Three Tips for Identifying Swallows

Barn swallow sitting under a bridge – notice the long, forked tail

Juvenile tree swallow (inset shows the blue color coming in)

Barn swallow in nest under gazebo

A hole in the dam makes a great nesting spot for a tree swallow

Tree swallow in flight

I’ve always liked looking at birds, but swallows in particular are fun to watch. They tend to be in groups, flying and swooping down and around. When we are out near the water or in a park, we see them acrobatically flying back and forth catching insects.

The most common types of swallows we see in my area of New Jersey are barn swallows, purple martins and tree swallows. The other day, I saw some swallows that I couldn’t identify right away. I ruled out the barn swallow, but was still unsure what kind they were. Despite the white on the breast, they didn’t have the glossy-blue color of tree swallows. I took some photos and after I downloaded the pictures on the computer, I was able to look at them more closely. Little areas of blue were beginning to appear on the feathers; they were juvenile tree swallows.

When trying to identify swallows, here are three helpful tips to consider:

1. Tail — When flying or perching on a wire, barn swallows are the easiest to identify by their distinctive tail. It’s long, pointy and deeply forked. Most other swallows have tails that are forked, but not nearly as prominent as the barn swallow.
2. Color — It’s not too difficult to spot the orangey-blue color of the barn swallow. The blue on the face is so dark it’s hard to see their eyes. Cliff swallows have similar coloring, but without the prominent barn swallow tail. Purple martins are completely dark and are the largest type of swallow. Tree swallows are darkish blue on top and white underneath. If the swallow you are trying to identify is a juvenile, it can be a little tricky, especially if the lighting is poor and you are too far away for a good look.
3. Nest — Barn swallows like the eaves! Of course, they are noted for nesting inside barns, but I’ve seen them build underneath an overpass on top of the support beams and on the small inner ledge of a gazebo. Tree swallows seem to favor a more closed-in location. Recently, I found some nesting inside the drilled out holes of a concrete dam. Purple martins can be very happy nesting inside manmade martin housing. When you see swallows flying around, try to watch where they go. When they return to their nests, you have another clue to their identity.

Bunny Perspective

This is our backyard bunny with his ears flattened.

This is the same bunny from the front. Sometimes it’s all in the perspective!

An Out of the Ordinary Jersey Bird

American Kestrel perched in a tree

Today, I had the opportunity to see a bird that’s considered out of the ordinary for my state. Although common elsewhere, the American Kestrel is considered a Species of Special Concern in New Jersey, most likely due to shrinking areas of grassland needed for its habitat.

The kestrel that I saw flew fairly close to where I was walking. It landed in a tree and then moved to a few different branches before perching on a nearby wire. Moments later, it was in the air. It hovered in place while beating its wings, before suddenly diving down. It’s amazing how it can stay in one spot, despite the wind. The kestrel put on quite a display searching for food before I lost track of it. I couldn’t tell if it succeeded in catching anything or not.

Guide books describe the American Kestrel as a raptor of the falcon family, similar in size to a mourning dove or a jay. They are very attractive-looking; the colored patterns on the underside of the kestrel reminded me of a common flicker.

An American Kestrel in central New Jersey was certainly an out of the ordinary sight for me.

Signs of Spring

It’s spring, time to get the female cardinal to take notice

First a little singing, then fanning the tail feathers

The attentive female cardinal takes it all in

There are a few scattered piles of unmelted snow in the dark corners of my backyard, but some telltale signs of spring have come. The daffodils started poking out of the ground and, a few days ago, the spring peepers began calling from the boggy area down the road. I thought the birds would still be waiting for warmer weather, but the cardinals have already abandoned all thoughts of winter and progressed straight into the spring mating season.

