May 7, 2023: Black and White Warblers Crash the Party

This spring party is feasting on a buffet of insects, providing much entertainment.  The air show started a few weeks ago when the phoebes appeared, but really hit its stride this week with the arrival of masses of yellow-rumped warblers.  Whereas the phoebes - which have taken up residence near our house - dash out from a tree branch to catch a bug and then return to the same tree to watch for the next victim, the yellow-rumped warblers were flying along quickly from tree to tree, the whole flock moving rapidly in the same direction.  As I was watching the yellow-rumped's do their thing, I noticed one bird acting differently - rather than flitting about catching flying insects, this bird was rapidly climbing up and around the trunk of an oak tree like a nuthatch.  With binoculars, I saw it was the Black and White Warbler.  I hear their distinctive "squeaky-wheel" call often, but rarely see them, and have never gotten a picture of one before, but I was able to here.

Black and White Warbler

They move so fast it's hard to get a picture that isn't blurred by their motion.  According the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, black and white warblers often travel with large bands of other migrating warblers.  The B&W's come all the way from Florida or Central America to breed here.  Their diet consists almost entirely of spiders and insects, especially their larva, all of which they pick out of crevices in the bark of trees.  Black and white warblers are ground-nesters, usually building their nest at the base of a tree or a rock for protection and cover.   

Belting out it's high-pitched squeaky-wheel song.

Other additions to the spring bird arrivals this week included the Winter Wren and the Ruby-crowned Kinglet.  Here's one of the many Yellow-rumped warblers.

The robins are once again building their annual nest under our deck.

Mrs. Robin collects nesting materials.

They've been doing this for so many years I guess they just don't mind being disturbed every time we walk by.

The cool and damp weather has meant a long season for the trailing arbutus - they are still blooming.  The service berries have joined them now, as have the fly-honeysuckle.

Fly Honeysuckle (Lonicera canadensis)

You're surely aware that all the rain in the northeast has caused significant flooding and washouts of roads and trails.  A beaver dam on Meredith Neck failed and now the pond is just a shallow mud hole after the rush of water took away part of Meredith Neck Road.  There were reports of the beavers rebuilding the dam that held back the pond after the first breach, but they haven't been seen since it failed a second time with the latest rain.  All the beaver dams around Wicwas seem to have held.  The water level in the lake was as high as twelve inches above normal, but it's now coming back down.  Profile Falls in Bristol is gushing, and the trail to the Pemigewasset River is impassible due to flooding.

Profile Falls on the Smith River.

The first warm sunny evening following all that rain sure got the Spring Peepers excited:

I went for a kayak the day the weather was clearing; I did get a few showers on me, but it was worth it, as our male loon gave me a great show as it performed a thorough preening routine.

Afterwards, he wanted to make darn sure I knew it was him out there:

Making sure I saw his leg band.

Things are getting busy around the lake as spring hits its stride - I barely mentioned all the plants now bursting out with buds and leaves - maybe next week.  I'll close with a video of a Turkey Vulture that was enjoying the airflow being forced upwards by the cliff at Crockett's Ledge.  

While I was there I also saw an osprey fly right overhead.  Ledges provide good vantage points for observing animals as well as great views!