May Birds of 2019

Hello everyone,

Here is a bird list of all the birds we saw in May 2019. There are 30 species in alphabetical order. These are just the birds we happen to spot during our walks!

May 27th Jupiter

Good morning everyone!

It is a beautiful Memorial Day weekend! The sky is clear and the temperature is starting out at 49°F and will probably rise into the high 60s or low 70s. After such a sunny day yesterday, we recommend sun screen and bug spray!

Today we spotted a new bird: American Woodcock! Our bird app says that this bird is rare, but it was really unmistakeable with its large beak and its camouflaged back. Winston and I have seen him before of course, along with the ruffled grouse in the bushes, but we have never managed to sneak up on one to show our human. Of course it flew away as soon as our human saw it! Yesterday, during our excursions outside, we also saw two birds which aren’t on our list yet: a red-bellied woodpecker and a tree swallow. This means that we have seen 30 different species of birds in May so far! An updated list will come out at the end of May.

We also saw a very pretty object in our sky this morning (at about 5:15 a.m.) – Jupiter! This giant planet looks like a very bright star and can be seen above the Southern hemisphere in the very early morning (or very late at night). With a pair of binoculars, you can even make out some of its largest moons (up to four of them). It was too light for us to see any of the moons, but we did enjoy seeing Jupiter out again. That means that summer is coming!

Even if our sky is confirming that summer is coming, our weather is not. Another cold front is on its way from Canada! The jet stream is also bearing down on us. So wind and cold weather is on the way, and so is rain if a low pressure system makes it our way.

I hope everyone enjoys the beautiful sunny day and has a great Memorial Day!

Love,

Mack

May 25th Sibling shenanigans

Good morning everyone!

We have a bright sunrise over here filled with colors and joy. Our woods are sparkling with life and of course that means that Winston and I must go exploring to put our noses where they haven’t been before. We walked into some pretty high grass that left us soaked. That means two things: 1) my humans need to mow today! 2) the temperature dropped to dew point over night.

Poor little Winston looks like he went swimming!

Some say I resemble an otter.

May 23rd Colorful birds

Good morning everyone,

You would not believe what we find in our backyard some days! We are so used to seeing our normal visitors at the feeder (chickadees, nuthatches, blue jays, etc.) that we forget that our backyard diversity is ten times that. Today we spotted several orioles and were even able to take a picture of one through the binoculars!

 

 

May 18th The Sun makes me do weird things

Good morning everyone!

First, let me tell you of how I am the world’s goodest dog. I come when called. I jump into my humans’ arms for hugs. I have warned my humans against people walking down the street, UPS guys, and ferocious hikers. I thank my humans for food after every meal and I never bark unless the threat is imminent.

That said, could they pleeease let me be in the sun all day long?

No, I didn’t hear you calling. I am invisible behind this tree!

I have a trick to pass along to fellow puppers: When you hear the words “Let’s go inside!” immediately lay down and look guilty. It will buy you some time because it will make them feel guilty, and you will get some hugs and kisses as a result. Be stubborn – don’t get up! Then, as they approach you, turn your head and sniff the air. Pretend you can’t hear them – they might think you have a sudden loss of hearing.

Step 1: Lay down and look guilty.

Step 2: Turn your head away indicating you can’t hear them, or turn cheek for kisses

I have done this whenever it was sunny or nice enough to stay outside. It has worked 500 times in the past with success, so I am passing this along!

This morning was absolutely gorgeous and a real record breaker for birds. We saw all kinds of birds, from a hummingbird flitting among the beautiful apple blossoms to the lanky legs of a great blue heron that flew over the pond. Our real catch was an oriole, though, which we were hoping to spot all week and we finally did, in a tree right above us. It was a bright-orange individual with a low, one-note call until it flew away. 

Cherry blossoms are in bloom all over the woods and the birds are loving it. We also saw gold finches, American Redstarts, Rose-breasted grosbeaks, and a cardinal.

The morning started out chilly at 37°F but is expected to rise in the 60’s, as it did yesterday. Rain and clouds should hold off until we get a flash of “heat” tomorrow, which will cause air to riseexpandcoolcondenseprecipitate (RECCP).

The Catskills in the morning sun. 

Have a fantastic day everyone!

Love,

Mack

May 16th Red things

Red in the morning, sailor take warning?

Good morning everyone! We got up at 5:30 today to a spectacular view that made us race outside. While the saying “Red in the morning, sailor take warning; red at night, sailors delight” is a just a saying, it does have some scientific sense to it.

