Fall Coming to a Close

Fall is beginning to come to an end in the Colvin Run Habitat – there are fewer and fewer leaves remaining on the trees and the remaining leaves have lost their bright colors. Overnight temperatures are always below 40 degrees now. One interesting result is that the remaining (those who have not migrated out or through) birds are not now burdened with building nests, keeping eggs warm, or feeding the young. As a result, there is always at least a dozen birds at the feeder – including cardinals, titmice, woodpeckers, wrens, nuthatches, chickadees, and increasing in number now juncos. In fact, the birds are eating far more seed than in the spring and summer. Also, they are far more relaxed in their behavior. Even the downy woodpeckers seem to linger on the suet feeder and be in no hurry to tend to the young. This appears to be the time of year for the birds to stop and smell the roses. Of course, if we had roses in the Habitat, the deer would have already eaten them, but you get the point.

Great Blue Heron Visits the Habitat

The most recent post showed a Louisiana (or Tri-colored) Egret that I photographed while in Tampa, Florida, last year. So, you might ask, has an egret ever visited the Colvin Run Habitat? Three years ago, on a bright sunlit morning, a Great Blue Heron arrived, clearly looking for ornamental fish that might be in the water tub. The heron that reside in Northern Virginia have learned that the suburban fad is to stock garden ponds with ornamental fish. Not your typical bird feeder, but the heron do appreciate the fish. Unfortunately for this specific heron, I do not stock the fish in this tub.

For reference, the top of the water pump is about 50” making this clearly a great blue heron. As soon as he saw me in the window he took off. The last photo shows the full wing span of this impressive bird.

Egrets and Muscovies from the Tampa Trip

Last week, I talked about the Monk Parrots that I photographed when visiting Habitat friends Mike and Kay T. These friends have a backyard that borders a lake in Tampa, Florida, and has many water fowl, hawks, eagles, and a wide variety of small mammals and reptiles. In addition to the monk parrots, I managed to get photos of these Muscovy ducks and this Tri-colored or Louisiana Egret. These, like the parrots, have never been observed in the Habitat.


I would like to take credit for stalking this egret to get closer. The reality is that I took the first photo and then looked down to adjust the camera. When I looked up, the egret was right in front of me. This was the first egret that I had photographed outside of the Colvin Run Habitat.

Please Don’t Let Me Interrupt Your Dinner

The deer family – mom and her two young ones – are daily visitors to the Colvin Run Habitat. The trio comes at almost anytime of day. Two days ago, I found them on the front lawn (about 10 feet from the front door) eating leaves off the burning bush at 4:30 AM.
These photos were taken earlier this week, in a part of the Habitat that Dot and I call the Salad Bar (the deer’s salad bar, not ours). We gave up well over a decade ago any hope of sustaining our once beautiful and considerable flower garden. As various deer long ago ensured that no perennial flowers could return, the current deer have taken to eating the shrubs.
They are currently fond of the Helera holly, which normally they do not start on until very late winter and then for a limited and short time until new spring growth appears on the trees. If the deer choose to strip down these holly shrubs, the smaller mammals and many of the birds will need to find new winter perches and homes. These shrubs are small-leafed, dense, and provide great protection from the winter cold, dampness, snow, and wind.
I have to get within 20 feet of the deer before they run off – opening the doors or windows, or clapping – tricks that used to make them run away quickly – no longer work. The first photo is enlarged to show one of the youngsters with leaves in mouth, just watching as I continue to approach and take photos. Notice that in each of the photos, none of the three raise their tail in alarm. The doe keeps a steady eye as I approach, but the youngsters look away or continue to eat. When the three did bolt, they only ran for 25 feet, and then just walked into the nearby brush and woods.

Fox Follow-up

Okay, someone asked for a closer view of the fox marking (that is, the fox urinating after his recent squirrel hunt). Here are three closer views of the fox marking. Remember that every time I make your view closer, the photo loses resolution. So, the closer look means a poorer quality photo. The first is simply the closer view. The second is the exact same view with increased contrast to further highlight the urine stream. And for those of you still having trouble seeing the stream, in the third photo I have drawn a dotted line parallel and to the right of the fox’s stream. In addition to the stream, you should be able to see that this is clearly a male fox.

For those wondering what happened the next day, well, the fox showed back up in his observation seat at the edge of the brush. While he normally lays low from this position, on this occasion he simple sat there like a dog - head up and sitting on his back legs.

Migrating Ladybugs

A wave of migrating ladybugs (specifically, Convergent Lady Beetles) passed over and through the Habitat this past week. If you live in the Mid-Atlantic States, you probably experienced this same flood of migrating insects. As explained in some of the web sites linked below, ladybugs migrate from as far north as Canada and to as far south as Florida.

Regardless of how well sealed the house, or even office building, is, they always manage to get inside. As evidenced in the first photo, every time we opened a door or window another dozen came in and began crawling on the light-colored walls or windows. The bulk of the ladybugs were here on Wednesday and Thursday. I suspected that their southerly migration was aided by Friday’s stiff north wind. Nothing like a good tail wind to help ladybugs migrating south.

Here are some links that you might find interesting about ladybugs:
Ladybug Nests
Biogeography of the Convergent Ladybird Beetle Halloween ladybugs invade area homes - Scientists say little visitors are harmless

No Squirrel for Breakfast

We pick up our story with our fox having chased a squirrel up one of the Habitat’s dogwood trees. After 15 minutes of staring at one another, the squirrel makes his move. After descending down the tree to about 6 feet off the ground, the squirrel first jumped to a nearby azalea bush, jumped again, and hit the ground running. The fox was immediately up and running. Unfortunately, both animals were then disappeared on the side of the house and beyond my view. I assume that the squirrel’s goal was to make it to one of the 50-plus foot trees that are about 25 feet from the dogwood. I was betting that the fox would enjoy a squirrel breakfast. However, the azalea is wide enough that it probably caused the fox to have to lose time running around it.

In less than 30 seconds, our fox was back in view heading for the brush – without his squirrel breakfast (see the first photo). While we have no photos (ever) of a successful squirrel kill, we do have 3 separate and independent observations of a chase followed by the fox walking away with a squirrel in his mouth. But, not on this recent day.

But what followed was totally unexpected. As soon as the fox was off the lawn and into the brush, he raised his leg and began urinating (see the second and third photo) – look for the urine stream – remember that if you click on the photo you will get an enlarged version of the photo. In the fourth photo, our fox is lowering his leg and checking his surrounding before retiring into the thick brush. I can only assume that he was marking his territory. Just when you think you have seen it all in the Habitat, something new happens.