The American Oystercatcher

American oystercatchers, Haemetopus palliatus. 

I was in a marsh down the shore in southern New Jersey last week. I had stopped the car to look at some distant shorebirds in the mud. Then I noticed these two oystercatchers very close. I don't know how I had missed them. These large shorebirds are boldly patterned with black heads, white bellies, brown backs, bright orange bills, and red-rimmed yellow eyes.

They had attracted my attention by moving. One bird got up from where it had been sitting on the ground. The other bird quickly took its place. They had a nest right there! Oystercatchers nest on the ground in a shallow scrape lined with pebbles or shore debris. There were probably eggs there, though I did not see them.

The bird that had been relieved from nest duty walked a few steps away and then stretched and preened. Click to enlarge. 

Oystercatchers use their unusual bills to forage for bivalves with a special technique. They walk stealthily, looking for partially opened shellfish, then jab with the long bill to sever the shell-closing muscles. They also sometimes pick up closed shellfish, take them to shore, and bang them open on rocks.

They did not seem to mind me watching them, so I took a few quick photos from a distance and then left them to their parenting.

Happy Mother's Day!

A great egret, Ardea alba, with three hungry chicks. 

Sheldon Cooper's Bird

This is a blue jay, Cyanocitta cristata. 

I was watching old episodes of The Big Bang Theory on television last night. This story is therefore a few years late, but I am writing it anyway for those who haven't heard about it and because I love blue jays.

In episode 9 of season 5 of The Big Bang Theory, "Ornithophobia Diffusion," a bird lands outside Sheldon's window. It won't go away. Sheldon is afraid of birds. Funny things happen.

What really got my attention is that he called the bird a blue jay. It was not. It was a black-throated magpie-jay, a Mexican bird that really should not have been outside his window in Pasadena. Ok, so maybe it was an escaped pet. (Click here to see a black-throated magpie-jay.)

I have lived in places in the west (northern Idaho, just south of Seattle, and Vancouver) where people sometimes call the Stellar's jay, Cyanocitta stelleri, a blue jay. Although it is a jay and it is blue, the name blue jay is already taken by our eastern bird, C. cristata. (Click here to see a little movie of a Steller's jay.)

The bird's identity been discussed thoroughly on the Internet already. The television show's representatives say Sheldon's fear of birds was responsible for his lack of familiarity with species and  consequent misidentification. The episode aired on November 10, 2011. I just saw it. That's not a blue jay.

This is a blue jay, Cyanocitta cristata. 

Florida Wildlife

An alligator, Alligator mississippiensis, watching from the grass. 

While I was visiting Gainesville, Florida last week, I spent a day at Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park (click here to see the park's webpage). This remarkable wild spot is a National Natural Landmark yet is only a 15-minute drive from downtown Gainesville.

It's a little piece of old Florida. Well, not so little -- there are over 22,000 acres with trails, boardwalks, picnic spots, campgrounds, and more. It is crawling with wildlife. I saw turtles, dragonflies, caterpillars, wild pigs, wading birds, coots, rails, and alligators, lots of alligators.

There's one. 

A little one. 

Another one. 

A bunch of them! Click to enlarge and check out the one with its mouth open. 

A tricolored (used to be Louisiana) heron, Egretta tricolor. 

An American coot, Fullica americana. 

A cattle egret, Bubulcus ibis. 

A perched anhinga, Anhinga anhinga, and a flying snowy egret, Egretta thula. 

Click here to look at the website of the Friends of Paynes Prairie. 

Happy Easter

Tricolored heron, Egretta tricolor, with a blue egg in the nest.

Click to enlarge. 

Gathering Nest Material

A house sparrow with a mouthful of dry grass. 

A red-tailed hawk with a stick. 

A squirrel carrying dry leaves. 

A lot of nest-building going on this week! 

Spring in New York City -- finally

Crocuses! 

Daffodils!

Robins are finding things to eat in the thawed soil. 

Pigeons seem to be copulating more than usual. This pair stopped when they saw me. Click to enlarge photos. 

House sparrows are fighting over nest cavities. This one is perched at the entrance to a nice natural tree hole. 

Yay, spring! 

An excerpt from Atalanta in Calydon (1865) by Algernon Charles Swinburne:

For winter's rains and ruins are over, 

And all the season of snows and sins;

The day dividing lover and lover,

The light that loses, the night that wins;

And time remembered is grief forgotten,

And frosts are slain and flowers begotten,

And in green underwood and cover

Blossom by blossom the spring begins.