Activity 4, Different Birds Different SeasonsThe easiest spot for me to observe birds is my back porches both in MA and FL. Florida changes in subtle ways over the 7 months or so that I stay here.  If I look out 100 meters there is a tall pine tree in the middle of a park that has a commanding view of the field underneath and around it.  There, I see mostly birds that are year round dwellers and mostly larger birds.  From cowbirds and grackles (who populate the supermarket parking lot I use), to Bald Eagle and hawks of which I have identified Coopers Hawk (shown below) and Bald Eagle. I also see Red Tail and Ospreys and Swallow Tale Kite fly as there is a river next to the field and quite a bit of assorted prey like squirrel sand rabbits and song birds that feed on the shrubs and grasses (and their bugs) in the park. In the few years we have lived there I have also seen numerous small birds that sometimes are numerous in the trees, and sometimes not.  Merlin helped me identify this years photographable birds.  I got a 2X tele extender to magnify my 150 mm lens and caught three transient warblers.  Black and White Warbler was easily identified along with a great crested flycatcher who might be year-round.  Two other likely candidates are shown below.  I think one is a Palm Warbler the other is a Yellow Rumped Warbler. Warblers are hard.  I need to take a whole course on them and get the associated calls implanted in my head if I want to get better at them.  I have recorded several songs but found no sound identifiers that work for birds like Shazam does for recorded human music.  If anyone has a good song identifier for birds let me know.  I am using Merlin to guess and listen and it is not great.

Activity 2 - Using Merlin, three species that I see often that are here year round are the House Sparrow, the American Crow, and the Mourning Dove. Not very exotic, I know! The Cedar Waxwing is only here during the non breeding part of the year, and I have seen those here, very beautiful. Have not yet found two others that are here seasonally - will keep looking!

I perused the migration site and was interested to see the sandhill cranes patterns, and the great variety of areas they go to.  I saw some this year for the first time and wondered about their migratory patterns.  I did not know they mainly migrated at night! We need to advocate for birds in our communities.

Lesson 1 - When I look at the maps for the birds in lesson 1, I see this: Northern Cardinal - some seasonal variation, but primarily stays in the lower mid-west and southeastern U.S throughout the year.  The Blackburnian Warbler - does a huge migration from lower South America in the winter months, north through the United States and up to Canada in the summer months. Scarlet Tanager- Winters in southern South America, and travels through the southern U.S. up through the eastern mid west to southern Canada for the summer months.  The Western Tanager - winters in Central America and Mexico, then migrates through the Western U.S. up to western Canada for the summer. That's why the are called Western...I should see these in my neighborhood for the next few months - I will keep an eye out! Ruby-throated hummingbird - Also winters in Central America and Mexico, then travels through the entire western U.S. when migrating, reaching Southern Canada.   The Rufous Hummingbird - winters in the western part of Central America and Mexico, then sticks to the west coast when migrating up to north west Canada. Also in my neighborhood this time of year! The Sandhill Crane - spends the winter in Texas and Florida and the Indiana/Michigan area. Also in parts of California, I then does a complete migration up through the mid-west predominantly, with some members of the species reaching Alaska and northern Canada in the summer. Although some remain around the Great Lakes and other areas. The Yellow-Bellied Fly Catcher winters in Central America, then seems to fly across the Gulf of Mexico starting late spring, around May, through Texas to the Great Lakes Region, and into New England and Eastern Canada for the summer. How did each species determine its path? This is fascinating.

I always see Cardinals, Carolina Chickadees & Tufted Titmouse at my feeders but recently I have been visited by 3 new birds that I’ve never seen in my yard before: a female Common Yellowthroat (photo; ID by Merlin), a Black & White Warbler and several Ovenbirds  The Yellowthroats live year round in Florida (I will be looking out for them now!) but the Black & White Warbler is only in Florida during the winter & Ovenbirds were migrating.

