken to make over our yard at Chateau Papillon into a more natural landscape and a habitat attractive to all sorts of native wildlife (and intend to expound upon those topics, later, too).  We signed up for the Audubon at Home program and made our yard wildlife-friendly--and now, we're playing host to the National Audubon Society and volunteering our yard to appear in a video they're producing about how everyone can work to help birds year-round from their own homes.  Even if you're not a first-responder scrubbing clean the oiled birds of the Gulf after an environmental disaster like we recently witnessed, you can indeed still play a very important part in providing healthy habitat for migratory birds.

So when the call came out yesterday from the local Northern Virginia Audubon chapter's environmental education coordinator requesting help in putting together a video about the Gulf response, I jumped right on board; even though Beth and I typically are too busy to volunteer much of our time, this was simply too good of an opportunity to pass up, helping get out the message that everyone can play a role.

I remember how, shortly after the magnitude of the BP Macando well disaster became known, I rushed over to my computer and started pricing flights to New Orleans and to the Gulf panhandle of Florida.  I wanted to be there, instead of sitting helpless here at home.  Just thinking about the tragedy and its effects upon wildlife got me both angry and teared-up at the same time.  I had to do something!

But when I spoke to a friend in Florida--Adam Kent, current President of the Florida Ornithological Society--Adam gently suggested that most volunteers, though meaning the best, would have to be constantly supervised and guided to make sure they didn't do more harm than good (stepping on a threatened tern's nest, for example).  Instead, Adam said, we should be doing things at home like putting up nests specifically for species  around our home, like Eastern Phoebes (platforms sheltered high up near the eaves would be best, he said), and helping the silly Carolina Wrens who'd chosen to nest in our mailbox (we put in a second mailbox and labeled the two so the postman wouldn't drop mail in on top of the eggs).

Indeed, the contributions we can make from home and in our own backyards are actually more important than being on the front lines of response to an environmental disaster--more of us can participate, and over a larger area and much longer span of time.  Keep in mind, too, that what we do in our back yards has a much larger effect when summed across the country as a whole, and a more lasting one: we can change the environment for the better throughout our lives, not just on a single weekend or two of volunteering in the Gulf.

And the backyard contributions need not be something which consumes all of one's time or resources, either.  Though Beth and I certainly spend a huge amount of our own time and energy in our "outdoor living room," even small gestures can make a difference.  For example:

• Out in the yard with the family or pets?  Spend a few minutes looking for and removing invasive plant species, which crowd out natives and often don't provide as good of food or shelter for wildlife.  Beth and I have almost gotten our Japanese stilt grass under control simply by pulling up a few handfuls at a time whenever we're in the yard.
• Put out a feeder or two, and keep it stocked with black oil sunflower seeds--you'll pay a bit more for black oil sunflower, but it's generally a better seed and in our experience attracts less non-native "pest" birds (like House Sparrows and European Starlings).  Over time, you'll find yourself adding additional feeders to attract a variety of birds; we have thistle for finches, a sugar water feeder for hummingbirds, suet cake feeders for woodpeckers (including one designed specifically for larger species like the Pileated), and a flat tray feeder the Mourning Doves and Blue Jays love.
• Plant and encourage native species suited for your terrain and conditions.  They'll do well, and you'll be amazed at how much less fertilizer and pesticide is needed to keep them healthy.  Native plants attract a wide variety of native insects and serve as food and habitat for all sorts of wildlife.
• Add a water feature; it can be as small as a bird bath.  Our little pond has been a great habitat for native frog species (who found it on their own--build it, and they will come) as well as an attraction for our many backyard birds.
• Collect water from the gutters in rain barrels and use it in the yard instead of the hose.
• Create a "brush pile" somewhere in your yard instead of bundling up all those twigs and sticks for pickup at the curb.  Wrens and several other species of birds will thank you.
• Encourage neighbors to keep cats indoors!
• Many areas have free mulch available--make use of it.  We've used our locally-available mulch to help build up a layer of rich soil around the yard and to reclaim some of our lawn into new, more natural habitats: meadow in the sunnier spots, filled with bird-, bee-, and butterfly-friendly native wildflowers; forest floor in the shadier areas. 

