Energizing the Spring

 

Sunrise, Halibut Point

Lengthening spring days, rising temperatures, and abundant sunshine promote the resurgence of organic life.

Royal Ferns unfurling

Dormant plants grow again. Seedlings germinate. The botanic world converts sunlight into useful forms of energy that sustain all living things.

Trout lily

Plants specialize, in part, according to the availability of sunlight. Many woodland species flower in early spring before the leafing tree canopy shades their source of energy.

Bumblebee nectaring in Staghorn Sumac flowers

Those growing in open conditions tend to be later-blooming, more floriferous, and to present greater food sources to animals.

Floating duckweed 

Algae and duckweed photosynthesize rapidly in warming aqueous environments.

Mallard

Cormorant fishing in the quarry

Their bounty sustains fish and waterfowl in Halibut Point's ponds. They anchor a food chain that extends all the way up to humans.

Goldfinch foraging among Red Oak flowers 

Succulent new growth in the treetops sets off a race for nutrition between the needs of the plant and opportunistic creatures like this Goldfinch.

Capsules of the Black Cherry Leaf Gall Mite

Multitudes of insects thrive on sugars an starches from these leafy production factories.

Blueberry Stem Gall Wasp

Many insects lay eggs that cause the host plant to develop galls forming protective shelters where the nymphs have a steady food source while they develop.

March fly on blueberry blossom
Note the violated petal.

Others short-circuit the mutually beneficial nectar-for-pollination exchange by drilling a hole through the base of a petal to steal nectar directly from the floral reservoir, rather than working its way through pistils and stamens.

Black-throated Green Warbler eating fly

A great variety of birds fuel their energetic lifestyle by consuming plant-dependent insects.

Grackle with dragonfly

Occasionally they are able to catch even fast-flying insects.

Long-tailed weasel taking captured bird to feed to its young

Some birds fall prey to predatory hunters fulfilling their own survival requirements.

Trapped insect

Web-weaving spiders make elaborate traps for their portion of the harvest.

Red-tailed Hawk carrying away a rodent

Raptors concentrate their bulk and prowess at the upper end of the aerial world's energy conversion equation.

Sunset

As light dims the energy-gathering functions cease, though cell-building processes for both plants and animals continue through the hours of darkness. All through the day and night those energies derived from the sun continue to be re-distributed in the diverse species of life.

Onrushing Spring

 

Chickadee with Poison Ivy berry

After managing to survive the bare and frosty months of winter this Chickadee has turned to the dried fruit of a Poison Ivy vine for early spring sustenance. 

Warming light on a shingle

A precocious fly finds hospitality on the sunny side of the dilapidated barn in the first week of March.

Harlequin Duck shenanigans

The change of seasons is under way. Down on the shoreline Harlequin Ducks charge at each other to establish their social ordering for the northern breeding grounds.

Double-crested Cormorant

An ordinarily smooth-headed Double-crested Cormorant displays feathered tufts on its crown to answer the curiosity of birding novices and of potential breeding partners.

Grape leaves unfurling

Carefully resilient plant buds unfurl a new cycle of growth onto the realm.

Northern Blue Violet blossoming

These extravagances excite the natural world into progressions of renewal at the core of our notions of beauty.

Sassafras tree blooming

That beauty affirms the diverse forms and qualities of life sustaining itself. 

A House Finch amid Red Oak blossoms

It comes like a torrent to fill the welcoming, partnering landscape.

Wilson's Warbler

Spring is a pell-mell rush to get positioned for procreation in the incandescence of summer.

Brown Thrasher singing

Among songbirds it is a time of voicing anthems, boundaries, and complaints.

Blueberry bushes, shad tree, granite

A quick, tumultuous renaissance plays out over the land. Beneath it all, the quarry fragments wait out biology's splendid surge. 

Wave of Kestrels

Few birds inspire as many descriptive words as the American Kestrel. 'Charismatic' is certainly one of them.

Kestrel in flight

During April an unusual number of migratory Kestrels visited Halibut Point. On one occasion at least six of them gathered in a tree near the Park entrance. When disturbed they exploded into rapid synchronous flight that resembled a flock of swallows, swept-winged, sunlight glinting from their white bellies.

Perched on the ridge of the barn

The Kestrels in temporary residence were particularly drawn to hunting perches around the meadow, scanning for insect prey and small birds.

Perched on a treetop

Diminutive, colorful, and boldly patterned, Kestrels might be seen as 'cute' when waiting quietly on a conspicuous perch.

Male Kestrel atop a utility pole

They are often more visible and approachable than other members of the falcon family.

Female Kestrel overhead

The sexes are similarly marked, but males are particularly striking with slate-blue wings alongside the chestnut plumage on their backs, and speckled rather than the streaked breasts of the females.

Descending into the meadow

The American Kestrel is our smallest falcon. It is swift enough to catch large insects such as dragonflies, and small birds and mammals. This week it was also finding grubs in the grass.

Ascending to the treetops

Like other raptors it has superb eyesight and maneuverability. The sparrows that customarily foraged in the meadow stayed out of sight while the Kestrels were present. The field was eerily quiet.

