Birds: week of February 15, 2015

     A white-throat[ed] sparrow flew in with some chickadees and nuthatches several days ago after a storm. It ate some black oiled sunflower seeds from the clinging feeder [but sitting on the tray] for a long time. I spotted one [same one or different one who is to say] today who spent much less time at the same feeder but then flew off to the pine trees.

     Our chickadees have indeed become a mixed flock this winter to include a few nuthatches and many juncos. The house sparrows that hang in our short pine and along the extended branch [read: untrimmed] of our mock cherry tree continue to do so. They have been a bit quieter since the snow storms started, not really fighting each other for places on the feeders as they usually do. We've a pair of cardinals who have been coming to the mock cherry steadily on a daily basis. Today I saw the male over at one of the suet feeders negotiating a place with a female downy [woodpecker] and one junco. The three birds seemed to have been taking turns as it worked out. A collection of mourning doves continue to hang on the deck rail as well as in the yards feeding on whatever spills from the feeders. They also tend to hang on various branches for half-hour naps. The blue jays, crows, and red-winged blackbirds are always in the neighborhood. We've had a couple crows choosing to hang out in branches above the yard quietly observing. Kestrels continue in abundance of late. I usually see at least one a day which is more than this time last year. They don't come to the feeders. I see them circling around or parked in the top branches of a tree. I did see several crows chasing a hawk away from some nearby woods. My imagination told me the crows were angry. The crows were scolding as they flew after the hawk. The hawk flew away and I haven't seen it since. The hawk was impossible for me to identify as it was a couple of standard city blocks away from me in distance.

     I can tell when the storms are coming because the birds feed frantically in greater numbers the day before each storm comes in. Today has been exceptionally cold with wind chills to 30 below or more and hardly a bird in sight. Can't say I blame them. I barely venture out in this weather myself.

     The squirrels do not stay away in the cold. I've seen our standard grays, a few reds, and some red gray crosses. Several of them hand in the choke cherry when confronted with the old dog and then jump up to branches of the oak tree behind us. Two of them run for the deck rail and then plunge over the snow to then climb the aspen and then fling themselves over the fence that way. Yeah, there still is the one daredevil around who goes to ground immediately when confronted with the dog and then runs under the fence. I think that one just likes the chase.

     In the woods nearby, there was a sudden increase in deer prints. It looked to me like many deer came through rather than just a few. The deer tend to hang below one of the trails but these prints were right where we walk into the woods and were "many" rather than four or five sets.

     I've also seen rabbit prints in the yard but no actual rabbit themselves [yet] this year. There usually are several who may be living under a bush near the front feeder but I haven't seen them yet. They are the common cottontails. I did also see a set of snowshoe prints.

sapphoq n furry friends

Birds: Week of January 23, 2015

     Old dog, her walking buddy, and I went for a short meander in some woods the other day. The snow was crunchy underfoot. I found a nest.

Nest in young sapling, view one

Nest in young sapling, view two

Nest in young sapling, view three

It will be curious to find out if nest will be reused this spring. Behind the nest is a view of an old [farmers] field which hasn't been planted in many years. The sapling itself was in the midst of a collection of young ash, aspen, birch, and not so young hawthorn trees-- and some brambles. Casual footpaths lead to the field from several directions. The trees within the woods are much older than those around the field.

     Dogs were tired afterwards and spent some time sprawled out on the living room rug before I took old dog's walking buddy home to her family.

     In the side yard the other day nosing around a willow was a male white throat [Zonotrichia albicollis] who had neglected to read his bird manual. Admittedly, I've mostly viewed white throats running through side brush but this one had decided to nose around the mid-level of the willow instead. Shortly after he left [and I saw no other ones then], a downy woodpecker landed on the suet cake in the same willow tree.

     The chickadee flocks in the backyard by the feeders have become more mixed of late. They've included nuthatches along with a few white-throats but not the fox sparrow that hangs with them in later spring.

     When picking up old dog's walking companion the other day, I was amused [but not surprised] to find a pileated investigating a tree across the way. The picture is not a very good one. The colors are lost but it was clearly a pileated. My conjecture is a pregnant female but I wouldn't bet money on that.

