As I mentioned in my last post, I went up to our bay cottage for a few days when we finally got a short spell of nice weather in between weeks of rain and overcast skies. I visited Cedar Island several times and was privileged to see a small flock of Marbled Godwits getting ready to migrate north as well as some American Oystercatchers. While I am still learning and frankly, barely able to use my Canon EOS R5 camera, I managed to get a few shots and discover a bit more about photography and birds.
In the hands of an expert, the R5 could have produced some amazing shots. As it was, I did get a few photographs that weren’t too awful to share. The Marbled Godwits were amazingly tolerant of my close approach and while I was still using mostly automatic settings, I began to see why so many wildlife photographers use Aperture Priority and I’ll definitely be exploring that more in the future.
A pair of American Oystercatchers appeared every morning at about 8:00AM like clockwork near the NCWRC boat ramp. The ramp is lined with rocks and the oystercatchers like the rocks so it wasn’t so surprising to see them there. A few mornings they were obviously starting to feel a little frisky as breeding season is right around the corner. I doubt they will actually breed in that location as there is a lot of traffic around the boat ramp and on the beach as spring moves into summer, but it was thrilling to see the pair there each morning when I arrived for my daily walk along the beach.
Some kind of fish or sea life was abundant as well and large flocks of gulls and terns were taking advantage of the opportunity to feed. I saw quite a number of Bonaparte’s Gulls diving in to catch dinner, as well as Ring-billed Gulls, Laughing Gulls, Herring Gulls, Royal Terns and Forster’s Terns. I wish I could say that I learned how to take good photographs of birds in flight, but I’m still working on that aspect. I need to bump up my speed to around 1/2000 (perhaps a bit less) to get good photos of birds in flight, but I am definitely working on that. For now, I’m just happy to have gotten a few gulls as they took advantage of a school of small fish running along the shoreline.
After walking the beach a few days, I’d thought that most of the shorebirds that winter in the area had already started to leave except for the Dunlin and Sanderlings. But on my last day, I saw three small sandpipers running around in between flocks of Dunlin. Low and behold, they were Least Sandpipers! They are the cutest sandpiper and are easily identified by their greenish legs. Most of the other sandpipers have black legs so the Least Sandpipers are not as difficult to distinguish as some of the others. They are also small and their size is really evident when they are near other birds such as the Dunlin or Sanderlings.
When I was leaving Cedar Island and driving across the causeway, I came upon a Common Loon taking a siesta in the sunshine. It was surprising to see the bird on the grass since I normally only see them in the water but this one seemed perfectly content to sunbathe and rest next to the canals along the causeway. I just wish it had been in basic (breeding) plumage instead of alternate since I was able to get quite close to the bird without spooking it.
Finally, when I returned home, I was please to discover a flock of Purple Martins passing through. We’ve tried in vain over the years to get them to nest in a martin condo near our catfish pond, but so far, they’ve decided not to take advantage of the condo and moved on to other more desirable locations. We’ve had bluebirds nest in the martin condo but no Purple Martins. We think it’s because there are trees ringing the pond and even though the martin condo is on a peninsula that pokes out into the pond, there may just be too many trees around it to appeal to them.
I think we may try to purchase another martin condo and put it smack dab in the middle of our front yard where there are no trees. Perhaps then, they will finally decide to stay and eat a few of our pesky mosquitoes.
Well, that’s about it for now. We’ve been working on nest boxes and adding baffles to keep snakes from getting to the nests and I’m hoping for a successful nesting season. The bluebirds are already working on their nest in a box we have attached to a telephone pole along our driveway. A female Eastern Bluebird was adding nesting material to the box today, so the season is already underway. I’m hoping to see a lot of baby birds over the next few weeks!
Happy Birding!
