Greetings everyone! Been a while since I’ve had the chance to get back to the blog. We had a nice ceremony in remembrance of my Mother a couple of weeks ago and now moving into the will and possessions phase. This part is going to take a bit of time and effort to get through, not to mention a bit of travel being that she still lived where we were born and raised. I definitely want to extend our sincere appreciation for the outpouring of blessings and support we have received from our blogsphere family. As saddening as the ordeal was, it was comforting to know you were thinking of us.
Unfortunately, I am waaaay behind on my postings, not to mention the backlog of post reading on the blogs I follow. Fingers crossed I can get caught up quickly. Getting back into the swing of things, thought I’d bring you an intriguing featured feathered friend.
Our lime green specimen comes to you courtesy of last year’s trip to the Alabama Gulf Shores. More specifically, the Audubon Bird Sanctuary on Dauphin Island. I’ve posted numerous times on the incredible finds during our April stay on that small piece of land.
Hit the jump to read more about our lime colored discovery.
We were aided, in part, thanks to perfectly timing the migration fallout that hit the day before we got there. Huge rains had battered the coastline for roughly two weeks before we made it down there. Actually, “before” is probably not the right word as the storms were actually extended northwards causing us to fight the bad weather the entirety of the way down. Apologies to Mother Nature for all the harsh language directed her way as we mucked around the stopover campsites – little did we know at the time this was going to turn out in our favor once we finally floated down to the island.
Those that have been following the blog are also aware my brother Ron had the opportunity to travel down and join us for our stay on the island. Like kids in a candy store, we couldn’t contain our excitement thanks to the multitude of +1s we tallied up during the relatively brief stay.
This particular specimen was a bit of a “fools gold” for us. We had just finished up capturing our first ever Worm-Eating Warbler (link here). Still recall what a struggle that was to get that elusive migrator in the tin. Arms felt like Jello trying to keep the focus on the tiny Warbler as it darted in and out of the Saw Palmetto that lined the Audubon trails – guess technically that is called Serenoa Repens based on a side comment I “saw” while trying to remember how to spell Palmetto.
The task of getting the Worm tinned required us to backtrack quite a ways down the trail. As we tried to re-navigate the flooded trail, Ron noticed this feathered lime creature snacking on a clump of vegetation about 5 feet off the trail. Neither of us had any clue at the time what it was beyond an instant remedy for my sore arms.
Suddenly forgetting how drained my arms were from the Worm, I went to work trying to get this assumed +1 in the tin. Like the other elusive Warbler, this specimen thought we were playing a game of hide-n-seek. Now you see me, now you see a bunch of leaves, “there it is” became past tense as soon as it left my lips. Ron would start snapping when it came into view from his angle, while I internally begged for a bottle of RoundUp. A couple of snaps in and the roles reversed. It didn’t help the day was long and our exposure triangle was skewed to high ISO and turtle shutter speeds. We eventually got something in the tin and decided it was time to call it a day. Needless to say, the arms immediately went about punishing us for the neglect.
In the end (see what I did there ha), we learned that our late day +2 was really a +1. After struggling to identify Mr. Lime, we asked another birder if they could help. Studying it for … oh, maybe a microsecond.. the birder declared it was a female Painted Bunting (link here), dashing our plans of being able to name this never before seen species as the “Lime Brironan” . In my defense, this specimen was far more brilliant than any of the other females I’ve encountered. Although not a +1 for either of us, it still was the closest I’ve ever been to a Painted. Also means Ron and I will be spared embarrassment in the future now knowing this isn’t a new discovery. Problem is, I do not know what to do with all the shirts we had rush ordered off of Cafe Press – “What’s cooler than a Brironan? – The guys that discovered it”. Oh well, guess they’ll be good for washing the cars.
Wildlife Intrigued 
It’s a beautiful little Limey. It’s close to the green in out Conure. It gave you a nice moon in the last shot, too.
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Sort of lemon-lime colored. Brilliant find. Glad you were able to take advantage of the weather misdirecting many potential +1s.
How about a monopod?
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Mother Nature definitely helped me out… at the expense of completely exhausting thousands of birds. I still shy away from the monopods in favor of the flexibility to shoot up quickly if I have to – I have images of sending that pole right up between the legs of Ron when a target bird decides to launch up over my head – I’d laugh of course, but thinking he might not appreciate that ha! Thanks for coming by Brad, you missed out on a pretty productive couple of days birding up north.
