Tag: bird

I used to see and hear nighthawks with some regularity here at Schloss FatChance, but it has been several years since I’ve observed one in the neighborhood. Tonight, just as dusk was closing in, I heard that old familiar sound of a nighthawk on the wing, hunting insects high overhead in the last light. I hope it means they are back to stay.

Image: John James Audubon’s rendering of nighthawks (Chordeiles minor), from Birds of America, 1840. From the New York Public Library Digital Gallery. 

You can hear a recording of the common nighthawk’s distinctive peent call by clicking here. 

I used to see and hear nighthawks with some regularity here at Schloss FatChance, but it has been several years since I’ve observed one in the neighborhood. Tonight, just as dusk was closing in, I heard that old familiar sound of a nighthawk on the wing, hunting insects high overhead in the last light. I hope it means they are back to stay.

Image: John James Audubon’s rendering of nighthawks (Chordeiles minor), from Birds of America, 1840. From the New York Public Library Digital Gallery. 

You can hear a recording of the common nighthawk’s distinctive peent call by clicking here. 

As we were reaching the end of our trip we spotted a great gathering of great blue herons (Ardea herodias) at the falls of the Rappahannock River, in Fredericksburg, Virginia. From Mayfield Bridge my sisters counted about thirty birds on the rocks at the fall line. I counted 25 from the shore, but never had a sight line that took in more than about ten birds at once.

In 1910 a small hydroelectric dam was constructed here, impeding the movement of anadromous fish – like herring, shad, and stripped bass – that historically swam from the ocean and bay to the Rappahannock headwaters to spawn. The dam was demolished in 2006, and these fish are now returning to their historical ranges in the river, though their populations are still in flux. Our guess is that the herons we saw were there to exploit a run of fish at the old Embry Dam site, where the river narrows and the falls slow (but no longer stop) the fishes’ progress.

Please click any photo in the set for full views.

Bonus trivia: the collective term for a group of herons is sedge, sege, or siege. 

As we were reaching the end of our trip we spotted a great gathering of great blue herons (Ardea herodias) at the falls of the Rappahannock River, in Fredericksburg, Virginia. From Mayfield Bridge my sisters counted about thirty birds on the rocks at the fall line. I counted 25 from the shore, but never had a sight line that took in more than about ten birds at once.

In 1910 a small hydroelectric dam was constructed here, impeding the movement of anadromous fish – like herring, shad, and stripped bass – that historically swam from the ocean and bay to the Rappahannock headwaters to spawn. The dam was demolished in 2006, and these fish are now returning to their historical ranges in the river, though their populations are still in flux. Our guess is that the herons we saw were there to exploit a run of fish at the old Embry Dam site, where the river narrows and the falls slow (but no longer stop) the fishes’ progress.

Please click any photo in the set for full views.

Bonus trivia: the collective term for a group of herons is sedge, sege, or siege. 

Yellow warbler (Setophaga petechia ♂), at Magee Marsh Wildlife Area in Ottawa County, Ohio.

We stopped at Magee Marsh specifically to see the warblers, which were fattening up on the south shore of Lake Erie before continuing their northward migration. This bird is wearing some impressive bling – a shiny brass identification tag on his leg. Click on the photo to enlarge. 

Yellow warbler (Setophaga petechia ♂), at Magee Marsh Wildlife Area in Ottawa County, Ohio.

We stopped at Magee Marsh specifically to see the warblers, which were fattening up on the south shore of Lake Erie before continuing their northward migration. This bird is wearing some impressive bling – a shiny brass identification tag on his leg. Click on the photo to enlarge.