There are countless more things you, too, can do; the list above covers only a few of the steps we've undertaken over the past two years in our back yard.  The Audubon Society of Northern Virginia offers several resources with more information for those living in the Washington, D.C., area, and the National Audubon Society's Audubon at Home site offers tips and a starting point for citizens nationwide.

Anyway--on the video shoot itself: the videographers arrived, along with National Auduon Society Gulf response communications coordinator Finley Hewes, around 7:30am, having flown up from New Orleans the night before.  They'd been working hard on the bulk of the video, from the beaches of the Gulf shores to trips out onto the water to see first-hand the front-line response to the oil disaster, and would be finishing up with the footage of what people can do in their own back yards.  We took a lot of footage, showing us walking around the yard, pointing out the native plants and their benefits to wildlife, and then spent time on an interview.  I'm sure most of the footage will end up on the cutting room floor (after all, we're just the closing anecdote to the video), but I'm still looking forward to seeing the finished product and will post a link to it as soon as the National Audubon Society folks put it up online.

I think we really conveyed the message that there are indeed things that we as individuals can do every day to help out; I'll post another blog entry later spelling out in detail some of what we shared and how those tips can help you, too, take care of the birds and other wildlife around you, no matter where you are.

Transforming Chateau Papillon's Landscape: Building a Wildlife Sanctuary (Part One)

Here at Chateau Papillon, we've been hard at work on the outdoors as much (if not more so) than the indoors.  When we first moved in, the lot was something of a blank slate, outside of the wonderful mature trees surrounding the yard.  We waited through the frustrations of a short sale largely due to the yard's potential, as it backed up to Fairfax Villa Park and offered the certainty of attracting a large variety of birds and other wildlife.  Since moving in, we've planted dozens of native trees and shrubs, have reclaimed large sections of drab lawn into more naturalized habitat, and have chalked up a list of 54 different bird species to-date.  So when the Northern Virginia Audubon Society announced the "Audubon at Home" wildlife sanctuary certification program, we thought to ourselves, "We're already 95% of the way there!"

Our Habitat Certification Sign!

The Audubon at Home Wildlife Sanctuary program encourages everyone--from schools, businesses, and churches to individual homeowners--to treat their property like a wildlife habitat, by taking steps to naturalize, bring in more native plant species, and provide food, shelter, and nesting habitat to our most important and needy species of native wildlife.  The program stresses environmentally-friendly landscape management practices, from reducing and managing runoff to cutting back on pesticide and fertilizer usage, all of which are important but often-overlooked adjutants to caring for native flora and fauna.

We recently completed our certification, and looking back, have come a long way at Chateau Papillon in the just-shy-of two years we've spent here.  Though I could fill up several posts with just the "before & after" shots, a few do bear inclusion for comparison's sake today:

Backyard, in June, 2008 (before)

When we first found the listing for Chateau Papillon, the back yard was one of the biggest draws, but as you can see above, not a whole lot was going on beside the shade from the mature trees along the periphery.  We didn't do that much work outside immediately after buying and moving in over Thanksgiving in late 2008; we had too much to do inside even if the weather had been more amenable outdoors.  After a visit to Merrifield Garden Center in the early spring of 2009, we came away with a lot of ideas in our head for what to do to transform our yard and make it "ours," along with five dogwoods and a river birch to plant.

Back yard, September 2010 (after)

That first winter was fairly mild, as was the start of springtime, but we already knew one of our first challenges was going to be runoff management: after a series of March rains, we had a swamp and a river running through it in no time flat.  Just about any rainstorm left similar signs of its passing upon the yard.

Ile du Papillon?  Spring showers make for puddles and rivers in the back yard.

