First Frost in the Habitat

Friday, October 13th - mark this day as the first frost in the Colvin Run Habitat. Always tough to show, but the first photo shows the frost on the tall grass down in the meadow. The other three photos show frost on leaves.The water in the birdbath was frozen - enough that I could tape the ice a few times and never broke through. There is a freeze warning up for tonight.



A look at the pink flower plants (Dot what is the name of that flower again?) this afternoon shows the plants are wilted from the frost.
From government statistics, it looks like October 13th is just about average for nearby Dulles Airport. Here are the first frost dates for some recent years:2004 October 18 2003 October 3 2002 October 18 2001 October 9 2000 October 8 1999 October 28 1998 October 2 1997 October 2 1996 October 12 1995 October 17

Box Turtle in the Mulch

The recent Sunday morning visits by the Eastern Box Turtle were not the first visits this summer. At 8:00 PM on June 22nd, I noticed this box turtle dug into the mulch. I can only assume that the purpose was to lay eggs. The turtle made no movements with its head, neck, or legs while I was there taking these close up photos.

I returned a little after 10:00 PM and took this photo with flash (third photo) of the turtle now completely dug in.

At 1 PM the next afternoon, all that remained were these two 'indentations' - the turtle was long gone. At the time, I did not distribute the mulch.

A week later, the Habitat received 3 inches of rain during a 2 hour period. At that time, I had to dig up the mulch in the area where the turtle had been in order to relieve serious flooding around the house.

Box Turtle Heading to Church

Someone asked me recently if there were turtles in the Habitat. On two recent and separate Sunday mornings, this Eastern Box Turtle paid a visit to the Habitat. Each Sunday morning, he was making serious time, for a turtle, on the same path. Perhaps he was headed to church. In the wet grass and in the bright sun, and with his neck extended so far that he looked like a giraffe, this turtle was easily visible from the porch (per the first photo). He, or maybe this turtle was a she, brought his neck and head in a bit, but never completely as I approached. He slowed as I took some close-up photos. Within in minutes, he was long gone. Imagine my surprise we he returned at the same time the very next Sunday morning.

The eNature site says that “a few specimens are known to have lived more than 100 years, having served as "living records," with fathers then sons carving their names or other family records on the shell.” Further, “if [the] habitat conditions remain constant, a Box Turtle may spend its life in an area scarcely larger than a football field.” The Colvin Run Habitat became a housing development about 25 years ago. Prior to that it was farm land owned by the Carpers family, who had purchased the land from George Washington (no joke), who was given the land by Lord Fairfax (again no joke). The wooded area that is part of what I call the Colvin Run Habitat has probably been staple and not farmed for the last century. This puts perspective on who was here first, this box turtle or me.

More on this and another turtle in later posts.

Carolina Wren Sings

In my opinion, the best voice in the Habitat is that of the Carolina Wren. This evening, one of the wrens decided to perch on the sundial and sing and sing and sing. In the first photo, you can ‘see’ the singing – the open beak. The wren’s throat will visibly vibrate as he sings. Back in June, one of the wrens perched on the handrail to the porch steps and serenaded my daughter and me for about 30 minutes. I am sorry that I cannot point you to an audio link where you can hear a wren. It is rare that you cannot hear one of the wrens during any one hour period in the Habitat.

Every once in a while, a wren will pose for me as in this second photo. Similar in size and coloring to the sparrow, I know that I am looking at a wren by the upright cocked tail and the bold white eye stripe. I have to confess that the first time I identified a wren in the Habitat was by looking at a photo and realizing that what I had in the photo was not a sparrow.
Most of the time, the wrens are on the ground poking through the mulch or under the shrubs for inserts, as in the third photo. They are very inquisitive birds interested in exploring any nook or cranny. Last May, I was on the porch photographing bird visitors with one of the windows open (better than photographing through the glass). A few minutes after stepping back into the house, I heard from the kitchen noise and returned to a wren inside the porch. He was quite upset at not being able to find his way out. Silly me, instead of picking up the camera, I opened more windows. The wren quickly found a way out. Although they are supposed to be attracted by suet (and really only showed up in the Habitat after I added suet to the feeders), I have never seen a wren at the suet feeder. Most of the time, they pick up sunflower seeds that fall on the ground, and rarely at the sunflower feeder.

Shay Visits

Yesterday, I mentioned that I knew the hawk was in the Habitat because I heard the crows squawking. Many animals make sounds to warn of another animals approach. Today, Shay, a mixed bred dog who visits once or twice a month, stopped by. As you can see from the second photo, she is always ready, indeed eager, to play.
Shay spends most of here time in a fenced in yard about 80 yards away from the bird feeders in the Habitat. Over the last summer, I learned that if Shay, and her yard mate Jack, were barking, there was a great possibility that a fox was nearby. I learned that if I heard Shay and Jack barking to run and get the camera. And, if I heard them a second time, the fox was making his exit.

Of course, the foxes know that Shay and Jack are fenced in, so they simply come and go at their leasure.

Thanks to Shay for being a great Habitat observer.

Daily Hawk Fly-Through

Over the last week, Dot and I observed the hawk almost daily flying through the Habitat. The hawk apparently perches in one of the trees on the Habitat perimeter, the flies through at about 5 feet off of the ground, and lands on another perimeter tree. We observe the hawk from the house or back porch, so we are able to look down on him as he flies through. Looking down, we see dark brown wings, and medium-colored tail with dark brown (same as wings) barring. I am working hard to get additional photos.

I just saw the hawk again (second time today separated by four hours). I was responding to the loud noise of multiple crows - if you hear the crows, there is a high likelihood that they are attempting to chase a hawk - regardless of the time of year. With camera in hand, I approached the crow sounds - the hawk took off and I saw him from below - dark barring on a lighter grey rounded tail. No photos, sorry. I would really like to get some photos or a closer look as all of the barring has me wondering if this is really a red-tailed hawk.

Another Photo Found

In the recent posts, I apologized for only two photos of hawks in the Habitat. Well, I found another photo today. This photo was taken November 23, 2004 - the others were taken December 2003 and September 2006. All three have similar chest coloring and tail barring (underside). The November 2004 and September 2006 visits had the hawk perched in the exact same place (same branch about 6 feet off the ground) in the dogwood tree that is about 30 feet from the back porch.

Habitat Hawk Finally Photographed

No observed visitor to the Habitat has been harder to photograph than the occasional hawk. This past summer, one hawk was observed swooping through the habitat and catching a cardinal. The hawk did this while in flight continued to a nearby tree and then flew off. This happened so fast that I was unable to photograph the incident. Two weeks ago, I walked out onto the back porch only to spook a hawk that was on the group under the feeder. Last week, I observed a hawk flying about 25 feet over the habitat and the feeder. He finally landed in nearby trees. When I finally caught up with him, he moved on through the woods and I was left without a photo.

This morning, one of the hawks visited again. I observed him flying over the feeders at about 6 feet above the ground. He perched in the dogwood tree. By the time I got the camera and ran into the habitat, he had moved to one of the back maples tree, where I took this first photograph. As I attempted to get closer, he flew away.
My younger son, Ryan, actually managed to photograph a hawk in the habitat in December 2003 (the second photograph). Ryan always reacts quickly to get the camera and the shot.

My best guess is that both hawks (today’s and the one in 2003) are red-tailed hawks, as these are the most common hawks in the mid-Atlantic. Also, I offer the following observations, the white chest, rust tail with barring (seen when he was flying), and yellow cere.
I did photograph a red-tailed hawk (third photograph) in flight this past spring at the Pickering Creek Audubon Center on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.