I’m still here. The weather is getting colder and the days are shorter. I will need to head south soon. I’m getting my drivers license renewed on Monday and then at the first break in the weather, I will depart. I’m up to 367 species for the year now. Lately, I’ve added a Northern Shrike and a Rough-legged Hawk, both with only poor photos taken. A few days ago, I got three Surf Scoters, also with very poor photos taken from a great distance. I do have some better bird photos to show.
One of my favorite birds, a Golden-crowned Kinglet. My sister Sally was with me and she picked them up on Merlin, it didn’t take long to find them, three Golden-crowned Kinglets. As always, they are very active and difficult to photograph, this one turned out well. One morning, while driving down the Farm Island causeway, a Merlin smoked a robin right in front of me. This behavior is called mantling, guarding fresh caught prey by spreading the wings over it. The Merlin flew a short distance with the robin and began to pluck it. Here’s another new bird for the year, a Purple Finch. This female and few other females and one male are feeding mostly on Green Ash seeds. A Blue Jay in the fallen leaves. A Red-bellied Woodpecker peeking around the trunk. On the left, a Red-necked Grebe, another new bird for the year. I was hoping to get one before I head south and here it is. While walking on Farm Island this morning, I found this dead Northern Short-tailed Shrew (Blarina brevicauda). The saliva of this species contains a toxin used to paralyze and subdue its prey. The toxin is strong enough to kill small animals (up to mouse sized) and results in painful bites to humans who attempt to handle the shrew. I often see dead shrews like this and sometimes voles and mice, laying out in the open and I wonder what it is that kills and then leaves them there. Possibly the shrews are not very appealing as food, but that doesn’t explain the mice and voles I see like this.