We have tackled that problem in stages.  The first phase is visible, in fact, in the photo above: mulching the yard and replacing grass which simply doesn't get enough sun and which doesn't thrive atop our yard's densely-packed clay.  We undertook several courses of sheet mulching, recycling many of our moving boxes into a layer of weed-choking cardboard atop which we spread several inches of leaf mould and then shredded hardwood mulch obtained free-of-charge from Fairfax County's recycling center.  (In fact, we've to-date trucked in more than 40 cubic yards of free mulching material--worth a few thousand dollars if bought by the bag from the neighborhood Home Depot.)  Over time, the sheet mulch breaks down, forming a layer of rich, well-drained soil atop the hard-packed clay.

We created mulched zones originally as "natural areas" in the shadiest parts of our yard, recreating a more natural "forest floor" beneath the mature trees.  Just the mulch alone has significantly improved our runoff management; now only the most intense of monsoons produces any "rivering" in the yard, and we've extended the mulched areas significantly across the back yard and into a large section of the front as well.  Where before a solid rain meant a muddy morass that persisted for days, we now have rich soil and mulch cover which can be walked upon within minutes of a storm's passing.

Beth and Chance Plant a Dogwood

Next, though sometimes our choices haven't been perfect, we've planted stuff.  Lots of stuff.  Starting with those five dogwoods and a river birch, we have gradually begun to define a mid-story of smaller trees and shrubs beneath the towering mature trees edging the yard.  Those first trees have been joined by many more--four more river birches, an American redbud, a pussy willow, two hawthorns, two cypresses, and numerous self-seeded tulip poplars and a mulberry.  Native shrubs by the truckload have joined the party: common ninebark (one of our favorites); more than a half-dozen red osier dogwood shrubs (beautiful red stems in the winter); American and inkberry hollies galore (and one English holly hybrid for contrast); Virginia juniper; native hemlocks; several different native Viburnums; several blueberries and a blackberry; two sweetshrubs; and several more exotic junipers.

That doesn't count all the bulbs, wildflowers, ferns, and perennials we've added, which include meadow-loving tickseed (coreopsis), purple coneflowers, Black-eyed Susan, wood aster, cardinalflower, columbine, violets, foamflower, and much more.  Outside the hostas (requisites for a shade-covered yard!) and several of the bulbs, pretty much everything is a native species, too.

Most yards really shouldn't be oceans of neatly-cut grass, anyway; grass requires a lot of fertilizer and pesticide application--bad for many reasons, including runoff--and isn't all that great from a biodiversity standpoint, either.  In fact, wide swathes of green lawns weren't in fashion in the United States until post-World Wars, when troops brought back the idea from Europe.  Habitats like meadow (filled with wildflowers and native tall grasses), wetland, and forest edges are much better homes to wildlife and better for our environment.

More to come: the Audubon Habitat at Home program is not just about the new plantings, but about control of invasive species, too.

Chateau Papillon Bird #54: Red-breasted Nuthatch

It's fall migration season, and that means the chance to see all sorts of birds winging their way southward.  Beth added bird #54 to Chateau Papillon's list this afternoon with the sighting of a Red-breasted Nuthatch who had stopped to visit our feeders.

I got an e-mail from Beth asking where the Sibley's guides were, followed by an excited, insistent note that she'd found a new bird for the yard.  When I got home from work, I grabbed my camera and came out to sit and birdwatch with the hope of seeing what would be a life-bird for me: I've listed the smaller, similarly-marked Pygmy Nuthatch before from a west-coast trip--and of course the much-more-common White-breasted Nuthatch--but a Red-breasted would be a new bird for me.

The early evening provided some great birding, with appearances by a Pileated Woodpecker, several Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, an Eastern Phoebe, and all sorts of the "usual suspects" of the backyard scene.  And yes, I did get get to see the Red-breasted Nuthatch several times, and even snapped a couple of decent photos despite the dwindling light.  The evening was not without casualty, though; while I sat and waited, some feathered friend far above decided to make a deposit upon my shoulder.

