Bird Watching!

[Altissimus]

Evening Grossbeak ... First time I've ever seen one. Stopped by for a visit on the rail of the deck while we were working the container garden. A really very beautiful colored Bird.

 

[Burnham]

Yessir, they are fun. We get small flocks of them in our cascara trees when they are fruiting. Like a bunch of parrots!

 

[Stumpshot]

Caught a hummingbird at rest on a dying back ash branch (not due to ash borer, but anthracnose affected).

 

[Burnham]

We have had a great year for hummers here at our place. Rufus and Anna's, by the dozens, no exaggeration.

 

[stig]

Do you have any males hanging around?

I worked on a hummingbird project in California back in 82.
Among all the rather bland looking females, we had one Rufous male, which had, for reasons unknown, decided to stick around..
Made for a perfect study specimen, since he was so easy to recognize.

 

[Altissimus]

I have caught and released them (as they fly into my house) at least a dozen times... Plus several other species , the biggest pain in the ass was a Robin.

 

[Burnham]

Adult males of both species...maybe 1 to 5 vs. adult females. Today, best as I can fix it...3 adult male Rufus, 2 adult male Anna's...15 or so adult females of either species, as one cannot reliably identify them unless they are in the hand of a real expert, which I do not claim to be. Also, about an additional dozen youngsters of indeterminate sex.

A buzzin' circus hereabouts .

 

[stig]

Nope, those females are impossible to tell apart.

Margot is just going to love watching those.

Last time here we had no luck with the hummers.
I really wanted her to see some, since the only thing near to them we have here is the Palestine sunbird, that both of us know from Israel.

On the way north through Fort Bragg after saying hi to Terri, we passed the sign for the botanical garden.
I stopped and went in and asked if they had any hummers hanging around.
Sure, they said. In the cactus garden there are plenty.

So she got to see them, but only females.

 

[Burnham]

I hope we have as good a crop next year as this one, for her to see. We'll have some, for sure, but this has been an exceptionally good year for hummers at our home.

 

[stig]

Do you set out feeders, or do you simply have enough plowers to pull them in?
I have an old friend/lover in Mckinleyville CA. who owns an old forest nursery that she and her husband has turned into a private botanical garden ( They run a gardening/landscaping service and she is a hortoculturist or whatever it is called)
They have divided the garden into geographical sections and the Australian one sure makes the hummers go nut.

That was the place where I ralized that I was losing my hearing.
I was looking at an Anna's hummingbird and hearing that high chittering note they make, then I turned my head and it was gone.
Turned back and it was there again. Turned my head away and it was gone.

Had me totally stymied for a while till I realized that my left ear wasn't working the way it was supposed to.

 

[Burnham]

We put out a couple of feeders. One on the deck, one on the porch. They are of course fearless and buzz all around us, within inches at times. We also have flowering baskets and native plants all around the house and property that they feed on a lot, too.

 

[Al Smith]

Two feeders right next to the 9 foot window .They sound like little helicopters .I just recently found out they chirp .

 

[Stumpshot]

On my way home yesterday, I saw a red tailed hawk swoop down and snatch a snake on the roadside embankment, then it flew toward the road. I would have hit the bird if it would've continued on its trajectory, but it let the snake go and veered in the opposite direction. The snake dropped on the road in front of our car, but we didn't run it over, just straddled it between our wheels. In the rearview mirror, I could see the bird swoop down and snatch the snake back up again, then lost sight of it around a bend. All this happened driving at 55 MPH, so no pics or videos. Pretty impressive hunting & reaction time on the part of the hawk!

 

[pantheraba]

5 second rule!!! Applies to hawks, too. Great story.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Hahahahaaa!

 

[Stumpshot]

5 Second Rule

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[FireFighterZero]

There is a Great Blue Heron in a pond next to the road to town.

 

[Stumpshot]

Great Blue Heron, you say?

 

[Nutball]

I found this baby mocking bird today with its tail to short to fly. Until you appear threatening, they tend to let you get close... really close

 

[Stumpshot]

Lake Red Rock - Iowa's largest lake

...Has some seasonal fishermen that come every winter, despite the ice. When I went to Vermeer's HQ in Pella, Iowa last Friday, I ate lunch with my two boys at the overlook. We thought the silhouettes might be turkey vultures perched in the trees on the cliff, but no, something far more glorious: 5 bald eagles perched, ready for fish.

 

[Burnham]

Nice. We have them here on our property with some regularity, on treetop perches on occasion, or more often over-flights. Great pic there.

 

[Stumpshot]

The Canucks are coming! The Canucks are here!


Of course, this is nothing compared to them coming to the Hudson River in December to "escape the cold" of Canada! Ice breakers were regularly coming up river because it was frozen over 2 feet thick.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Bastardos!!!

 

[Stumpshot]

Same job, some fowl of the more domestic variety.

 

[FireFighterZero]

Looks like a barred rock rooster and a buff Orpington hen.