Wildlife photographs in southeastern Pennsylvania: Small animals with multi-month sightings in May - part 1

in American Steem • 12 days ago (edited)

Consistent with past months, the next post to display my wildlife photos from the month of May will cover small animals that were repeat sightings - i.e. I had seen them before May, and I saw them again in May. With 9 species and 22 sightings, I think this group also needs to be split into two parts.

But first, here's the overall summary table.

Common NameMay CountFirst SightingLast SightingMay Observations
American Crow12026-04-282026-05-312026-05-31
American Red Squirrel32026-03-222026-06-062026-05-10, 2026-05-17, 2026-05-26
Blue Jay32026-03-212026-06-062026-05-11, 2026-05-26, 2026-05-29
Brown-headed Cowbird22026-03-262026-05-182026-05-16, 2026-05-18
House Finch52026-04-262026-06-062026-05-09, 2026-05-13, 2026-05-15, 2026-05-24, 2026-05-31
Mourning Dove12026-03-212026-05-122026-05-12
Northern Cardinal52026-03-302026-06-062026-05-08, 2026-05-15, 2026-05-22, 2026-05-26, 2026-05-28
Northern Flicker12026-03-252026-05-092026-05-09
Red-bellied Woodpecker12026-03-012026-05-262026-05-26
Total May Count22

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This first post will cover the American Crow, the American Red Squirrel, the Brown-headed Cowbird, and the Mourning Dove - four species and just 7 sightings. Post two will cover the Blue Jay, the House Finch, the Northern Cardinal, the Northern Flicker, and the Red-bellied Woodpecker - five species, with 15 observations in iNaturalist during May. As with other posts, I don't report all animals that I see to iNaturalist, so these counts don't reflect all actual sightings. This first post is covering fewer species and observations because the American Crow comes with an interesting story.

I've actually been looking forward to telling the crow's story for more than a month, now.

American Crow

First up, we have two crow appearances where the American Crow shares the stage with other species. According to the AIs, it's basically impossible to visibly distinguish between an American Crow and a Fish Crow. However, Fish Crows typically live near bodies of water. Therefore, when I see a crow in my yard, I assume that it's an American Crow. Also, the American Crow has a very distinctive "caw" sound, so I can be certain if I see & hear it.

These crows can live up to 17 years old, and they have been known to make use of tools - like a discarded cup for carrying water or dropping pinecones on tree-climbers who venture too close to a nest.

Last month, I wrote about how I had seen a crow mobbing (harassing) a hawk in April, and totally missed the hawk until I got inside and uploaded the photos to the computer. May started out with the exact same situation, but this time I knew to look for the hawk when I saw the crow, and the way it was behaving.

In the first photo, you can see the crow harassing the hawk, and the hawk looking none too happy about it. At that point, since I knew to look for the hawk, I started focusing the camera on the bird in the tree, but the crow hung around, so I got some pictures with both of them.
May 2May 2
ƒ/5 · 1/1250s · 108mm · 25x (601mm equiv.) · ISO220ƒ/5 · 1/1250s · 108mm · 25x (601mm equiv.) · ISO400
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May 2May 2
ƒ/5 · 1/1250s · 108mm · 25x (601mm equiv.) · ISO400ƒ/5 · 1/1250s · 108mm · 25x (601mm equiv.) · ISO400
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After a while, the crow left, and I kept taking photos of the hawk. Wasn't I surprised when I moved to a different spot with better visibility - and when I put the camera up again - a 2nd hawk had joined the first at the top of the tree? You'll have to wait for a future post for those photos, with one exception - below. The crow apparently came back and tried to harass both of the hawks, and I caught that in the camera, too.

To me, the black bird below here looked too big to be a crow, so my first guess was that a Turkey Vulture happened to fly by while I was shooting. But, that seems unlikely, and the AIs were insistent that it is a crow, so they eventually convinced me. I guess the overly large size appearance of the black bird is just a trick of the lens or the camera angle. Maybe I'll put up a post in the Steem Oasis community, and see what kind of bird Steem participants think it is.

After observing them in that tree a few more times, later in May, I have concluded that these particular hawks are year-round residents with a nest somewhere nearby, and they are a mated pair. Claude and I named them "Frosty" (light head) and "Toasty" (dark head), but my wife calls them "Fred" and "Ethel".
May 2
ƒ/7.1 · 1/500s · 395mm · 92x (2198mm equiv.) · ISO640
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Later in May, the American Crow was on the opposite side of a "mobbing" incident. I can't tell for sure what the little bird is, but the AIs seem convinced that it's an Eastern Kingbird. Last week, I alluded to the fact that Eastern Kingbirds are known for aggressive/territorial behavior during nesting season. It would seem that this photo offers an example of that behavior.
May 31
ƒ/5 · 1/1250s · 89.9mm · 20x (500mm equiv.) · ISO220
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American Red Squirrel

I recorded 3 sightings with iNaturalist, and I'm fairly sure I saw these squirrels more often than that. The American Red Squirrel is found in parts of Alaska, Canada, the northern United States, and throughout the Appalachian and Rocky Mountain ranges.