I heard the male cardinal tweeting repeatedly the other day, so much so that I stopped what I was doing to look outside. From the top of a small tree, the male cardinal was loudly carrying on. The reason for all the ruckus? A female cardinal was perched nearby in an adjacent tree. After he finished his serenade, he flew over closer to the female and began chipping and strutting about, fanning his tail feathers and putting on quite a show. She played cool though, sitting very still and seemingly not giving him a glance. Today, I noticed the cardinal pair checking out the site of last year’s nest, so I suppose his display won her over. Spring is here!

Linking to “Signs of Spring” at the Outdoor Blogger Network.

The Stealth Move

This backyard hawk caused a downy woodpecker to make some stealthy moves

The woodpecker flattened itself against the tree branch

What a trick! Hiding behind the branch out of the hawk’s sight

Every once in a while a hawk visits our backyard; today it came twice and caused one of our backyard birds to resort to a stealthy move for its survival.

The first raptor visit was early this morning when I was in the kitchen. Through the window, I saw the hawk perch low in the walnut tree next to our bird feeders. I wanted to take a photo through the sliding glass door, but the hawk flew off just as I returned from down the hall with my camera. Later this afternoon, I was outside in the backyard, with my camera, when the hawk returned a second time.

Normally, when a hawk is nearby, the backyard birds flee into the hidden areas of the bushes or pine trees and there is silence. All chirping ceases. This afternoon, the hawk appeared so suddenly it seemed to take the birds by surprise. They weren’t able to resort to their normal safety routines.

The female cardinal didn’t flee and hide. Instead, it stayed completely frozen in place on a tree branch, not moving whatsoever. The tufted titmouse was a little bit braver. It made a short, sudden warning call and then immediately dropped into the pine branches out of sight. The mourning doves stayed still in the same position they had been sitting in previously. The downy woodpecker, however, was the stealthy one. First, he froze on the tree branch. He didn’t move his head to the right or to the left, but you could tell he was aware of the danger. Then, he pressed his body down as close as possible to the branch. His final move was to swiftly rotate around to the underside of the tree branch to get out of the hawk’s direct line of sight. The woodpecker stayed completely still in that position, keeping the branch between himself and the hawk, until the hawk finally flew away. Once the danger was gone, the woodpecker moved back around to the top of the branch and started to eat some suet. The other birds also resumed their activities like nothing had happened.

East Meets West, Bug Style

The Western Conifer Seed Bug has travelled eastward to my NJ office.

Bugs like to cling to the facade of my office building.

East met west this afternoon in front of my office building. I had stepped outside for a breath of fresh air, when I saw a strange looking insect sitting in the middle of the sidewalk. I’m definitely not a bug fan, but it caught my attention anyway. Not only was it fairly large, but it was unusual because I hadn’t seen any insects hanging around all winter, except the stink bugs. Today the temperature reached into the mid 40s, so perhaps the bug was attracted by the pre-spring warmth.

The insect had a brownish colored abdomen with a pattern on it and long front antennas. I had never seen an insect like it before. I was intrigued enough to run back inside the office to grab my camera. After taking a photo of the bug, I Googled “large brown bug with antennae” to see what I could find out about it. I figured out that the mystery bug was a Western Conifer Seed Bug. Western . . . immediately I thought I had made a mistake identifying the insect. Since I live on the east coast, I checked to see if perhaps there was an eastern variety of seed bug. After a little reading on the Penn State Entomology web page, I learned that the western conifer seed bug has been expanding its range into the east. At first it was identified in Pennsylvania and now the bug ranges in New Jersey and even into Canada.

Although the western conifer seed bug I saw on the sidewalk was barely moving, apparently they buzz and fly like a bee. The bad news for me is that the bug is considered a pest that likes to come indoors, inside homes and office buildings, in the winter. Perhaps this western conifer seed bug has been hanging around with the stink bugs at my office all winter and I hadn’t noticed it before.

Hawks Everywhere

I suppose it’s the February cold, but I’ve been seeing so many hawks this past week. On my way to work the other morning I spotted at least five and I don’t have a very far commute. Usually they are perched high and away, but these hawks were perched low, prominently positioned much closer to human activity. The winter search for food must be getting more intense.

