I was sitting on my fold-up stool along the edge of the woods during a mental health moment. I saw a flutter and then another, among the fallen limbs of older trees after a Spring shedding storm. The tiny trills and chirps singled out the insect investigators of the woody tangle. I’ll name them after the pause.
Morning Open Thread is a daily, copyrighted from a host of editors and guest writers. We support our community, invite and share ideas and encourage thoughtful, respectful dialogue in an open forum.
This is a post where you can come to share what’s on your mind and stay for the conversation (and often music offered). The diarist is on independent time (a schedule of their own) and gets to take a nap when he or she needs (or may wander off and show up later).
Just to let you know, it’s a feature, not a bug.
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Two years ago, I began to study birds in earnest. My mentors of the Daily Bucket instructed and directed me toward species that I had already collected and not yet identified. Most of their bird names were alien to me (except for familiar voices I often filtered out).
Here is the first bird brought to my attention years ago.
This is not my video.
In order to formally add this bird to my growing list of species, I needed to get a photo to accompany my audio recording. Not every “Birder” goes the extra measure to verify their findings. But, FunForrest is one that does and I feel it adds more to the enjoyment of the collection (for him and those that he shares his photos with).
Here are the photos of my Northern Parula Warbler.
Before the Parula darted off, he was joined by another bird. The yellow spark was easier to see but not any easier to photograph among the jumble of leaves and twigs. I did get my shots and this video (provided by Cornell University web site) will show you the song of my attention.
I checked my files when I got home and found I had a photo of a male Vireo. Here it is.
Now, I have expanded my files to include the females of most species. Often, the two sexes do not resemble each other. You can see that the White-eyed Vireo male and female are a closer match than many other birds.
I enjoy the time I spend watching, recording, sorting and cataloging birds, insects, trees and life. Thanks for letting me spill today’s thoughts onto the table and presenting them.
As a parting gift, this is the first bird video I shot during December of 2019. I knew a bit about hawk species but not as much as I thought I did.