Marty October 20th, 2006
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Black Form) - female
Papilio glaucus
Going through the archives a bit more, I found a few shots of Eastern Black Swallowtails (black form) from Valley Forge, taken in August.
Marty October 6th, 2006
Eastern Phoebe
Sayornis phoebe
Wednesday was a very quiet day when I went hiking - the only highlight was a couple of shots of this beautiful phoebe.
Marty October 2nd, 2006
By time necessity, this blog has been 99% a photo blog lately. I haven’t had much time to write, and what little time I have had, I’ve been doing something that I love to do in the fall - no, not college football but birding. This summer, my birding gave way (mostly) to chasing around butterflies and dragonflies. But with fall migration in full swing, I switched back to the original passion - birding.
It’s been a good year, too. Since about mid-August or so, I’ve added 9 species to my lifelist (now up to 264 species), mostly in the warbler category. And I’ve had a very good year of identifying - and seeing - warblers, particularly at my new favorite haunt, Palmyra Cove Nature Park. I’ve been keeping track of everything that’s being seen there, and at last count, there had been 27 warbler species at Palmyra. Of those, I’ve seen 18 of them:
Northern Parula, Magnolia, Black-throated Blue, Black Throated Green, Cape May, Tennessee, Yellow-rumped, Black-and-White, Canada, Nashville, Pine, Palm (Eastern and Western sub-species), Blackpoll and Bay-breasted Warblers, Common Yellowthroat and American Redstart.
Six of those are new to me (well, I had a tentative Blackpoll before), and 10 of them were my first pictures of the species (and it’s all about the pictures). You can check out all of the pictures on my Flickr account, and I’m thinking of making a poster about the “Warblers of Palmyra”. With 27 of them, I think it could be a pretty cool poster and would give me some creative outlet at the same time. But for now, it’s just my shots and not a whole lot of other posts until I have some time (aka MAKE some time) to write about something else.
Marty October 2nd, 2006
Black-throated Blue Warbler - male
Dendroica caerulescens
We went back to Palmyra for a short hike after the sun came out, and while it was mostly dead, we did have some good birding just before we left.
The highlight, though, had to be getting the two shots of this beautiful male Black-throated Blue Warbler.
Marty September 28th, 2006
Cooper’s Hawk - female
Accipiter cooperii
I was leaving Palmyra Cove this evening after work when a blur went flying in front of my car - and then landed in front of me. It was this Cooper’s Hawk taking down an unsuspecting pigeon. I sat there dumb-founded for a second before I reached for my camera - only to have it fly off to the grass across the road.
I tracked her down, being very careful to not scare her off of her prey - which was still moving but obviously not in good shape - and got some shots of her. It was tough light, just after the sun set behind the trees but not quite dusk.
Marty September 26th, 2006
Cape May Warbler - female
Dendroica tigrina
Today, I left work a wee bit early (and by early, I mean that I left after only 8.5 hours), and met my wife at Palmyra Cove to ’see what we could see’. That turned out to be a veritable smorgasboard of warblers and other cool birds, including this gorgeous Cape May Warbler, one about about 2 dozen we saw. She actually flew down toward us and landed about .5m between Shari and I, checking us out.
We also saw: eastern phoebes, eastern wood-pewee, Palm Warbler (eastern and western), Magnolia, Nashville and Black-throated Blue Warblers, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Snow and Indigo Buntings, Red- and White-eyed Vires, American Redstarts, Common Yellowthroats, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks (well, Shari did) as well as the normal suspects. All in all, one of the best days of birding I’ve had in a long, long time.
If you have a chance, please take a look at the large version.
Marty September 24th, 2006
Hackberry Emperor
Asterocampa celtis
The magic butterfly bush strikes again. I had never seen this beautiful species of butterfly until this summer, and suddenly I’ve seen a bunch of them. Here’s my favorite shot of them, although this one is up there, too. Those butterfly bushes sure attract some cool butterflies…
Marty September 18th, 2006
Chinese Mantid
Tenodera aridifolia sinensis
With everyone putting up mantis macros, I went back and got the ones that I shot a few weeks ago. Can I say how much I love the Nikon 105mm f/2.8 lens? Please take a look at the large size. This is a crop to focus on the face. Maybe I’ll put up the full shot later, although it’s not as ‘in your face’. (get it?)
Marty September 15th, 2006
Monarch - caterpillar
Danaus plexippus
Despite looking for and finding butterflies all summer, this is the first caterpillar I’ve seen in a while - and the first one I have seen getting ready to pupate. Despite his obvious penchant for hardcore crunches, he’s getting ready for a long rest. I know where he was hanging out, and I plan on looking for him the next time I visit.