The birds I see year round, to name a few, include Black-capped Chickadee, House Spaarows, House Finches, Northern Cardinals. The ones I noticed lately that migrated in are the Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Baltimore Oriole and Gray Catbird.  The Grosbeak and Orioles arrived at the same time.  There was a male and a female Grosbeak and 3 male and 1 female Oriole in the yard for a couple weeks.  I have not seen them for 4 days now.  This happens every year.  They come for a couple weeks, then I don’t see them.   I live in the city, with a small lot but have a lot of trees and understory vegetation. What environment do these birds need to breed? After the Grosbeak and the oriole leave, the Gray Catbird showed up in the yard.  I live in Wisconsin along Lake Michigan, the map shows that the Gray Catbird is a year round resident along the lake, but I usually only see it in the yard in spring.

Most of the birds I see in my area now are usually there year round but here are a few that will migrate. I don't actually see most of these, however. The Golden-crowned sparrow is here now but will leave in the summer. The Bufflehead leaves now and returns in the fall. The Lincoln's sparrow leaves for the summer and returns in the fall. We have a lot of Violet Green Swallows now but they will leave for the winter as well as the Common Yellowthroat and the Black-headed Grosbeak. I've never see the last two mentioned nor the Bufflehead but would like to search for them.

Activity 2 - Westchester, NY Year-round: Red-bellied Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee Visitors: Yellow-rumpled Warbler, Scarlet Tanager, Baltimore Oriole Activity 3 Male Goldfinch: Winter- drab brown colors, Summer- bright yellow Common Loons: Winter- partial collar, brownish, Summer- bright collar and checkered-board back Activity 4 - Croton Point Park, Westchester, NY A birding hotspot Using ebird.org, today(May 15th), some of the species seen are: Purple Martin Canada Greece Least Flycatcher Blue-headed Vireo Northern Rough-winged Swallow European Starling Gray Catbird Swainson ‘s Thrush Yellow Warbler Chestnut-sided Warbler Indigo Bunting   and much more! A lot of these will not be here in the winter- purple martins, warblers, Indigo Bunting!!!  

Hi - Activity One Northern Cardinal with Blackburnian Warble- Really interesting to use the animated abundance maps. Cardinals are around here (NY) all year while the Blackburnian  Warbler leaves to go back home to South America. Scarlet Tanager with Western Tanager- the Scarlet only migrates on the east coast while the Western Tanager stays on the west coast. Ruby-throated Hummingbird with Rufous  Hummingbird - another surprise- east vs west coast migrations Sandhill Crane with Yellow-bellied Flycatcher- both birds migrate much further north than the others mentioned. The Sandhill Crane mostly moves thru the middle of the country, while the Yellow-bellied Flycatchers seem to the be more eastern. The Sandhill Cranes go all the way up to Alaska.

Before this course I used to wonder why Cardinals were so often pictured in the snow on Christmas cards. Now I know why, they hang around all year! I have found this lesson on migration and viewing the animated migration maps to be fascinating. One of my favorite months to be outdoors is October and yet I now see from the Migration map that many birds are no longer around in the US, having already headed south. I will keep that in mind when I am in the outdoors in a few months. I had no idea about the changing colors of the feathers either. It will make identifying the birds more challenging later in the year when their colors are more muted. All the more reason to learn to identify the birds by their songs and calls.

Palm Warbler Black and With Warbler Yellow-rumped Warbler? Different Seasons, Different Birds, Activity 2, Some who stay and some who only visit. I am a “snowbird”.  I have been a Florida resident for last 7 years who stays here in the winter and journeys north to MA for 5 months in the summer. I noticed this year that my Live Oak trees right outside my lanai were full of small birds in Jan-March time frame but a little more-empty now that it is May.  I looked through my pictures and also looked through the very long list Merlin provided to me and now better understand the reason.  Some of the birds I found in the Warbler family were in the migration window when I saw them .  They included a Palm Warbler, a Black and White Warbler and a Yellow Rumped Warbler or Common Yellowthroat.  All show a presence in February and March and an absence in May With the abundance of water and aquatic food, we have a wide variety of wading and fishing birds.   The Great egret (my favorite) actually has a migrating population and a static population.  I know Canada Geese have similar migrating and non migrating groups. Hence I can see Great Egrets all the time I am in FL and most of the time in MA.  They seem to frequent a large portion of North and South America.  It is hard from the animations in e-bird to see where the summer population in Massachusetts actually comes from.  Most of my good bird books are in MA so I will have to do some digging to understand migration paths. One of the birds I see only rarely is the White Pelican (no good pictures) ..  I have seen them in Ding Darling refuge on Sanibel and occasionally when fishing in Bonita Bay.  E-bird shows a more complete picture of migration from concentrations in FL and more sparsely Mexico to South America in the winter and up the Mississippi valley to a broad part of the northern US, especially around the Great Lakes.  Getting to know Merlin and e-bird has made it a lot faster to both identify and explore about birds than my long term reliance on field guides.  Having participated in the Digital Revolution myself, I appreciate the immense improvements in information access for the birds.

