Maggie's Farm

Photo and link via Vanderleun. Article here.

Photo is from the growing underwater rift area between the Eurasian and the North American plates.

Is the entire crust of the earth expanding, or is all of the plate separation compensated by subduction elsewhere?

Theories abound, but plate theory was considered crackpot just a few decades ago.

It is ramping up right now.

I can hear, out my window this morning, the songs and calls of Pine Warbler, Black and White Warbler, Redstart, Red-eyed Vireo (not exactly a warbler), Magnolia Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Black-Throated Blue, Parula, Prairie Warbler, and a few more that I am not sure about.

My idea of watching the spring warblers is a chaise lounge lawn chair flat, under a big old oak tree with binocs. Preferably, a big oak near some juniper trees - which is why I planted my junipers and Japanese willows: to watch the warbler migration with minimal exertion. Let them come to you. Just wait for them to pass through the trees. Otherwise, it's a day of neck pain. Knowing their calls simplifies it: you don't have to try to see them. But plenty of them forage silently in the treetops. Especially the odd vireos.

Get out there and see these little jewels of Creation, and listen to their morning calls, as they pass by on their trip north.

Image: A Peterson pic of a few Spring Warblers

Saturday morning, a stroll around the shrubby areas of the Olde Farm revealed a big movement of migrants overnight.

Towhees, calling and scratching in the ground cover:

Flocks of noisy Blue Jays - who do move south in the fall, leaving us in New England with the Canadian birds during the winter. You know what they look like.

Veeries low in the shrubs:

Flock of around 40 Robins, including a bunch without full adult plumage.

An Ovenbird (heard), and a couple of Kinglets:

Two flocks of about 20 White-throated Sparrows, scratching for bugs under the rose bushes and in the overgrown dead vegetable garden, singing their Spring song:

And a Sharpie buzzed past, doubtless following, and feeding upon, the tasty, tender little migrants:

Good morning, World!

Most images and links from/to the fine CLO bird info website.

In four days, this post is almost outdated. I heard Parula and Palm Warblers singing this morning -

Country folk call them "Fisher cats," and blame them for the decline of Ruffed Grouse populations in the Northeast (about which they are wrong. Grouse and Fishers coexisted for millennia. I blame the grouse population drops on fire suppression, habitat loss - and the dang Coyotes who would not be here had we not killed all of the wolves).

Fishers are large members of the weasel family (the Mustelidae - stoats, badgers, otters, martens, mink, weasels, wolverines) - kinda like mini-Wolverines.

With the return of woodlands and the decline of fur trapping, Fisher populations are rebounding in the northern US, especially in New England (same as with the Black Bear). They are one of the few animals that kills Porcupines.

I've never seen one in the wild, but I'd like to.

Do they scream? It seems to be an Old Wives' Tale. Info about Fishers here and here.

Have any of our readers seen one?

Diligent students of Maggie's Farm have had the chance, over the years, to become familiar with many of the common birds of North America - or at least of the Eastern US. The common winter sparrows around my parts (not including Junco, which is a sparrow):

In winter at my feeder, I mainly see Song Sparrow

and White Throated Sparrow:

In some winters, we get a surge of Fox Sparrows, but not this year. This year, though, I have seen more Tree Sparrows than ever (that's the American Tree Sparrow, not the Eurasian):

The Chipping Sparrow is common here in the summer, but migrates south. I rarely see a Field Sparrow anymore these days. No idea why. Never see White Crowned Sparrow at my feeder either.

This is the common urban pest, once called the English Sparrow (they were a nasty import from Old Blighty):

A seasonal re-post -

Interesting bird, the Snow Goose. For one thing, it comes in a blue
and white form, and all sorts of intermediate forms, so was long thought to be two species. For another, its population has boomed in recent years such that it is destroying its tundra nesting areas, and so the wildlife managers are essentially begging people to shoot them. They were scarce in the 1970s.

There is almost no real limit on these birds, and it is now legal to use electronic calls to try to bring them into your field decoy spread during the spring Snow Goose season in the midwest. However, as it turns out, hunting makes no dent in their numbers.

When a flock of 100 or 1000 of them descend over your blind into your field decoys on a frigid dawn, it's one hell of an adrenaline rush and one hell of a shooting experience. A literal "blast," and you cannot reload your auto fast enough to keep up with the action of these determined birds who can, at times, seem quite undeterred by the sound of shotgun fire. They go down very easily, compared to Canadas which can sometimes coast or flap for a quarter mile with a fatal wound, which gives a retriever - or a fellow - a good work out.