The other common squirrel in this area is the Eastern Gray Squirrel. The red squirrel can be distinguished from the gray squirrel by its smaller size, the red tail, and a white ring around the eyes. Despite their small size, they are known for their aggressive behavior - especially at the bird feeder.
May 10May 10
ƒ/8 · 1/80s · 539mm · 125x (3000mm equiv.) · ISO800ƒ/7.1 · 1/60s · 395mm · 92x (2198mm equiv.) · ISO800
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May 17May 17
ƒ/5 · 1/80s · 89.9mm · 20x (500mm equiv.) · ISO400ƒ/6.3 · 1/125s · 288mm · 66x (1602mm equiv.) · ISO720
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May 26May 26
ƒ/6.3 · 1/160s · 288mm · 66x (1602mm equiv.) · ISO1600ƒ/6.3 · 1/160s · 288mm · 66x (1602mm equiv.) · ISO1600
image.pngimage.png

Brown-headed Cowbird

The deadbeats of the yard are the Brown-headed Cowbirds (aka "brood parasites"). They don't build their own nests, incubate their own eggs, or raise their own young. Instead, the female of the species lays up to 3 dozen eggs per year in the nests of other birds, and depends on the other birds to parent the hatchlings. The Brown-headed Cowbird is America's most common brood parasite.

These birds were once confined to the grasslands in the middle of the North American continent, but as people have cleared forests and built towns, the Cowbirds have spread their habitat. They can now be found year round in parts of Mexico as well as the central, southern, and eastern United States (northern Florida up to the mid-Atlantic states). In the winter months, they migrate to southern Florida and Central America. In the summer months, they migrate north to Canada.
May 18May 18
ƒ/7.1 · 1/250s · 467mm · 108x (2599mm equiv.) · ISO400ƒ/8 · 1/1000s · 539mm · 125x (3000mm equiv.) · ISO1600
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Mourning Dove

And finally, the last animal we'll cover in this post is the Mourning Dove. After this question from @emmabritt, I learned that the Mourning Dove gets its name from the sorrowful sound of its call (which you can hear, here).

Throughout the year, the Mourning Dove can be found throughout the continental United States, along with parts of Mexico. It migrates to Canada during the spring/summer months and further into Central America during the winter.

Surprisingly (to me), the Mourning Dove is widely hunted. Hunters harvest more than 20 million of these birds per year, and the species still maintains a population of around 350 million. Based on my observations while photographing them, it seems that the challenging part of the hunt would be finding the birds. Once found, they appear to spend a great deal of their time sitting still in plain view (albeit usually fairly high off the ground).

The first photo isn't a great one, but it shows a Mourning Dove (lower left) and an Eastern Kingbird (upper right) in a tree together. I only logged one Mourning Dove observation on iNaturalist, but I saw them on multiple occasions.
May 12May 12
ƒ/6.3 · 1/320s · 288mm · 66x (1602mm equiv.) · ISO280ƒ/8 · 1/320s · 503mm · 116x (2799mm equiv.) · ISO320
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Also, Jet Blue passed overhead at the same moment. ;-)
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Back to the Mourning Doves. Usually, I see them in trees or on the telephone wires, but during May I managed to see one on the ground.
May 15May 15
ƒ/8 · 1/1000s · 539mm · 125x (3000mm equiv.) · ISO800ƒ/8 · 1/640s · 539mm · 125x (3000mm equiv.) · ISO1600
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May 18
ƒ/6.3 · 1/200s · 359mm · 83x (2000mm equiv.) · ISO1600
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Wrap-up

That's it for today's post with photos of the first group of small animals that I observed during repeated months, including May. Today's post included the American Crow, the American Red Squirrel, the Brown-headed Cowbird, and the Mourning Dove.

The main highlight in this group was probably the pair of observations of "mobbing" behavior that involved an American Crow. In the first case, the crow was doing the mobbing, but in the second, the crow was being mobbed. After this day, I had sort-of a "cheat code" for finding Red-tailed Hawks in that pine tree, with or without crows present, so a future post will have plenty of hawk photos in that tree. It seems that the "cheat code" has already expired, though. I haven't seen those birds back in the tree for a few weeks, now.

Appendix

Here are my previous wildlife photography posts from the Spring months of 2026:

May's photographs

April's photographs

March's photographs

Thank you for your attention!

All photos above were taken by me with a Nikon P1000 camera. I'm sharing them under the CC BY 4.0 license (share & adapt freely with attribution to the original source).

#wildlife #photography #citizen-science #animals
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