Over the summer I did quite a bit of birding at the
Maplewood Nature Center. Near the boardwalk that crosses over the lake there is a small island that always seemed to be teeming with
birdlife. On July 31st I stopped in and took the following pics.
I am not 100% sure what type of flycatcher that this is but my guess is that it is an olive-sided flycatcher. It was always pretty easy to find several types of flycatcher perched on the trees, that were growing on the island, waiting for a meal to fly by.
The eastern
kingbird is another member of the flycatcher family. An interesting fact about eastern
kingbirds, according to the Cornell website, is that when they migrate to South America during the winter they are mostly fruit eaters.
Another bird that eats mainly insects in the summer and fruit in the winter was also hanging around, although cedar waxwing are not members of the flycatcher family.
There was also a consistent amount of waterfowl that hung around the lake through out the summer. These were mainly mallards, wood ducks and female hooded mergansers.
The male hooded merganser are usually no where to be found after the breeding season. Once the eggs are laid the male leaves the female
hoody to incubate them on her own, which is why we typically only see the females by late summer. Once the eggs hatch the chicks will be able to swim and catch food with in 24 hours. The female will continue to stay with the young, and show them where to find food, for a few weeks but she will leave them even before they can fly, at about 70 days. I tend to see a good number of
hoodies around the parks where I live each summer. This is probably do to the number of wood duck boxes that people have put up in the area.
Hoodies are cavity
nesters and will often nest in wood duck boxes.
I am not 100% sure what type of flycatcher that this is but my guess is that it is an olive-sided flycatcher. It was always pretty easy to find several types of flycatcher perched on the trees, that were growing on the island, waiting for a meal to fly by.
The eastern kingbird is another member of the flycatcher family. An interesting fact about eastern kingbirds, according to the Cornell website, is that when they migrate to South America during the winter they are mostly fruit eaters.
Another bird that eats mainly insects in the summer and fruit in the winter was also hanging around, although cedar waxwing are not members of the flycatcher family.
There was also a consistent amount of waterfowl that hung around the lake through out the summer. These were mainly mallards, wood ducks and female hooded mergansers.
The male hooded merganser are usually no where to be found after the breeding season. Once the eggs are laid the male leaves the female hoody to incubate them on her own, which is why we typically only see the females by late summer. Once the eggs hatch the chicks will be able to swim and catch food with in 24 hours. The female will continue to stay with the young, and show them where to find food, for a few weeks but she will leave them even before they can fly, at about 70 days. I tend to see a good number of hoodies around the parks where I live each summer. This is probably do to the number of wood duck boxes that people have put up in the area. Hoodies are cavity nesters and will often nest in wood duck boxes.
Another sign that the fall migration has begun is the dozen or so pied grebes that I spotted.
Another sign that fall is right around the corner is the number of sandhill cranes on the refuge. There is a sandhill population that is present through the summer but their numbers seem to have been bolstered by an influx of migrating birds. There looked to be over 100 sandhills on the refuge at this point.
There were still normal summer residents around, like the trumpeter swans who have raised all of their cygnets.
So are kingfisher. I was disappointed that I finally got a kingfisher to hold still long enough for me to get a descent shot and then I can't get any light. AARGH.
I kept shooting as they continued to circle each other 
These were not my first monarch picture of 2007. Back in February I took this picture of monarchs which had migrated to the Big Sur area of California.
