Boy, do I need a tripod

I decided that tonight, when the moon is pretty full, I would go out and take some photos through the binocs. I don't really know the temperature right now, but I would estimate that it's somewhere between just plain freezing and I-can't-feel-my-fingers-freezing. Don't worry, Mom--the feeling came back after only five minutes in front of the heater.

It snowed earlier today, though it was just a light dusting. What happened to autumn?

Oh--it's 30 degrees outside right now, according to State College's own AccuWeather.

Now--about the tripod. I don't have one, and I really think that fact is contributing to my badly focused photos (somewhat). I think I'm going to have to go out tomorrow and buy one. I saw this neat one at this Ritz camera shop in the mall; it had a "joystick" control set-up. I will need to take my camera and my binocs with me, I'm guessing, to make sure everything mounts right.

So I was trying to take these moon shots with no tripod. Slow shutter speed, thanks to the darkness, and no tripod. I think you see where this is going.

First attempt: "mount" the binocs on a pear tree branch, then hold the camera up to the eyepiece. That didn't work, sad to say. But pear trees smell really good; did you know that? It had a really sweet woody smell; I never noticed that before. But then again, the cold may have been affecting me.

Second attempt: "mount" the binocs on a fencepost and then hold the camera up there. Again--no luck. Too hard to align everything. By now, my fingers are starting to hurt.

Finally, I'm embarassed to tell you that I got about a 5-1/2 foot length of 2x2 and bungee-corded the binocs to the top. Then I leaned that contraption on some pear branches (wanted to smell that tree again), and got the following photos.

I know what you're thinking--"I thought you said the moon was full." That's a bit of vignetting from the shaky camera/binoc connection/alignment. Sorry. And the focus is less than stellar (as usual).

This one was a little better, but you can still see a little vignetting as I struggled to hold the camera to the binocs and keep the moon in frame at the same time. Not easy. I took a few other super-blurry ones. I deleted those. By now, I can't feel my fingers and my toes are getting numb. Time to go inside, but not before I shoot a plain old camera shot of the moon:



As I type this entry, I realize I've learned a valuable lesson about myself: I must like to make things harder than they need to be. I could've bought an inexpensive "starter" scope and an adapter for the same amount of money I've spent on lenses and pipe and bits of wood and plastic and cardboard. I see that now. And I look at other people's blogs (real digiscopers) and I admit I'm jealous of their Swarovski scopes with fancy tripods, and the way they have adapters actually made for the scopes and that fit the cameras, and how they don't have to hold the scope and the camera and somehow freeze their arms so everything stays aligned and in-frame.

Yes, I'm jealous. But at the same time, I just really feel like, from a financial point of view, I have taken the paths available to me. I've made a lot of mistakes, but never anything that cost me more than a few dollars. (Of course, we won't talk about how much those "few dollars" add up to, once you combine all the "little" mistakes...) And I suppose I could get really frustrated about that, but I think it would be better to look back and laugh. If there's one thing I love doing, it's learning. And I've learned a lot since I began beginning to bird.

I'll get a good tripod tomorrow; that's a step in the right direction. I have a great camera, suitable to my abilities and skill level--another positive. I have decent binoculars, and the scope--well, it's coming along. I'm hitting the plumbing supply tomorrow and getting a bigger pipe for the focusing barrel, and then I just really need to apply myself and get a decent eyepiece mount made. Then I'll have a good spotting scope that will just need to be mounted to the tripod.

Another potential disaster there, but why change my modus operandi now?

Right now, I'm really excited because I'm going birding in the morning. I'm hoping to get some good photos of the landscape around here, which never ceases to take my breath away. On the way to work, I saw what I could swear was a bluebird this morning--shouldn't he be down south right now?

Wish me luck. I'll let you know how it goes.

