Well I’ve been able to get out birding a good amount this past week (8 hours or so) so I’ll fill you in on some Limehollow bird stuff.

Like a scene out of Attenborough’s  Life of Birds, I experienced some interesting Black-throated Green warbler behaviour.  I stepped away from the computer for a quick break and right next to my head, two BTGreen warblers copulated.  It was quick but enough to guess what was going on.  When parting ways, they nearly hit me in the head and then the female landed on a branch, an arms length away.  I watched as she flexed her cloaca and dispensed her recent acquistion (sperm) like a bad habit. pretty cool behavior and good news for all you females out there… chicks are litterally ‘in charge.’  Think about it… a male Indigo Bunting would not be wearing a bright blue jump-suit if his woman did not dig it.

anyways… I’ve been seeing alot of fledglings lately, tree swallows, wood thrush, chickadee, purple finch, junco, eastern pheobe, blue-headed vireo.  It is neat to see one or two downy feathers sticking out from under their new ‘real’ feathers.  Many birds are well on their way to a second brood; American Robin, Tree Swallow, Eastern Bluebird.

I’ve reliably had both Cuckoo’s lately and most noteably, had a Black-billed Cuckoo feeding young last Tuesday!

With all this bird activity, the woods are very active so keep your eyes open at all times of day, you may be the first person to ever see a new bird!