Nothing has really changed between Thursday (pre-weekend) and Friday (officially the weekend) — the weather is still sort of crummy (50′s and cloudy more often than not) and there is no magic “feeling” of anything, marking the significance of one day to the next.

Sea of Blue Forget-Me-Nots

But what has changed is the magical flourishing of green upon the landscape; everything has literally just sprung to life. It is truly boggling, and amazing, and beautiful. And with it has come a full-court press of Little Birds. What has felt like a slooooooooowwwwwww process this spring (I never did see any teals, wigeons, shovelers, etc.?) has finally truly picked up steam. :)

Perfect still evening on the Bay

I took my sandwich and salad from the Northern Grill down to Peninsula State Park, and picked Weborg Point as the most likely place to have some wildlife/bird activity. It was perfect! Seriously, if I could enjoy a simple sandwich at Weborg Point every day for the rest of my life, my life would be utterly complete. It is impossible to improve upon perfection!

View of the Strawberry Channel from my picnic table

A few flittery warblers caught my eye over where another couple was eating. The birds were a few feet too close for my 10×50′s, but were too far to make out with the naked eye. So I obligingly ate while admiring the gorgeous view across the bay and Strawberry Channel.

But then, a couple of bites into my burger, I saw several gazillion warblers in the trees over my head and behind me! Gack! I unceremoniously shoved a couple more bites in my mouth, snapped the lid shut (warbler poop on my sandwich did not appeal, no matter how pretty the birds are) and grabbed my binocs. And watched the show.

My first catch was a female Yellow Warbler, and shortly thereafter a male Yellow Warbler. I didn’t have my bird guide with me, so was hoping that the rusty streaking on the male’s breast had bought me a 2nd species. No dice though. :) I also finally spied several Black-and-White Warblers, which just made my day, because I’ve been listening to the little buggers for 6 weeks now but haven’t been able to spot one!!

Wood Pewee on a snag, watching for bugs

I was also entertained right from my picnic bench by a delightful little Eastern Wood Pewee.  This little fellow had it totally figured out. He found an old snag poking up in the middle of a number of trees, but open to the grassy area. He sat atop the snag, watching for bugs. Then when he saw one (several?) he’d take off and flit around in circle, catch it, and return to the tree. It was sort of like tight circular bomber runs, and he did this over and over and over again.

There was also a Black-Throated Green Warbler, another happy sight because I’ve also been listening to them for the last 3-odd weeks, but finding them as they sit stock-still in a tree and sing is pretty much impossible. It’s  ridiculous; their coloring makes them totally indistinguishable from a semi-sprouted leaf on a tree.

Of course, the infamous Yellow-Rumped Warblers were well-represented (I’m thinking the park should be renamed Yellow-Rumped Warbler Central!), both males and females were plentiful.

I did snap my best pics of a male thus far; I have a standard (and very limited) 18-55mm camera lens which makes warbler photog pretty much impossible. So any shots I do get, that feature distiguishable birds smaller than a crow :) are pretty much a personal victory! LOL!! :) It was very nice of this little fellow to sit still, and fairly low! in a crab-apple tree.

I decided to abandon my sandwich for a bit (I didn’t see any critters which might steal it, LOL), and take a quick walk down the dock. The dock is usually good for at least a few birds zooming by so quickly that it’s impossible to identify them. :)

My true hope was that I might spot a shorebird. They are rare over here (too many people, I think), but I’ve seen ‘em before, so I hold out hope.

Spotted Sandpiper

White wingbars on the Spotted Sandpiper

Spotted Sandpiper (close-up)

I totally scored! :) There, on a rock right along shore, was the unmistakable silhouette of a sandpiper. I was so excited I held my breath, and just kept snap, snap, snapping pictures.

Spotted Sandpiper

Spotted Sandpiper with fairly dark spotting and an orange bill

The setting sun was also behind clouds, so the light was marginal quality. I kept waiting for her (him?) to spook and fly off, but she didn’t. She hopped from rock to rock, picking and pecking for food.

I was shocked at how friendly she turned out to be. Neither me, nor my beeping and clicking camera, seemed to bother her a bit. She hopped and flew from rock to rock, peck, peck, peck. Then she flitted up to the dock itself and quickly wove around, back and forth, pecking at invisible bits that apparently she found quite yummy. :)

Finally she had enough and flew off, to a rock sitting in the water, on the north side of Weborg Point, just behind one of the campsites.

