Feeling their oats

There were a number of chickadees in the area just as you enter the wooded section of the trail today, chasing each other around. They are never still, so catching them 'on film' is a chore. It took me several tries to get these two.

A feathered gymnast

Yesterday morning there were a number of chickadees foraging in the wooded section of the trail, making their cheery sounds. It's a delight to watch the positions they get themselves into as they search out grubs and what have you from every little crevice. This fellow obviously found the cocoon of some insect.

Perpetual motion

Yesterday I caught this chickadee searching in the bark of a dead Scots pine at the marsh. It would repeatedly dig something out of the bark, fly to a neighboring branch to eat it, and return to the pine tree for more.

Another cattail fan

Yesterday was a banner day for wildlife sightings. Almost everything was busily filling their stomachs when I spotted them. The first thing I noticed was a couple of chickadees -- feeding on cattail heads! That was news to me, but apparently not unusual.

Friendly forager

Yesterday I finally got a decent shot of one of the many Black-capped Chickadees that are present at the marsh these days. This one had just found a tasty morsel on the bark of a willow tree.

On October 4th, someone in Antigonish County, in the span of 1-1/2 hours, counted 814 chickadees, in waves of 30-40 at a time, flying in a westerly direction. What a spectacular sight that must have been!

Busy as a bee

There were still a fair number of birds around this morning, including several chickadees noisily moving about in the trees in the wooded section of the trail. This one was digging something out of a knob on an alder tree, likely some kind of insect. (Its head was a little blurry in the shot I got, so I used a 'poster edges' filter in my photo editing program to make it clearer and salvage the shot.)

Chipper Chickadee

I saw several of Yellow-rumped Warblers and a couple of Yellow Warblers, plus a number of Chickadees, including this little guy, this morning.

Tiny bundle of energy

Once I moved into the wooded section of the trail this morning, it was evident there were a number of chickadees present. Their varied songs were coming from all angles. This little fellow was vocalizing when I caught it on a limb. I have to say they are my favorite of the songbirds with their cheery, friendly nature.

Pest control

I have been trying to catch a shot of one of the many chickadees I have been seeing and hearing around the marsh lately, but they have eluded me up till today. I could hear them in this wild cherry tree, but couldn't lure them out to get a photo. I eventually moved closer to the trunk of the tree and looked up inside it, which paid off (another lesson learned). This series of shots, in sequence, shows this Black-capped Chickadee catching and eventually eating, an Eastern Tent Caterpillar. Notice that the bird's right claw is holding the caterpillar down.

A number of 'tents' have begun to show up in some of the trees around the marsh, including this one; Black Cherry is their tree of choice, apparently, but apple and hawthorn trees are also susceptible. The caterpillars feed on the leaves. Luckily caterpillars form a considerable part of the diet of chickadees - and apparently holes in leaves are a clue to them that caterpillars are present!

Addendum: I double-checked on the 25th - it was an ash tree the chickadee was in, in a clump of three, and they have several 'tents' on them. However, there are cherry trees on either side of the ashes, which may explain why the caterpillars are present there.