Michelle at Rambling Woods writes: “I am going to challenge myself and hopefully you to take a look at nature. What is going on in your area? Is it spring in your part of the world or are you heading into cold weather. Take a little walk….. look at something you might never had paid attention to..a flower…a plant..an animal…What changes are taking place?..Is your garden starting to come to life again?..Step outside and close your eyes. What do you hear? …take a deep breath…What do you smell?”
Each month I post a listing of birds sightings in Highland Park. I don’t do the bird sightings; I just set up the page way back in 2001 and post the data. This month I noticed a lot more X’s in the May column. Joanne Williams, who gathers the data from other local birdwatchers, explained to me:
Lots of birds come here to breed in the summer and some just fly through to points farther north. It is one of the reasons that the World Series of Birding (yes, there is such an event) is held in New Jersey in May.
I have been seeing a lot of gray birds in our backyard. It turns out these are called gray catbirds. Michelle sent me this link about catbirds. And if you look at Joanne’s list, you will see that catbirds don’t show up in Highland Park until late April. Here are some photos I took of the gray catbirds:
Do you see the little brown patch near the tail? The bird is not all gray.
I had never heard of catbird before (moqueur chat in French). Thanks for contributing to my education through your Nature Notes. 🙂
And thank you for teaching me a little more French. I googled and found:
http://www.oiseaux.net/oiseaux/moqueur.chat.html
Shows a map that tells me gray catbirds are found in the Western Northern Hemisphere; doesn’t look like many in Europe.
Thank you for explaining! I don’t know anything about bird. I can recognize a cardinal 🙂 I think I’ve seen this one here in NC
Oh, that reminds me, I was going to add that my daughter and I saw a cardinal yesterday when we were mailing a letter. I tried to get her to call it a cardinal instead of “cute bird.” She said, “see, you should bring your camera everywhere. You never know what you might see.”
Your daughter has been well-trained.
How funny is that! Carver’s got a catbird in her NN post today, too! Gray Catbirds visit us during the Winter. I have a regular visitor to my Beautyberry and birdbath in the mornings and afternoons from roughly November to March. We’ve named him Catbert.:-)
Catbert. Love it.
We will make a bird watcher out of you yet Leora. Perfect post for Nature Notes and a good test of my bird ID abilities. Thank you for your continued supportive wishes regarding my Mother. They asked me not to come to the ICU today as she was somewhat conscious and very upset about the ventilator and felt that I would make her want to talk and that wouldn’t be good. My sibs and daughter will be coming up tomorrow….Michelle
I’m glad your siblings and daughter are coming. You need the support. Take care.
Great shots! I never have heard of catbirds before. Thank you for sharing. Have a wonderful weekend 🙂
Great shots of the catbirds. Fun that we both featured them. I hope you have a great weekend.
i love the last pic:) wire and bird n my fav technique dof hehe
I think that’s so interesting. It never crossed my mind that some might be flying through only.
Love the ‘Bird on a Wire’ shot. 🙂
Wonderful Nature Notes post – I learned something here. Good one Leora.