As predicted, a blanket of snow covered middle Alabamaland on Saturday. The birds seemed to be having as much fun as the kids in the hood. This male house finch (carpodacus mexicanus) was not so shy as I shot from the indoor bird blind into the dogwood tree.
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| Photo by Glynn Wilson |
| A white-eyed vireo [vireo griseus] migrating through Middle Alabamaland? I thought at first it could be a Connecticut warbler or maybe a ruby-crowned kinglet, but Birmingham birder Gregory J. Harber gave me a quick ID via e-mail on the ALBIRDS Yahoo listserv. I was trying to get an angle on one of the handsome female grosbeaks here for the past three or four days, but gave up and went around to catch a monarch butterfy in the bush, when this little white-eyed vireo flew right into the butterfly bush. So I started popping pictures in a burst until it flew off, maybe catching a dozen shots, two serviceable ones. This one is the best. |
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| Photo by Glynn Wilson |
| As the Alabama summer heat finally begins to break, it is about time to start thinking about the fall bird migration season. Armed with a new Giottos professional tripod, we finally managed this morning to get a few shots of a male ruby-throated hummingbird archilochus colubris. The females seem to be much easier to catch. The males tend to fight each other off the plants and feeders. |
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| Photo by Glynn Wilson |
| Thanks to a bunch of folks on the ALBIRDS listserv, we now know this is a green heron [butorides virescens]. We stopped by the Swann Bridge in Blount County off Highway 79 on the way back from an investigative trip across North Alabama to Ft. Payne, Rainsville, Scottsboro and Guntersville. We ended up camping overnight on some free public access TVA land by Guntersville Lake, and then launched the canoe this morning at a free boat launch just before the main entrance to Lake Guntersville State Park. They were testing the high speed wireless Internet connection there, so this could be a regular day trip from Birmingham to blog on a picnic table in the woods by the lake or the Tennessee River. |
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