The light was quickly dropping, so I headed back to my burger :) but on the way I spied a little bit of movement in a bush.

Wilson's Warbler

I saw a bit of yellow hopping around, so switched to manual focus and tried to snap a decent picture. I kept getting pictures of his feet and body :) but the 4th shot finally was of his head! Woo-hoo! A Wilson’s Warbler. My first of the season.

All in all it was a fantastic trip to my favorite little birding spot. Combined with a perfectly gorgeous calm evening, and my favorite chicken bruschetta sandwich, I couldn’t have asked for more. Except maybe for the sun to stand still. :) ##

See, as I rounded the corner, and looked up at the top of the Cellcom tower, there was an osprey. The female osprey, very very likely the same bird who’s been nesting up there with her mate for the last 3 years now. (I am guessing it’s the female, given the brown ‘necklace’ of feathers around the upper chest; this is more common with the females, whereas males typically have all-white chests.) The same ospreys usually return to the same nesting spot every year.

She was perched on the same spire, sitting in the same direction as always (looking north), surveying her Kingdom, as if she owns it all, and all of the clutter and we people buzzing about below are just incidental. :)

The reason I was so incredibly happy to see her was because I was worried they’d been shot to death in Central or South America, where our ospreys overwinter. Ospreys will sometimes find a fish farm and set up residence there. To them, it’s just a good food supply. Of course, to the fish farmer, it’s lost profits. So the farmers take to their shotguns and kill the ospreys hunting their ponds.

Every spring I check the local nests, almost obsessively, worried that “our” ospreys unknowingly made a poor choice over winter and were shot and killed.

This is especially a problem in the Dominican Republic, which is a deadly place especially for first-year migrant juveniles who decide end their first migration in the D.R. and take up winter residence, not realizing what a dangerous place it is. The juvies who continue south to South America are often (but not always) headed to safer grounds, at least in terms of the risk of being shot. (Read Meadow’s story)

I sat in the parking lot at the Top of the Hill shops, which is right next door to the tower, and watched her in the binoculars. Holy cow, their talons are huge, their hulking bodies and wide shoulders so imposing! They are an absolutely amazing and beautiful creation.

I hope some of the classes at Gibraltar Schools are studying the ospreys. It is an absolutely golden learning opportunity to have this nest right across the street from the school! And the birds don’t mind if there are kids out on the playground… the kids can walk right out on the school grounds and watch them with the naked eye.

We were thrilled in college to have a pair of nesting ospreys 2 miles away from our summer camp lodge, that we could watch and journal through a telescope…… sheesh. What we would have given to be able to study ospreys like this!!! :)

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I peeked out my 2nd-floor bedroom window and saw a few little brown birds with black-and-white striped heads hopping around on the trees and in the grass. I thought they were white-throated sparrows (which are very common around here), but in the back of my mind it seemed rather odd that they were so noisy. I didn’t remember the white-throats being that ……. obnoxious?

Later in the day I Googled the white-throated sparrows, and realized that I didn’t recall seeing any yellow on these little birds’ heads. Hmmmm. I listened to the white-throats’ calls online, and they did not match. Not even remotely. And yet Cornell didn’t list any similar-looking species; to hear them tell it, the white-throated sparrow was the only sparrow with that obvious black-and-white striping on it.

Now I was obsessed. :) What were those birds???? I grabbed my camera and went outside. I tried to creep gently, quietly, unobtrusively to the side yard… no matter, all the birds spooked and flew off, sort of in a brown wave. *grin* Except for one brave little soul in a tree. I took his picture.

There were several more in a tree below my porch, so I took their pictures, too. After a few minutes, another puffy little fellow hopped out of a bush and onto the grass. He was particularly photogenic. I snapped his pic and he flitted away.

Good pics in hand, I ran back upstairs and cracked open my trusty, worn copy of Peterson’s. I downloaded the pictures, although I didn’t really need to, I had gotten a really good look at the little guys out there. A-ha! There they were, no question: white-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys).

They hadn’t been here the day before. They were here all day Wednesday. Literally, they were yammering from sun-up to sun-down. And when I awoke this morning, they were gone.

This morning my Mom wrote to tell me that all 3,000 of the white-crowneds were at her house today (11 miles north of me, as the crow flies) … and that yes, their song was definitely different than the white-throated sparrows. See? I asked … now you know why I was obsessed with them yesterday!!

Nothing like a new bird on a bright spring day. :)