the modest birder (8) September solitudes

This morning, 9-21-09, was the first during which there was any real activity this month. As I was drinking my orange juice, 2 Red-bellied Woodpeckers were foraging on the dead trunk of a red oak. Actually the trunk is divided into two at about 20 feet and the left trunk is dead, the result, I am afraid of the 50% non bio-degradable part of the Round-up that I used to kill a stubborn poison ivy that encircled the entire trunk in the first two years of our residence; the ivy was so deeply attached to the lower trunk that I had to saw almost into the tree's bark in order to cut it. Even then it kept growing back. Surprisingly the right trunk looks very healthy. During the 8 years since most of the branches on the dead side have broken off and the remaining are full with woodpecker holes. The Red-bellies spent some time probing each and every one of them, occasionally enlarging those that apparently held food.

Somewhat later, as I sat in the garden chair, having whacked a patch of the weeds that the wet summer kept alive and growing, a Broad-winged Hawk flew slowly through the middle stories and two, too fast, dark warbler sized birds flew in the opposite direction. A little later a Downy Woodpecker called from above the creek and several Blue Jays noisily announced their arrival from across the road. I noticed that the oaks have few and rather small acorns, but the jays may have been after the rather large light colored insects that keep flitting among the leaves. These are sufficiently large that when I catch them in the corner of my eye I reached as if it may have been a bird, but in my binoculars it is but a white speck on a - slowly coloring - leaf. Almost as soon as the jays moved to the neighbors' a male Sharp-shinned Hawk slipped through the lower branches from over the roof behind me, down to the creek, emerging over the road.

At 11.30, while eating an early lunch a flock of loud Crows descended from the open field across the road on the spruces around the house along Rte 113. It turned out they were mobbing a juvenile Redtail Hawk. The crows divided their labor, three did the mobbing when the hawk flew towards me, 4 took over when he shifted to the North and followed him out of sight. Except for a few Mourning Doves over the field and one Swift as well as several Tree Swallows, that was all the other excitement.

As I look through the "yard list" I notice that September (when the fall migration is well under way) brought a few "first" yard sightings. Among the raptors there were 2 Black Vultures over the field across the road for several days in 1999 and a Merlin as well as a Peregrine Falcon that flew low over the trees above the creek, resp. on the tenth in 08 and the 28th in 99, while a Screech Owl was calling just before dinner also on 9-10-08. Undoubtedly exceptional was the Mississippi Kite that arrived slowly from the North on 9-6-06 and then circled for about 10 minutes above the trees which allowed me to compare it with the pictures in my books and of course none of the other raptors has a clear notch in its tail.

In Sept of '06 a Yellow-billed Cuckoo stayed for a week feeding on carterpillars in the oaks each time I saw it. Also in 1906 a Ruby-crowned Kinglet foraged in the Norway spruce for 5 days, mostly in the morning.

Of course, September is a good month for warblers that appear in small numbers in mixed flocks of woodpeckers, chickadee and their allies. Thus there were a Tennessee and a Magnolia on 9-29-99, a Chestnut-sided on 9-22-00 and a Black-throated Green every fall, the first time in 99 on the 29th (which apparently was a "fall-out" day), but not so far, this September. Then there were 5 Red-eyed Vireos together (a family?) for a few days in early Sept. 04 and a Yellow-throated Vireo on 9-17-02. But as I peruse my diaries, these warblers did not repeat and more first sightings of warblers occurred in May.


Looking through my diaries from 2005 on, I culled some more info. This is not very scientific and actually rather anecdotal, for I noted down what I happened to see at the moment and do not observe everyday for long stretches of time. In fact on what might be the best days I am likely birding in New jersey or Delaware. The Fall of 2005 was not too great as they began the preparatory work for moving our road over so that at 113 it would face the road coming up from 29, thus eliminating a dogleg with bad visibility (The major work occurred in 2006 and the final grading not until the early spring of 2007). The notes are also not very precise consisting mostly of "a small flock of passerines" with the names of oddities that I could identify. e.g. 2-9-05: "a good day with mixed passerines, incl. a bl[ack] thr[oated] blue fem; a Broadwing f[ly] o[ver]. Or on Sept. 22: "roadwork quiet. 2 small flocks of passerines, a few w[arblers] incl. a 1st fall mourning and a cape may."

In 2006 as the roadwork was intermittent and near 113, things were slightly better, in part because all the trees and brush across our road had been removed and the birds were left only with our woods. Sept. 22 was the best day: partly sunny, 46-69 degrees, and at 1pm there were "a Yellow Billed Cuckoo, 1 Red-bellied and 3 Downy Woodpeckers, nuthatches, chickadees, titmice, 1 phoebe and 1 Black-throated Blue Warbler. In a small flock on 9/26 there was one Yellow Rumped Warbler, a Veery and also a Hummingbird that visited the bronze cosmos.

In 2007, the roadwork having been finished including the removal of a number of mature trees, there were 3 birding notes and the 12th was the best day with a small flock of 20+ passerines that included a Warbling Vireo, a Magnolia, a Tennessee and 2 Yellow Warblers as well as a Scarlet Tanager. That day there were also a Sharpshin and a fly over Broadwing Hawk while on Sept. 22 a Hummingbird was on the Cosmos again. For Sept. 2008 I found 4 entries; in the morning of the 1st (56-85 degrees) there was a Hummingbird, a Bluebird, 15 Blue Jays in the upper stories, 2 House Wrens and at 1.30 some twenty "flitters, incl. a Black Throated Blue, a Tennessee and a Cape May Warbler (all first winter). On the 14th (69-90, humid with veiled sun after 2 days of rain) there were "flitters" all morning, mostly in 2s and 3s, mostly Chickadees and Titmice, Downies and Nuthatches as well as some unidentified warblers (incl. a possible Magnolia) and 2 Red Eyed Vireos. Four days later as I came home from the Post Office I noticed some activity at my neighbors and I caught the tail end of a mixed flock, a Parula Warbler consoling me with some deliberate gleaning at almost eye level.

Today, 9-28-09, a Carolina Wren was singing at daybreak in the east hedgerow for about five minutes while some bluejays were calling from across the road where they were flying from the top of the trees above the creek to the evergreens on the other side of the field, the Redtail picked a dead tree there as a hunting perch, though today it wasn't there. The Jays moved to the Perkiomen but later in the morning they were back to forage in our oaks that must have more insects than the hickories which are neglected also by the occasional Titmice. There are very few acorns this year, the branches with leaves that are blown down in the - weekly - rainstorms have none and I can't find many with my binoculars. The hickories on the other hand are loaded and they are already dropping them which has attracted a groundhog.

By 10 o'clock as I was drinking my coffee two flickers were calling while inspecting the bark of a white oak and I looked eagerly for the small birds that often accompany them. In vain, only a Chickadee appeared, obviously a "loner" and 2 unidentified sparrows played hide and seek for me in the unmowed field across the road. Eventually their chips made me think they were Song Sparrows. Then, just as I was ready to go to the post office, a Robin called; the first one after the departure of the small flock of immatures in August. This one came from the neighbor's and ended up in an old dogwood where it was soon joined by 3 or for more to pick the berries. But they were not gorging and flew back and forth in the oaks in search of insects under the leaves. After they were gone I inspected the dogwood and saw they had selected the ripe ones out of each bunch, the remaining not being completely scarlet yet.

On my way to the post office a Cooper's Hawk was patrolling the field of the adjacent farm where the corn had been removed; it is a favored foraging spot for the local pigeons but just now the hawk scared up five Killdeer which flew across the road to the puddles in the trampled mud in front of the stables.