Birding meme from Mike McDowell

From Mike McDowell who got it from Nuthatch:

What state (or country) do you live in?: Central PA, USA
How long have you been birding?: Seriously since 2005.
Are you a "lister"?: Not really. Don’t really understand listservs!
ABA Life List: under a hundred.
Overall Life List: Same.
3 Favorite Birding Spots: my backyard/marsh behind my house near Spring Mills PA, Shaver’s Creek just south of State College PA, and--I don't know yet. A place yet to be discovered.
Favorite birding spot outside your home country: The only times I’ve ever been outside this country were to go to San Luis Potosi, SLP, Mexico. And I was a kid, not really into birding. Farthest you've traveled to chase a rare bird: I’ve not yet done one of these chases.
"Best" bird sighting: late spring, marsh behind the house, an American bittern.
Most wanted trip: Galapagos Islands or Costa Rica.
Most wanted bird: anything not on my list.
What model and brand of bins do you use?: Leupold 9x35 (old)
What model and brand of scope do you use?: my own homemade one with 21X magnification and an 80mm x 400mm FL objective (though it’s still in the prototype stage). Someday I may buy a Swarovski ATHD80—but I can’t see spending that kind of dough on a scope.
What was the last lifer you added to your list?: Bald eagle.
Where did you see your last lifer?: my backyard.
What's the last bird you saw today?: cedar waxwing (I think) this morning.
Best bird song you've heard ever: couldn’t ID it, but it was beautiful and strange.
Favorite birding moment: The first time I digiscoped.
Least favorite thing about birding: Best times to view birds are either when I’m asleep or at work.
Favorite thing about birding: Birds' quirky and interesting behaviors.
Favorite field guide for the US: Peterson’s.
Favorite non-field guide bird book: haven’t really read any yet.
Who is your birder icon?: ? Maybe Birdchick.
Do you have a bird feeder(s)?: Yes.
Favorite feeder bird?: Black-Capped Chickadee and Northern Cardinal (a tie)

The woodpecker appears

Finally, I've gotten some photos of that woodpecker that comes to the suet feeder:

Not very clear, but you can see the red patch on the nape in the first one, and the second one is a little clearer. I've really got to get better at focusing. At any rate, I finally got this guy.

It's a very cold and very windy day today, and the sun is shining into partial cloud cover. Everything has a beautiful golden glow; this is my favorite time of the day. I took a few photos of the view out the back door:
The ducks--dozens of them--were really active this afternoon, circling the marsh, flying away, then coming back finally to settle in.
It's probably hard to see on the web, but when you look closely at the duck pair there, on the right side duck, you can see his little legs trailing behind him. It was really cute.

My inability to capture with a camera the things I see with my eyes frustrates me. I know the eyes are far better able to adjust and color the world than a lens ever could be, but I think that I might someday be a better photographer and capture images in a better fashion.


A puffed-up little sparrow lit on a fencepost, but when I tried to creep closer, he flew away.The sky is beautiful right now:

I really like this one, taken just left of the fast-setting sun:

I like the way mists cling to the mountains like puffs of smoke and then they rise into the sky:
Finally, a shot of one of my favorite things: the moon.

Backyard photos, chilly fall day edition

I haven't posted any photos in a while, so I thought I'd go take some backyard photos of the marsh in the autumn.

We have an amazing number of white-crowned sparrows (updated ID thanks to Mike McDowell--I had "swallow"--what was I thinking?) here today. Here are a pair who let me get about eight feet away.

It's not a great photo, but I love the guy on the left's little expression and his profile. The birds really love that thicket (the one where we found the little Peeper) and I have thought about making a blind for myself and just setting up near it and snapping away. I like the red branches of this big woody-stemmed plant, though I don't know what it is.


Here are some other photos:

This is a sorry state of nasturtium unhappiness, I must say, though one flower refuses to give up! I don't know how he's surviving, but he must be huddling under the dead plants at night or something, because it's been very cold.

I don't know what kind of growth this is on an old stump in the yard. Here's another look at a more colorful specimen:For some reason I thought these were called "bracken" but that's actually a fern. So perhaps it's some form of lichen? I checked a lichen web site, and while I did find this little tidbit about a lichen that's used by golden plovers for nesting material, I didn't find any lichens that looked like this.

I saw a few ducks flying around over the marsh, their winter home.

It's hard to see but there's a duck flying above my head here (the black speck). I called this photo "lone duck sky" which sounds like a strange combination of an Asian and a Native American name. Perhaps I should make a sequel to Dances with Wolves?

Egg Hill, resplendent in its fall outfit

Here's some evidence of a woodpecker on this new suet cake I'm trying:
It's some sort of "red hot pepper" flavor, which according to the package was supposed to drive woodpeckers wild or something, but I haven't actually seen any birds on it yet. Still--someone's been pecking.

