Scarlet Tanager

 The scarlet tanager is an American passerine. They breed through out the eastern half of the United States and parts of southeastern Canada. During this time they feed primarily on insects which they typically glean from th trunk and branches of trees at the top of the canopy. They will also catch flying insects in the air, like a flycatcher, and occasionally eat some fruit.

The scarlet tanager gets its name from the bright red color of the male. The females are yellow in color with the same black colored wings that the male has. In the fall males will molt and change from their bright scarlet colored plumage to a yellow color similar to the normal female plumage. The bird above was photographed in mid molt. The tanagers will then migrate south, flying over the Gulf of Mexico to winter in Northern South America. Their they will join mixed feeding flocks of tanagers, flycatchers and other tropical birds.  

South Padre Island

Padre Island is a barrier island located off of the east coast of Texas in the Gulf of Mexico. The island is named for Padre Nicholas Balli who built the first permanent settlement on the south tip of the island. Today South Padre Island is a tourist city located at the south tip of Padre Island. Most people associate South Padre with beaches and spring break but for nature freaks like me South Padre is a paradise of photo opportunities.

On the west side of the island, in between South Padre and the Texas coast sits Laguna Madre Bay. This shallow bay provides a protected habitat to many different species of waterfowls, waders, and shorebirds. The South Padre Birding and Nature Center is located on the western shore with access to the Laguna Madre Bay and a variety of other managed wetlands. Besides waterfowl and shorebirds, the island is also a good place to look for migrants during migration. Some species, such as the scarlet tanager above, often cut across part of the Gulf of Mexico on their way north. During the long flight over the water they burn up a lot of their fat reserves and need to find food to replenish their energy. South Padre is usually the first bit of land that they hit. So in the spring it is quite normal to find migrating bird hunting on the island while the birders and hunting new birds to add to their life list or photo portfolio.  

Scarlet Tanager in Molt

Wild birding in Wild River State last August I came across this scarlet tanager who was in the process of molting into his winter plumage.
Scarlet tanagers are found through out the eastern portion of the United States during the summer. At that time the males are a bright red color with black wings.
As fall approaches the males begin to molt into an olive green color, which is similar to the color of many of the females. During the fall the birds will migrate down to the north west portions of South America where they will join in foraging flocks of other insect eating birds.

Wild River Birding

Wild River State Park, located along the St Croix River north of St Paul and Minneapolis, can probably be considered the first park that I ever birded in as an adult. In my younger days I spent a lot of time working. In the mid 90s I was working a full time job and a part time job and trying to run my own family entertainment business, for which I did 99% of the work myself. I had very little time for anything but work and Michelle, my wife, but a few times a year I would get a weekend off, these usually came in September, January or February which were the slow times for my business. Michelle and my wedding anniversary is in September so one year we went up north for our anniversary. While we were in an info center in Duluth we read that a good place to view eagles in the wild was Wild River State Park. Since I had been into nature as a kid I thought that it would be cool to see an eagle so we decided to stop off at Wild River on our way back home. The day that we stopped the sun was shinning and the temps were in the upper seventies. We spent the next day laying on a sand bar on the shores of the St Croix searching the skies overhead for eagles. We had so much fun that we returned several more times that fall. Later that year I decided that I could not continue working so much, so I went back to school got some certification and in 1998 took the job that I am working at today. I still work a lot but I do take time now to enjoy nature and my life and then come here to share the experience with you.
We returned to Wild River frequently over the next few years but as I learned of other places to bird our trips there decreased. I did make one trip to Wild River in August (8-24) of 2008 and I saw a few interesting birds. There were a few cedar waxwings travelling up the shore of the St Croix, probably searching for berries to eat.
The American redstart is a wood warbler that usually hangs around southern Minnesota around the summer time instead of heading further north. Like most warblers they are insect eaters which is a good thing to be around Wild River where there are a lot of insects, don't forget the mosquito repellent if you visit.
The most exciting bird that I found on this trip was this scarlet tanager. Scarlet tanagers are not uncommon in Minnesota, except in the winter, but since they often stay near the tree tops they are sometimes difficult to find and even harder to photograph.
This tanager was in the middle of molting from his summer breeding colors to his winter coloration. Males in the breeding season turn a bright red with black wings. In nonbreeding plumage the male looks similar to the female and is olive green in color.
Scarlet tanagers spend their winter down in South America. While they are down in South America they will forage with flocks of other types of tanagers and flycatchers.