Fast Flying Chimney Swifts

In a few months when the weather gets warmer, it will be time to start looking for the chimney swifts again as they return from South America. Although I hadn’t taken much notice of them before, this past summer they entertained me quite a bit with their fast flying antics. They were regularly flying overhead, darting back and forth in the air, similar to bats. Not only are they fast, but I don’t think I ever saw one land and sit for awhile. It’s almost like they fly nonstop. This constant motion made taking photographs very difficult. I tried for weeks to get a good shot of a chimney swift, but ended up with lots of blurry photos of distant dots in the sky. What you see posted here are my “best” pictures. I thought that maybe they spent their evenings nesting in the big brick chimney at the school complex nearby, but I wasn’t able to confirm that. I figured that stalking around the schoolyard with a camera probably wasn’t a good idea.

Although the chimney swifts seemed to be plentiful in my neighborhood, I read a web article recently about a decrease in the chimney swift’s population. While it had been presumed that these birds are becoming less numerous because of chimneys being capped off, the article points to the bird’s diet as a cause. Hopefully, this year the chimney swifts will be just as plentiful flying over my neighborhood, because I need another chance to photograph them!

Winter Warmth, Bunny Style

Something was gnawing the lattice under the deck.

We don’t have a lot of closet space in our home, so I keep my off-season clothes packed in totes in the basement. Once the leaves begin falling off the trees and the air gets cooler, I start to think about “rotating” my clothes — packing the summer shorts and tees away in totes and unpacking my winter sweats, sweaters and corduroys. Usually, I’m pretty lazy about preparing for winter and wait until it gets really chilly. Then, when I can’t stand the cold any longer, I have no choice but to seek out something warmer from the basement bins. Our backyard bunny, however, is not as slow as I am regarding cold weather preparations. He seemed to plan for his winter shelter very early this past fall.

In September, while the weather was still quite pleasant, I started to hear gnawing noises outside. Immediately, I blamed mice. We’ve had mice chewing the inside of our walls before, so I assumed we had a repeat visitor. This time the gnawing seemed louder and, eventually, I realized that the chewing sounds were not inside the house, but outside. I spooked around the backyard for a few days, listening and looking. Finally, my eye caught a slight movement and I found the source of the gnawing sounds. A creature was chewing at the latticework underneath our deck. For a split second, I glimpsed an eye and a nose before the animal hid. Was it a skunk? a rat? a woodchuck? a squirrel? It was definitely not a mouse, but we couldn’t tell for sure who was doing the chewing.

The gnawer was a bunny.

I kept my eye on the spot. The hole grew bigger and bigger each day until there was a fairly large hole all the way across an entire panel of the lattice. Something had just made a “door” to enter beneath our deck. Several days later, my son ran inside to announce that the chewer was now in residence. It was a rabbit, looking very comfortable in his new, under-deck hideaway. He had prepared a perfectly warm spot for winter shelter, before the snow even arrived. We aren’t sure why, but the bunny didn’t stay there all winter. In fact, after a month or so, we didn’t see the bunny inside his hideout anymore.

A cozy, warm nest for a bunny rabbit.

A few weeks ago, we discovered where the bunny had relocated to. He was still in our backyard and he still had a perfectly warm spot for shelter. He was nestled down in a mound of pine needles, facing the sun, underneath a pine tree. This bunny rabbit sure seems to know how to stay warm and cozy in the winter.

Noisy Ravens in New Jersey

Blackbirds, crows, ravens – I never thought much about them before. If I happened to come across a small, dark bird, I called it a blackbird. Anything slightly larger was identified as a crow. The common raven was a more mysterious bird to me, reserved for the legends of nevermore. This past summer, however, I came to realize that ravens were in our midst.

