THIS is a Woodpecker!

I always thought the Red-bellied Woodpeckers were a fair sized bird until this morning, when one of their relatives landed on the suet feeder. This is a Pileated Woodpecker, who makes the other woodpeckers look a little small. There was a Downy on the other feeder that looked about as big as this one's head.

Fall Color

Migrant ducks finally started appearing at Huntley Meadows Park not too long ago- this is a male Pintail, one of my favorite ducks. I think this is a very classy color scheme. I hadn't even realized that they have a very pretty green marking on their wings, which can be seen if you click on the photo. The female Pintail is a little drabber.

Progress Isn't Always Wonderful

It's been a while since I've posted- I've been traveling a lot. This week has been pretty wild weather wise- lots of rain and temperatures in the 60's early in the week and temps in the low 40's today. Running some errands in Tysons Corner Tuesday and had a surprise land on the windshield as it was pouring rain- a Red-banded Hairstreak like the one pictured. A little late for this species- they're normally gone by September.

In other news, the yard has been put to bed- dead growth pulled up, a nice blanket of shredded leaves put on various beds, a native wildflower bed with various Monarch attracting flowers has been planted, a packet of Purple Milkweed seed (I tried raising some from seed this year but one species didn't germinate, so we'll give Winter a chance to give the seeds a nice freeze) has been put in
nearby, and a few more Crocus and Daffodils have gone in in various spots.

The bad news is that an overgrown and abandoned area near us that was a haven for various sparrows and Goldfinches is now under construction, so we'll see what that does with the feeder population this Winter.

Nature Ride

An interesting ride on the Western Maryland Rail Trail yesterday- started by seeing a Box Turtle walking across the trail, got to the west end of the trail and rescued a Wooly Bear caterpillar (it was probably safe, but I moved him anyway) and then on the way back to Hancock on our first leg we almost ran into a flock of seven Wild Turkeys. We couldn't have been more than five feet away from them, which for Wild Turkeys is pretty amazing. I suspect this was a bunch of juveniles, born this year, so they haven't smartened up yet. Right after that I moved a small Black Rat Snake off the trail- it was probably absorbing a bit of warmth from the nice warm asphalt. Didn't even try to bite (I've been nailed by a few of them- it draws blood) but seemed to think my nice warm hand was a good thing. The icing on the cake for the day was when I had a Mink run across the trail after we had lunch- this was a first for me.

Dinner Guests

We had dinner guests tonight- five juvenile Raccoons showed up to see what was for super. They decided the suet feeder was it. After a bit one of them reached out to the cord the feeder is on and hauled the feeder up "paw over paw" so all of them could nibble away. I was about 10 feet away- they kept making little "chuck" noises at me as they fed. We finally chased them away after they munched for a while.

Perchers and Flyers

I like perchers. Dragonflies are divided into two types- perchers and fliers. Perchers are dragonflies that have a territory that they'll patrol from a perch, spending quite a bit of time perching and watching. I have many, many pictures of perchers. They're cooperative- if you find a perching species, focus on the perch the dragonfly is on. Even if it leaves, most of the time it will patrol a territory and return to it or a nearby perch. That allows you to let the camera autofocus and get sharp shots.

Fliers, on the other hand, never stop moving unless it's dark and they find some place to perch, usually up in a tree where they're (1) impossible to see and (2) it's too dark to shoot anyway. As I was doing some dishes in the kitchen today I looked out at the pond and noticed we had a visitor- this Shadow Darner, a species that has visited the pond in the Fall for the last few years. This darner is a flier, which means it never stops moving. It took me about 40 shots, using manual focus (an interesting exercise), to get this shot, which was barely in focus. As an interesting note, as I was trying for the shot another darner came in and there was a brief dogfight before the other darner departed.

Bird Banding at ESP

Went out to Environmental Studies on the Piedmont today for a meeting and a tour of the property. Just before we climbed aboard the ATV this little Magnolia Warbler decided that it would rather be inside than outside and zipped through the door someone had left open (me). Tom Woods, the Director of ES, caught the warbler and gave Kevin Munroe and I a nice demonstration of how birds are banded. Tom did mention that normally it takes a little more time to catch the birds and you have to go outside to do it...

More shots of the banding procedure here:

http://www.pbase.com/harry1/banding