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Ha, it sure did – I always joke when that happens it is just giving me the bird signal for my shots are butt ugly. I had to look up the bird you referenced – not up on my Parakeets, but from the shots I found you are absolutely right on the color match – slightly more dull that those Parakeet hues, but very close. Thanks for dropping by… woefully behind on reading your posts.
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Our Gold Cap Conure, Beaker, wants you to know he is a parrot not a stinking parakeet! Beaker loves blueberry pancakes: https://wp.me/p1yQyy-61E
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Please extend my upmost apologies to Beaker for lumping him in with the rest of that sorry lot of Parakeets! If we were closer, I’d make him some blueberry pancakes as retribution (I even make them in the shapes of Bunny Rabbits complete with whip cream tail and chocolate chip paws.). Note, this comment also got scooped up by my spam filter – it went absolutely crazy and gobbled up 4 perfectly legit comments that all came in roughly at the same time – bad spam filter, very bad. Hoping that is all fixed now and apologies for the delayed …apology.
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WP spam filter starts picking up legit comments for no reason. I have to look through the hundreds of spam to rescue legitimate comments.
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Beautiful
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Thank you Kelly! Kind of hard to capture just how how much this bird “glowed” against the darker vegetation in the area. Appreciate you dropping in and have a great rest of the week.
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Yes I bet the bird glowed. Have a great week as well.
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What a lovely bird! Nice colours.
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Thank you Luisella, this one really stuck out in the darker vegetation! Thanks for stopping in and have a great rest of your week in your far off homeland!
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Nice find (even if not a lifer) guess the psychedelic males get all the limelight (groan, but hey not a bad pun).
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Right there with you on that pun, I thought long and hard about naming the post Limelight so no groans here .. well, maybe a small one ha. The males definitely get all the attention and probably why I didn’t take careful enough notice of the mate when I first encountered the males. I still laugh at the person who identified the species for us – thinking we probably dropped about 5 notches in our bird cred based on his expression … or maybe he was just reacting to our deflated mood when we realized it wasn’t a lifer hehehe. Anyway, have that ID locked up for future encounters. Thanks for dropping in B! Hope that pond is starting to produce for ya.
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Females can be a bugger to identify. Love your post.
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Definitely agree – what probably increased the difficulty is that she was alone – no male hanging out to clue us in on the proper ID. Although, as B. noted in his comment, the presence of the male would have taken our attention and she would likely have been overlooked for the rest of the shots. This way she was the center of attention ha. Thanks for dropping in and glad you enjoyed the post!
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Butt shots are no stranger to me, from my dogs, who always walk away from me when I get the camera out, to my husband always leading the way on trails. š I went over and looked at your bunting shots, such a pretty bird. Hope to see one someday, I follow the Dauphin island facebook page, they show birds on the beach and others that people are seeing this year. What a variety. I have seen my first Magpie here in the west and I sure can’t get a photo of one. They are always flying away from me or when I don’t have my camera they are sitting right by the road.
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Ha, Not sure if I have more butt shots or more “empty” shots where the bird isn’t even in the frame anymore! Good luck on seeing the male painted, he is a beauty. They are all over Dauphin during the migration and the first one I found was in Georgia. I will have to get Linda to sign up for that Dauphin FB page if she isn’t already. Congrats on the Magpie, they can be a bit tricky to get into the tin. Got lucky out in Yellowstone/Rockies region as they were a lot more accustomed to people.. at least the ones we came upon. You are getting a lot of +1s on your extended travels.
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I would have been right there with you, mis-identifying that bird, for sure. You taught me a new bird today, I’ll keep my eye peeled on my journeys. Thanks for sharing your images (and your humor)!
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Glad I could extend your birding knowledge with this post! I feel like I have sooooo much still to learn and always enjoy finding out something new… even if it doesn’t move the needle on the life list. Now if I could just find myself a Purple Gallinule and a Limpkin …hmmmmm.. hehehe.. Have a great rest of your week Sam and thanks for stopping by.
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Another pretty greenie thingie! š I’ve never seen the female and would have thought it was something else as well.
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I am always learning something new in the birding world, that’s for sure. It would have definitely been helpful it is mate had been hanging around as the males are easy to ID. Appreciate you dropping and and joining the conversation.
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Absolutely fascinating little bird! It’s so beautiful with a yellowish and green plumage and a blue beak. Brian, I love every moment you were able to capture!
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Thank you Kaya – although it didn’t turn out to technically be a +1, it was still a new experience for both Ron and I and always appreciate the chance to learn something new in the birding world. Enjoy the rest of you weekend!
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