A noisy raven

At first, I never actually saw a raven; I just heard something loud and unusual. It was such a strange noise that, when I heard it, I stopped washing the dishes so I could listen. It was more like a croak or a growl or a honking, definitely not the caw-caw-caw call of a crow. I dismissed the noise that day, attributing it to either the kids in my neighborhood or a stray cat spooking around outside.

Several days later, I heard the noise again and ran outside to try to locate the source of the sound. I kept this routine going for several weeks – I’d hear the strange noise and look around outside – but I could never figure out where the sound was coming from.

Finally, one day in late August, I heard the noise, ran outside, and saw the creature fly right between our house and the neighbor’s house…a crow, a blackbird, what was that? I wasn’t sure. I had never seen a crow come close to our house before and crows usually don’t fly solo. It was too large to be a blackbird.

I started looking on-line at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Bird Guide and stumbled upon the raven. After I listened to the recorded bird calls I knew that was it! The bird I’d been hearing for the past month was the common raven. I certainly don’t remember ever hearing a raven in our neighborhood before. By the end of August, the sound of the raven was gone and I haven’t heard it again.

Early this December, the postal carrier delivered our copy of the winter 2012 edition of the New Jersey Audubon magazine. Inside was an article by Rick Radis about a bird that is becoming more common in New Jersey. The article was entitled, “The Return of the Raven”. Here was the proof, in black and white, that the range of the raven really has been expanding in New Jersey and their population has increased. I was quite happy that the strange bird noise I heard this past summer helped me notice something “new” in my New Jersey neighborhood.

What do ravens sound like? Here’s a short clip I recorded at the Raptor Trust:

A Backyard Chipmunk Surprise

Look who popped up unexpectedly this morning

Surprise. It’s a chipmunk.

My eyes were not deceiving me; there really was a chipmunk in our backyard this morning. While this discovery is probably not an oddity to most of you, it is to me! I have never, ever, in my whole lifetime, seen a chipmunk in my backyard or anywhere near my community.

Ever since I was a little girl, I have had a fascination with chipmunks. I always thought chipmunks were the cutest things. I would sit in my bedroom at my white, child-size desk and draw pictures of two animals: owls and chipmunks. Unless you count the time I had my photo taken with Chip and Dale at Disney World, there were only a few opportunities for me to see chipmunks in person: on camping trips, hiking in the woods, or when visiting someone who lived in a wooded area.

Fast forward to this morning — I glanced out my back window and, voilà, a chipmunk. If my husband had been home, I would have thought it was a prank; I could imagine him laughing as he secretly placed a plastic chipmunk where he knew I would see it. (The joking is a family thing; my son likes to trick me by pointing upward and yelling out “snowy owl, snowy owl.”)

Only time will tell if today’s striped surprise will be a one-time visitor, like the white parakeet who visited our backyard. Maybe a chipmunk family will permanently locate here. Regardless, I was delighted by this morning’s backyard chipmunk surprise.

The Lazy Squirrel

This squirrel likes to get comfortable and hang out in the tree branches.

Why bother storing the nut for the future when you can have immediate squirrel gratification?

Just hanging out.

I’ve always thought that squirrels were industrious animals. They seem active most of the time as they scamper around searching for food.  I’ve seen them running along telephone wires like a gymnast on a balance beam, or scouting out the yard for secret locations to bury a cache. When acorns appear on the oak tree, the squirrels are ready, running up and down the tree trunk to carry away their treasures for a future meal. When the bird feeder is filled, they become contortionists in an effort to reach the seeds. The time has come, however, for the stereotype of the active, industrious squirrel to be broken. I have finally met a lazy squirrel!

Our backyard squirrel likes to sit in the tree and watch the world go by. A branch shaped like a “V” becomes his lawn chair. Instead of carrying food away to store in a cache, he eats it right away. No planning for the future, just immediate gratification. He doesn’t eat quickly either; he takes his time, savoring the flavor. You have to wonder if this squirrel will change his behavior once cooler weather approaches in the fall. For now, this un-stereotypical squirrel likes to sit, eat, and be lazy.