Kestrel on the shoreline

Kestrels also flew up and down the open coastline, hunting on the wing.

Plucking feathers

This female took her prey to a rocky promontory to prepare the victim for consumption. Kestrels are 'fierce' in their necessary lifestyle.

Poised for another sortie

The Kestrels that passed through our area so abundantly this year have dispersed to scattered destinations on the continent. Local song birds are relieved. Bird watchers may be ambivalent about the Kestrels predatorial impact, but all of us marvel at their 'elegance' in the airways over Halibut Point.

Grebe Novelties

The two-acre quarry pond in Halibut Point State Park, being so close to the ocean shoreline, often hosts gulls and cormorants. The gulls come primarily for rest and fresh-water bathing. They're talkative and argumentative. We can imagine a social, newsy, kibitzing dimension to their gatherings. For cormorants the main draw seems opportunistic. They pursue fish.

Grebe and cormorant on the quarry pond

One day last month an entirely new bird appeared on the pond, small and mousy except for its boldly striped bill. That feature identified it as a Pied-billed Grebe. It stayed about a week. Being a pescivore like the rest of the grebe clan, it dove frequently beneath the surface to seek a share of the cormorant's minnowy mainstay.

The Pied-billed Grebe

Most mornings the grebe could be spotted as an unspectacular but fascinating novelty on the pond. Sometimes, confoundingly, it disappeared for long spells without flying away. Cornell University's Ornithology Lab calls it 'part bird, part submarine' with this description on their website:

Pied-billed Grebes can trap water in their feathers, giving them great control over their buoyancy. They can sink deeply or stay just at or below the surface, exposing as much or as little of the body as they wish. 

So perhaps it was there all along, submarining.

The Pied-billed Grebe's remarkable foot

While preening and stretching the grebe reveals that its outsized leg and foot are equal in length to its entire body. The enormous lobed toes that distinguish grebes from other ducks enable strong propulsion as well as great maneuverability. The thighs and 'drumsticks' powering those paddles from beneath the feathers must be unusually muscular. 

The grebe stretching its wings

Grebes get where they want to go primarily by swimming. An anatomical tradeoff has shifted their strength from wings to legs. I never saw this one fly.

A serene moment

The grebe's original arrival and final departure from the quarry happened through the air, unobserved. Whatever its own business here it provided another interesting focus in the ongoing diversity of life at Halibut Point.

Red-necked Grebe on the quarry

Several winters ago this cousin of the Pied-billed Grebe made an extended stay at the quarry.

The Red-necked Grebe with a fish

That bird seemed to be fishing successfully in the pond, but like the Pied-billed Grebe, it didn't take up long-term residence. Quarry life in the Park didn't suit it.

A Red-necked Grebe offshore in winter plumage

During winter Red-necked Grebes can occasionally be seen along our rocky shore in their customary salt-water habitat. Like loons, they exhibit subdued grayish plumage at that time of year. Until this week I'd never seen one in the striking breeding-season coloration that inspires its name.

A Red-necked Grebe in breeding plumage

The Red-necked Grebe's elegance at mating time captures the eye both of potential suitors, and of any observer fortunate enough to see sunlight glinting from its transformed feathers and refined silhouette.

Then there's Folly Cove

 

Great Egret against the cliffs

One sunny day after a slow morning in the Park I checked Folly Cove, the coastal indent that borders Halibut Point. Scoured, fractured granite cliffs on its rim show the price of opening northeast toward fierce ocean storms.

The Egret taking flight

Under calm conditions the arc of its rocky beach provides hunting habitat for occasional visits by Great Egrets.

Bufflehead male

The Cove's shallow water and sandy bottom attract diving ducks like this Bufflehead.

Red-breasted Merganser swallowing an eel

A Red-breasted Merganser is able to catch and hold an eel with its long serrated bill. Males change their plumage coloration into extravagant patterns for the courting season.

Common Loon

Common Loons also take on spectacular markings. The complete discard of their drab gray winter feathers leaves them flightless for a few weeks.

Two pairs of Long-tailed Ducks

A small band of Long-tailed Ducks floats conspicuously on the on the far side of the Cove, lingering in local waters later than most of their kind.

Male Long-tailed Ducks in diverse plumage
Detail of photo above

Male Long-tailed Ducks undergo complex seasonal molts. In the photograph above, one of them still retains the white head and rich facial patterns that have delighted observers on the winter shoreline. The upper bird has already switched to its near-black head coloring of summer, with a white facial patch. Both forms show the long, slender tail feathers.

Herring Gulls

These two Herring Gulls seem pleased to have pulled a prank on their audience as one descends noisily on the other. The normally feisty birds put forth a raucous but companionable duet on this fine day. It must mean that food is not an issue at the moment.

The Ronka boys' initials

The departing egret flew past ancient graffiti on the far cliff. Arne and Ensio Ronka carved their initials in the granite when their family boarded with the Seppalas, who managed Sunnyside Farm and its small dairy herd at the head of Folly Cove. Their father Samuel was the pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Lanesville from 1905 to 1913. Services were conducted entirely in Finnish.