Pileated 

     Old dog has hosted several sleepovers with a couple of doggie buddies of late. Here are two pics of old dog and her collie buddy before organizing friend came to help me organize the living room.

Collie buddy and old dog, view one

Collie buddy and old dog, view two

     Old dog is definitely showing her age and I dread the day of her death. I am amazed that she has lasted this long-- she is twelve and a half-- but for as long as she is eating, walking, and fairly happy then life will go on. She has been sleeping a bit longer in the mornings lately. If she is fortunate, she will pass naturally in her sleep.

     She does have a bit of arthritis in one rear leg and in the small of her back. Gentle exercise and the inclusion of her younger walking buddy [which I call with great affection "the rent-a-dog" who lives in the neighborhood] along with a daily anti-inflammatory has so far staved off having to make the decision to put her down. I do very much carefully evaluate her quality of life. I've observed what happens to dogs and cats when their owners are unable to let them go.

     I have caught old dog on the deck watching the birds at the feeders in the backyard. She used to hate mourning doves [and chased them off in her younger days] but she has now accepted their presence to the point of allowing them to rest on the deck railing near where she naps. She also has sorted through her escapades with squirrels, choosing to chase them only when they are swinging upside-down from the baffles over the tube feeders. She used to chase all backyard squirrels on general principle but now not so much. My guess is that a squirrel hanging upside-down is too much of a temptation for even an old dog to resist.

     Within the last couple of years, red squirrels have moved in and are now interbreeding with our grays. The results are fertile and colorful. I've seen mostly gray squirrels with fluffed out red tails, gray squirrels with red coloring mid-section but with gray tails, and every possible variation. The reds have thinner tails than the grays do but when they get together, the babies are interesting. They also appear to retain their bi-coloration through adulthood. I've heard reports that black squirrels are also moving into the area but I haven't seen them round here as of yet. I like blacks and I look forward to their addition to the neighborhood.

     I've continued this winter with leaving peanuts in the shell [unsalted, unroasted] out for the blue jays and crows weekly. It's great fun to watch the corvids carry away their prizes. Some of the jays will eat a peanut in a nearby tree and then come back for more to carry away to their caches. But the crows always fly off with them. The squirrels and some of the woodpeckers too get excited about the peanuts. Even so, it is primarily the blue jays and some crows that descend upon the yard within minutes of putting out the peanuts.

sapphoq and friends of the furry and feathered kind

     As usual, I took the pictures myself. As usual, you are free to right-click and save to somewhere on your computer, upload them to social media sites with or without any clever captions that you wish to add or not.

     As usual, if you are a copyright troll I have no love for you. The originals of my photos are safely stored in several places and you can go find some other targets to involve in your legal quarrels.

     And for good measure-- fuck the DRM.

Bird News September 20, 2014

 

I took the picture and added the frame and text with my legally obtained photo software. Copyright trolls and DMCA freaks, go away. To the rest of you, you can right-click and save to your "My Computer" if you want to. No hot-linking. Credit not necessary if using the picture on any form of social media.

     Kestrels have been out in abundance. I usually see one in a tree  once or twice a month, but lately I've seen bunches of them on the air currents daily. They are just all over. I saw a particularly handsome one [m, f-- who knows?] sailing over a small farm village today circling in for a landing. The kestrels have a characteristic way of holding their wings when drifting and a particular shape to their wings as well.

     Hairys and downies continue to grace the feeders. They like the sunflower kernels and the suet. If there are peanuts, they eat those too. The male hairy checked out our deck one night, working himself along the rails. I figure he was checking for wood bees. They've been much less in evidence since I painted over and taped a couple new wood bee holes. It seems to me like the hairies-- both the male and the female-- spend more time at the feeders than either one of the pair of downies. The downies pretty much seem to grab a few bites and go.

     The goldfinches have reverted out of their breeding colors. I can recognize them by their voice now along with how they approach and land at the sunflower kernel feeder. The house sparrows and the goldfinches had a squabble at the feeder one afternoon. One ambitious house sparrow tried to scare one of the hairys off the suet to no avail. The hairy puffed himself up and stood vertical with his wings slightly out from his body. The house sparrow left. The chickadees never seem to fight or squabble with any bird. They remain gregarious as usual and a few buzz me when I am sitting on the deck. One buzzed me the other day as I was filling the feeders.

