Bird Bathing

 In some ways birds are just like people. Like most of us hygiene is important to the birds. During a typical day, dirt and other debris can collect up on the feathers of a bird. This can affect their ability to fly properly. So to rectify this issue birds frequently bathe. Besides cleaning the feathers of dirt bathing can also help eliminate excess preening oils and help control parasites. Usually the bird will spread out its feathers to allow the water to get underneath and wash off any dry skin underneath.

There are a number of different ways that birds bathe. Birds with strong feet wade into the water, partially submerge themselves, spread their wings and roll back and forth. They will also submerge their head and through it back to help get water on to their back. That is how this yellow warbler bathes. Birds with weaker legs, like swallows, will just skim across the water, taking a shower as they fly. Most woodpeckers bathe by spreading their wings and feathers when it is lightly raining or misting. In areas where their is little water birds will take a dust bathe. They role around in a patch of dirt or sand. The fine dust that they bathe in collects the  larger dirt and oils from their feathers and makes it easier to remove through rigorous shaking. During the winter birds typically do not bathe as often, but it is still necessary for them to bathe when they can. Often times they will bathe in snow melt or they will sometimes bathe in the snow itself. They use the snow similarly to how they would use dirt in a dirt bathe. They dig, role and throw the snow on themselves. When the snow melts the liquid washes away all of the excess gunk and the bird is clean again.

Yellow Warbler Bathing

 One of the few warblers that stays in this part of Minnesota during the summer is the yellow warbler.They breed through out much of the northern half of the US and most of Canada. During the winter they migrate as far south as Central and South America.

Yellow warblers are pretty easy to identify. While many warbler have some yellow color to them most are not as bright or yellow as the yellow warbler. This one was bathing in a small creek at the Minnesota Valley Refuge.

Tuesday Tweets

Well it is time again for Tuesday Tweets. I have been a little disappointed in that this meme has not really taken off. There are some really great people who have continued to support the meme and I am very grateful to them however I am contemplating expanding the meme to see if I can get some more participation.

This week's featured bird is the yellow warbler. Warblers migrate through this area at this time of year. Most are heading up to Canada or at least northern Minnesota but the yellow warblers stick around through the summer.

Welcome to Tuesday Tweets. To join in the fun, just post a photo of a bird on your blog then come here and enter your information in the inlinkz tool down below. Don't forget to put a link back to here on your blog and the pretty little banner photo. Then visit all of the sites that participate to see a lot of cool bird pics.

Yellow Warbler

Splish Splash!

Bathing is an important part of life for most birds. Feathers require maintenance in order to keep them in good shape. This maintenance usually consists of bathing and preening. Bathing can take place in an artificial bird bath or a natural pool of water. When water is not available dust or even ants can be used to help maintain the feathers.

Bathing can be accomplished in many ways depending on the type of bird. Some birds, such as swallows and flycatchers, will dip into the water in flight while other birds, like woodpeckers, will take baths in light rain. Many Birds, like this yellow warbler, will wade into the water, ruffle their feathers to expose the skin beneath, and rapidly beat their wings in and out of the water. While doing this they will role their breast back and forth in the water and then dip their head under. When they bring their head back up water that is caught between the back of the head and wings splashes the feathers on the back.

After the bath is complete the bird needs to get its feathers back in order. First it will dry itself by moving back and forth and forcing out any water from underneath its feathers. Since bathing often removes some of the oils that protect the feathers from the weather and help to keep them soft it is important for the bird to preen to replace the oils. It will rub its beak against the uropygial, or preening gland, which is located under the tail. It will then stroke each feather with the beak coating it with the necessary amount of oil and putting it back into place.

Yellow Warbler

During the winter there is not a lot of color around here. The ground is usually buried under a white blanket of snow and on what seems like most days the sky is covered with a blanket of gray clouds. It is the color and the sunshine that I miss most in the winter. During the summer bright birds like the yellow warbler nest in the area. These golden little warblers are not shy do not seem to have much fear of people. They often come out into the open in search of insects, which is their primary food source during the summer. This makes it easy to get good pictures of a very pretty little bird. I photographed this bird at Crex Meadows in late spring.