To get a reddish color in our atmosphere, there has to be dust particles and water vapor in our lower atmosphere. These help scatter the sunlight at sunset and sunrise. Red light, the largest wavelength out of our visible light spectrum, is the one that makes it to our eyes along with the next two largest wavelengths, orange and yellow. The other ones are too short and are broken up on the way here. That is, until the sun rises and it has less atmosphere to travel through (then, we should see the sky as blue, or the color that has a shorter wavelength and is scattered the most by the air molecules. But we know we have not seen blue in a while!)

Anyways, having dust particles in the East can mean that a nice high pressure system passed us from West to East (thank you, planetary winds) and carried lots of dust with it. The reason is that high pressure systems are synonymous with dry weather and clear skies, which means that dust could be accumulating in the air mass. Low pressure systems typically have precipitation, and since every single rain droplet needs a grain of sand or dust (bet you didn’t know that the Amazon rainforest needs the sand traveling from the Sahara!), the atmosphere below low pressure systems tend to be clear. So if it is rainy, the eastern horizon, which shows what just passed us, shouldn’t appear red at all. It should appear yellowish as the sun is rising.

Well, yesterday we had somewhat of a break – I wouldn’t go as far as to call it a high pressure system, but we did have patches of blue sky. In fact, we even saw the moon in its waxing gibbous phase and some stars at night. So it might have carried some dust with it to the east, giving us a red morning.

Our bird watching this morning also gave us two new red animals: American Redstart, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak! The Redstart is small as a sparrow and its song is inconspicuous among all the other louder ones, and you might miss it unless you manage to see the bright stripe on its wing. This one was pure luck as the bird alighted right by us (it takes a lot of guts for a bird to hop onto a branch next to a clumsy human with binoculars and two energetic dogs). The Rose-breasted grosbeak was the one we spied with binoculars, and it truly was difficult, but its red collar finally gave it away. We debated between a robin and a female oriole for a while, because all three have similar songs.

Our other birds this morning include: red-winged blackbird (of course), morning dove, robin, cardinal, and blue jay.

The temperature today started out at 40°F and might rise to the early 60s in the afternoon. The sailor saying might prove true – the high pressure system in the east might mean that a low pressure system is about to move in with more rain. The jet stream has been fluctuating an awful lot lately, and if it does buckle up we might see temperatures in the higher 70’s on Sunday or Monday.

Have a great day everyone!

Love,

Mack

 

 

May 15th 2019 – Listening to birds

Good morning everyone!

Today we woke up with a humidity that was less than 100% – it was only 94%! Yay! That means that we were not greeted with morning fog, and the temperature was slightly warmer at 37°F. We went exploring in a different spot this morning, by the apple trees, in order to see who was in a different place in our realm.

I think if half the people in the world woke up and decided to listen to the birds first thing in the morning, their days would be better. We would have better politics, because people would be more inclined to listen to each other. We would have less wars, because people would interact and communicate with each other better. And we would have more people who appreciate nature, which is always a good thing and allows us to preserve beautiful things like waterfalls, forests, and animals.

Anyways, I can only speak for myself when I saw that my morning walks make me sooooo happy. We start the day off right by smelling all these new smells, we listen to nature sounds and try to identify as many birds as we can, and we meditate on the beauty of nature. When we come back inside, we are inspired by all the beauty that is around us and ready to tackle the day!

Today we identified a new bird: chestnut-sided warbler! It took us a while, but the way we did it was by narrowing it down by family. Warblers have that “warbling” sound (a song that is kind of high-pitched and gargled), so we went down our list of possible warblers. Then, we crept up really slowly to where it was perched on the apple tree and we were able to see a light stripe on its wing, underbelly and a different color on its head. With the Merlin Bird app, we had pictures of warblers and we picked one that sounded just like our bird. Bingo! This warbler was “talking” to another warbler that was making a different song. We’re not sure whether it was a couple of warblers who had different songs, or different warblers who just happened to be singing at the same time. One thing is for sure: tomorrow we’re bringing the binoculars!

Source: Wiki Commons

Our bird list for today include: black-capped chickadees, a confused blue-jay who thought the oriole oranges were for him at the feeder, chestnut-sided warbler, an unidentified warbler, red-winged blackbirds, morning doves, and robins.

There is still no foreseeable sunshine in the forecast as the jet stream has decided to bear South this weekend instead of buckling upwards. That means our temperature, while it may rise to the 50’s today, will not get much higher than that this weekend (maybe early 60’s). Clouds are still in the forecast.

All this means that it is good waterfall hunting weather, which is what our weekend might look like. (Waterfalls like rain, and they photograph nicely with cloudy weather).

We have a species of daffodil that is still in bloom, so there is a piece of sunshine still on our lawn!

Have a great day everyone.

Love,

Mack