Birds of a Feather

Kingfishers, pileated and red-bellied woodpeckers and eastern blue birds visit Dogwood Ranch and some of them make the ranch their home, even though they are in the backyard of two sets of birds of prey. Sometimes we hear so many birds chirping it sounds like a bird sanctuary.

Belted Kingfisher

An energetic belted kingfisher entertains us every now and then. It sits on a dead limb hanging high out over the pond. From the limb it flies out over the water in a circle rapidly chattering and presumably catching bugs until it returns to the limb. It does this over and over, sort of like a dog playing fetch.

A great egret also frequents the pond as well as a very shy great blue heron which flies away if it spots the slightest movement from us. When we see the heron we try to turn into statues so as not the scare it, but even a slight move to scratch an itch is detected by the bird and it flies away slowly flapping its great wings.

Great Egret at Dogwood

In the springtime, occasional wood ducks stop at Dogwood Ranch’s pond. A crisp cool morning is one of our favorite times at Dogwood Ranch. As the sun peaks through the trees, shining on the tree trunks on Dogwood, we sip our piping hot morning coffee and watch the ranch wake-up. Before trucks start rambling down the road, mornings are quiet and peaceful. Gradually the morning mist burns away and birds of all kinds start to chirp. Fat Dogwood Ranch squirrels jump around in the treetops before scrambling down to the ground to look for acorns, of which there are millions – thus, the reason for fat squirrels!

We usually sit with our backs to the pond so we can watch the sun gradually light-up the property. One particular March morning was a classic calm Dogwood morning-in-the-making by the campfire when behind us we heard a loud SPLASH! We both nearly fell over in our chairs as we jumped up to look behind us to see what caused the commotion. Two migrating wood ducks caused the splash when they landed in the pond for a little springtime romance. They chased each other in the water and on the bank, with the female shaking her rump in a way that kept the male interested. After awhile, they flew away. Those were the first ducks we saw at Dogwood but we’ve seen wood ducks on the pond the last few springs.

Red-bellied woodpeckers usually start their hammering the trees for bugs after the sun comes up. We have also seen a large pileated woodpecker.

Beautiful eastern blue birds are rare on Dogwood Ranch but we see them on occasion. For years we heard woodcock in the woods but did not see one until last year. It waddled under some brush in a thick brushy area. We have heard, but never seen, bobwhite quail.

A nice complement of common birds including cardinals, yellow-breasted chat, common yellow throat, thrushes, warblers, crows and hummingbirds also add to the color and bird chatter on Dogwood Ranch. We also hear all sorts of birds we do not ever see but hear and have not identified. When all of these varieties of birds show-off their vocal cords on a nice sunny morning, it can get rather loud but it is a peaceful happy noise. The brids sound like they are so happy to see another day begin that they sing about it!

To help us identify bird sounds better, we us a devices called an Identiflyer, which plays, birds sounds and tells you what bird it belongs to. Here’s a link to the site of the inventor of the device. http://www.identiflyer.com/#/home