Breeding bird season is in full swing and we’ve been appreciating our local nesting birds and observing their habits closely. Join us in September for Sunday Morning Bird Walks!

When I first heard the name of this month’s bird, long before I’d been introduced to birding, I thought it was a joke. What kind of bird sucks sap? And “yellow-bellied” just added to the hilarity of it. But indeed, as I would discover for myself, there really are woodpeckers with bellies that look like they’ve been water-colored yellow, and which really do suck sap. 

Breeding bird season is in full swing and we’ve been appreciating our local nesting birds and observing their habits closely. Join us in September for Sunday Morning Bird Walks!

Scything gracefully through the dawn sky above us were a pair of birds with long wings that had a crook in them and bright, white rectangular patches beyond the crook. No other bird in our area looks anything like them. We were excited to realize we’d just seen our first Common Nighthawks of the season.