These cardinals probably stay in my neighborhood all year.  They couple for life from my reading and are the species most likely to be able to photograph the male and female together around here.   Different Seasons Different Birds, Actvity 1, compare migrations of selected pairs Northern Cardinal with Blackburnian Warbler Northern Cardinal has a very static range.  There are minor fluctuations around the fringes and within the main body of the population in the eastern 2/3 of the USA.  There are also populations in southern CA, Nevada, Mexico (mostly coastal) and out into the Gulf coastal extensions of central America. Blackburnian Warbler is a long migrator who moves from the tropical highlands of the northern parts of South America (south of where the Cardinal winters in what looks like somewhat cooler regions). And flies largely north of the heartland of the Cardinal’s range.  They appear to overlap only in the summer in central to northern New England in the hillier parts of that region. I can recommend a summer drive on route 100 through the middle of Vermont if you want to see some beautiful country and have a chance to see both birds. Scarlet Tanager with Western Tanager Scarlet Tanager and Western Tanager do an East West split on the United States.  Their summer ranges give a reasonable wide birth to the central plains of the USA.. Western goes from west coast and highlands of Mexico and Central America in winter months to a broad swath of the Western USA and Western Provinces of Canada.  The Scarlet  goes further south into Western highlands of Bolivia Nicaragua and Equador and Western Brazil.  It migrates north oove rCozumel and the western edge of Cuba over to Florida and settles in the northern 2/3 of the Eastern 1/3 of the US pretty much over a large part of the Applachian Trail.  They seem to have very little overlap so it would be very rare to see the two in one location. Ruby-throated Hummingbird with Rufous Hummingbird Ruby-throated Hummingbird is the only hummingbird that makes its way to Massachusetts in the summer.  I have one family that started visiting me the summer of 2018 when I was on my porch a lot due to radiation treatments and the recovery process.  They had a single baby who I guessed was a female and loved my lantana.  2019 I added a feeder but am not sure they had a successful brood as I didn’t see the juvenile.  They winter in Mexico and Central America and migrate to the whole eastern half of USA and most of southern Canada East of the Rockies.  The Rufous winters in the northern half of the Ruby Throated’s range in Mexico but pretty much sticks to the Pacific coastal region for migration and breeding up in the Washington Oregon regions.  Its path home looks to take a less coastal path visiting Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico on its way back to Mexico wintering. Need to go Pacific side of Mexico below Baja to see them both in the winter. Sandhill Crane with Yellow-bellied Flycatcher no confusing these. Sandhill Crane sticks mostly to the USA and Canada including Alaska.  It winters over in the US and travels to a brad swath of Canada in the breeding season.  The flycatcher spends the winter in Central America and heads north mostly in the northeast USA and southeast Canada.  A branch seems to take a brief trip to the eastern side of Alaska.  Need to read more about them.  To see both birds on the same trip one would have to go to southern Canada between the Great Lakes and Hudson Bay. I really like the animation tool.  I saw several warblers briefly in F this winter and now know it was migration time (March and April).  That will set me up for Activity 2.