Baby Bluebirds Growing Up & First Daylily of the Season

Our resident Eastern Bluebirds have been very busy raising their clutch of four babies, and have done a great job--though they've kept us busy, too, refilling the mealworm feeder up to four times a day!  Checking in on them this morning, it looks like the babies are almost ready to fledge; they're nearly full-grown (or, at least as full-grown as nestlings get) and feathered, with the eldest and largest of the brood showing a fair amount of blue on his feather shafts.

This is a great success story.  Last year, we had a pair of bluebirds nest, with their first clutch hatching only one egg; their second clutch hatched five babies, but a cat got the parents before the babies were grown enough to survive on their own.  (We saved two of the babies, hand-feeding and stabilizing them long enough to get them to a wildlife rehabilitator who nursed them to full health, then transitioned them to a wildlife facility in Winchester, VA, where they rejoined the wild.)  So it was really a great joy to see bluebirds again visiting our yard early this winter; perhaps the male was Harry, the offspring of our first clutch last year?

The only worrisome happenings have been the several hawk sightings in our yard the past couple of days, including one who buzzed the roof and which Chance chased across the yard.  I hope we don't have an opportunistic Cooper's or Sharp-shinned pulling up to the counter for a meal of fledgeling bluebirds!

Today also saw the season's first daylily blooms, from the oddballs which seeded themselves right up against the side of the house.  Our other patches of daylilies are in various stages of bloom prep, with one bunch putting up the blossom stems and the larger one still thinking about it.  (All but the seedings along the side of the house were gifts from generous gardening friends.)

The past few days have also seen the first hummingbirds of the season, scouting out the sugar water feeder and the salvia Beth planted for them.

Adding Another Bird to the Chateau Papillon List: Tree Swallows

Although we've had several repeat visitors to the yard this year, including several Rose-breasted Grosbeaks last weekend and a pair of Brown Thrashers who've been picking through the mulch this weekend, as yet I hadn't been able to add another new bird to the Chateau Papillon list (not since a Great Blue Heron overflew us a few months back, anyway).  This evening, though, we got bird #55, with three Tree Swallows paying the cul-de-sac a visit.

The pond renovations are nearly complete, too, which I'm hoping will prove attractive to neotropics passing overhead with its many-layered depths and rock shelves--and once we add a few goldfish, I'm sure we'll see some herons coming to dine as well.

A Sad Day for the Fauniferous Zoo: Freya's Death from Kidney Failure

This morning when Beth woke me up, sniffling, I knew something was wrong.  Sometime during the night, one of our cockatiels, Freya, had died.  She'd been apparently fine the night before, but Beth found her lying on the bottom of her cage in the morning.  Freya was around 7 years old, young for a cockatiel (Rydia is 14, by comparison, and doing well), and hadn't shown any signs of typical bird illness, so we were both shocked and hurt badly by the loss.

We took Freya to the vet's office for a necropsy, and he found signs of kidney failure in systemic gout and urate crystal buildup throughout her body, and said that many cockatiels in the US suffer from congenital kidney problems.  We'd missed the signs in her droppings--every bird owner knows to "watch the poo" as an indicator of health, but we'd thought her larger droppings more a sign of prospective egg-laying (as it smelled and looked identically to the droppings produced when a hen is in egg-laying mode, as we knew from past experience).

We're very sad of the loss, but are at least rejoiced that the illness wasn't something contagious, and that Freya went peacefully by all outward appearances.

Another Welcome Return Visitor: The Pileated Woodpecker

After multiple visits per day last spring, our resident Pileated Woodpecker vanished. We couldn't imagine a hawk or cat had gotten him; Pileateds are, after all, the size of a crow and pretty intimidating birds (secretly, I feared a kid with a BB gun or even a McMansion owner on the other side of the park had mistakenly taken a shotgun to him, blaming the big woodpecker for damage to homes and trees). But we neither saw nor heard the Pileated or the female we'd seen with him a couple of times after May.

A couple of days ago, I thought I might have heard a Pileated back in the woods; I wasn't sure at first and decided it could have been a Northern Flicker. However, today we got confirmation that the Pileated had returned when I spotted first a female sitting atop a seed feeder (and that is a bit odd--the woodpecker was actually eating seeds), then the male on the big suet feeder across the yard.