Now that's a lot of box elder bugs.

Here's a photo of the art studio/crazy uncle house/office/cottage I've been working on:

It used to look like this:
This is a view from another angle, but I had to show you the hideous faux brick tar-paper-siding stuff that used to be on it. We stripped that off, and later I was told by a friend that this siding had asbestos in it--uh oh. I guess it's too late to worry about that now. . . . At any rate, we've been redoing the windows and everything, just trying to make it look better than the eyesore it once was, and more like a little cottage or studio.

By this point, I was really getting cold, so I came inside to find Niblet doing a little reading:

He really loves his subscription to Vanity Fair. But then I've always suspected that he's one of those liberal weirdos who can't get enough of that Hollywood gossip.

(bunny experts: that glossy paper isn't bad for him, is it? He really loves it!)

"Hey, I haven't read that issue yet! Did you eat
the cover photo of that dreamy George Clooney?! Gees!"

Birds in Box Stores

This article came to me courtesy of Robyn Graboski, our local wildlife rehabber. Go swallows!

"Hi-tech Barn Swallows"
A couple of Minnesota Barn Swallows have raised the bar on the scale of "Swallow IQ." For the past four years, a pair of Barn Swallows has nested inside the lumberyard entryway at the Home Depot store in Maplewood, Minnesota. At least one pair has learned that if they fly a tight circle in front of the motion detector above the double doors at the entry to the Home Depot, the doors open. Each bird then flies one more loop as the doors open and swoops inside where the pair has built a nest atop a small pipe near the ceiling. When a bird is ready to leave, it flies a tight circle in front of the motion detector inside the doorway and the doors again open for Home Depot's small avian customers.

The press report:
Keith Stomberg, a supervisor at the store, first noticed the birds nesting inside in the summer of 2001. He was fascinated by their apparent learned behavior and left them alone to raise their families. It was a good place for the swallows to raise their young because there were no predators or bad weather. The pair typically raised two broods each year. When the birds returned to nest in 2003, he contacted the staff of the Non game Wildlife Program of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
Wildlife biologist Joan Galli observed the nesting swallows and was amazed to see how the birds had adapted to the unique setting in order to raise their families. "We typically think of the crow family and the parrot family as among the most intelligent of birds, " according to Galli, "but apparently the swallows have a few tricks of their own that help us appreciate how birds are constantly adapting to survive in novel human-created environments.

"Birds Opening the Coop" -- Kermit Pattison in The St. Paul Pioneer Press, 6/26/04:
Some barn swallows apparently have figured out how to operate motion detector doors at the Home Depot store in Maplewood in order to nest indoors safe from weather and predators.
Wildlife biologists from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources are observing the birds as an unusual example of learned behavior and adaptation to the human environment.
"I thought this is so unusual that it needs to be recorded and put in the book of knowledge on barn swallows," said Keith Stomberg, the Home Depot employee who first noticed the phenomenon. "This takes deductive reasoning. The term 'bird brain' now has got to be modified."
Steve Kittelson, a DNR wildlife specialist, said it remains unclear to what degree the swallows have "learned" to trigger the motion sensors. Obviously, the birds have figured out that if they circle outside, much as they would instinctively do in front of a closed barn door, they will eventually get through. The question is whether they realize that their own presence actually triggers the door to open.
"It's very interesting and amazing to watch that they can make this work to their advantage," Kittelson said. "It certainly gives them a secure site for nesting. They've eliminated a lot of predators and weather elements. They even have air conditioning."
This year marks the fourth spring the swallows have taken up residence inside the giant home improvement retailer at 2360 White Bear Ave. Now there are at least a dozen nests inside various entrances, said store manager Gregg Barker.
"They'll operate all the doors," said Barker. "All of them do. To get inside, they'll flutter right underneath these sensors until it opens."
The cavernous store has become an attraction for birdwatchers.
"One lady, she stops in once a week just to check them out," said Barker. "I had a couple of groups of bird watchers who come and set up videos to tape them."
Stomberg said he first noticed the unusual behavior about three years ago while working at the contractor's desk near a set of automatic doors.
He said the swallows would flutter by the motion detectors until the door opened and even would do so as a courtesy for birds on the other side who wanted to get through.
"One of the assistant managers locked the door early," Stomberg recalled. "The barn swallows weren't done yet. They actually picked him and harassed him until he unlocked the door like, 'Hey! Unlock the door dummy, I'm not done feeding my kids!'"
Stomberg said he called the Department of Natural Resources last year. The DNR officials who came to investigate last spring initially were skeptical, he said, but then "picked their jaws up off the floor" as they watched the birds.

