Oh Dear, all of this summers babies are growing up so fast. Soon they will be making their first trip South! Before a whole lot longer colder weather will be moving in. Where is this summer going? It seems to be passing so quickly.
Ruby-throated hummingbirds are thought to be polygynous. “a form of marriage in which a man has two or more wives at the same time.” Polyandry ”a form of marriage in which a woman has two or more husbands at the same time.” and polygynandry “when two or more males have an exclusive relationship with two or more females.” may also occur. They do not form breeding pairs, and females provide all parental care.
Males arrive at the breeding area in the spring, and establish a territory before the females arrive. When the females return, males court females that enter their territory by performing courtship displays. They perform a “dive display” rising 8 – 10 feet above and 5 – 6 feet to each side of the female. If the female perches, the male begins flying in very rapid horizontal arcs less than 0.5 m in front of her. The male's wings may beat up to 200 times per second during these displays (the normal speed is 55-75 beats per second).
If the female is receptive to the male, she may give a call and assume a solicitous posture with her tail feathers cocked and her wings drooped.Preceding copulation, male and female face each other, alternately ascend about 10 feet and descend, eventually dropping to the ground and copulating.
The nest is constructed on a small, downward-sloping tree limb 10–20 feet above the ground. It is composed of bud scales, with lichen on the exterior, bound with spider's silk, and lined with plant down (often dandelion or thistle down). Old nests may be occupied for several seasons, but are repaired annually. The female constructs the nest, as the male has left by this point.
Females lay two white eggs about 12.9 by 8.5 millimeters in size, and produce 2, or occasionally 3 broods. They brood the chicks and feed them from 1 to 3 times every hour by regurgitation, usually while the female is hovering. When they are 22 to 25 days old, the young leave the nest.(0.5 x 0.3 in).
Overview
Chipping Sparrow: Medium, slender sparrow with black-streaked brown back and pale gray under parts. Cap is rufous, nape is gray, throat is white, and face stripes are black-and-white. Black bill. Pink-orange legs and feet. Short flight, alternates several rapid wing beats with wings pulled to sides.
Range and Habitat
Chipping Sparrow: Breeds throughout most of the continent from Yukon, Manitoba, and Newfoundland south to California, Texas, northern Florida, and Mexico. Spends winters across southern U.S. southward into Mexico. Preferred habitats include grassy woodland edges, gardens, city parks, brushy pastures, and lawns.
INTERESTING FACTS
- The head pattern of the Chipping Sparrow changes in fall and winter.
- Their nest is so flimsy that light can be seen through it.
- During the breeding season, the female develops a bare patch on her abdomen that fills with fluid. This allows more efficient transfer of heat to the eggs.
- A group of Chipping Sparrows are collectively known as a "tournament" of sparrows.
Overview
American Goldfinch: Small, noisy finch. Male has a bright yellow body, black cap, wings, and tail, and white rump and under tail coverts. Wings have flashy white patches and bright yellow shoulder bar. Bill is conical. Undulating flight, alternates several rapid wing beats with wings pulled to sides.
Range and Habitat
American Goldfinch: Breeds from southern British Columbia east to Newfoundland and south to California, Utah, southern Colorado, central Oklahoma, Arkansas, and the Carolinas. Spends winters throughout much of U.S.; prefers brushy thickets, weedy grasslands, and nearby trees.
INTERESTING FACTS
- The American Goldfinch changes from winter plumage to breeding plumage by a complete molt of its body feathers. It is the only member of its family to have this second molt in the spring; all the other species have just one molt each year in the fall.
- They are one of the latest nesting birds, starting in late June or early July, when most other songbirds are finishing with breeding. Their late timing may be related to the availability of suitable nesting materials and seeds for feeding young.
- Brown-headed Cowbirds may lay an egg in a Goldfinch nest, but the hatchling will usually die because the seed-based diet that the parents provide cannot support it.
- A group of goldfinches has many collective nouns, including a " 007", "charm", "rush", "treasury", and "vein" of goldfinches.
Overview
Tufted Titmouse: The largest titmouse, it has gray upper parts, pale gray under parts, rust-brown flanks. Head has dark gray cap and crest, pale gray face, and white eye-ring. Bill is black. Wings and tail are gray. Legs and feet are gray. Most spend their entire lives not far from their birthplace.
Range and Habitat
Tufted Titmouse: Breeds from eastern Nebraska, southern Michigan, and Maine south to Texas, the Gulf Coast, and central Florida. Preferred habitats include swampy or moist woodlands, and urban shade trees.
