Yellow-billed Cuckoo

While I was staying in Virginia Beach, I took a trip out to nearby Back Bay NWR for some birdwatching and photography. This trip occurred in late September, so it coincided with fall migration. Because of fall migration, I did not really know what birds I might see. When you add the general dullness of fall plumage (when compared to spring plumage), and my challenges with field identification, I expected to have a fair number of "low confidence" birds, where I was just not quite sure of the identification.

One bird that I had no problem identifying was a Yellow-billed Cuckoo. In my experience, this species is fairly shy, often flying away into cover as soon as they spot you. Sometimes I spot them first, but usually not. Usually I hear them, especially when hiking during the spring and summer in Shenandoah. Their call is very distinctive, and once I learned it, it was very easy to detect their presence during the warmer months.

I feel like I got somewhat lucky in Back Bay. Not only did I see a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, I also managed to get a photograph of one. It is a tad "soft", but I don't care. Since I usually hear this bird, getting any picture is bonus to me. I think the bird I photographed is a first year bird (born this past summer) because the underside of his tail does not quite have the distinct black and white pattern of the adult bird. This bird was stopping over in Back Bay on his way to his winter home in South America.

Ocean Moon

After returning from the Yellowstone trip, I took the time to visit the eastern shore of Virginia for a few days. Part of my trip included a couple nights at Virginia Beach. Luck would have it that the skies were clear, the moon was nearly full and the moon was conveniently hanging out over the ocean at dusk and early night.

Northern Walking Stick

Through this past summer, as I have taken the occasional photo a butterfly, dragonfly, damselfly or something else, I have had to use various available resources on the Internet in order to identify what I was seeing. This often included me relentlessly perusing page after page of other people's bug photos in the hope of seeing something that was close to what I had photographed. This would sometimes get old, as my eyes teared up from the strain of oodles of bug photos. Or I would see some really neat looking bug that would distract me from my search.

One such neat looking bug that distracted me at least once was the Northern Walking Stick. I would see its photo, read about it, realize that they occur where I live, and then wonder why I never saw them. Maybe I just thought they were sticks on the ground and were ignorantly trampling them?

Then, this past September, when I returned home from my trip to Hog Island WMA, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a stick clinging to the side of my house. Not just any stick, but a Northern Walking Stick. Here are some photos of me and my new friend. It was an interesting challenge attempting to take pictures with a DSLR in one hand and this bug in my other hand, all while the bug tried to crawl up my arm! Guess which end is its head!

Caspian Tern

Hog Island Wildlife Management Area is located on the James River about halfway between Richmond and the Atlantic coast, very near Williamsburg, VA. I suspect that it is the proximity to the coast that makes Hog Island a pretty reliable place to see a few different species of tern, including Caspian Tern. I did a few queries within eBird and determined that Caspian Terns can be found at Hog Island during spring and fall migration, with August and early September being the best times to spot one.

As I mentioned in my previous post, my most recent trip to Hog Island was in early September. On this trip, I did see several Caspian Tern flying over the river. They were near to shore and a few were actively fishing. To fish, they would fly over the water until they spotted a likely victim. Once they had a target, they would hover a bit and then fold their wings in order to dive down into the water and, hopefully, catch some food.

Here are three photos of a Caspian Tern. The first two photos show a Caspian Tern in flight. The last photo shows one in mid-dive, on its way down to the river and hopefully a fish. Some clues that this is a Caspian Tern are the combination of black cap, black legs, and the large orange bill that has a darkish tip.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Way back in September, before the trip to Yellowstone, I took advantage of the Labor Day holiday and visited Hog Island Wildlife Management Area. I was partly interested in seeing what birds might be seen, partly interested in getting a good photograph or two and partly interested in just getting outside and enjoying the peace of a nearly deserted park.

I was not disappointed. There were birds to be seen, a few of which got photographed, and it was a nice, quiet trip to a beautiful park. While I don't have a photograph that I can share to prove that the park was nice, or that it was mostly human free, I do have a picture of a bird. In this case it is a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. The photos are a tad backlit, but the bird still has enough contrast to be clear and identifiable.

Snake River

A couple posts back, I talked about the mountains of Grand Teton National Park. One of the other prominent features of the park is the Snake River. The Snake River originates in Yellowstone National Park, and flows south into Grand Teton National Park before turning west towards its eventual consumption by the Columbia River. It is a giant river system, with numerous dams constructed on it (I counted at least 20 when I read the Wikipedia page) to provide navigation, irrigation and electricity.

Here are two photos that include the Snake River as part of the scenery. These may be repeats from the Blog Action Day post, but since they were not previously described as pictures of the Snake River, I figured it was okay to show them again. On another note, I think I have reached the end of my posts about the recent trip to Yellowstone. My next post should jump back to things closer to home.

Inspiration Point

There are a lot of trails in the vicinity of Jenny Lake, within Grand Teton National Park. There is even a ferry service across the lake if you want quick access to the far side. One of the popular destinations on the far side is Inspiration Point. There is a waterfall (aptly named Hidden Falls) on the way up, and the views from Inspiration Point are pretty nice. We ended up hiking to the far side, up to the waterfall and Inspiration Point, and then taking the easy boat ride back.

Part of the trail up to Inspiration Point is literally cut into the side of a short rock face. What is weird is that this caused me zero anxiety (unlike the trails that meandered next to the giant canyons of Yellowstone National Park). Tammy, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. She had no problem the meandering canyon-side trails, but the climb up and down from Inspiration Point was not quite as inspirational to her as it was to me.

The first photo here is of a shadowy Hidden Falls. The second is one of the views from Inspiration Point, looking east across Jenny Lake. The third photo is Tammy negotiating the climb back down from Inspiration Point. And the last photo is of the Grand Tetons, taken from the boat as we rode back across Jenny Lake.