A sad day for freedom

Warning: If you don't feel like reading a political post, head over to another birdy blog for a while. (But come back tomorrow!)

I actually posted some thoughts on this new Military Commissions Act of 2006 that the president just signed into law on my more politically leaning blog, Impeachment and Other Dreams, but it bears noting on every blog, history book page, and scrap of paper in America that yesterday, the rights and freedoms guaranteed to us by the U.S. Constitution were taken away.

Basically, from now on, if the government chooses to label you an "enemy combatant" or as a person who's given "material aid" to terrorist groups, you will be disappeared. As in "made to go away for a very long time and it's not to summer camp either." You will not have the right to even question your imprisonment. You will not have the right to see the "evidence" the government has compiled to prove their "case."

I recently read the first three books of Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago, and I have to tell you that what is happening now sounds very much like what happened in Russia in the last century.

Last year, Bush supposedly said that the Constitution was "just a goddamned piece of paper." I guess the stupidest man ever to hold public office is finally right about something. Hope he's happy.

Finally--a scope update

I'm sure you're wondering what's become of my homemade spotting scope. I haven't had much time to play with the scope or anything lately, what with my class, my job, and my work on the little cottage in the backyard. Here is an update, though there's very little news to relate.

Remember that I ended up with a huge objective lens, 80mm in diameter. Right now, I'm trying to figure out how to go from my 1-1/4-inch eyepiece/image-erecting prism to that giant diameter. Before, I had just kept the smaller diameter tube from when I had the crazy non-color-corrected objective (remember the full-bore horror show?), then added a big adapter for the big objective. However, I had a big problem with vignetting, which Astronomy Boy reminded me meant that somewhere, my focal path was being interrupted. I figure it was somewhere in the barrel/eyepiece.

So I need to go get a bigger barrel (a little over 3 inches), then figure out how I'm going to bring that down in diameter to accommodate the prism and eyepiece. Perhaps something like this? (excuse the horrible MS Paint drawing you're about to see--I wish I had access to Adobe Illustrator or even PhotoShop, so I could create some decent graphics)










So--basically, I'm wondering if I can find some sort of adapter that sizes down in one step between a 3-inch-ish PVC pipe and a 1-1/4-inch pipe. I also have to find a pipe that's only slightly smaller than the 3" pipe in order to create the two-piece sliding barrel that will enable me to focus. This will require some hard time at the hardware store, playing around with all those crazy adapters and pipes and things.

I'm hoping to get down to the hardware store this weekend. Wish me luck, and if you have any suggestions at all--bring 'em on! I could use all the help I can get.

Bald eagle sighting

Yesterday, as I stood out in the backyard surveying my handiwork on the little cottage, I looked up and saw a real-live bald eagle flying over the treetops across the road. I've seen two bald eagles before, but both were in captivity at raptor centers. This was the first time I'd ever seen one in nature before, and it was unmistakeable--the brown large body, the white head and neck. It was a real treat for me, and another lifebird to add. (I don't count the birds I've seen in cages.)

I just wish I'd had my camera.

The little peeper

A couple of weeks ago while we were outside working on the art studio/crazy uncle house/cottage, we kept hearing this little sound--mew mew mew mew mew mew--like a baby catbird calling its mother. We heard the sound for a few days in a row but couldn't find the source. It was coming from the marsh, but we couldn't see anything.

Finally, last Saturday, I found the source; it wasn't a bird at all. It was a little kitten! He was tiny, all alone, and meowing his little head off. Well of course when I tried to approach him he ran off into a thicket of multiflora rose. There was no getting him out of there, so I just put some food by the fence.

Next day, what do I find curled up asleep on the compost pile? The little kitten. We thought at first he might be dead, but he was alive. He let me pick him up and we brought him in and called our local PAWS and left them a message. Obviously, with our FIV+ babies, we couldn't have him around.