INTERESTING FACTS
- Most Tufted Titmice live their entire life within a few kilometers of their birthplace.
- They only occur in areas where rainfall is greater than 24 inches per year, and are more common where rainfall exceeds 32 inches per year.
- In Cherokee legend, they are regarded as messengers.
- A group of titmice are collectively known as a "banditry" and a "dissimulation" of titmice.
Overview
Gray Catbird: Small, shy, dark gray mockingbird with blackcap and red-brown under tail coverts. The bill, legs, and feet are black. Forages on ground, shrubs and branches. Feeds mostly on insects and their larvae, spiders, berries and fruits. Swift direct flight on rapid wing beats.
Range and Habitat
Gray Catbird: Breeds from southern Canada to central New Mexico, the Gulf states and Bermuda. Winters in the southeastern U.S., Panama, and the West Indie. Prefers low, dense vegetation or vine tangles at the edges of forests, marshes, and streams; does not occur in forest interiors. Suburban landscapes often contain good habitat for this species.
INTERESTING FACTS
- Gray Catbirds are able to recognize their own eggs making them less susceptible to brood parasites such as the Brown-headed Cowbird.
- When feeding on the ground, they toss leaves aside with their bills rather than scratching with their feet.
- Their calls include the catlike meow call that gives them their name.
- A group of catbirds are collectively known as a "mewing" and a "seat" of catbirds.
Overview
Downy Woodpecker: The smallest woodpecker in North America. Has a white back, black nape and black wings with white spotting. Under parts are white. Face is white with black stripes. Hindcrown patch is red. Tail is black with black-spotted or barred white outer tail feathers. Bill is black and short.
Range and Habitat
Downy Woodpecker: Resident from Alaska across Canada and south throughout the U.S. except in the southwest. Preferred habitats include woodlands, parks, and gardens.
INTERESTING FACTS
- The Downy Woodpecker uses sources of food that larger woodpeckers cannot, such as the insect fauna on weed stems.
- As the smallest North American woodpecker, the Downy can drill cavities in dead trees or limbs that measure as little as 10 cm around. This means that it can live in a wider range of habitat than can larger woodpeckers.
- Males tend to feed in the tops of trees on branches that are small in diameter, females feed midlevel and lower on larger diameter branches.
- A group of woodpeckers has many collective nouns, including a "descent", "drumming", and "gatling" of woodpeckers.
Overview
Eastern Towhee: Large sparrow with black upperparts, hood and upper breast, rufous flanks, and white under parts.Wings are black with white markings, and tail is long and black with white corners. Short, bounding flight, alternates several rapid wing beats with wings pulled to sides.
Range and Habitat
Eastern Towhee: Breeds from southern Saskatchewan east to Maine and south to California and Florida. Spends winters across much of eastern U.S. north to Nebraska and southern New England. Preferred habitats include undergrowth and brushy edges of open woods. Northeastern birds favor young jack pines or second-growth oak forests; southern birds seek scrub oak or palmetto.
INTERESTING FACTS
- The Eastern Towhee was considered the same species as the Spotted Towhee until 1995. Where the two forms meet in the Great Plains, hybrids occur.
- The name "Towhee," an imitation of this bird's call note, was given in 1731 by the naturalist and bird artist Mark Catesby, who encountered it in the Carolinas.
- It has red eyes across most of its range, but the towhees in Florida and southern Georgia have straw-colored eyes. Eye color is variable from southern Alabama to southeastern North Carolina. This pattern may reflect the fact that the pale-eyed form, which was isolated when Florida was an island during the Pleistocene era, is now coming back in contact with the red-eyed form of the mainland.
- A group of towhees are collectively known as a "tangle" and a "teapot" of towhees.
The eastern gray squirrel, or grey squirrel (depending on region), is a tree squirrel native to the eastern and midwestern United States, and to the southerly portions of the eastern provinces of Canada. The native range of the eastern gray squirrel overlaps with that of the fox squirrel, with which it is sometimes confused, although the core of the fox squirrel's range is slightly more to the west.
A prolific and adaptable species, the eastern gray squirrel has been introduced to, and thrives, in several regions of the western United States. It has also been introduced to Britain, where it has spread across the country and has largely displaced the native Red Squirrel. In Ireland, the red squirrel has been displaced in several eastern counties, though it still remains common in the south and west of the country. There are concerns that such displacement might happen in Italy and that Grey squirrels might spread from Italy to other parts of mainland Europe.