 We say "They go down like a prom dress."

Our Brit cousins would love this shooting - they have, alas, nothing comparable for fun. Neither prom dresses nor Snow Geese. Our good pal Mr. Free Market would have the time of his life.

When 5000 of them decide to chose the seemingly identical barley field adjacent to the one you happen to be in for brainless goose reasons, it is a deeply frustrating experience and there is not a damn thing you can do about it.

A northern Canadian nester, this medium-sized honker is highly migratory across the US, especially in the Central Flyway. It is not unusual, these days, to see them flying over Vermont ski slopes in winter, or on Long Island potato fields.

The causes of the potentially self-destructive population boom are unclear, but may have to do with changes in the agricultural lands on which they winter. I wish I had a decent digital image of the size of the flocks of these birds, capable of truly blocking out the sun, but my best shots are from my pre-digital era, a few years ago. Beautiful, and awe-inspiring but, according to the biologists, a big problem too. They could be wrong; it might just be a natural boom and bust cycle like the housing market.

Being game birds, a word is always in order on cooking, since you must eat what you kill. These geese do not hold a candle to the delectable Canada Goose. The tough breast is best stewed, or crock-potted, and can be quite fine in a cassoulet.  But anything is good in a cassoulet on a cold snowy, blowy winter evening, with crunchy garlic toast and a few bottles of Cote Roti and a mountain of powerful stinky French cheeses on the side.

More about Snow Goose at CLO, whence the photo, here.

Our old post on Cassoulet is lost for the moment. Good hearty peasant food, best made with game sausage and game meat of any sort. We once made one with venison sausage, wild boar, and Snow Goose breast.

The American Robin is semi-migratory, and can be found almost anywhere in the US in wintertime. In the northern US, they live on old berries and fruits in the winter, foraging in flocks. Sometimes they get drunk on fermented rotten fruit.

This pic was from Retriever a while back, taken, as I recall, in Lenox, MA:

At the feeders today:

(Note Cottontail Rabbit gnawing on my roses. He's my official rose-pruner.) Tree Sparrow, Carolina Wren, Dark Eyed Junco, Cardinal, WT Sparrow, Red Bellied Woodpecker, BC Chickadee, Song Sparrow, Downy Woodpecker, Grey Squirrel (of course), Mourning Dove, Blue Jay.

Notable for absence: Goldfinch, Tufted Titmouse.

There are a handful of species of Juncos in North America. Most familiar is the Dark-Eyed Junco, formerly known as the Slate-Colored Junco. Why they changed that name is totally beyond me. Who can see their eye color?

Flocks of these sparrows - yes, they are in the sparrow family - are common around the US during migration and in winter, generally feeding on or near the ground, in fields, edges, and brush. The dual flash of white in their tail is an easy field mark in flight. They enjoy our bird feeders, and they do not mind snow at all.

They breed pretty much throughout Canada. Their arrival in the US in November, along with the White-Throated Sparrows, is a sign that winter is coming. They will begin to push north in March.

You can read more about these cheerful critters here.

Photo courtesy of R. Hays Cummins

A pal just bought this rugged machine for his hunting and getaway place in upstate New York. He's been fixing up the old leaky farmhouse for a couple of years. Nice to see a Maggie's Farm logo on it - naw, too bad - it's just a wide-assed Massey-Ferguson:

Here. h/t, Anchoress

Saw a Hermit Thrush hopping around my shrubs yesterday. Unmistakable with his chestnut tail and spotted breast. A few years ago I had one over-winter here. He would roost each night under a bush next to my chimney.

They are the only Thrush which winters in North America (unless you count Robins, which are in the Thrush family).

I am not being an internet hermit this season. We hit two very nice Christmas parties last night, another one tonight, and tomorrow we are taking my in-laws to a nice lunch and a show down in NYC. (Gwynnie always tells me I need to get out more, so I do.)

A quote from the good piece I linked this morning, Can environmentalism be saved from itself?