We're really happy to see that the Pileateds made it through the summer and fall okay and are looking forward to having them back in the yard at Chateau Papillon again!

Finally, the First Warbler: Chateau Papillon Bird #53 (Yellow-rumped Warbler)

Although I'm sure the towering trees of Chateau Papillon's backyard and the county nature preserve behind us played host to several warblers during spring migration, neither Beth nor I spotted the elusive little neotropical migrants--and the few possible calls I heard weren't clear enough for me to identify with any certainty.

Finally, though, with the tail end (no pun intended) of fall migration passing with a long, dreary storm that's dumped several inches of rain on us, I confirmed our first warbler at the new home. Though he may be the most common warbler in eastern North America (if not the continent as a whole), the male Yellow-rumped (Myrtle subspecies) I saw in the branches of one of fall-bare trees was a welcome sight indeed. Now, if only the rain had given me a better shot at a photo...

Chateau Papillon Bird #52: Yellow-billed Cuckoo

After a brief yet incredibly intense rainstorm this afternoon, I heard the 52nd confirmed bird species for Chateau Papillon: the Yellow-billed Cuckoo.

I'd opened my office window to shush the Papillons who'd gone out to do business when I heard the unmistakable call from the trees somewhere overhead. The cuckoo wasn't an unexpected bird, but at the same time, not one we got in our rental home's yard in Vienna, either, and thus made for a nice addition to the list.

Outdoor Cats: An Unnatural Tragedy for the Bluebirds

When I got home from work yesterday, I went to put out some mealworms for our busy Eastern Bluebird pair, who had recently hatched their second clutch of the year and were feeding five hungry babies. Oddly, I didn't see or hear either adult, who normally make an almost immediate appearance when the mealworms are out and rarely stray far from their nest box.

When Beth returned from a petsitting appointment, she said she'd fed them around 2:00pm, and had watched the parents feeding the babies at that point. Keeping careful watch on the feeder and nest box, I watched well into the evening for the mysteriously-absent parents, and also checked on the crying, hungry baby birds.

At ten days old, the babies would be able to go 24 hours without feeding, and as it grew dark, I didn't want to risk scaring off the mother's return, so I left them for the night.

Early this morning (around 6:00am), I went out to check on the nest and see if the parents had returned. Unfortunately, they had not, and tragically, several of the babies had died during the night. I quickly rescued the remaining two from their nest and got them inside, on a warm blanket, and did what I could to feed them. One was strong enough to take whole mealworms from my hand and ate a dozen or so in several feedings; the other appeared much weaker, and I had to feed it small pieces of watermelon and dry dogfood "mushed" with water to a soft consistency.

We got both the surviving babies to a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, who said she thinks both will pull through, fortunately (even the weaker baby). She'll feed them for a week or so every hour, then eventually take them to a bluebird site in Winchester (about an hour to the west of us) to be released.

The real tragedy is that the parents were apparently killed by neighborhood cats. Cats kept outdoors kill literally hundreds of millions of birds in the United States each year, and in Hawaii have caused the extirpation and even extinction of species. Cats simply should not be kept outdoors; they are not natural predators in our environment, and those cats fed and kept up with veterinary care easily out-compete the natural predators.

We're utterly heartbroken for the two adults, as well as the three babies indirectly killed by these two cats--two cats we successfully rescued a baby robin from earlier this summer. Worse, they may have in effect extirpated the neighborhood bluebird population, as I've yet to hear or see them anywhere else in the neighborhood or surrounding woods. We'll really miss our cute little bluebirds.

Please, if you have cats, keep them indoors! Killing birds is not "natural" since domestic cats are not a natural part of the environment. No one likes to get a feathered "trophy" dropped on the doorstep, either, even the cats' owners. Beth and I are both cat lovers, and Neptune is one of the sweetest kitties we know--but we'd never let him outside!--and after this most recent cat-borne tragedy, we find ourselves really hating that pair of neighborhood cats.