Many of the “Likely Birds” in my region for the month of May are viewable from my home in the woods in Northeast Wisconsin. In the last two days I have seen some new ones enter the yard. Three indigo buntings just came in today. They seem to come in mid May every year. The Baltimore Oriole came in about a week ago. I have seen two sets, male & females. The end of April brought the Eastern Bluebirds. At least two sets of males & females. The Chickadees, Blue Jays and Red breasted Nuthatch are here too, and all year round.

In comparing photos of American Goldfinches and Common Loons taken in summer and winter, I am struck with the vibrancy of their colors in summer and the almost "dressed down" look in winter. The rich yellow hue dominates the Goldfinch's breast and back in summer, along with a black cap. The black and white wings and tail offer a sharp contrast to the yellow. In winter, the black cap is missing and the yellow is faded to a dull brown on the back with a faded whitened yellow and/or brown tones on the breast. Wings and tail feathers look similar in both seasons. In summer, the Common Loon looks dapper with its black and white pinstripes separated by an emerald green band. The throat has a black and white curve. The red eye is striking. In winter, dulled browns and white dominate and the eye doesn't seem to be as striking in color. What surprised me was that photos of the winter Loon did not identify sex, usually indicating "Unknown."

1. I was very intrigued studying these migratory patterns. I had no idea the Cardinal was so specific to the eastern United States; that some birds migrate through our area on the way north and some, like the Rufous Hummingbird, come through on the way south; and that, while the Sandhill Crane is frequent here, it's prevalence is higher north of here. Knowing these migratory patterns will help me know what to look for and be able to find some of these species later this summer. I look forward to it!

Different Seasons Different Birds, Actvity 1, compare migrations of selected pairs Northern Cardinal with Blackburnian Warbler Northern Cardinal has a very static range.  There are minor fluctuations around the fringes and within the main body of the population in the eastern 2/3 of the USA.  There are also populations in southern CA, Nevada, Mexico (mostly coastal) and out into the Gulf coastal extensions of central America. Blackburnian Warbler is a long migrator who moves from the tropical highlands of the northern parts of South America (south of where the Cardinal winters in what looks like somewhat cooler regions). And flies largely north of the heartland of the Cardinal’s range.  They appear to overlap only in the summer in central to northern New England in the hillier parts of that region. I can recommend a summer drive on route 100 through the middle of Vermont if you want to see some beautiful country and have a chance to see both birds. Scarlet Tanager with Western Tanager Scarlet Tanager and Western Tanager do an East West split on the United States.  Their summer ranges give a reasonable wide birth to the central plains of the USA.. Western goes from west coast and highlands of Mexico and Central America in winter months to a broad swath of the Western USA and Western Provinces of Canada.  The Scarlet  goes further south into Eastern highlands of Bolivia Nicaragua and Equador and Western Brazil.  It migrates north over Cozumel and the western edge of Cuba over to Florida and settles in the northern 2/3 of the Eastern 1/3 of the US pretty much over a large part of the Applachian Trail.  They seem to have very little overlap so it would be very rare to see the two in one location. Ruby-throated Hummingbird with Rufous Hummingbird Ruby-throated Hummingbird is the only hummingbird that makes its way to Massachusetts in the summer.  I have one family that started visiting me the summer of 2018 when I was on my porch a lot due to radiation treatments and the recovery process.  They had a single baby who I guessed was a female and loved my lantana.  2019 I added a feeder but am not sure they had a successful brood as I didn’t see the juvenile.  They winter in Mexico and Central America and migrate to the whole eastern half of USA and most of southern Canada East of the Rockies.  The Rufous winters in the northern half of the Ruby Throated’s range in Mexico but pretty much sticks to the Pacific coastal region for migration and breeding up in the Washington Oregon regions.  Its path home looks to take a less coastal path visiting Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico on its way back to Mexico wintering. Need to go Pacific side of Mexico below Baja to see them both in the winter. Sandhill Crane with Yellow-bellied Flycatcher no confusing these. Sandhill Crane sticks mostly to the USA and Canada including Alaska.  It winters over in the US and travels to a brad swath of Canada in the breeding season.  The flycatcher spends the winter in Central America and heads north mostly in the northeast USA and southeast Canada.  A branch seems to take a brief trip to the eastern side of Alaska.  Need to read more about them.  To see both birds on the same trip one would have to go to southern Canada between the Great Lakes and Hudson Bay. I really like the animation tool.  I saw several warblers briefly in F this winter and now know it was mib=gration time (March and April).