Before they were sucked into the giant vortex of global warming, environmentalists did useful things. They protested against massive Third World dams that would ruin both natural and human habitats. They warned about invasive species and diseases that could tear through our forests and wreck our water systems. They fought for national parks and greenbelts and protected areas. They talked about the big things too – such as how the world could feed another three billion people without destroying all the rain forests and running out of water. They believed in conservation – conserving this beautiful planet of ours from the worst of human despoliation – rather than false claims to scientific certainty about the future, unenforceable treaties and radical utopian social reform.

I agree with all that. Furthermore, we non-politically-driven conservation types usually did the work ourselves - without asking governments and powers to do it. We even bought machines to restore filled-in and drained marshes (and even helped to undo Saddam Hussein's destruction of Iraq's vast marshes, which he did to eliminate those too-independent Marsh Arabs who wanted to be left alone).

For one example, Ducks Unlimited. Something like 12 million acres of wildlife habitat under protection now in the US, Canada (and some in Mexico), done with private donations. (59 million acres "influenced and conserved" - that includes things like farmlands operated in habitat-compatible ways supervised and assisted by DU).  While warmist bureaucrats party in Cancun and try to figure out how to control the world, DU works to raise money and protect habitat from development and degradation every day.

Maggie's Farm supports DU.

Since you are so interested, here are the species we shot last week in Manitoba, and which now reside in the freezer: Shoveler ("Smilin' Mallard"), Bluebill, lots of Redheads, Canvasback, Mallard, Gadwall, Wigeon, Pintail, and Canada Goose.

The limit in Manitoba is 8/day, any species of duck.

We also had some luck with Ruffed and Sharptail Grouse. I do love huntin' the grousies because you get to walk all day in beautiful places.

Photo of a few handsome Redheads - they taste as good as Canvasback. Tip for fellow duck hunters: forget steel shot. It often cripples and does not kill cleanly. Use heavy-shot or bismuth or anything else -our wonderful ducks deserve the best, despite the expense. I am through with steel shot for ducks and goose forever, as of now.

I have a pal who is in the hospital, being treated for a serious case of Babesiosis. I visited him at the hospital yesterday, and determined that he would survive because I was able to elicit a few laughs - but it can be a very nasty and life-threatening disease (or a mild and insignificant one). He was on two or three IV antibiotics, and a morphine pump for the headache.

It's a bug like Malaria, and its vector is the tiny Deer Tick, same bugger as Lyme Disease. Dog ticks are annoying, but we woodsy and doggy people get those on us all the time. No big deal. Those Deer Ticks (actually, they are mouse ticks more than deer ticks) are the real problem for people who spend time outdoors.

Not to make light of a serious topic, but I can't resist re-posting "I'd Like to Check You For Ticks." It's a guy song, but the gals seem eager for Brad to check them. It must be lots of fun to be a country star:

The grand White Oak of eastern North America.

For the past 40 years, as farming has declined in the Northeast, it is not unusual to see one of these gnarly monsters among a woodland filled with younger trees. Sometimes in the midst of the stands of White Pines which often quickly fill abandoned pastures. The old White Oak is the sign that you are walking through an old cow pasture. Squint your eyes in the woods to eliminate all of the younger trees, and imagine dairy cattle chewing their cud in the shade of that old oak.

This is Frederic Church's View Near Stockbridge, MA, 1847:

I was good friends with one of these giants as a boy. Its lower branches reached almost to the ground, so that you could monkey up to 15' or 20' into the tree by going up those low limbs. Getting higher was difficult going - and slippery going from all of the moss growing on those big limbs.

New England is filled with second-growth forests, not too much climax forest yet. It's difficult to realize now, but in the late 1800s there was hardly a tree standing in rural New England other than in farmers' woodlots - and sugarbush.

My pic doesn't capture it, but this one has about a 5' diameter. We were hunting for Woodcock.

New York aristocrat Rosalie Edge was a crank, a Suffragette, and an ardent conservationist. A bio of her came out last year: Rosalie Edge, Hawk of Mercy: The Activist Who Saved Nature from the Conservationists.

Among the many causes she took up, one was protection of raptors from the mass slaughter of her era. She bought Hawk Mountain in Eastern PA and created the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. A high point on the Eastern raptor migration flyway, Hawk Mountain had been a popular site for the slaughter of raptors by gunners who believed they were going some sort of good while having fun.

Hawk Mountain is now a foundation engaged in conservation education programs. It remains an excellent viewing spot in fall migration season. (Photo from the Hawk Mtn website.)

