Nobody Home

During my September visit to Back Bay NWR I noticed this light colored, football shaped thing in some nearby mud. A look through my binoculars told me what it was: the bleached out shell of some variety of turtle. I have seen and photographed plenty of turtles, but they were always alive, sunning themselves or in a hurry to some important date. This is my first dead turtle. Or, what remains of a dead turtle. There is nothing left of this guy but his big bleached out shell. Makes me wonder where all the other dead turtle shells end up. Probably under water and buried.

Prey and Predator

After I had hiked out and back on the Dike Trail at Back Bay NWR, I walked the Bay Trail (which is mostly boardwalk) behind the visitor center and parking lot. Along one section of the Bay Trail I noticed lots of large grasshoppers on either side of the boardwalk. As I walked along they would occasionally spook and propel themselves to some more comfortable resting spot. The first photo below is a photograph I got of one that decided not to vacate its current resting spot as I walked by.

Then I got to this sunny spot where a very large spider web was in the foliage on the left side of the boardwalk. Right in the middle of the web was a large black spider with a yellow pattern on his body (I think it is a Black and Yellow Argiope, also known as a Yellow Garden Spider or Yellow Garden Orbweaver). And the spider was occupied with a large meal. Caught in the spider's trap was one of those grasshoppers, its spindly legs clearly showing under the spider's binding silk.

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.