Earlier this month, I watched a flock of Wild Turkeys forage for food near the woods where the snow was shallow. Here are two of them. Wild Turkeys occur in every U.S. state except Alaska.
Image of the month – February 2025
Tag: bird lives
Image of the month – October 2024
I always enjoy thinking about how a photograph can show not just a cool animal, but how it can also convey part of a story. Eastern Bluebirds stay in Maine year round. If you have a bluebird house and leave it up in the winter, you may see a stream of bluebirds leaving the house on chilly mornings after they’ve all packed inside to stay warm at night. Here’s a bluebird in my oak tree after an ice storm – puffed up and sitting in the sun for warmth.
Image of the month – April 2024
A Dark-eyed Junco sits on a snowy and icy white pine tree. I took this photo after the ice storm in early April.
Image of the month – January 2024
A male Ruby-throated Hummingbird rests in southern Texas on his way north for the breeding season. This photo was taken a few years ago in April.
Image of the month – October 2023
Hermit Thrushes (Catharus guttatus) are the last of their genus to migrate south in the winter. This individual is one of several that have been feasting on pokeberries in my yard for the past couple of days.
Image of the month – May
Another spring photo for May. Here a Great Egret sleeps while standing over its nest and nestlings. A slight breeze ruffles the egret’s feathers, making its aigrettes, or plumes, easily visible. Great Egrets build stick nests in breeding colonies. A single stick from this individual’s nest is just visible poking out from the leaves in the lower left-hand corner.
Image of the month – April
Since this first post is taking place in April, here is a photograph full of signs of early spring in southern Maine: a Common Grackle and some pussy willows in a light snow. The willows were full of grackles calling and displaying to each other and this male has his head pointed up because he is about to call.
As with many birds, the winter ranges of Common Grackles are shifting along with climate change. Though they are generally short-distance migrants, a few individuals can now be found in Maine year-round, though the bulk of their population moves at least a little further south for the winter. Common Grackles are some of the earliest birds to return in spring in large numbers to Maine.