Color… and then a thump!
This morning I went to Bullitt again…. It was very foggy/hazy when I arrived. Good temps - low 50’s, no wind. It started a little quieter than I would have anticipated - but I was committed to keep at it. As I slowly made my way around my first loop a beautiful Cedar Waxwing decided to land in this gorgeous spot -
I then heard the unmistakable beautiful song of a Common Yellowthroat. I finally spotted it in the fog and haze singing away.
I slowly wandered over by the field that is near the barn to see these colors just pop in the field-
I made my way over to a field that I spend a lot of time at. I could see that the fog was burning off and the sun hits beautifully over there. Just as I set up this cute little Song Sparrow landed right in front of me with his breakfast!
Not to be outdone another one flew in over my head and landed to my left with his or her breakfast! Now seriously… how can you not smile when this is looking right at you? :)
I continued along and up through the woods to get to the upper field. I was hearing lots of Common Yellowthroats so I headed to an area that I know that they love where there are all kinds of different weeds and grasses. This spectacular male was originally much lower on this plant and I was just willing him to move up higher in order to get a nice clean shot of him… and he eventually did - in the perfect spot!
I then heard a lot of different songs so I quickly took out my phone and opened the Merlin Bird ID app and put on the sound function. Immediately a long list of birds showed up on Merlin (of course!) and one of the birds listed was a Scarlet Tanager! I have seen then before, but not often, and have never really captured a shot that I was truly happy with. I stayed put and kept scanning the canopy of the trees just hoping… they love being way the heck up there in the trees which is one of the reasons it is hard to spot them. I then saw a flash of brilliant red to my upper left! I quickly oriented myself in that direction and then in an instant the flash of color came from way up in the tree into a much lower spot in the tree- I had time to fire off these two shots of this spectacular male!
These birds are so vibrant - absolutely stunning! Right after this shot - the female flew over his head and he flew off after her.
Thankfully I spotted him one last time - I finally have shots that I am happy with of a Scarlet Tanager!
The Tanager sighting all happened so fast it was hard for me to believe that it happened! I was just catching my breath when I heard a big thump to my right. I quickly looked in that direction and saw a big shadow and in less than a blink of an eye this appeared!! She or he was no more than 15 feet away from me - just on the other side of the stone wall! And as quickly as it appeared it was gone… I couldn’t track it as it bounded into the woods. Now I really needed to catch my breath! :). Wow!
It was now time to slowly head back to the car. At the end of the path in the woods a flash of yellow landed to my left - a beautiful Yellow Warbler still wet from the fog and early morning dew.
The last shot of the morning was of this Least Flycatcher - they absolutely love this perch!
Bullitt Reservation - thank you!