Birders' Nest

[Elgarian Redux]

Glorious breezy day - perfect for a walk but not photography perhaps. However, straightaway, swaying in the wind in the heart of a bunch of knapweed was a peacock butterfly. Now I know these are common - so the books tell me. But the fact is that I hardly ever see them. Maybe once or twice a year? So, camera out, and here he is below, in all his extravagance.

There was a female reed bunting on a bush nearby and I took a couple of shots ... and then some insect got itself trapped inside my glasses and started stinging me just at the side of my eye! Frantically trying to get it away, I inadvertently flicked my specs onto the ground (now scratched beyond reasonable use, unfortunately). So this ill-exposed buntosaurus photo below cost me actual pain and the price of a new pair of glasses.

[Kalevala]

Glorious breezy day - perfect for a walk but not photography perhaps. However, straightaway, swaying in the wind in the heart of a bunch of knapweed was a peacock butterfly. Now I know these are common - so the books tell me. But the fact is that I hardly ever see them. Maybe once or twice a year? So, camera out, and here he is below, in all his extravagance.

There was a female reed bunting on a bush nearby and I took a couple of shots ... and then some insect got itself trapped inside my glasses and started stinging me just at the side of my eye! Frantically trying to get it away, I inadvertently flicked my specs onto the ground (now scratched beyond reasonable use, unfortunately). So this ill-exposed buntosaurus photo below cost me actual pain and the price of a new pair of glasses.

Sorry to hear that!  You might want to keep them as a backup pair.

By the way, you and Owlice sometimes lose me as far as your bird names goes...have no idea what you were referring to...maybe a bunting?  Perhaps stick to their scientific and/or common names?  I'd appreciate it.   

K

K

[Elgarian Redux]

Sorry to hear that!  You might want to keep them as a backup pair.

Indeed. I now have two backup pairs ...

By the way, you and Owlice sometimes lose me as far as your bird names goes...have no idea what you were referring to...maybe a bunting?  Perhaps stick to their scientific and/or common names?  I'd appreciate it.   

It's a bit of silliness based on the notion that birds are descended from dinosaurs, and is just part of the fun. If you look at my post again, though, you'll see I did refer to it on this occasion clearly as a female reed bunting in the text, and also in the title of the photo. I'll try to make a habit of that ...

[Kalevala]

Indeed. I now have two backup pairs ...

It's a bit of silliness based on the notion that birds are descended from dinosaurs, and is just part of the fun. If you look at my post again, though, you'll see I did refer to it clearly as a female reed bunting. I'll try to make that a habit!

K

K

Yes, I did know that the two of you were being silly--and what it was based on.  Sorry that I missed your further comment.

K

[owlice]

I'm happy to provide an ID on any bird (or other creature) I have posted; I generally try to list the common name when I create a post, but if I forget, I'm happy to add it if notified it is missing, so long as I know the ID. (I usually do, but cannot guarantee it; there are a lot of confusing birds/insects/other critters out there!)

So this ill-exposed buntosaurus photo below cost me actual pain and the price of a new pair of glasses.

Oooo, I'm sorry that happened. I hope the stings are no longer painful. I'm sure Ms. Buntosaurus would apologize if she knew of the unfortunate outcome of your photo shoot, and I suspect this steely-eyed Huntasaurus would like to hear of your difficulties so he can track down the culprit and eat it. In fact, he looks quite determined to do so; 'twould be a tasty snack for him and would also serve the insect right!

Cape Batis

The butterfly is beautiful! I have seen them only a few times; how lucky you are to have them close to you! Except for the stinging insect incident, your walk sounds lovely.

I hope to get outside today, too, and will, like you, make sure to take my camera. 

[Iota]

Glorious breezy day - perfect for a walk but not photography perhaps. However, straightaway, swaying in the wind in the heart of a bunch of knapweed was a peacock butterfly. Now I know these are common - so the books tell me. But the fact is that I hardly ever see them. Maybe once or twice a year? So, camera out, and here he is below, in all his extravagance.

There was a female reed bunting on a bush nearby and I took a couple of shots ... and then some insect got itself trapped inside my glasses and started stinging me just at the side of my eye! Frantically trying to get it away, I inadvertently flicked my specs onto the ground (now scratched beyond reasonable use, unfortunately). So this ill-exposed buntosaurus photo below cost me actual pain and the price of a new pair of glasses.

