Tag Archives: Black-Throated Blue Warbler

Snow set

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The minute it started to snow, I wanted to get a picture of the Black-Throated Blue Warbler downtown if he was still around, against the snow, my imagination seeing his slate-blueness dramatically incongruous against the white background, but it was not meant to be. The last time I saw him was Thursday when the storm started – he darted out from the bush hideout for a second or two and vanished. But while I was waited for  him to show up again, there were other birds.

White-Throated Sparrow

Indeed, the sparrows are making a killing on the food donations, intended for them but also intended to keep the Black-Throated Blue from starving to death. I had brought him dried caterpillars the first day but I think they got buried under the snow. The sparrows didn’t seem to know what to make of them.

another White-Throated Sparrow

So the question now is whether BT Blue took off for warmer climes, deciding correctly that snow was not part of his heritage, or if he is digging for bugsicles down in his bunker underneath a bush somewhere, ready to venture out only when the weather turns more hospitable.

Downy Woodpeckers don’t migrate, no matter how inclement the weather. They’re equipped to find food and they don’t feel threatened by a photographer.

Male Downy Woodpecker, Millennium Park

Friday when I got off the train after most of the snow had fallen, my attention was drawn to these bicycles.

Saturday I put up the last new feeder in the yard – my final response to the warning from the city that I am allowed only two feeders. Let’s see, with the peanut feeder, the hopper, the woodpecker suet feeder, the thistle feeder and three thistle socks, that makes 8 feeders. Perfect!

platform feeder - black oil sunflower seeds only

The Black-Capped Chickadee was the first bird to discover the platform feeder, followed by the House Finches. But here he is endorsing the Audubon feeder.

Black-Capped Chickadee

The House Finches are more numerous this year. I have four pairs, at least.

House Finches, two males and a female

This beautiful male is also endorsing the Audubon feeder.

Male House Finch

I haven’t seen any goldfinches all weekend, I don’t know what happened to them. I wish someone had told me there wouldn’t be very many this year, I would not have stocked up on thistle seed at the Chicago Audubon sale. I’ll have to find a cool, dry place to store it in the spring. In previous years it was all I could do to keep the goldfinch hoards happy.

American Goldfinches

The cardinals visit but they elude my camera. This was the best I could come up with last week, before the snow.

Male Northern Cardinal

There are four juncos who visit regularly. This is the first time I’ve seen one on the roof. Usually they’re foraging on the ground, but they were visiting the platform feeder too.

Dark-Eyed Junco

Here are four of the 23 Mourning Doves on the ground with a Grey Squirrel.

Mourning Doves and Grey Squirrel

And Lady Downy, as I call her, visits the new peanut feeder that is too small for the squirrels to hang on (hooray!). I think I’ll have to leave it out for her and Lord Downy this week, albeit in defiance of the city’s regulations, as we are promised more cold and snow. I’ll bring in the platform feeder and clean it, and maybe take down some of those less used thistle socks. But let’s hope the inspectors have something better to do than count the feeders in my yard. If only I could get them interested in counting birds (citizen science)!

Female Downy Woodpecker

Winter in Chicago, then and now

Aside

This has been the warmest La Nina ever, and I have to wonder if this hasn’t been the warmest January in Chicago. Of course it’s early yet. Last year on January 13 we had snow and the lake had a think layer of ice on it.

Snowcrow 01-13-2011

Lake birds, 01-13-2011

But the prediction this coming Friday is for above-normal temperatures to continue.

The lakefront sunrise Wednesday morning was earlier, the days are getting ever so slightly longer.

The crows, of course, were in attendance.

A now very famous Black-Throated Blue Warbler hanging out by the bicycle rental at Millennium Park…

has been sipping sap from the trees the Sapsuckers have drilled into.

The Sapsuckers themselves are late to leave.

Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker

There was also a Cooper’s Hawk at Millennium Park that morning, and I annoyed him enough by taking his picture. He eventually moved on, leaving the warbler safe.

I woke up this morning with the prelude to the Bach A minor English Suite playing in my head. Only the purest silence eventually makes me aware. There was a little frost last night, but by the time I left the house it had melted off. I went to the Chicago Portage to see what exists. The tangled web of bare trees and dried vegetation offered winter views. All quiet, asleep, but potential lurks in that dormancy.

I did not get pictures of all 11 species that I saw. The first bird was a flyover Mallard duck. A little later I heard a constant sound that resembled a murmuring quack, or perhaps it was a squirrel sound. It turned out to be a Downy Woodpecker pecking away at the dried stems of Phragmites that grow by the water. I can’t imagine if the stems harbor dead bugs or some other delicacy but the Downy was persistent, until he flew up into the tree and gave me this nice photograph, one of several.

There were Mourning Doves sitting quietly in a tree.

Music in my head at the Portage was Albeniz, since I recently decided to revive the few pieces I once knew. The birds complied and remained in C#.

Female Northern Cardinal

On the path ahead there were several cardinals and goldfinches foraging.

American Goldfinches

It has been so warm, lichens are growing on this dead log.

I left the Portage and went to the grocery store, where by this time my head was playing the Tango by Albeniz which is in D major. I only remember this because the woman in line behind me thanked me for giving her my “tickets” – there’s some kind of promotion going on that I don’t have time for – and our conversation was in D. What would she think if I told her I had made her talk to me in the key of the music playing in my head? Was it worth the tickets I gave her?

I saw a Junco at the Portage but didn’t get a picture of one until I got home. This one is through the porch window.

Dark-Eyed Junco

Later this evening I counted 23 Mourning Doves under my feeder. It was too dark to take a picture, but I counted them three times to be sure. I had thought they were in decline because I wasn’t seeing them. I have never seen that many in my yard, ever! The new feeder must be doing a good job.

With a little luck I’ll have some musical excerpts coming up soon. So you won’t have to try so hard to hear the music playing in my head…

Fall park visitors

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Crow flying through Daley Bicentennial Plaza

I’ve been looking for sparrows, but the crows distract me and I forget to ask them to help me find migrants. I’m sure they’re capable of leading me to visitors. Haven’t they done it before?

White-Throated Sparrows, Lurie Garden

I did eventually find a few sparrows who chose to ignore me long enough to take their pictures…

White-Crowned Sparrow

and the crows hammed it up too.

Crow landing for a peanut.

Crow devotion.

The gardeners were out early yesterday morning and that might have had something to do with the sparrows not being very visible. When I worked at a different location I walked through the park every morning on my way in and regularly had flocks of sparrows covering the lawns. I must have picked the wrong day to get up an hour early.

Four days ago on my lunch hour I saw a Black-Throated Blue Warbler trying to pass himself off as a Junco, foraging in the gutter by one of the tennis courts. I didn’t have my camera, of course.

Dark-Eyed Junco

But today I found him again, in the same general area, although the light wasn’t as good. He must be waiting for a cold front to ride to his next stop. Maybe I’ll see him again before he leaves, this warm spell will continue for a few more days.

Black-Throated Blue Warbler