Baby Birds Are Hatching Out All Over!

Red-bellied Woodpecker

by Patty Levin from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/

Downy Woodpecker from

http://www.wikimedia.org/

Common Grackle by John Borom

from http://www.weeksbay.org/

Baltimore Oriole by Jeff Lewis from

http://www.carolinabirdclub.org/

American Crow by Darlene Knox

Despite the absolutely awful weather that has plagued us for the past few days it seems as if baby birds are hatching out all over White Memorial. Some of those birds that hatched in the past 2 or 3 weeks are already fledging. The photos above depict just a few of the many birds that we saw yesterday and Sunday. Pt. Folly was especially productive. Amazingly, 2 of the Baltimore Oriole nests with young were only 25' apart. They were near campsite 3 for anyone interested in seeing them. Also around that site and the observation platform were 4 Common Grackle nests. Two of them had young fledging out when a pair of Cooper's Hawks came winging in. Each hawk grabbed a young grackle before flying off with many angry adult grackles and other birds in hot pursuit. I wish we could have gotten photos of all that action! Grackles around the Museum Area and N. Shore Marsh also have a ton of babies. While not nearly as abundant as some other bird species, Red-bellied and Downy Woodpeckers seem to be having a very good year for producing young. I found active Red-bellied Woodpecker nests around the Museum, behind Ongley Pond, and along N. Shore Rd., and Downy Woodpecker nests along the Lake, Windmill Hill, Butternut Brook, and Cranberry Pond Trails and at the Bantam Lake Outlet. American Crows have been nesting around here since March, and now fledglings are everywhere. I found 3 Fish Crows with their American cousins at Wheeler Hill yesterday. Other less common species that we found feeding fledglings included Blue-winged Warblers at Icehouse Field, Eastern Towhees at Wheeler Hill, Wood Thrushes along the Lake and Butternut Brook Trails, Black-and-White Warblers along N. Shore Rd., and Barred Owls at Wheeler Hill and Pine Island. My next few blog postings will probably cover more breeding bird activity, including results from the Litchfield Hills Summer Bird Count, as this is the season for them. Despite the hoards of mosquitoes this would be an ideal time of year for you to go out and look for those birds while they are busy attending their young.