Oh tough luck, how exasperating! You have my sympathy, such things are so easy to do, and sadly seem to increase with age. Though long ago, when we were in our twenties, I had a friend who had a horror of wasps, and one once flew up and started pestering him as he sat on a park bench eating his lunch and wouldn't leave him alone. Flailing around in his panic to swipe it away, he ended up landing a huge punch on his own face and nearly knocked himself out! So the young aren't immune either ..

Lovely butterfly shot!

Oooo, I'm sorry that happened. I hope the stings are no longer painful. I'm sure Ms. Buntosaurus would apologize if she knew of the unfortunate outcome of your photo shoot, and I suspect this steely-eyed Huntasaurus would like to hear of your difficulties so he can track down the culprit and eat it. In fact, he looks quite determined to do so; 'twould be a tasty snack for him and would also serve the insect right!

Cape Batis

.

[Elgarian Redux]

I hope the stings are no longer painful.

Well the bloomin' creature got me three times - 3 little puncture wounds in my eyebrow!! I've lavished antihistamine cream on them every few hours, but they still sting (and as you see, I'm milking the incident for sympathy).

I'm sure Ms. Buntosaurus would apologize if she knew of the unfortunate outcome of your photo shoot

Warn't her fault of course. She was posing perfectly nicely and probably wondered why I hadn't responded to her 'come closer' look over the shoulder.

I suspect this steely-eyed Huntasaurus would like to hear of your difficulties so he can track down the culprit and eat it. In fact, he looks quite determined to do so; 'twould be a tasty snack for him and would also serve the insect right!


Cape Batis

Oh yes indeed! What a fierce little chap he is. I'm sure he would defend law and order very well. Batmanosaurus!

The butterfly is beautiful! I have seen them only a few times; how lucky you are to have them close to you!

Of all the common butterflies here, they are the one I see least - and are the ones I most love to see.

I hope to get outside today, too, and will, like you, make sure to take my camera. 

.... and the antihistamine cream!!

[Elgarian Redux]

Oh tough luck, how exasperating! You have my sympathy, such things are so easy to do, and sadly seem to increase with age. Though long ago, when we were in our twenties, I had a friend who had a horror of wasps, and one once flew up and started pestering him as he sat on a park bench eating his lunch and wouldn't leave him alone. Flailing around in his panic to swipe it away, he ended up landing a huge punch on his own face and nearly knocked himself out! So the young aren't immune either ..

Oh no! That really is just too bad! Terrible luck!

[Iota]

Well the bloomin' creature got me three times - 3 little puncture wounds in my eyebrow!! I've lavished antihistamine cream on them every few hours, but they still sting (and as you see, I'm milking the incident for sympathy).

Well it's working on me, seriously, that's a horrible thing to happen! Hope the worst of it passes soon.

[Elgarian Redux]

Well it's working on me, seriously, that's a horrible thing to happen! Hope the worst of it passes soon.

Thing is, after I'd finished shouting Ow! Ow! Ow!, and picked up my ruined glasses, and explained to my wife why I was flailing around like a maimed octopus, I looked over to the bush, which I had been approaching for a closer shot - and Ms Buntosaurus had flown! (But who could be surprised?!)

[Iota]

Thing is, after I'd finished shouting Ow! Ow! Ow!, and picked up my ruined glasses, and explained to my wife why I was flailing around like a maimed octopus, I looked over to the bush, which I had been approaching for a closer shot - and Ms Buntosaurus had flown! (But who could be surprised?!)

Oh dear yes, that sounds in keeping with the general drift of Buntosaurus events.   Hang on in there, your Buntosaurus moment may yet come!

[Elgarian Redux]

Lovely butterfly shot!

Have you seen the lovely little butterfly called a 'ringlet'? I'd never seen one till recently (no camera, of course!!). At first it looks like just a little brown job, but then you look again and it's so delicate, with these very tiny rings on its wings.


(NOT my photo!)

I've only seen one twice, and that recently.

[Iota]

Have you seen the lovely little butterfly called a 'ringlet'? I'd never seen one till recently (no camera, of course!!). At first it looks like just a little brown job, but then you look again and it's so delicate, with these very tiny rings on its wings.

