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A couple of times in
the week, people had reported seeing an Ash-throated Flycatcher
at Iona Beach. With Friday being free of work obligations for
me, I decided to head out there to see if I could find the bird.
On my way, I saw a
bird on the airport fence. A few interesting things have been
reported on this fence this year, so I decided to stop the car
and take a look. I walked over towards the fence and it was soon
apparent that my bird was just a Savannah Sparrow, a fairly common
species around here. I took a few photos of him, anyway. That's
a maintenance hangar in the background.
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As I left, I noticed
an airport security truck inside the perimeter, checking me out.
It's good to know that they keep a close watch.
As I pulled into Iona,
I noticed someone sitting on the boardwalk by the south outer
pond. When I finally got my gear together and started out towards
the location where the flycatcher was supposed to be, I noticed
that the person on the boardwalk had a spotting scope. This meant
that it was probably someone who was into birds, so I went over
to say hi.
I was a little surprised
to find out it was my friend Ilya. I wasn't expecting him, and
the hat he had on (and the fact that he was sitting) disguised
his normal shape from me. We chatted for a while. He said he looked
but didn't find the flycatcher, and that he had found a dead nighthawk
earlier, and thought that it might be a Lesser Nighthawk, which
is an uncommon variety around here. Another birder—Peter—had
taken the carcass to have it checked out. Ilya said that about
the only interesting things he had seen around were the Purple
Martins.
Last time I was out
at Iona, I had looked for the martins and not found them, so I
got some detailed directions from Ilya. Then I headed off to look
for the flycatcher. That was a bust, which didn't surprise me,
as Ilya hadn't found him, either.
Then I headed over
to where the martins were. Ilya's directions led me to a particular
dolphin, and at that dolphin, there were some martins using a
nestbox. This photo shows a female on the left, hunkered down
and facing away, and a male on the right.
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| The female
was squatting so as to go into the nest, which is accessed by a
short, low hole from the front porch. Here is a photo after she
went in. |
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| I was distracted
from the Purple Martins by a Harbor Seal who swam by and gave me
the eye. Maybe he works for airport security. |
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| On the dolphin
in front of me (the one with the martin nestbox), there were several
nestboxes. (Most of the dolphins along the north side of Iona Island
have several nestboxes on them.) On a wire mesh surrounding one
of those boxes, I found a Tree Swallow. |
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Purple Martins are
a type of swallow, too, but they're a lot bigger than Tree Swallows.
There were several
Martins flying around in the area, and sometimes they would fly
quite close to me. I worked for a while on getting shots of them
flying. This one's a female.
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| When my
arms got tired of holding my camera and lens up, I looked for lower
subjects, and found this Spotted Sandpiper on one of the driftwood
logs in the area. |
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| But soon
I was back at trying to get photos of flying martins. Here I got
a male flying with something in his mouth. I think it's a leaf he's
got there, to be used as nesting material. |
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| It turned
out that this flying male was the one from the nestbox in front
of me, and he soon landed. |
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| He took
his leaf (or whatever it was) inside, and a few minutes later was
back out on his porch. |
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| I moved
in closer, and let him get acclimated to me. I had to be careful,
because he was definitely aware that I was there. |
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| After waiting
several minutes, I was able to move in even closer. The tide was
quite far out, so I would have been able to get within three meters
or so of the dolphin. I stayed further back so as not to stress
the bird and so that my camera angles weren't too upwards. Here's
a shot from as close as I got. |
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In that shot, you can
see that he's got two bracelets on. Those bracelets identify him
for some scientific study.
Here's a female, up
on top of the dolphin. The dolphin top was covered with a bent
sheet of metal. Either that's to keep rain from getting into the
tops of the logs and cracking them, or it's to keep particular
kinds of birds off—maybe geese or osprey won't nest on a
metal surface.
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| And here's
the female at the nest. I'm not sure if this is the same one as
above, but this one is wearing a bracelet, just like her hubby.
Maybe they're wedding bands. |
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I had been out watching
and photographing the Purple Martins for a little over an hour.
They had been very active, and I was happy to have gotten such
good views of them. I decided to head back to the car.
On my way, I walked
partway around the north outer pond, and found a male Yellow-headed
Blackbird as I did. He was on a bush near the trail I was on.
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| I took a
few portraits, like the above, and then waited to try to get some
flight shots. It wasn't long before he took off; I got photos of
him doing that, but (as is typical of his species) he flew low over
top of the vegetation, and through it, and I never got a clear camera
angle on him once he left his perch. |
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That was it for my
trip to Iona. I hadn't seen a lot of species, but I had a wonderful
time. I had gotten some good photos, too; the shots of the Purple
Martins were the best I've ever gotten of that species.
Not wearing any bracelets,
Tom
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