The American Bird Conservancy has a Campaign for Safer Birds and Cats program if you want to read more about this problem.

The Second Clutch Hatches

After a first clutch of five eggs which hatched only a single baby, our backyard bluebirds at Chateau Papillon, Eloise and Nathaniel, have successfully hatched a second clutch. Joining little Harry (or Harriette?)--now a juvenile getting brave enough to visit the yard proper--are five new arrivals.

As of about 1pm, Beth checked and saw that the first three eggs had hatched, and we both figured that the other two, if they hatched at all, would do so over the next couple of days. So imagine our surprise this evening when we went to check on the box and saw that all five had hatched in the same day! (I can only see four in the photo I took, but Beth said she counted five in the box itself--and one might be a bit hidden in the photo on second glance.)

Already, whistling will bring the babies to poke their heads up and open their mouths, begging for food. We're ramping up the number of mealworms we put out for the bluebirds so they'll have plenty to feed the new arrivals without having to hunt all over the neighborhood for bugs and the like (and expose themselves to the hawks I've heard calling out from the woods).

Blue Grosbeaks in SoCal

A recent trip to southern California wasn't exactly timed all that well with regards to birding, past the prime migration periods of April and early May, but I needed the airline miles and the travel (having not hit the road at all since last November for a business trip), and the price was right.

Thanks to the Orange County birders listserv, I managed to track down some good photographic opportunities even in the off-season, including a few which weren't even in my SoCal birding guide, such as a stop at Riley Wilderness Park in Cota de Caza, where I photographed several great Blue Grosbeaks. Now, these are birds we get on the east coast, too; I've seen them at Huntley Meadows Park in the D.C. area. But I didn't have any particularly good photos of these beautiful birds until my SoCal birding trip.

Revised Chateau Papillon Bird List: 51 Species

Now that we're well into the summer season for birding (with summer's official start only a couple of days away), I felt it a good time to provide an updated bird list for Chateau Papillon. We made our goal of 50 species--with a Wood Thrush I've heard several times but not yet seen taking the 50th slot--and added a 51st (a Brown Thrasher feeding in our expanded "natural area" of mulch) just this morning.

1. Bluebird, Eastern
2. Bunting, Indigo
3. Cardinal, Northern
4. Catbird, Grey
5. Chickadee, Carolina
6. Cowbird, Brown
7. Creeper, Brown
8. Crow, American
9. Crow, Fish
10. Dove, Mourning
11. Finch, House
12. Finch, Purple
13. Flicker, Northern
14. Flycatcher, Great Crested
15. Goldfinch, American
16. Goose, Canada
17. Grackle, Common
18. Grosbeak, Rose-breasted
19. Hawk, Cooper's
20. Hawk, Red-shouldered
21. Hawk, Red-tailed
22. Hummingbird, Ruby-throated
23. Jay, Blue
24. Junco, Dark-eyed
25. Kingbird, Eastern
26. Mallard
27. Mockingbird, Northern
28. Nuthatch, White-breasted
29. Owl, Barred
30. Phoebe, Eastern
31. Robin, American
32. Siskin, Pine
33. Sparrow, Chipping
34. Sparrow, Fox
35. Sparrow, House
36. Sparrow, Song
37. Sparrow, White-crowned
38. Sparrow, White-throated
39. Starling, European
40. Thrasher, Brown
41. Thrush, Wood
42. Titmouse, Tufted
43. Towhee, Eastern
44. Vulture, Turkey
45. Waxwing, Cedar
46. Woodpecker, Downy
47. Woodpecker, Hairy
48. Woodpecker, Pileated
49. Woodpecker, Red-bellied
50. Wren, Carolina
51. Wren, House

Though we haven't had the time to construct a water feature (nor the cooperation of the weather; Nature seems to think our whole yard should be a water feature these days!), I do expect we'll add a few more during the fall migration (to start in a month or two), including perhaps some tanagers attracted to our dogwood berries.