(NOT my photo!)

I've only seen them twice, and that recently.

No I haven't, but I just googled it and yes exquisite! I'd love to see one, lucky you!

[owlice]

What a very pretty butterfly!!! And what a beautiful photo of it!! Thanks for sharing it, and what a treat for your eyes, that you saw one!! Oh, sure, get me started on butterflies, why don't you? You know not what you do. I will try to rein myself in. Really, I will, I will!

 I don't know whether I have seen that particular Ringlet (there are so many, so likely not!), but here is a Common Ringlet that I saw in Pennsylvania:

My repeated silent suggestions that it open its wings were not taken until the butterfly fluttered by... er... off

Another that is in the same large family of Brush-footed Butterflies is the Appalachian Brown:

Virginia; a better photo (not mine) here, because of course this Brown didn't open its wings for me, either: https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/20788237

Related is a Common Wood-Nymph, this one from Michigan:


One thing I love about these butterflies (and so many others!) is that their eyes are similar to their wings; their outfits are very well color coordinated.

[Elgarian Redux]

What a very pretty butterfly!!! And what a beautiful photo of it!! Thanks for sharing it, and what a treat for your eyes, that you saw one!! Oh, sure, get me started on butterflies, why don't you? You know not what you do. I will try to rein myself in. Really, I will, I will!

I don't think that reining ourselves in is what we do here. If it is, I've yet to see evidence. So burst into butterflies Owlice, by all means. Fire at will. Just to be clear, I'm only familiar with about 10 butterflies, so I won't be able to keep up using comments other than Wow.

I don't know whether I have seen that particular Ringlet (there are so many, so likely not!), but here is a Common Ringlet that I saw in Pennsylvania:

My repeated silent suggestions that it open its wings were not taken until the butterfly fluttered by... er... off

This is not the same as the British Common Ringlet, which is the only ringlet I know! Oh the confusion!

Related is a Common Wood-Nymph, this one from Michigan:

So this is what Sibelius was writing the music about. [The Wood Nymph]

One thing I love about these butterflies (and so many others!) is that their eyes are similar to their wings; their outfits are very well color coordinated.

Yes, their fashion sense is unimpeachable.

[Elgarian Redux]

Just to be clear, I'm only familiar with about 10 butterflies.

But is it as many as 10, actually? I'll count 'em off: large white, small white, small tortoiseshell, red admiral, meadow brown, speckled wood, orange tip, common blue, painted lady (not often), peacock (not often), small copper (not often), ringlet (not often), comma (hardly ever), gatekeeper (hardly ever).

That's the lot. Hey, that's 14!! But maybe the hardly-evers only count as half.

[owlice]

The hardly-evers should count as 1.5, at least, since you remember them even though you hardly ever see them! So please grant yourself at least 15 butterflies, which I am certain is more than 99.9% of the population can claim (and I am sure to be within that 99.9%!)!

Batmanosaurus!

Yes!! And darn, I wish I had thought of that!!  Very clever of you, Elgarian!

Someday, I maybe will try to gather masked birds, just to see the variety among them. We already have Cedar Waxwing, Common Yellowthroat, Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird, and Cape Batis in evidence.

I was on a wildlife outing with others, touring the lodge's property, and the driver/guide several times pointed out the resident mongooses, the name of which I heard as "Bandit Mongooses." I thought the moniker might be due to their behavior, or maybe they, like some animals such as our raccoons, have black masks, though I saw no masks on the mongooses I was seeing. It wasn't until I uploaded the photos to iNaturalist that I realized these were Banded Mongooses...

Oooooh... Banded... yeah, that makes much more sense...

If this site offered a facepalm emoji, there'd be one right here.

[Elgarian Redux]

The hardly-evers should count as 1.5, at least, since you remember them even though you hardly ever see them! So please grant yourself at least 15 butterflies, which I am certain is more than 99.9% of the population can claim (and I am sure to be within that 99.9%!)!

This sounds like another example of the formula for the number of guitars you need (N+1, where N is the number you have already). So the formula for the number of butterfly species you've seen would be N+1, where N is the number you think you've seen.