We quarantined him in Em's room and fed him some food and milk. Poor little guy--so small that his tail is still doing that little kitten shaky thing. Here's a picture of the boy:

He's very tiny:

He kept up that little "mew mew mew," and because we found him where the spring peepers usually live, I began to call him Peeper. Kat wanted to call him Catbird, but then shortened that to Birdie.

Needless to say, the other cats were not amused. Both of them wanted to know just what was making that noise and why it wouldn't go away. Clawsie got so vexed that she took to swatting at Kisses any time she heard little Peeper/Birdie making noise. Poor Kisses--Clawsie can be a cruel sister.

At any rate, we got him to PAWS, where he tested negative for FIV, FLV, and all the other bad things kitties can get. He had a little case of worms, but they took care of that quickly. He's now at a good foster home with a little playmate his age (about four weeks), waiting for a permanent home to find him.

Now that he's left us, I miss him. If he'd had FIV, we would've adopted him ourselves, but there was no way we could bring a healthy cat in. The risk would be too great for him and for our babies. But I'm glad we got to save him. We still haven't seen any potential mother-cats around, so we really have no idea where he came from. The marsh, I guess.

Little catbird.

Houston, we have a monarch!

What's this?



Finally, on Day 30, our little caterpillar has become what he was born to be: a monarch.

He spent a few minutes trying out his little nectar sucker thing.
Look at the bluish tint of his right front leg in the sunlight.

He has a very hairy little body.

After a while, he managed to make it over to the railing of the front steps.

He's still out there, getting ready to fly.

This process of making it over to the railing took at least four hours. Is that normal? It's gotten rather cold tonight, so I'm a little worried about him. I'm glad he finally made it out of the ashtray.

I wish him all the best. Maybe he'll fly down past my parents' house in Harlingen, on his way to Mexico.

Adios, amigo. Que te vaya bien.

Chrysalis Day 29

Twenty-nine days after finding a monarch caterpillar in Kat's outdoor ashtray, we've arrived at this point tonight:


But still, no eclosure. Here's another look:
You can see that the chrysalis skin looks like it's stretching to hold the enlarging butterfly. Maybe tomorrow. I may have to spend the whole day outside, watching. Wouldn't that be a pity?

Also, I took some photos of the babies, as you haven't seen them in a while. They were wandering around Niblet's space (two connecting area rugs in the living room), playing chase and generally hanging out last night.

Niblet reading the paper.

Clawsie arriving on the scene.

Kisses exploring Niblet's willow tunnel.

Niblet exploring his willow tunnel.

Bird ID revision, chrysalis update

First off, prepare to be a little confused--but try to stay with me.

I saw that mystery bird again--not the one I ID'd as a red-bellied woodpecker (that really was a RBW female), but the bird I actually saw the first time I saw the mystery bird. Apparently, I've been seeing two different birds.

Yesterday, I saw the original mystery bird again--no red on the nape, the ring-like thing around the neck, the stripes on the back--the way I remembered it in my initial description. Here is a really horrible drawing on MS Paint:

This is really bad--and the text is too small to read. But basically, the wings are stripey, there's a definite white stripe/patch on the back between the wings, and the nape and face--well, you can see why I thought it was a ring now. But it was more of a mask-like kind of thing, two of them actually, extending onto the face (I think). Didn't get a great look at it, but I did see it long enough to note the complete LACK of any red on the back of the head/nape.

Thus I ask you--what is this bird? The downy, hairy, and red-bellied woodies all have some red on the head. This one had nothing but black and white all over. Definitely clung to tree and moved very fast around the trunk. About the size of a cardinal.

Help?

Further--the chrysalis is soooo close. I hope he's just starting to eclose when I get home, but I may miss him. I got a great picture last night, which I'll post later this evening (it's at home, still on the camera).

UPDATE! Per my birding friend Roana, it's a female hairy woodpecker!

Chrysalis update

This morning, as I ran out of the house, I took a quick peek at our chrysalis--definitely getting darker. No pictures, unfortunately, but I'm confident that he will eclose today. And that I'll miss it!

I'm hoping he'll wait until late afternoon. Either way, I'll have some photos soon.

Wind turbines lecture

I just attended a slideshow on wind turbines in Pennsylvania and the damage they might do to our songbirds and raptors. Basically, energy companies want to put long lines of 70-80 meter-diameter turbines on every ridgetop in the central part of PA. That, according to the lecturer from the Audubon Society, could negatively impact every species of bird (not to mention mammals and snakes) in our state, essentially changing migratory routes and causing unknowable species effects.