     There have been individual song sparrow, fox sparrow, and chippy [chipping sparrow] this summer but no white-throats or white-heads. Less sparrows in general at the backyard feeders it seems this year. The grackles still come around and several habitually ring the bell near one of the platform feeders. I've discovered that grackles and crows will peck at bits of the pregnant onion plant hanging in a pot on the choke cherry tree. A cedar waxwing flew in one day and ate a cherry before darting off again. Migrating or checking it out, who knows? Some years ago, I did get to witness a line of cedar waxwings passing cherries along. That was kind of neat.

     When I throw un-shelled raw peanuts in the garden and in the platform feeder, all of the blue jays in the neighborhood descend upon the yard to carry the peanuts away one by one. A few will crack one open on a nearby tree branch [usually the aspen or the oak] but soon they also carry them away. They hold the un-shelled peanut by one end as they fly off.

     Today I tried some sliced [leftover] almonds on the ground. Within a minute, one of the squirrels came dashing along the fence. He dove down the mock cherry tree and into the scattered almonds without hesitation. Maybe he'd had them before. Or maybe squirrels have an acute sense of smell. I don't really know. Another squirrel also came along and promptly began eating the almonds also. A mourning dove toppled out of the cherry tree, acting very startled. I don't know why. It was a younger dove with dark tail and a few outside white underlying feathers. It ignored the squirrels and the almonds and went over to the corn and black sunflower seeds. The two younger blue jays-- and a new third that I didn't recognize-- landed in the tree. They hopped to the ground and quickly ate some of the almonds before flying away again. They also hopped rather than walked along the ground so I suspect that blue jays don't spend a lot of time ground feeding. Walking on the ground is more practical and birds that are habitual ground feeders have evolved to walk rather than hop. Flickers-- and one of the ones in the neighborhood finally dropped in-- are woodpeckers which are evolving to become ground birds. Two chipmunks each took over a platform to munch on the corn and seeds. They did not appear to be interested at all in the almond slices.

     At a nearby park the other day with a creek running through it [not the usual park with the creek where I spotted the yellow warbler once] there was a flock of Canada geese. The old dog drank from the water but did not want to go swimming so I didn't make her. Up the creek was a fine great blue heron, some mallards, and some blacks [ducks] or black-mallard crosses. Mallards are notorious for mating with other species of ducks, particularly blacks. The mallards/blacks were dabbling when something I couldn't see must have startled them. They swam en masse to the other shore. A lone duck swam up behind the group, with only his neck and head on the surface of the water. Then he dove and disappeared from my sight totally. I don't think it was a male mallard. (They are dabblers and don't swim underwater much if at all). But I didn't get enough field marks to be able to even guess at the species. A kingfisher determinedly flew up the creek and landed in a treetop to go fishing. We walked up the side of the creek a bit and flushed a solitary muskrat. The muskrat lodge was on the opposite side from where we were. The muskrat set off in that direction but soon went underwater.

     The lone red-winged blackbird comes less and less. Perhaps he has finally figured out that he is a red-wing and not a grackle like his grackle buddies. 

Bird Feeder News: July 12, 2014

Chickadees and grackles continue to predominate at the feeders, along with the same three blue jays, a pair of mourning doves, a pair of cardinals and a single younger male cardinal, grackles and the one red-winged blackbird who continues to hang with a few of those grackles, and a few nuthatches.

     I can identify which of the three blue jays are visiting based on their facial markings, although they do tend to fly in as a loose trio most often. The one with the most gray about his face and neck drank from one of the water pans that is hidden by some wildflowers this evening. I was surprised by this as the blue jays will feed out in the open at the feeders closest to the back porch. None of the trio have presented as shy or hesitant. There are several water dishes available and I just would not have figured on him using that particular one.

     A crow came to visit me twice this week, much to my astonishment. I must have passed muster both times. The crow studied me from a perch on the nearby cherry tree and then flew off at a leisurely pace.