Hopefully by next spring, we'll have something of a pond ready and will attract several warbler species (I'd expect at a minimum Yellow-rumped, perhaps some Northern or Louisiana Waterthrushes, and likely several upper-level migrators like the American Redstart), as well as some herons. Confirming a Yellow-breasted Sapsucker would also be nice, as it's really the only other woodpecker I'd expect to find in our yard's habitat. Winter could bring us a Redpoll or two, and I'm curious about some faint owl hoots I've heard of late which don't seem to be those of the Barred Owl we've heard before. Heck, summer could itself bring us another bird or two, such as some arial displays by Common Nighthawks.

The Bluebirds Go for Clutch #2

After suffering through one of the rainiest and dreariest Mays on record, our back yard bluebirds have started their second clutch of the year. Bluebirds often will lay eggs up to three times in a given year, starting on subsequent nests almost immediately after the young from their previous one have fledged.

Although only one of the first clutch's five eggs hatched, we're hopeful that this time around, with more cooperative summer weather, our bluebird couple of Eloise and Nathaniel will enjoy greater success. Within a day of baby "Harry" fledging, Eloise had already begun a nest in our other bluebird box, but when Beth removed the first nest, she returned to that box as her favored location and soon had a new nest constructed. (It's very important to remove nests between clutches, as the previous nest can attract ants and harbor bacteria from any unremoved droppings, etc.; the birds know this and will choose another site if the first nest remains.)

As of this morning, there were four eggs in the new nest. More to come...

The Crows Bully the Jays

Blue Jays have a reputation as bullies in the avian world, much of it quite deserved. They're loud, messy, and crowd out other birds at back yard feeders. Jays have been known to steal eggs and baby birds from the nests of smaller species. Yet as I had posted previously, Blue Jays aren't always bad, such as when they mobbed the prowling Cooper's Hawk in our yard.

We witnessed an event today which makes me feel a little softer yet to the Blue Jays around our yard. Hearing quite a racket of jay alarm calls while out gardening, I looked around to try to find the hawk or owl or other predator that had the jays so upset.

Overhead, a crow flew by with a baby jay in its beak, pursued by a small flock of angry jays. The crow had apparently found the jays' nest in a neighbor's tree and stolen the helpless little baby bird.

Nature is harsh sometimes, unfortunately. And often bullies fall prey to even bigger bullies, it seems.

Chateau Papillon Bird #47: Great-crested Flycatcher

Add another to the Chateau Papillon list (#47), as well as to both my and Beth's life lists: the Great-crested Flycatcher.  I had my office window open this morning to take some photos of a pair of Northern Flickers who'd been hanging out, foraging for ants, when I spied a fairly large bird land in one of the trees around the yard.

Although I had problems focusing on him, I did get a couple of (low quality) photos, and heard him calling... and a quick consultation of Sibley's showed the bird to be unmistakably the flycatcher, a summer bird for our region.

In Defense of Blue Jays

Many birders, myself included, do not exactly hold Blue Jays in high regard.  The loud, big birds are feeder bullies, often driving away smaller birds (which include just about all birds see at back yard feeders), and the omnivorous jays have been known to raid the nests of other birds, eating their eggs and even the young of other species.

However, this morning, I witnessed what I can only describe as redeeming behavior by the group of six or seven jays who have taken up residence in the Chateau Papillon back yard.  The Blue Jays began screaming and calling incessantly with their alarm screech, and a quick scan of the tree and fence lines revealed the reason: an adult female Cooper's Hawk.

While I admire hawks and do not begrudge them their prey--their hunting is part of nature, and an impressive sight to behold at that--we do have a pair of bluebirds nesting in the yard, too, and I'd hate to see one of the bluebirds become breakfast for a passing hawk.

In short order, the flock of jays "mobbed" the Cooper's Hawk, a behavior of prey birds where groups will flock around and even dive at predators like hawks and owls, eventually driving the Cooper's away, possibly saving the lives of birds far smaller than the boisterous jays in the process.