It was a pretty scary lecture. One slide presented the number of birds killed by a communication tower on one foggy night. The tower was under 200 feet tall, so it has a steady (non-blinking) white light at the top. On a foggy night, it's like a flame drawing moths--over 400 songbirds were killed on one night in 2003. The slide even presented little bird carcasses, which really hit me hard.

If we allow these wind turbines to line our mountain ridges, in combination with the communication towers and other structures, we could see a massive drop in bird population.

Definitely a thought-provoking presentation, and one that more people need to see.

Clearly something is happening

ancient, delicate instructions

form eyes from cells,

legs from impulses,

wings from air.

clearly, something is happening.

a color, a tint,

a hint of something happening.

striving to become something

more beautiful than yourself,

you hide away as you become

something new.

A-ha! A woodpecker!

I believe I've identified that mystery bird I saw for a second or two on the platform feeder on Saturday. He appeared again on the suet feeder yesterday morning as Kat and I were digging a big hole to find our well. (long story--suffice it to say, there's still a big hole in the backyard)

As I said, he appeared again at the suet feeder, and I got to look at him for a little longer, and I noted a distinct red patch on the back of his neck (his nape). Turns out I'd seen a female red-bellied woodpecker. I still didn't get a photo, but I'm pretty confident on the ID. Definitely a female, as the red patch was only on the nape, not on the head as well.

Thanks to whatbird.com -- and the bird herself for making a second appearance so I could spot that red patch.

One note needs to be set down, however: Look at my original description and see all the crazy characteristics I attributed to the bird that could not possibly have been there--"crested head"???? Oh dear. Hallucination? Bad memory? Bad eyesight? You decide. Needless to say, this beginning birder might need to study up a little more on key identifying characteristics to look for--and carry a camera on her person at all times.

Birds at the feeder

Many times, birds come to the feeder as a couple. Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal pretty much do this all the time:
You can't see Mr. Cardinal too well--he's on the feeder, near the front edge, hidden by a pine branch. But there's Mrs. Cardinal on the fence wire, watching for danger. It's interesting to me how the male is the more skittish of the pair, preferring to have Mrs. C come and check things out before he finally makes his appearance. And he's always more easily startled than she is.

Or maybe she's just a pig and won't let a little danger keep her from eating her fill?

The house finches also made an appearance, though Mr. Finch's coloring has faded somewhat from its summer brilliance:

When I worked at Domino's Pizza in Fort Worth, I used to spend my time between deliveries hanging out at the back door, feeding and watching a little house finch who liked pizza crust. I'd throw pizza crusts out into the parking lot beneath tree where he'd always perch, and he'd show up eventually to eat. I guess he knew my schedule.

This platform feeder is homemade, and it's at an angle because the top of the fence post was cut at an angle. I get a lot of tufted titmice, black-capped chicadees, cardinals, and sparrows. This morning, I got a very strange bird I'd never seen before--though by the time I turned on my camera he was gone.

He had a cardinal/titmouse shape, though he was about the size of a cardinal. Here's what I remember of his appearance: he had a white breast, a ring around his neck, a dark head with white parts (see the horned lark head and neck for similar example), kind of a crested head, and horizontal white-and-black striping on his back when perched. I don't think it was a woodpecker, but maybe? I don't know any other birds with horizontal stripes on their backs when their wings are folded. I wish my camera had been on!

I tried finding him on whatbird.com, but I couldn't. There's no telling what he was, what with the season, the migration going on, etc. He was only on the feeder for a couple of seconds, then he flew away.

This was a lifebird for me--whatever he was. I had another lifebird yesterday, as I digiscoped (through the binocs) this kingfisher on the heron tree:

Apologies for the blur, but it's over 200 yards away. Shortly after I snapped this pic, he dove for something--a fish? It looked silver and longish, but I don't know whether there are fish in the little ponds on the marsh. At any rate, I missed that shot, getting only an empty branch and green background, which I won't post a photo of. Here are a couple more photos of him:


I also went around to our wildflower bed in the front yard and took some photos of a new flower that's sprung up:
It also comes in a rather ostentatious shade of purple:
I don't know many wildflowers of Central PA--any help on ID would be appreciated--both on the flower and on the mystery bird.