ML624235921

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

I was on the 4th transect of my prairie survey when I came to an area in the plot that is a bit different than the other parts of the prairie. I continued to awkwardly climb in and through this area that’s usually the hardest in my surveys to traverse. While trying to somehow keep a tally of Common yellowthroats, indigo buntings, and catbirds, I took a break on a downed cedar that was recently removed to stand and write some more numbers in and take pictures of a very inquisitive catbird. I was doing some click noises at the catbird to keep it up for a second and noticed some movement no less than ten feet away in a pokeberry bush/aster clump. I had no problem getting full looks at what was, to my utmost surprise, a female MOWA! Having never witnessed one in person (I always seem to find males when they are visible), I always wondered if I’d have trouble discerning between one and yellowthroat. Not a problem. I could see her distinctly gray head and broken eye ring, and I also made out a gray-white throat, which was my giveaway, since this is always the brightest part of a COYE. I also noted its deliberate and slow foraging behavior, deciding between each hop between branches where exactly its next move was. As I continued to click, it crept even closer and out of the brush for some wonderful views and even photos. Ecstatic, I kept moving forward with it as I was going that way anyway. Like most times with a MOWA, they are among the best at simply vanishing. I noticed movement in a downed stick pile that was overgrown and surrounded by native plants and assumed it was my lovely lady poking about. I didn’t even think there was even a possibility of a second bird. When I clicked and lightly pished this time, a SECOND bird hopped up! This one, clearly a hatch year bird, and I think likely a male as it may have some dark breast bib coming in. Again, no trouble with this ID, despite being covered in yellow. However, unlike the dozens of yellowthroats nearby, the brightest part of this bird was again the belly and vent, though the throat was very bright. You could make out a partially broken eye ring, a gray cap, and a gray spur that ran down behind the auriculars. The short tail and very fast flight pattern into the brush was nothing like a COYE - way too agile. None of that flopping into a bush with the tail dragging behind. I played one series of female MOWA alarm calls and instantly, he/she somehow popped up just a few feet from me, allowing for a second Mourning to be photographed in Alabama on one list. Pretty outrageous. Also the first time seeing either a female or an immature, much less photographing so a lifer of sorts. Habitat has a few scattered Black Jack oaks and hickory trees to create a shady but still mostly open canopied savannah, and a small ephemeral creek runs through the heavy clay soil when it’s wet, leaving a ton of inundated areas that create this unique meadow next to the tall grass prairie areas where most of my survey takes place. As with all of this property, it’s burned only biannually so it’s always grown up with tall boneset, stiff goldenrod, yellow sneezeweed, ironweed, asters, and a bunch of other tall, native forbs that prefer wet feet. Basically, if you put this portion of the prairie in Minnesota, it’s right where you’d find Mourning breeding. This area of my surveys butts up against a small creek bottomland and always has a unique community of birds compared to the other transects.

Technical information

Model

NIKON D7500

Lens

150.0-600.0 mm f/5.0-6.3

ISO

2500

Focal length

600 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/7.1

Shutter speed

1/400 sec

Dimensions

3203 pixels x 2135 pixels

Original file size

6.95 MB