I visited the King Bird Sanctuary mid-morning May 21 to see how the crab apples were doing and to search for birds. I found a few, but the prize species this morning was a brilliant male Indigo Bunting singing loudly high up in the crab apples. The sky was deep blue, so the scene was mostly blue behind blue with some emerging red crab apple blossoms for complimentary color.
Spring was late this year. I figured I arrived at the King Bird Sanctuary 3 to 4 days before peak bloom, which I missed this year. Temperatures on those likely-peak days were in the 80s. By the end of May, all the blooms had succumbed to the several very cold and windy days with mornings in the 30s.
On May 5 and 6, 2012, the crab apples were nearing peak and the area was filled with wonderful migrating and resident birds: Wilson’s, Nashville, Black-and-White, Chestnut-sided, Common Yellowthroat, and Yellow-rumped Warblers, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Gray Catbird, House Wren, Eastern Bluebird, Chipping Sparrow, and Least Flycatcher. You can see photo from that glorious weekend if you CLICK HERE.
Back to the Indigo Bunting of 2020, a species I missed in 2012. Here is a slide show of these very blue birds at the King Bird Sanctuary in May, 2020.
Little did I know but I was not done for the day with Indigo Buntings. I drove the bit over 2 miles home, had lunch, looked out the window of my “photostudio”, and suddenly, as if by magic, not one but two Indigo Buntings. Both were males, but only one was ready to breed. The top photo below shows the bunting in breeding plumage. The bottom shows the nonbreeding male.
Here is a slide show of the buntings in my yard May 21. The first six photos show the breeding plumage bird. The last four show the nonbreeding plumage male.
If you missed my recent Blog on May Flowers and would like to see it, you can get to it if you CLICK HERE.