Birding at Old Cedar Avenue Bridge

During the summer I spend a lot of time at the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is divided into several different units. The unit in which I spend most of my time is called the Long Meadow Lake Unit. Long Meadow Lake consists of the Bass Ponds, the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge and the Russell Sorenson Boat Landing. Most of my time is spent either at the bass ponds, which is mainly open space which surrounds several ponds, of the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge. The Old Cedar Avenue Bridge area has several trails that run through the wooded hill that surround the Minnesota River.
Near Old Cedar there is a small boardwalk that takes you out to a viewing platform in the Minnesota River. The boardwalk is surrounded by reeds and cattails which are home to many different birds such as red-winged blackbird, marsh wren and yellowthroat, like the one pictured above.
On the wooded trails you can see a variety of passerines. Some of the birds that I have seen here include, catbirds, sparrows, flycatchers, goldfinch, and warblers like the yellow warbler pictured here.
I always enjoy photographing yellow warblers they always appear so bright and cheerful, like a big yellow happy face. Its especially nice to post on a special day like a birthday.

Yellow Warbler

As I go out birding this weekend, the scorching sun and almost corporeal humidity causing the sweat on my body to mix with fragrant smelling insect spray that I doused myself with before I left home to prevent the killer mosquitoes from sucking out all of my blood while somehow attracting every commakazi deer fly on the planet to fly into my ear all in the pursuit of photographing the same four species of birds which I have photographed every one of the last 37 birding trips, I long for those wonderful days of the spring migration.
This spring was a magical time were warblers could be spotted on almost every branch and behind every leaf like a page out of a fairy tail. Most of the warblers continued north in the spring but a few types spend their summer in the area. Like this yellow warbler that I photographed at the Old cedar Ave Bridge back in the middle of June.
So as I lug 25 pounds of photographic equipment through swamps rampant with disease ridden ticks to try and get a bigfoot photo of a bird that is not the same as the past 2501 that I have photographed. It could be worse. It could be -30 below with a -75 below wind chill and ten feet of snow. It is important to enjoy the moment at hand because, with reports of warblers beginning to migrate back south, winter will be here soon.

Crex Yellow Warbler

Yellow warblers seem to be more abundant this year then normal. I photographed yellow warblers at Dodge Nature Center and Fort Snelling State Park before we left for vacation and at Bowdoin NWR while we were on vacation. The weekend after we returned from vacation we headed up to Crex Meadows for the day and what did we find? We found a group of about half a dozen yellow warblers.
We found a good spot on the road, that had small bushes on either side, and proceeded to photograph the warblers as the searched the bushes for bugs.
Each bird was very defensive of its own territory.
They would frequently stop to sing a warning to their neighbors to keep them away from their territory. When another bird did come over to their space they would chase it away.
Most of the time though they just posed and let us get some nice shots.

Bowdoin NWR Disply Pond

At Bowdin they also had a short walking trail that went around a small pond called the display pond. Although there were many birds on the pond I was more interested in the passerines that flitted between the trees that lined the pond.
The first birds that caught my eye were the red breasted nuthatch. I spotted 4 or 5 climbing up and down the trees.
There were also quite a few warblers around including Tennessee and yellow warblers.
The most interesting bird that I spotted was a tree swallow. Tree swallows are not really rare, we have plenty of tree sparrows around home, what made it interesting was that it was very active around a hole in the tree which I am guessing was its nest.

Tree swallows are cavity nesters. They often build their nests in holes in trees near water, as in this example, or sometimes in nesting boxes, including bluebird houses.
The nest itself is cup shaped and constructed of grasses with large feathers, from other birds usually lining the nest.
The feathers are often turned upward so that they curl around the pure white eggs.
The nest is constructed mostly by the female and typically takes 2 to 4 weeks to build. The male assists by bringing the large feathers for the top lining.
The clutch usually consists of 4 to 7 eggs which the female incubates for 13 to 16 days. Both adults help to feed the young birds which take 16-22 days to fledge.

I am not sure whether or not this pair already had a brood, were incubating eggs, or where in the process of building a nest. I did not see them bringing any material to the hole so I do not think that they were building a nest. Most likely they had eggs or young, hopefully they will survive and prosper and help increase the population of these colorful birds.

Warblers and Friends from Fort Snelling

Before we left on vacation I was almost sad to be leaving. With the spring migration coming late this year, due to the extended winter weather, the warblers were all over at home. They seemed to be holding up waiting for the weather up north to get better, but I figure by the time that we get back they will have moved on. I can't complain though because we have had a great time shooting out in Yellowstone. Here are some more of the warblers, and orioles, that I was seeing before we left.

Baltimore oriole
Tennessee warbler

yellow warbler
orange-crowned warbler

blackburnian warbler

black-throated green warbler

Maybe I will get lucky and some of the stragglers will still be around when I get back but for now I am going to go out and enjoy nature where I am, even with the couple of inches of snow that fell last night.

Birding Dodge Nature Center

Here are some more pictures from Dodge Nature Center that I took on May 5th

female redwinged blackbird
palm warbler


Tennessee warbler

yellow warbler

yellowthroat
broadwinged hawk