The right places to be in New England on a November weekend (preferably with gun and dog).

From a distance, I figured this was a flock of turkeys in an Ohio hayfield outside Mount Vernon last Saturday.

Nope. Vultures. Since I could not see any red on their heads, and because of their apparent sociable habit, they might have been Black Vultures. Or Maybe Turkey Vultures assembling around a corpse. Did not have my binoculars.

Not sure whether Black Vultures are regular in central Ohio.

I have a fatal disease in my large, probably 100 year-old Copper Beech tree. I have diagnosed it as Beech Bark Disease. I've seen the same bark disease on many old Copper Beeches recently - areas of shedding bark on the trunk and dying branches high overhead. It's a damn shame.

Maybe our most common winter sparrow in the NE, the White Throated spends most of his time on the ground and in low shrubs looking for berries, seeds and hibernating bugs. Likes bird-feeders.

He'll be coming down from the breeding grounds in Canada around now, and will give us a chance to hear his familiar pleasant songs (the link has songs).

A gallery of carnivorous plants. h/t, NRO - of all places.

Took this pic of a clamming boat coming into dock in Wellfleet in September. The refrigerated truck will arrive just as he ties up.

Those are Sea Clams which are harvested along the Northeast coast by dredging, from deeper water than the Quahog of the tidal flats but much shallower waters than those inhabited by the deep-sea Ocean Clam. Here are Sea Clams up close:

Sea Clams are the main processed clam in the US, and their shells are commonly used as ashtrays.

The hard-shelled clam, the Quahog (Mercenaria mercenaria - why that name?) is the clam of Atlantic US estuaries and tidal flats. It tastes better, in my opinion, than the Sea Clam - especially when you dig them yourself. Unlike the Sea Clam, you eat the Quahog feathers and all: Littlenecks and Cherrystones - and the chowder-sized Quahogs.

This is from Thoreau's Cape Cod:

We found some large clams, of the species Mactra solidissima, which the storm had torn up from the bottom, and cast ashore. I selected one of the largest, about six inches in length, and carried it along, thinking to try an experiment on it. We soon after met a wrecker, with a grapple and a rope, who said that he was looking for tow cloth, which had made part of the cargo of the ship Franklin,(17) which was wrecked here in the spring, at which time nine or ten lives were lost. The reader may remember this wreck, from the circumstance that a letter was found in the captain's valise, which washed ashore, directing him to wreck the vessel before he got to America, and from the trial which took place in consequence.(18) The wrecker said that tow cloth was still cast up in such storms as this. He also told us that the clam which I had was the sea-clam, or hen, and was good to eat. We took our nooning under a sand-hill, covered with beach-grass, in a dreary little hollow, on the top of the bank, while it alternately rained and shined. There, having reduced some damp drift-wood, which I had picked up on the shore, to shavings with my knife, I kindled a fire with a match and some paper, and cooked my clam on the embers for my dinner; for breakfast was commonly the only meal which I took in a house on this excursion. When the clam was done, one valve held the meat and the other the liquor. Though it was very tough, I found it sweet and savory, and ate the whole with a relish. Indeed, with the addition of a cracker or two, it would have been a bountiful dinner. I noticed that the shells were such as I had seen in the sugar-kit at home. Tied to a stick, they formerly made the Indian's hoe hereabouts.

The entirety of Thoreau's report of his amusing 1849-1867 ramblings, Cape Cod, can be read here.

The rather common American Kestrel - I still call them Sparrow Hawks - is our smallest raptor (size of an American Robin) and, when seen in the right light, our most colorful.

They are falcons, prey on insects, especially grasshoppers, small mammals, and small birds. Occasionally they can be seen in fields hunting from a hover but, more commonly, perched on the wires or branches from which they pounce.

Because of their preference for open spaces, their numbers decline where agriculture gives way to woodland. Their Eastern US population is down, probably due to the decline of farming in the Northeast.

They breed in nest holes, and move south from their northern ranges in the winter, making them "semi-migratory."

Their autumn southerly movements have been correlated with dragonfly migrations. Kestrels are happy to catch dragonflies although I don't know how it is possible. I had no idea that dragonflies migrated, but some species do - all over the world.

More about these fine birds here.

Regular readers know what a geology buff I am, although I do not post about it very much. My view is that you do not know what the heck you are looking at when you step outdoors unless you know some basic geology.