     The five or six house sparrows [a.k.a. English sparrows] who hang out in one of the smaller pine trees also stop in to feed along with a few goldfinches, house finches, and purple finches. Folks tend not to care for the house sparrows much but they don't bother me.

     I like the grackles too. They seem to be intelligent to me. I suspect that they hang with particular other grackles [and the one male red-winged blackbird] but that is only a guess. I do not have the means or knowledge to verify or to disprove that notion. One grackle delighted me last night by plowing into the water of the shallow dish on the ground and then taking a "bath." He used his beak to throw water on his back several times. He shook himself off and then flew to a branch to preen himself. The grackles seem to favor the shallow water dish on the ground for drinking but that was the first grackle bath that I was privileged to watch.

     Tonight something landed in an upper section of the tall oak and remained stationary for a good five minutes. I followed him as he flew down to the cherry tree and then crouched on a branch walking until he reached the long feeder and the sunflower kernels. He perched there with no difficulty and ate. I heard him use a soft call. He flew back up to the oak tree, drummed for a short bit, and then took off in a south-easterly direction. It was, no doubt, a male red-bellied woodpecker. The bird books say they will visit a feeder in winter. I have not found a reference to them visiting a feeder in the summer. But this one did.

     He may have ventured out from the woods. Or he may have been knocked about by one of the almost nightly storms we have been having. I did not see a mate or any other red-bellies around the area. Admittedly one could have flown to the oak and hid there. [Or not]. I was thrilled to see the male red-bellied in my backyard. The absence of a female did not detract from my happiness.

     Notably missing from my backyard this week/this summer have been starlings and swallows, flickers, and both white throats and white caps [sparrows]. The fox and the song [sparrows] that I saw last month have also not returned. The starlings, swallows, and flickers are all in abundance in the neighborhood. No starlings in my backyard I find to be curious. They certainly hung out here last year. I don't know what changed. Perhaps the boisterous grackles prevent the starlings from wanting to re-acquaint themselves with my backyard this year. The starlings are in the neighbors' yards though. I'm not complaining. Just saying is all.

     Swallows have never hung in the yard here and I've seen one of the neighborhood flickers in my yard only once ever since I've been here. That the other sparrows have not been around this July perhaps is related to breeding or weather conditions or something else. I think the sparrows are declining in numbers here in general but I am not for sure on that. We certainly have had a wet summer with lots of thunderstorms and high winds-- and some hail ranging in size from peas to meatballs. The summer has been so wet in fact that I haven't had to water the gardens at all, and have only had to water the plants in pots outdoors twice.

     The storms alternating with intense heat have been remarkable, not necessarily in a happy happy way. Perhaps some of the birds are also dismayed with the weather, who knows? Just because they don't use words does not mean that they can't notice weather patterns, identify other individual bird "friends and foes," and think. 

     Human beings have made assumptions that those other animals without words don't have well-developed cognitive processes. Me, I've watched birds as well as the resident squirrels and chipmunks [yes I can identify a few of those individually too] use the environment as tools to solve simple problems. Countless chickadees have used the blunt end of a forsythia bush to pry black sunflower seeds from their shells. A few have also used a rock for the same purpose. The squirrels are skilled acrobats who easily defeat any sort of "defense against the squirrels" bird feeders and baffles. The chipmunks have taken to storing corn kernels in the one compost bin which features a chipmunk-size hole. I can't leave out the one male red-winged blackbird who hangs out with some grackles daily in my backyard. He flies in with them and leaves with them. From these events I've witnessed informal evidence of what may be the deliberate usage of tools, solving problems, and identifying which grackles are in an odd group of peers.

     The birds and chipmunks and squirrels-- and indeed my own dog, cats, and frogs-- are much better at being birds and chipmunks and squirrels [and dogs, cats, frogs] than I ever could be. I don't have the same set of skills that any of them do. My dog can smell every individual blade of grass in an area where she is roaming [with my direct supervision and under voice control always]. I can't do that. Even when leaving out stuff that is accounted for by instinct, there is other stuff they do that give me the idea that thinking is involved. We humans don't have the monopoly on intelligent behavior. To proclaim that we do ignores the observations of well-respected naturalists like Bernd Heinrich. 

     sapphoq n friends