This was extracurricular activity  My wife found this spot on a walk  It has had “lots of white birds”  Today it had about 15 white ibis and a tricolor heron (new bird for me)  Yesterday it had only 5 ibis but also a great blue heron, a little blue heron, a snowy egret and 2 gallinules  

Cardinals, woodpeckers and blue jays are year round residents but now visiting us here in northern New Jersey are the Baltimore orioles, rose breasted grosbeaks and ruby throated hummingbirds, all so beautiful to see.

The likely birds feature in Merlin is very cool.  During our stay at home time I have been able to keep an eye on my feeder much more than normal and see some of the trends on likely birds happening right in front of my eyes.

These activities tasked us to more fully explore the e-Bird site. (Activity 1) The Sandhill crane was just sited by my daughter traveling north from 200 miles away. We tracked the migration pattern and noted why we have to travel from our home to see them. (Activity 2) Black-capped chickadees, woodpeckers, & dark-eyed juncos are in abundance year round in our neighborhood. Whereas mallards, trumpeter swans, and Canadian Geese are seasonal residents. The latter seem to take ownership of most urban parks in Minnesota Spring, Summer, & Fall. We visited a National Wildlife Refuge Center this past week to spot the migrating mallards, hawks, turkey vultures, American White Pelicans, Cliff/ Barn, or Tree Swallows (they flit around too fast to note differences!), blue jays, and ruffed grouse. (Activity 3) The Macaulay Library opened our eyes to the seasonal differences in one particular bird whereas we'd previously noted only male/female differences.

Activity 4: Right now, I expect to find House Finches, and a few Lesser Goldfinches. In six months, I'd still expect to find house finches, but I wouldn't see any Lesser Goldfinches. Instead, I might see Cedar Waxwings.

The White-crowned Sparrow, the Double-crested Cormorant, and the California Quail are all ubiquitous where I live.  I was surprised that the California Quail seems to be the least common bird of the three.  I learned that it is also found in South America in an area that has a similar climate. The Double-crested Cormorant is found all over the country and I had assumed that it was a bird only found near the ocean.  The White-crowned Sparrow is pretty common, but seems to follow the warmer weather.

I was looking at the activity about comparing the appearances of a common loon.  I noticed that the eyes were  bright red in the first half of the year and they seemed to change  in the last half of the year(dark red or black).  Is this a fact or is it due to the lighting conditions that affect photographic results due to the change in seasons?

Activity 4: My favorite birding spot is also the easiest for me - my backyard! Six months from now, I'll still see cardinals, crows, and woodpeckers, but my hummingbird friends will likely be all (or mostly) gone for the season. There is a also a Summer Tanager visiting right now who will be wintering in Central or South America. I am definitely enjoying watching him for now though!

Activity 1:  The migration videos show me why I always see Cardinals but only have a limited window to see Blackburnian Warblers, Scarlet Tanagers, and Yellow-bellied Flycatchers and will never see a Western Tanager or Rufous Hummingbird unless I vacation out west.  Activity 2: Three year-round resident birds for my area (Columbus, Ohio) are Eastern Bluebird, Carolina Chickadee, and White-breasted Nuthatch.  Three birds that only live in my area for part of the year are Eastern Kingbird, Indigo Bunting, and American Redstart.  Activity 3:  Both the Male American Goldfinches and Common Loons have more vivid coloring in the summer months than in the winter.  Since I have Goldfinches at my feeders year-round, I have noticed this with them.   Activity 4: I don't just have one favorite birding spot, but I know I can count on seeing Yellow Warblers, Yellow-rumped Warblers, and Baltimore Orioles right now.  In six months I could see Cedar Waxwings, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, and Ruby-crowned Kinglets.  I can see Wild Turkeys year-round and right now they are very easy to spot at Blendon Woods Metro Park.