Crawl and I went to a local state park for a cookout day. We saw a lot of amazing birds.
First of all, I finally got to see a Red-headed woodpecker. Those are really rare (I think they're a threatened species, if not endangered.) It was pounding a dead tree and making calls that sounded like a monkey. It still amazes me that woodpeckers can pound trees like that without injuring their head and neck.
We also saw a red-winged blackbird nest in a group of reeds out in the wetlands area of the park. And the female blackbird that owned the nest flew down and snuggled right into it. It was pretty close to the boardwalk, so we got a good close look (it was so close, we could have reached out and touched it, but we didn't do anything like that.) I earlier told Crawl that red-winged blackbirds nest in swamp reeds, but he wondered how that was possible. Honestly, I didn't know because I never actually saw a red-winged blackbird nest before, but now we both know (it was sort of bundled in the middle of a group of close-together reeds).
We also saw flocks of Common Nighthawks (misnamed because they're not really a hawk - they're in the same family as the Whippoorwill), Tree Swallows, Barn Swallows, Grackles, Robins, Cardinals, several Bluejays, a few Goldfinches, Mallards, Canadian Geese, and the Purple Martin houses were just full of Purple Martins (we also got to see those up pretty close, too.) There were the usual Killdeer (named for the sound they make, not because they kill deer, which they don't) and seagulls, but we also saw some kind of sandpiper-like bird at the beach area. At first, I thought they were Killdeer, but after one got closer to us, I realized that's not what it was. Killdeer have two distinct horizontal black stripes across their chest area. These things had black mottling. The only thing that looks even remotely like it in my bird guide is something called a "Ruddy Turnstone". I guess that makes sense. It did look to me like they were turning over the shells, stones, and other stuff that washed up on the shore to find food.
We didn't see any deer this time (in fact, I didn't see any mammal life at all), but when we had our cookout near a lake, there were these REALLY big fish leaping out of it. I don't know what they were, but they looked pinkish in color. I heard some weird spitting noises coming from the nearby cattails, so I walked over to that area. When Crawl and I got close enough, all the reeds and cattails started shaking like something out of a horror movie, but I couldn't tell what caused the shaking. I wonder what could do that? What the heck grabs onto a reed underwater and shakes it violently? Frogs? Fish? Snakes?
First of all, I finally got to see a Red-headed woodpecker. Those are really rare (I think they're a threatened species, if not endangered.) It was pounding a dead tree and making calls that sounded like a monkey. It still amazes me that woodpeckers can pound trees like that without injuring their head and neck.
We also saw a red-winged blackbird nest in a group of reeds out in the wetlands area of the park. And the female blackbird that owned the nest flew down and snuggled right into it. It was pretty close to the boardwalk, so we got a good close look (it was so close, we could have reached out and touched it, but we didn't do anything like that.) I earlier told Crawl that red-winged blackbirds nest in swamp reeds, but he wondered how that was possible. Honestly, I didn't know because I never actually saw a red-winged blackbird nest before, but now we both know (it was sort of bundled in the middle of a group of close-together reeds).
We also saw flocks of Common Nighthawks (misnamed because they're not really a hawk - they're in the same family as the Whippoorwill), Tree Swallows, Barn Swallows, Grackles, Robins, Cardinals, several Bluejays, a few Goldfinches, Mallards, Canadian Geese, and the Purple Martin houses were just full of Purple Martins (we also got to see those up pretty close, too.) There were the usual Killdeer (named for the sound they make, not because they kill deer, which they don't) and seagulls, but we also saw some kind of sandpiper-like bird at the beach area. At first, I thought they were Killdeer, but after one got closer to us, I realized that's not what it was. Killdeer have two distinct horizontal black stripes across their chest area. These things had black mottling. The only thing that looks even remotely like it in my bird guide is something called a "Ruddy Turnstone". I guess that makes sense. It did look to me like they were turning over the shells, stones, and other stuff that washed up on the shore to find food.
We didn't see any deer this time (in fact, I didn't see any mammal life at all), but when we had our cookout near a lake, there were these REALLY big fish leaping out of it. I don't know what they were, but they looked pinkish in color. I heard some weird spitting noises coming from the nearby cattails, so I walked over to that area. When Crawl and I got close enough, all the reeds and cattails started shaking like something out of a horror movie, but I couldn't tell what caused the shaking. I wonder what could do that? What the heck grabs onto a reed underwater and shakes it violently? Frogs? Fish? Snakes?
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