Someday, I maybe will try to gather masked birds, just to see the variety among them. We already have Cedar Waxwing, Common Yellowthroat, Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird, and Cape Batis in evidence.

That would be really worth seeing. How many different ways can a bird species look like a highwayman? It could be called the Turpin project.

I was on a wildlife outing with others, touring the lodge's property, and the driver/guide several times pointed out the resident mongooses, the name of which I heard as "Bandit Mongooses." I thought the moniker might be due to their behavior, or maybe they, like some animals such as our raccoons, have black masks, though I saw no masks on the mongooses I was seeing. It wasn't until I uploaded the photos to iNaturalist that I realized these were Banded Mongooses...

Oooooh... Banded... yeah, that makes much more sense...

Fabulous story! The Bandit Mongoose should exist!!

Q: How do you tell if a mongoose is a burglar?
A: See if it wears a stripey jumper and carries a bag labelled 'SWAG'.

[owlice]

I did go out walking yestereve, and I took my camera. It was hot and humid, and when I arrived at the boardwalks, it was also very quiet. I saw one bird, an Eastern Phoebe, on the other side of the highway; she was too far away, and I was not still enough, for a decent photo, but here she is nonetheless... clearly aware of my presence, even at a distance:


As I waited for the grad student I often walk with, I walked a bit down one boardwalk; there were still ripe/ripening thimbleberries, and a Red Maple showed promise of a change to come.


My walking companion arrived, and after spraying well for protection against mosquitoes, we headed down the other boardwalk.

Quiet, quiet, quiet! No Red-winged Blackbirds called, and no parents to their children, either: the boardwalks were deserted. It was too humid, too hot, to be out, but ... birders be crazy, and though neither one of us would claim "birder" as a title, there we were... and then suddenly, little flurries of activity! Another Eastern Phoebe was hunting across the river:


A Yellow Warbler, one of several we saw, made an appearance:


And a Cedar Waxwing showed off its dark pink tongue:

I suspect it was actually trying to cool down

Our previous attempt to see hummingbirds -- there is only one expected in this area, the Ruby-throated -- was for naught, but our evening walk proved successful, and though the opportunity to photograph these fast-moving rascals was brief, we did have some success as a hummer fed on nearby pickerelweed:


We also saw a Spotted Sandpiper hunting amongst the lilypads, but he moved so quickly, I could not get a clear shot:

Slow down, you move too fast! You've got to make the photo op last!

We continued down the boardwalk, and hurrah!! A Purple Finch, a new-bird-capture for the grad student, who has been trying hard recently to build a lifelist. The bird tried hard to hide, but then briefly showed itself:

"Purple?!?! You call that purple?!" The female Purple Finch is shades of brown and white, and that is what this one is. The male looks as though it has been dipped in red wine, or as Roger Tory Peterson described, a "sparrow dipped in raspberry juice." They are very similar to House Finches, the males of which also have red on them, just ... not as much. Birds are confusing; people who assign bird names might be even more confused. Purple.

We saw a few other birds as well: Red-winged Blackbirds (so quiet, though! It was too hot to even peep.), a Swamp Sparrow, female American Redstarts, male American Goldfinches, and a few others, and even my state bird, a Baltimore Oriole:

Though I've seen these in my home state, I have never gotten a photo of them there. In Michigan, Ohio, Central America, Washington DC, etc, suuuuure, but in Maryland? Never... because I so rarely see them there.

And we also saw... an American Mink! I was so excited, I
turned off my camera!

By accident, of course. So stupid!! I did manage to get it back on and get one shot. Though the camera was not on the setting I usually use for wildlife, I can at least prove I saw the mink.


My walking companion did better, getting a burst of photos of the mink.

Notably, we saw no Bald Eagles. I am used to seeing them daily in this area, but this summer, I've had few sightings. They have apparently abandoned what I think of as the Eagle Tree, because I have seen them in previous summers perched on that tree, and they used to nest on the other side of the water from the university, but I haven't seen them there, either. The summer has been weird in several ways; the scarcity of eagle sightings is one of them. And so is the heat.

[owlice]

Q: How do you tell if a mongoose is a burglar?
A: See if it wears a stripey jumper and carries a bag labelled 'SWAG'.

hahahahahahaha!!! Making me laugh here!!