For all the lady birds...

I've been getting really good looks at female birds lately.  I think many of the drabber ladies get passed over or missed altogether because they're often secreted away on nests and not singing garishly from exposed perches like their testosterone-filled counterparts.

I've come to call passing over the lady birds "Painted Bunting Syndrome" or 'PBS' because the condition first became apparent to me in Florida while looking for a Painted Bunting (PABU) at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.  We could practically taste the sighting of a colorful lifer because the birds are regular clients at the visitor center feeders.  Yes, an easy score but also a chance to see an amazing creature fairly close and undisturbed.  We waited nonchalantly on the boardwalk hoping for a glimpse...

A female PABU came in and we were fairly excited, but admittedly sort of let down that it wasn't a male in all his breeding plumage splendor.  Egads, there we were - two women downplaying the sighting of a female PABU...Blasphemy!  Little did we realize this was even happening until the male PABU came in for a snack and changed the whole mood.  I realized afterward that I didn't even take any pictures of the female!  I vowed to be aware of this avi-sexism and to be better about it in the future. 

Female birds are really quite incredible.  They are often the sole caregivers and clearly work very hard for a living in the bird world.  Plus they're exquisitely beautiful.
  
How can one not appreciate the subtle hues of browns, grays, tans, russets, and creams of these female Red-winged Blackbirds?

Or the understated cap of this Missus Wilson's Warbler?

And could this Ms. Eastern Bluebird be any more coy?

This female Black-and-white Warbler is just so ladylike with minimal makeup...

And this lady Northern Cardinal is looking rather radical with that crest and orange bubblicious bill...

This female White-winged Crossbill is swank despite the snow...

And though she belongs to a species of evil incarnate, even this female House Sparrow is pretty damn cute with her pantaloomy sides...

Maybe we are just desensitized to sexual dimorphism by all the species that are generally impossible to sex, like Black-capped Chickadees...

Great-crested Flycatchers...

Cedar Waxwings...

And Gray Catbirds...

Maybe it's simply that we don't even care because of the commonness of a species.  Think of the last time you pondered over who-was-who in a pair of American Robins, Mourning Doves or Turkey Vultures...ummm, probably never.  

I think fowl are highly susceptible to PBS - clearly hens just don't provide the same satisfaction as drakes, as evidenced by this Northern Shoveler...

Hens tend to be better appreciated when accompanied by little fuzzy babies like these Common Eider mommas...

I think it's funny that some species can remain sort of sexless in our minds while the males of other species become crowning glories of life lists!  I swear to beware of Painted Bunting Syndrome and always appreciate the lady birds!
     

Iroquois and Montezuma NWR's...

I swung through the Iroquois and Montezuma NWR's again on my latest foray to conduct Northern Harrier and Short-eared Owl surveys in NY.  While both visits fell during a poor time of day, there were still some feathered friends kind enough to allow for viewing pleasure.  It was still very much spring and not yet summer, but the Tree Swallows were out and about, looking perfectly coiffed in all their sapphire glory...

 
This little guy obviously meant business and was likely to pull a Monty Python's Holy Grail-style rabbit-attack if anyone dared to not obey the sign...

Though my digi-scoping skills clearly have gone to rust, I was very excited to see my only-second-ever Caspian Tern on it's migratory pit-stop at Iroquois.  I think it may have been asking that American Wigeon for directions...

Since my last visit, Iroquois staff have been busy setting up nesting tubes for the ducks...

And the fowl, in turn, have been busy occupying them...

I finally got a photo of a militant Red-winged Blackbird (RWBL).  The word for that red-shoulder - 'epaulet', must be related somehow to the term for military uniform shoulder boards - 'epaulette', which is french for "little shoulder"...how perfect.  But I prefer to think that the RWBL's came first - inspiring military, runway, and rock-star fashions alike...

I saw more American Coots than I've ever seen in Maine and was delighted to actually hear them as well.  They made a sound I can only liken to a squeaky bicycle horn crossed with a kazoo...

Then at Montezuma there were these distant swans adorned with sassy green wing tags.  I think they were Tundras, but admit I was too hurried to bust out my scope and window mount.  The tractor trailer trucks on I-90 made for such a lovely background...

American Kestrels were seemingly everywhere and Turkey Vultures kept materializing out of nowhere...

 

Scoobs eventually tired of all the roadside birding, signaling it was time to head out...

Overall it was fun, fun, fun - and I look forward to once again stopping by these magnificent examples of habitat conservation and management during my next trip to NY.
  

NY Wanderings...

A recent trip to upstate NY produced some good early spring bird sightings.  The state fortunately has some sweet National Wildlife Refuges (NWR) that I have been meaning to stop at for ages and finally did.  I like to think my tax dollars go to support places like this...

I was really excited to see some guys that I haven't seen recently like HUGE flocks of Snow Geese...

And what appeared to be a billion Canada Geese chillin' on the ice with over 200 Tundra Swans...

As goes the sometimes dismal luck of a birder, Montezuma NWR was closed to humans.  I wish ALL of my taxes could go to NWR's so that they don't have to be closed on a random Wednesday when spring migration is starting.  Fortunately, they were open for birds and there were at least some fowl hanging out near the closed visitor's center.  It was fun to watch a bunch of small kids looking the ducks up in their field guides and excitedly check off Northern Pintail (NOPI).  Those parents get giant gold stars in my book - recruit the youth!  I never tire of gawking at NOPI even though they clearly know how handsome they are and probably have giant egos for fowl...

Other highlights of trip included giant flocks of raucous Red-winged Blackbirds which means that spring is surely close by...

Red-winged Blackbird madness

And this male Northern Harrier wishing he was big enough to take down one of those geese...

Scoobs of course takes birding very seriously and this money-shot of her sweet face made up for the crappy harrier shots...

When I arrived home I was delighted to hear a Northern Saw-whet Owl toot-tooting so loudly out back that I could hear it inside the house...

Northern Saw-whet Owl toots

I'm hoping to see and hear more spring beauties everyday!