I was recently reminded about John McPhee's Annals of This Former World.

The book is a treat, but much better appreciated if you know basic Geo.

(As my friends know, my kids are all given my list of what they are required to study in college - or as AP high school courses - if I am to pay for their education. Intro Geology is on my list. Maybe I should post my Dad's Required Courses one of these days. It might stimulate some fun discussion here. Being a Yankee, I am cheap and hate to waste money on transient nonsense du jour. One reason I love Columbia and the U of Chicago is because they dare have an opinion about what kids need to know from the wisdom of past generations.)

Falconers have mini-cameras mounted on Peregrine Falcons in their wide-open habitats, and on Goshawks in their woodland habitats. h/t Never yet melted

No idea where this was. (thanks, Buddy). We photographed a scene like this (but without the bird-feeding) driving down from Whistler to Vancouver some winters ago. Awesome. Even the non-birders in our skiing group were impressed. 

The eagles were like gulls. These greedy fish-eaters have no idea that they are symbols.

Another pic below the fold

Some form of cutlivation of the Eastern (or American) Oyster has been going on for 150 years on Cape Cod, especially in Wellfleet. At first, this just consisted of importing wild oysters from elsewhere in their Atlantic or Gulf coast range, and giving them a while to absorb that special Wellfleet flavor.

There is no way that one small harbor could support the nationwide demand for naturally-produced Wellfleet Oysters.

As we sat on the deck watched the oystermen at work on their cages at low tide, we wondered where they buy the baby oysters.

I found out how the whole system works (link has great photos). The laboratory-bred spat from the hatcheries are bought by nurseries, then they are sold to the watermen who do the "grow-out" of the seed oysters. It is quite remarkable. No wonder they aren't cheap.

Photo on top: large scale commercial oyster grow-out in the southern US
Photo on bottom: oystermen tending their oyster cages in Wellfleet at low tide. Production is limited by town regulations, so there is no industrial-scale production and all are beach-bottom cultured instead of being grown on rafts, slowing their growth but making them tastier.

Just kidding. We would never post a "Name This Bird" this easy to answer. Among many interesting and enjoyable experiences this past weekend was getting this close to a Red Tail who was hunting the marsh edges at the Mass. Audubon in South Wellfleet. Pocket camera, no telephoto:

Great tool for the places wheere you cannot take a tractor. It's the 17 HP, and it will shred a 2" sapling with ease. Here's the DR site.

Can you name year and make of the truck?

Ten years ago we sat with a good pal, now deceased, and his wife on the porch of his golf club, sipping after-dinner single malts and smoking Cubans. And watching the Hummingbird Moths who were all over the solid planting of pink Cleome below the porch.

One of those magical moments. There are other reasons to plant annuals like Cleome, but those moths at dusk are the best reason. Here's a pic of one from Gardener's Index hovering over a Cleome:

Finally, somebody remembered to give me this book for my birthday.

Just need to finish reading my Baroque book first.

Does it seem to you that they keep making books with smaller and smaller print these days...?

...I'd buy this W. 12th St. townhouse as a pied a terre. I'd let all my millions of best friends use it, too, when they visited NYC. There would be a maid and a cook who lived on the top floor, and three reserved parking spots at the garage down the street.

All day long I'd biddy biddy bum...

With the lousy economy, and the closing of so many Wall St. firms, prices are coming down a bit, but such places remain pricey from my humble standpoint. They are asking $29 million for this typical and rather ordinary one (see photos at link). I guess lots of people want to have places in Manhattan these days.

People who are not familiar with 19th century NY townhouses do not know that they all have pleasant little gardens in the back. Lots of landcaping businesses in NY specialize in townhouse mini-gardens. Little fountains, mini-patios, quiet lighting, pots, plants that like the city, etc. I once knew somebody whose Mom kept her pet tortoise in her NY garden for many years. Animal probably outlived her. It fed on bugs, worms, weeds and grass in the garden, and vegetables left-over from Chinese take-out. Crunched up those skinny dried hot peppers without batting an eye. It lived in the kitchen in the winter.

I think it was a Greek Tortoise (Testudo graeca) that she snuck home in her luggage from a trip to Corfu in the late 1950s. Gerald Durrell, brother of  Lawrence Durrell, loved those tortoises when he summered in the Greek islands. Those animals can live well over 60 years. They become precious living heirlooms, like parrots.

