Neighborhood Barred Owls

On the evening of January 26 I was sitting in my office at my computer and on several occasions I thought I heard some loud noises coming from outside, but they were intermittent and I didn't pay too much attention.  About 9:30pm the noises became more persistent and I opened my window so that I could hear more clearly.  I realized almost immediately that I was listening to a Barred owl, and it wasn't too long after that that it became clear that there were actually two of them calling back and forth. 

The vocalizations went on for about twenty minutes before tapering off.  We've had Barred owls in the neighborhood previously and they are probably here more than we realize, but it's nice to get the occasional affirmation of their presence.  

Habitat Improvement & Yard Birds

One of our neighbors, who owns an excavation company, offered the services of a lift he had recently purchased to trim some of the neighbors’ trees. We took advantage of the offer and had him cut a small window through a madrone so that we would be able to see/photograph sunsets in Thatcher Pass. We also had some madrone limbs hanging over the street trimmed and a few fir limbs trimmed.

So what does this have to do with birds? I’m ‘warehousing’ the madrone limbs for use as perches in the yard and I’m using the fir slash to refurbish my brush pile. Over the past couple of years our brush pile has been getting rather thin. The livestock wire that encloses it has been increasingly exposed and the interior of the brush pile has settled, leaving a lot of empty space inside. The fir slash is perfect for both hiding the external wire and refilling the brush pile.

Early Saturday morning I realized that I could move one of our primary bird baths about three feet closer to the chair where I sit for most bird photography, so I undertook that project. Since the bird bath was immediately adjacent to the brush pile I rearranged and added some perches, being careful that they wouldn’t interfere with my photographic view corridor.

Within view of my photographic position I now have the brush pile, two bird baths, a primary feeder to attract birds and the top of the watercourse which is a big attractant in the spring and summer. I also previously conceived of and built two small feeders that blend into the brush pile so that they aren’t obvious if included in photographs. These feeders can easily be relocated around the brush pile.

While in the yard I also observed some of the birds. We’re inundated with House sparrows and I plan to have talks with a couple of the neighbors about letting them nest in the area. We also have a bumper crop of Oregon juncos. The juncos have come to realize that when I enter the yard it’s feeding time and they begin staging while waiting for me to begin broadcasting seed.

A little higher up the desirability scale we have Golden-crowned, Song and Fox sparrows. We had a single Brown creeper working the fir trees yesterday and what was obviously a male American goldfinch. This is the first winter that we have had a few goldfinches overwinter in the yard although they can be found all winter in the ‘flats’ on the mainland.

While several of the neighbors were visiting, and just before dark, a male Anna’s hummingbird approached the watercourse for a drink and/or a bath. Its ruby/purple throat could be seen plainly in the fading light. This is the second winter I’ve maintained a hummingbird feeder for the Anna’s hummingbirds. This year they’ve already weathered a couple of deep freezes and last year they survived the two weeks we had snow on the ground.

Earlier this week with what was warmer weather I had the opportunity to sit in the yard for about an hour and was amazed by the number of chickadees (both Chestnut-backed and Black-capped) that were actively visiting the feeders.

Harbinger of Spring

On Sunday, Jan 10 I walked outside to retrieve the morning's newspapers at just before 8am.  It was just barely good light but I could see some motion around our water feature.  As I concentrated my gaze I realized that one of our Anna's hummingbirds was landing in the watercourse to drink and/or bathe.  This is a fairly common occurrence with our Rufous hummingbirds that are here during the spring/summer, but this is the first time I've seen one of our winter Anna's hummingbirds accessing the water feature. 

This reminds me of the coming spring and all the birds in our yard that I hope to be photographing.