Orange & Yellow - Getting Started With Butterflies

Not too long after our return from Ireland, we went back to Fulton County to do some work at the farm, and also just to visit and enjoy some time in the country.  My Dad planted a wildflower patch at the farm that was in full swing in mid-June, attracting mostly fritillaries but also a few other winged denizens.

This is a Great Spangled Fritillary, or an Aphrodite, but I'm not sure which as they're very similar and I'm a little too lazy to get out the ID guide right now.

There was one Black Swallowtail in the patch.  These are striking, when most of the other colors in the vicinity are yellow, orange, and green.  The last type of butterfly I managed to get a still shot of was this guy, which I believe is some sort of sulphur, possibly a Clouded Sulphur.

Here's a wider shot, where you can see the bold blooms pulling these guys in, plus two more fritillary/aphrodite types.  I think there were 10 or more at any given time in this patch!

I called this post "Getting Started With Butterflies,"  because we have managed to have quite a few adventures with butterflies lately, and this is just the first one!

Mothers Day Bird Fest

Mothers Day weekend always lines up with the Pennsylvania Annual Migration Count (PAMC).  This is nice, because I'm usually back in Fulton County, which is a place that isn't birded much in projects like these, and my Mom's into birds, too, so this makes something nice we can do together.  Here's some photos from two Saturdays ago:

Mom got up super early with me to head out before sunrise.  I have to say, late spring mornings like these, tucked up against a mountain with hundreds of birds singing their hearts out, well, there's just not a lot that can beat it.

The warm early sun streams through trees, making the fording of Licking Creek almost fairytale-like.  My plan was to bring my flip flops and wade through, but I managed to catch a four-wheeled ride a little later :)

I have a lot of pictures from this weekend of birding, but not-so-strangely, most of them are not of birds.  They just don't sit still long enough ;)  But, I did catch a few loafing around.  Above is a Baltimore Oriole.  Sometimes, it seemed like there were a pair of these in every tree.

At the family's farm, this Song Sparrow was up and singing loudly. Not one bit of shyness to this guy.  Walking from the Farm to my parent's house is always a good bird walk.  Part of the way, it gets steep enough that you can easily see into the tops of the trees just down the bank.  Great for warbler-watching, although I didn't see any!  (Did hear a Prairie Warbler.)  But, plenty of the normal denizens were out.

Here's a good example of a common bird that looks a little unusual from a particular angle.  This guy was clearly singing the "drink your tea" of an Eastern Towhee, but from the front and high up in a tree, I had to double check his identity.  Usually you see these guys scratching around in low brush.

As I walked down the hill to my parents', I had to do a double take.  There was a Turkey Vulture perched in a dead tree behind their house, sunning its wings.  Some trick of perspective made the vulture look HUGE.

Later that day, we went to the Rosebud Area of Buchanan State Forest, also known as the Kerper Tract.  It's funny how some patches of woods have their own distinctive mix of birds - here you are guaranteed to be awash in American Redstarts, find Wood Thrushes under every bush, and see or hear Acadian Flycatchers, Ovenbirds, Eastern Phoebes, and a bunch of woodpeckers.  Here's a Wood Thrush, singing.  One of my all-time fave singers :)

Puffy Birds

This last weekend was spent at my parents, and as I'm sure you know if you live within 100 miles of here, it was COLD.

I like keeping an eye on Mom's bird feeders.  And one thing we noticed right away was:  once the mercury got under 10 degrees, the birds lost their feet!  They became feathery puffs sitting on the ground, or railing, or twig, using their down to cover their otherwise exposed feet and legs.

Look, all these birds, and no legs!  A White-Breasted Nuthatch, which is usually seen creeping up and down tree trunks, making like a marshmallow peep on the deck rail.

And an American Tree Sparrow puffing it up on a small branch.  

Believe it or not, not every picture I take is glamorous, as this American Goldfinch caught mid-munch can tell you.

Saving the best for last, a Blue Jay showing us only its toes.  What was really interesting was that most of the birds seemed to relax the puff rule right about 10-12 degrees.  Which is way too cold for me to think about letting my toes hang out!