Walking and Birding at Black Run Preserve

'Peckers and Titmice and Creepers Oh My!

While I revel in creative profanity, I think bird names can be repurposed delightfully in this regard.

You white-breasted nuthatch!

Upside-Down Charlie.

Such birdfanities were flying fast when I joined naturalist Keara Giannotti for a birding walk at Black Run Preserve, visiting the preserve’s bird blind with stocked feeders, and a nearby bog. We had a good-sized group of birders of varying experience, and I learned a lot about the species that visit or live in the preserve.

The feeders made for easy photography, as you can see. Eastern Bluebirds fed on the ground (they don’t usually eat at feeders) and an uncommon Brown Creeper walked up and down the same pine tree you see above, where the White-Breasted Nuthatch was doing its thing. My favorite nickname for them? Upside-Down Charlies.

I talked all about titmice and peckers last time, and fierce little Downy Woodpeckers abounded, pecking the suet log. A day or two later, I spotted a Red-Bellied Woodpecker at Timber Creek and got a half-decent phone photo, as well:

Peckers

At the bog, the ducks kept their distance. Keara identified Hooded Mergansers and Ring-necked Ducks from across the bog, from the light on their heads and bills. Mergansers are a favorite of mine, and I’d never seen Ring-neckeds before. I don’t really count this as seeing them, as they were miniscule even in my binoculars. While beavers are disliked in the area, as humans have wiped out most of their natural predators (bobcats and foxes remain) they are needed to kill trees for woodpeckers to nest in, so a balance must be preserved. Beaver trapping is allowed, but doesn’t have much of a market. There used to be a yearly “Muskrat Fry” in the Pine Barrens, but maybe we need to have a Beaver BBQ to get their numbers under control. Hopefully the growing coyote population will eat beaver.

I couldn’t capture the Brown Creeper on camera, but they are a cool little bird. Easily mistaken for a house sparrow unless you watch its behavior or are lucky to see it sit still enough to admire its longer, curved bill and herringbone suit jacket, they ring around trees hunting for insects and blend in well with the bark. When I managed to spot it, I admired it through my field glasses and didn’t bother attempting a photo. Unlike the nuthatch, which stared at me from eye level, the Creeper kept to the thirty foot heights, and without patience and a tripod, it wasn’t worth trying.

I met some nice folks, and later had pizza with them at Zed’s Beer, for a Black Run member social. A $30 membership to the Black Run Preserve gets you free entry to their many educational programs, and to these pizza socials, and you help support the preserve. For a hiker, mountain biker, or birder, it’s a bargain. It’s great for all three.

Here are my favorite photos from the day that I haven’t shared already. That’s a female Eastern Bluebird peeking at me from behind a feeder.

Eastern Bluebirds and a White-Breasted Nuthatch

This Sunday, I am planning to meet with

Hannah, the WanderFinder

at Loch Raven reservoir in Maryland, to look for Bald Eagles and other birds around the dam, and along the various trails. That’s how we met, a year or so ago, at Conowingo Dam. That place is overrun with photographers capturing eagles catching fish or stealing them from others. Next door is a great little road house bar with excellent crab fries. Loch Raven has a pub called McFaul’s that seems to be open for Sunday breakfast… expect a full review, and glorious photographs, in one week’s time. We’ll also be dropping by Atomic Books, haunt of John Waters. Me and John go way back…

You all know what his favorite bird is… the pink flamingo.