Dawns bloggy blog: April 2011

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Tulip Poplar flower

Howdee all,

When I go looking for Morel Mushrooms, one of the trees I look under are the Tulip Poplar trees..

The trees have these beautiful flowers

Most people don’t see them because they are high up in the trees.

Sometimes wind will take a few down to the ground

…and then I can enjoy how beautiful they are.

Morel near a Tulip Poplar

Today is our Bittersweet departure from dear Sicksta and Craigys..

We are on our way to West Virginia

New River Birding and Nature Festival

May not have internet,or much time to blog..

…So if not…See you after the festival!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Water droplets on yellow

Howdee all,

Guess what?

Yep

Water droplets…

This time on Yellow..

This below is a Cytisus flower

And a yellow Iris..

Drippidy~ Droppidy

Liquid jewels

I think of earrings when I look at these droplets below..

A fuzzy orange tongue

Lapping up the droplets…

Terrible tornadoes again….Luckily none in our area..

I was up most of the night as the weather radio went off about every hour with an alert.

My heart goes out to those who lost their homes, businesses, family and friends…:(

…………………………………………………………………………………………

Jeff and I leave North Carolina on Saturday….

always Bittersweet…

We are heading to West Virginia for a week to attend the New River Bird and Nature Festival…then onto Ohio for the Biggest Week in American Birding.

Warbler Heaven:)

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Cassin’s Sparrow, Scotland County, NC

Howdee all,

When I read online on Facebooks new ABA Area Rare Birds group created by Chris West that a first record for NC Cassin's sparrow was seen just a half hour drive from where we were~~I wanted to see the bird.

Jeff and I have seen Cassin's sparrows in Texas, but this bird was way outside its range.

When I mentioned seeing the bird to Jeff, he wasn’t so thrilled. The Cassin's Sparrow is a rather plain looking bird.

There was a Fork-tailed flycatcher seen the same morning the Cassin's was discovered, but hadn't been seen since… I thought idea of seeing a Fork-tail flycatcher might be more appealing to Jeff as it is a Gorgeous bird and would be a life bird for the both of us…

I knew the chances were pretty slim on seeing the Forkie…but..it got us out there to the Cassin's. :)

We followed the directions from The Carolinas Birding List and put in the GPS coordinates..

They were spot on..

The second we drove to the spot we heard the Cassin's..

There was one other car there…a father and son.

They told us that two Cassin's were singing earlier…

Very interesting. The talk on the listserve is that the droughts in Texas etc..could have them deciding NC is a good home.

Subject: Cassin's Sparrow range
Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2011 06:03:49 -0400

Cassin's Sparrows have long been one of my favorite sparrows.  I have 
fond memories of waking up to their songs while camping in western 
Oklahoma. Thanks again to Gil for finding and bringing everyone's 
attention to them.

It is always risky to speculate why a rarity has shown up, but with two 
Cassin's Sparrows in the state, one has to wonder.  Cassin's is native 
to short and mixed grass prairies with some larger plants - shrubs and 
yucca - from which to sing.  This area is mainly in western Texas, 
Oklahoma, and Kansas and eastern Colorado and New Mexico.  Populations 
tend to fluctuate greatly, often in response to drought.  The drier the 
year, the further east they nest.  Interestingly, most of their normal 
range is in one of the strongest drought in years. Of course, "further 
east" is usually central Oklahoma and eastern Texas.  Who would have 
thought North Carolina!!

John Dole
Raleigh, NC

Here is what Daniel, posted on the listserve later in the day..and a link for photos..

Subject: Cassin's Sparrows, Scotland County
Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2011 17:35:45 -0400

After finding the longspur at Fort Fisher, Dad and I drove up to Slate Circle to try for the Cassin's Sparrows. It took us a little while to find the right field, but once we did both Cassin's Sparrows were singing as soon as we got out of the car. We got great looks and bad photos of one of them, and heard the other one. Link to photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/WhiteEyedVireo/CassinSSparrow41611#

Daniels dads photos are much better than mine…As the distance was great and I just have a point and shoot with 20x …

See the Sparrow?

Here..let me crop the photo…ha..oh there it is!

We actually had great views in the scope….theirs, we didn’t bring ours~ mistake…I could have had a nice digiscoped photo of this bird, as it sat quite a long time singing in the same spot.

This Savannah sparrow was much closer …

I did take a video of the Cassin's ~which is much nicer..because the best part of the whole scene was hearing the bird….a beautiful song…and also the displaying.

In his display flight, the male Cassin's Sparrow flies straight up and then floats downward on fixed wings, singing the entire time. This behavior, distinctive among sparrows, is sometimes called "skylarking. via Cornell

So here you go…listen to the video…

I had no tripod..only a monopod..and keeping it still was difficult..so bear with me here…
Note~at the end of the video the~ Skylarking

There were some storm clouds coming in from the west ..

It started to rain..

It was time to go…

Oh..and no Fork-tailed flycatcher

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Water droplets on pink

Howdee all,

I know what you are thinking…

MORE WATER DROPLETS????

Yes, more…

They are so lovely on this pink Dianthus aren't they?

Wet Jewels..

With antlers.. :)

Be fair warned…More Water Droplets to come..

oh…and lookie what have we here?

I was walking with Ballie yesterday in Sickstas back yard…and as I always do, looked for Morels, because…its that time of year and you never know…Well, low and behold ~in the woods just a bit~there was a lovely little Morel…a few looks around and a few more were found…I will be looking around a bit more now!