The eastern chipmunk is a small, striped rodent found in North American woodlands. A member of the squirrel family, it is the only living member of the genus Tamias, one of three genera of chipmunks. Its distribution extends from southern Canada in the north to Louisiana and the Florida panhandle in the south, and from the middle United States in the west to Virginia and the western mountains of the Carolinas in the east.
The eastern chipmunk is solitary (except during its mating season), diurnal, and lives in a burrow of extensive tunnels, well-hidden entrances, and chambers for sleeping, nesting, and storing large quantities of food. In winter, the chipmunk retires to the burrow, enters a state of torpor, but wakens frequently to move about underground or to eat from its stores. It vocalizes with bird-like chirps, chips, chucks, and squeaks. Predators include hawks, foxes, and weasels.
The eastern chipmunk is omnivorous, and its diet includes nuts, seeds, and fruits as well as insects. The breeding season occurs annually in the middle spring, or biannually in early spring and again in middle summer, depending on the geographic region. Gestation is 30–32 days, and the young leave the nest at about seven weeks. The species is infected by internal and external parasites including a host-specific louse and a mite that damages the end of the tail. In the wild, lifespan is one to three years, and in captivity, about nine years.
The species is of no economic value to humans, poses little or no threat to crops or other human interests, and is of least concern to conservationists because it is abundant, widespread, and faces no major threats. The eastern chipmunk is a bustling little animal which provides amusement for human onlookers.
Adult Wild Turkeys have long reddish-yellow to greyish-green legs and a black body. Males have a large, featherless, reddish head, red throat, and red wattles on the throat and neck. The head has fleshy growths called caruncles. When males are excited, a fleshy flap on the bill expands, and this, the wattles and the bare skin of the head and neck all become engorged with blood, almost concealing the eyes and bill. Each foot has three toes, and males have a spur behind each of their lower legs.
Turkeys have a long, dark, fan-shaped tail and glossy bronze wings. As with many other species of the Galliformes, “Galliformes are an order of birds containing turkeys, grouse, chickens, quails, and pheasants.” turkeys exhibit strong sexual dimorphism. The male is substantially larger than the female, and his feathers have areas of red, purple, green, copper, bronze, and gold iridescence. Female feathers are duller overall, in shades of brown and gray. Parasites can dull coloration of both sexes; in males, coloration may serve as a signal of health. The primary wing feathers have white bars. Turkeys have 5000 to 6000 feathers. Tail feathers have the same length in adults, different lengths in juveniles. Males typically have a "beard", a tuft of coarse hair (modified feathers) growing from the center of the breast. Beards average 9 inches (230 mm) in length. In some populations, 10 to 20 percent of females have a beard, usually shorter and thinner than that of the male. The adult male normally weighs from 5 to 11 kg (11–24 lbs) and measures 100–125 cm (39–49 in). The adult female is typically much smaller at 3 to 5.4 kg (6.6–12 lbs) and are 76 to 95 cm (30–37 in) long. The wingspan ranges from 1.25 to 1.44 m (49–57 in). The record-sized adult male Wild Turkey, according to the National Wild Turkey Federation, was 38 lb (17.2 kg).
Biology and behavior
The Striped Skunk has a black body with a white stripe along each side of its body; the two stripes join into a broader white area at the nape. Its forehead has a narrow white stripe. About the size of a house cat, it weighs 2.5 to 14 pounds (1.2–6.3 kg) (Note that the average weight is 6-8 pounds (2.73kg-3.64 kg)) with a body length (excluding the tail) of 13 to 18 inches (33–46 cm). The bushy tail is 7 to 10 inches long (18–25 cm), and sometimes has a white tip.
The presence of a Striped Skunk is often first made apparent by its odor. It has well-developed anal scent glands (characteristic of all skunks) that can emit a highly unpleasant odor when the skunk feels threatened by another animal.
The skunk is crepuscular. “Crepuscular is a term used to describe some animals that are primarily active during twilight, that is at dawn and at dusk.” Beginning its search for food at dawn and dusk, it feeds on mice, eggs, carrion, insects, grubs, and berries. At sunrise, it retires to its den, which may be in a ground burrow, or beneath a building, boulder, or rock pile. While the male dens by itself, several females may live together. The Striped Skunk does not hibernate but instead goes into a dormant or semi-active state.
In February or March, mating occurs, and by early May, after a 42- to 63-day gestation, a litter of about five or six young is born. The young are born blind, and follow their mother until late June or July.
The Striped Skunk is beneficial as a consumer of rodent and insect populations, rarely eating farmers' poultry.
I guess there is one good thing with all the babies and their parents going South for the winter….It leaves more food for ME! Have a safe journey my fine feathered friends!
A kiss to send you on your way!