Photo of T. graeca in its natural spartan habitat:

The smallest North American turtle lives in similar habitats to those of the Spotted Turtle (one of my favorite reptiles), and is a relative of the wonderful Wood Turtle. Nowadays, they have changed the official name to Bog Turtle.

(When I was young, I located a colony of Spotted Turtles in a sedgy marsh on the edge of a stream. On a sunny day, they'd be basking on the little tussocks, and splash into the shallow water when you walked by -not walked, actually - hopped from tussock to tussock in one's Keds. Spotted Turtles are listed as endangered too, now. Like Muhlenberg's, Spotteds seem to live in small colonies in specialized habitats which are senstive to human - and dog - intrusions.)

The Bog Turtle likes marshes with wet sedgy meadows in limestone areas. Despite their name, they do not live in acidic Sphagnum Bogs. They are rarely seen because they like to burrow in muck, but they are probably endangered. I have never seen one in the wild, even though our beaver marsh overflow is probably perfect habitat for them with its grassy hummocks, rivulets, beaver channels, damp meadows - and all of our Berkshire limestone and marble ledges and bedrock.

If you have ever encountered one, tell us.

The range of these turtles is dispersed:

Muhlenberg's Turtle was named after amateur botanist and sedge expert Gotthilf Henry Ernst Muhlenberg - an interesting character who played a role in the Revolution. Muhlenberg College in PA was named after his dad.

I was working yesterday, so Mrs. BD visited a friend on the shore to do some kayaking (that was before she came home to do her weeding).

She reported that the sky was filled with Ospreys, and young ones were perched in the trees on the little islands, screaming for more sushi.

Her friend told her that there are now 19 pairs of Ospreys breeding in the immediate area. 20 years ago, none. That is a remarkable conservation achievement. 30 years ago, they were rare in the Northeast although they were never rare in Florida.

I love to watch them fishing, hovering then diving with their talons forward, and then struggling to free themselves from the pull of the water. The young ones seem to learn how to do it, but it's a wonder they don't all drown.

The Osprey has worldwide distribution. A summary of the magnificent Osprey here.

A re-post from a couple of summers ago -

Two young Carolina Wrens fecklessly fluttered into our den today while the door was open. The pup promptly swallowed one, as any half-trained retriever will do, but I gently grabbed the other and carried him out to a safe branch. He crapped in my hand, but I don't mind that at all. Glad to be of service. I will take it as a frightened "Thanks," like when God grips you.

Birds frequently fly into our house. A couple of years ago, two dumb young flickers flew down the dining room chimney, and their beaks are sharp. They were tough to catch with the 11' ceiling. But I will never forget my friend who found a befuddled Screech Owl perched on an andiron in his fireplace. He called me and asked what to do. I said grab him firmly but gently around his wings, and open your hand outdoors. It worked out fine, but the bird was confused a little by the sunlight and took a magical minute or so to compose himself perching on his hand, reorient himself, and then to fly into a dark, dense pine.

Our Carolina Wrens are noisy in spring (a piercing "teakettle teakettle teakettle"), invisible during their breeding season, and out and about again now. I thought they were migratory, but I had one at my feeder last winter, and apparently they are not, entirely. Harsh winters kill them off, but their populations bounce back.

They look twice the size of our happy House Wrens, and are noisier. Rugged little guys.

Saw many of these in bloom on Cape Cod, growing in sandy dry soil. Seems to be a succulent variant of some wildflower. (I do not know what they are, but I know they are not Joe Pye Weed.)

Our leisurely Cape Cod habits are to take an early morning 1-hour brisk exercise walk before breakfast with maybe a quick dip after, then a slower nature walk later in the morning. All interspersed with swims, of course. Choice of ponds, Wellfleet Bay, Cape Cod Bay, or ocean - all within a few miles.

One cool thing for amateur naturalists is the variety of habitats you can encounter in a one hour walk on the Outer Cape ("Lower Cape"). I scouted out this remote sand road where, within a mile, you go from dunes to salt marsh to fresh water marsh to open meadow to Pitch Pine forest.

A hand-painted sign nailed to a tree on this road read "Caution: Dogs, Kids, and Turtles." Meaning Box Turtles.

All decent humans love Box Turtles.

