Top Photo: Redbud lights up the spring forest. It’s when the redbud trees bloom that you realize just how many of the small trees there actually are in and along the forest edge. It blooms well before many other flowering trees, even before it sends out its own leaves. The tree’s leguminous magenta flowers brighten up the spring, and are so much more pleasing than the white, and stinky, Bradford pear blossoms. The pears are planted everywhere you look alongRead more
Posts tagged: #Tree Swallow
Some Spring Things to Look For
Top Photo: Saucer magnolia bursting open. A week ago and the saucer magnolia flower buds were obvious but not yet open. Then, they all seemed to burst open at once. Squirrels are eagerly gathering up food and consuming it on the spot. The black walnut pictured here is just one of the many choices available, having been cached in the fall and relocated when other food is scarce. While standing on the Main Wetlands Overlook I spied a small pieceRead more
Swallows and Flowers
Top Photo: Family of geese pass behind recently fledged family of northern rough-winged swallows The young swallows are watching their parents fly overhead, and begging for food. Each year a family of northern rough-winged swallows brings their newly fledged young into our wetlands for training. The adults want the young birds to hit the skies and catch their own insects on the wing. The fledglings seem more interested in begging for handouts than learning how to hawk insects. But eventuallyRead more
Tree Swallows Fledge
Top Photo: Two young tree swallows wait at entrance hole to nest box. The nest box pictured here was installed in the wetlands during the first half of March. Though the nest box was intended for either wood ducks or hooded mergansers, by the first week of April tree swallows were actively building a nest in the spacious structure. I’m happy to say that tree swallows have now fledged from the nest as of Saturday, the fourth day of June.Read more
Two Herps, Two Leps, Two Swallows, and Two Crows
Top Photo: Rat snake crossing path near Bird Viewing Exhibit. Rat snakes are common in our area so it’s not unusual to see one crossing the path at the museum, especially during spring when so much of the local wildlife is engaged in activities which make them vulnerable to predation. Birds are busy with nesting activities, frogs and toads are perhaps a little less cautious when in breeding mode, and if you have a chicken coop, you may have noticedRead more
Battle of the Bough
It was a struggle for home territory. A willow tree located on the northwest side of the wetlands was the site of the dispute. On one side, a resident pair of Carolina chickadees, the other, a pair of otherwise transient tree swallows. I occasionally see tree swallows passing through our area during migration. They dip into the wetlands, perhaps spend a few minutes to an hour hawking insects over the water, then they’re gone. They do, though, nest at someRead more
Purple Martins have arrived!!
No, no the martins have’t arrived here at the Museum, but elsewhere in North Carolina for sure. This from the local bird ListServ carolinabirds: From: Henry Link <linkh@bellsouth.net> Date: February 22, 2012 1:24:04 PM EST To: Carolinabirds <carolinabirds@duke.edu> Subject: Guilford County Arrivals Guilford County’s “Martin Man”, Danny Royster called this morning to report seeing the first Purple Martin in his backyard north of Greensboro on Feb. 17. He had ten Purple Martins yesterday and a FOY [First of Year] TreeRead more
Bluebird Boxes
We’ve recently acquired five new nest boxes. The boxes are intended for Eastern Bluebirds but I think that Carolina Chickadees, House Wrens, or Tree Swallows (a long shot, but you never know) could use the boxes. I’d be happy with any of the above. The boxes were donated by Ken Kernodle, Steve McDaniel, and John Boone and installed by them with the help of Anne Baugh, Exhibits Research Specialist here at the Museum. Four of the boxes are in Catch theRead more
Mergs depart, Early Arrivals, and the Dreaded Cowbirds
I hadn’t seen a Hooded Merganser in the Wetlands since March. On the clear, cool morning of the 10th, there was a lone female swimming circles in the open water of the Wetlands. By mid-morning the bird took flight, circled the Wetlands once and headed off in a northwesterly direction. Will the mergansers return? My records suggest not. The third week in April (now) is four weeks later than these birds were observed last year. A buteo soaring across theRead more