I went for a six-mile stroll after work on Monday. I learned a few things:
- It is possible to look through my binoculars while wearing my bifocals, but my field of vision is very small, so if the bird isn’t in the open and obvious, it’s not going to be easy to find.
- I can spot a bird, then remove my bifocals and use my binoculars and see just fine, but it takes a bit of time to accomplish all that, so if I’m ever trying to see a fast-moving bird, it probably won’t work.
- So, while birding while wearing bifocals and using binoculars is better than birding while wearing bifocals and not using binoculars, it’s not as good as birding while wearing contacts.
- Three days isn’t long enough to get over painful shin splints.
Anyway, I wandered through Fel-Pro Conservation Area and saw the following:
- American Robin
- European Starling (the rats of the bird world)
- Song Sparrow
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Killdeer
- Mourning Dove
- Barn Swallow
- Black-capped Chickadee
- Turkey Vulture
- Hairy Woodpecker
- Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (two of them in the same tree!)
- Great Blue Heron
- Mallard
- Downy Woodpecker (female — right)
- Canada Goose
- Eastern Bluebird
- Tree Swallow
- House Sparrow
I also saw dozens of Red Admirals. Have you ever noticed that a lot of birds have the word “bird” in their name? But most butterflies just have names like Bordered Patch or Fatal Metalmark or Great Copper or Small Blue. It’s like they’re stuck with a couple adjectives and no nouns.
“Hey, guess what? I just saw a Small Blue!”
“A small blue what?”
“Nothing … just a Small Blue.”
“Right.”
Anyway, Red Admirals are common, hardy and rather aggressive. They’ll chase anything that comes their way — other butterflies, birds, even humans. I’ve had this happen. I’ve often wondered as I’ve walked away from one of these encounters if the butterfly goes back to his butterfly buddies and says, “Boy, you should have seen me. There was this human, you know? He was, like, coming right toward me, so I flew all up in his face. He wanted no part of me, let me tell you. He got out of there immediately, you becha.”
Seconds after I took that photo, the sun went behind a cloud and the butterfly folded its wings and looked like this. (Same butterfly, same location.)
Here’s a shot of a different one with its wings folded.