My bird list of commonly seen or heard was modest on this trip: Osprey, the 3 gulls (Herring, GBB, Laughing), Green Heron, Pine Warbler, Parula Warbler, Yellow-throat Warbler, Yellow Warbler, RE Vireo, Cedar Waxwing, Cormorant, Tree Swallow, Piping Plover, Killdeer, Semipalmated Plover, Willet, Mallard, Black Duck, Goldfinch, Song Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, Kingbird, Common Tern, Great Crested Flycatcher, Chickadee, Cardinal, Grackles, Cowbird, Red Wing. Forgot some. Most shorebirds are up north breeding on the tundra now.

Typical Outer Cape uplands: Pitch Pine and Scrub Oak, with grassy patches where enough sun gets through. Here be Box Turtles:

Large salt marsh between the South Wellfleet Audubon and Lieutenant Island, with a hummock where the Diamondback Terrapins lay their eggs:

Low tide, Cape Cod Bay, way out on the western shore of Great Island this weekend. Heaven. You can even bring your doggie. No people there, either, except me and the Mrs. and the rare beachcomber.

A dune knitted together by a clump of Bayberry overlooking Cape Cod Bay, near Duck Harbor:

A guy has devoted his life to re-establishing the Puffin colonies in Maine.

One could do many worse things in life.

That sandwich sign made me wonder whether the Puffins were being attracted to this rock by the idea of a free lunch. Foolish birds.

You can read a bit about the Atlantic Puffin here.

Re-posted today because I had a female Ruby-Throated flirting with me yesterday while I was watering some hanging baskets of flowers. Fearless critter. Seemed to want to frolic in the spray.

Chances are that the first time you saw a hummingbird, you paid it no attention, imagining it to be a passing dragonfly or some other fleeting buzzing bug. In the Eastern half of the US, we have only one species � the Ruby Throated.

This 3-4-inch bird is usually only seen when hovering over flowers, because otherwise he is tiny and darting in flight, and his wings are a humming blur. You have to be very close to hear the hum.

These insect-like birds are probably more abundant in your area than you realize, but if you want to see them often, you need a hummingbird garden. (Those sugar-water hummingbird feeders offer no real nutrition, and the red coloring is thought to be somewhat toxic.) He feeds on nectar and small bugs hidden in the flowers, and prefers flowers which are designed for pollination by hummingbirds � often red in color and vase-shaped for his long beak. Red Trumpet Vine (in photo) is a favorite, as is azalea in the south, but they like monarda too. I find their favorite at my place is Crocosmia � which is in bloom now along with the monarda, and the trumpet vine on my wall. I highly recommend Crocosmia � the bulbs are a bit expensive but, once established, they multiply rapidly and they have attractive foliage. White Flower Farm has a large selection. In the woods, I typically see hummingbirds around patches of Jewelweed, which likes damp areas.

Read more about the Ruby Throated here. How do these fragile creatures make it across the Gulf of Mexico to winter in South America?

The print is Audubon's, the Ruby Throat with Trumpet Vine.

Speaking of hummingbirds, don�t forget the Dixie Hummingbirds.

Warbler migration season has reached its end, but our readers need a tougher challenge. Here 'tis. It is cheating to go to the link (I'll thank him with a link for the photo later today).

Hint: It's a female. Another wonderfully charming female below the fold, mostly safe for work -

A view of the farm this weekend -

Had too much work to do to spend much time birding this weekend, but I tend to have outdoor situational awareness:

Yellow Warbler, Yellow Throat Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Blue-grey Gnatcatcher, Mallard, Wood Duck, Canada Goose, GB Heron, B Oriole, Turkey Vulture, Wild Turkey, Wood Duck, Red-Tailed Hawk, RT Hummingbird, Blue Jay, Chickadee, Mourning Dove, Catbird, Cedar Waxwing, Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, Tree Swallow, Barn Swallow, Bluebird, Robin, Kingbird, Phoebe, Wood Pewee, Wood Thrush, Veery, Hermit Thrush, Song Sparrow, Ovenbird, Crow, Raven, Downy WP, Brown Thrasher, Pileated Woodpecker, House Finch, House Wren, RE Vireo,  Black and White Warbler, and numerous unidentified warblers.

Did not see any Meadowlark, Killdeer, or Bobolink. Probably passed through already, but I wish they would make summer homes here. I do not know why they don't.