July Yard Birds

I was disappointed to have to take my Nikon D300S back to the dealer for shipment back to Nikon on Friday.  The traffic to and from Seattle was absolutely horrible and what under good circumstances could have been done in about three hours took almost five hours!  The camera is having the same problems as when it was previously sent to Nikon in June... failure to recall and/or manipulate images on the screen.  In addition the camera was refusing to work at all with a Compact Flash card inserted.  Fortunately the camera has two different card slots for different cards so I could continue to take photos until I took the camera in for repair.  However in one sense it's not a tragedy... I still have thousands of unprocessed images so this will force me to concentrate on processing images instead of generating more images. 

These photos were taken in the yard on 7/11 of this year. 

The crocosmia is still in bloom and continues to attract hummingbirds (such as this female Rufous), but the blooms on our best plant for photography won't last much longer. The male Rufous hummingbirds have been gone for several weeks now and any we see from now on will be products of this year's broods. 

A male House finch...

And the bane of my existence... this year's crop of European starlings.  They seem to range in color from a very light ash-gray to almost black.  I've been experimenting with various ways to discourage the starlings from my inverted suet feeders but they are very resourceful and persistent.  I've cut down on the amount of suet they can get but have been stymied in my efforts to cut them off completely.  I would just remove the suet until they leave for the season but there are too many other birds that utilize the suet, including Downy woodpeckers, Hairy woodpeckers (!), Red-breasted nuthatches, Chestnut-backed chickadees, Black-capped chickadees and Northern flickers.  The House sparrows also access the feeders but don't seem to get as much suet. 

We had a garage sale yesterday and spent most of the morning in a different area of the yard than usual.  We had a group of three Brown creepers (uncommon for the last several weeks) and a single young Black-headed grosbeak who seemed to have been abandoned by its parents.  It came to the yard twice yesterday  and eyed the birds on the suet feeder once but seemed oblivious to the platform feeder I put up each season specifically for the grosbeaks.  It was obvious when the young grosbeak was in the area... it had a soft call that it kept repeating the entire time it was here. 

Rufous Hummingbirds

I'm dropping back a couple of days to photos I took in the yard earlier this week, all of female Rufous hummingbirds.  (The blog software allows you to click on the images to enlarge them.)

We have several patches of crocosmia in the yard and it's a favorite with hummingbirds and makes for a great background.  In this photograph the hummingbird has inserted its beak in a single bloom and has extended its tongue through the bloom and out the other side.  This gives you some idea of how the hummingbirds manage to reach food at the base of trumpet-shaped flowers such as this or in hummingbird feeders. 

And another photo of a hummingbird resting on the crocosmia in between feeding sessions. 

Tuesday Yard BIrds

I had a friend drop by this afternoon while I was birding to see the habitat we've created.  I noticed a small bird that didn't seem to fit in with anything else and I surmised, and later hopefully confirmed, that it's an immature Brown-headed cowbird.  It has no parents in attendance and it's step-brothers and step-sisters, if any, are strangers. 

Among all the other birds that suddenly showed up about ten minutes after our guest left were all three species of woodpeckers we see here.  First up, a male Northern flicker... 

Next up, a male (you'll have to take my word for it) immature Downy woodpecker... 

And finally, a Hairy woodpecker, a bird that has returned to the yard after an absence of a couple of years.  While the markings of the Hairy and Downy woodpeckers are virtually identical, the Hairy woodpecker is larger (not always evident when viewing in the field) and it has a longer beak.  Since these birds are in a known environment (my yard) and usually on feeders, the size of which I know, I don't usually have to look for beak size to distinguish between them.  

 

In addition to these birds I also had our California quail family, a Black-headed grosbeak family, both common species of chickadees, at least one Pine siskin, American goldfinches, Red-breasted nuthatches, House finches, House sparrows, European starlings, our Spotted towhee family, an immature American robin and probably a few other species that aren't immediately coming to mind.  

While I was showing the friend the yard a crow flew over and it was in a little spat with a Peregrine falcon! 

Correction: Purple Finch!

I spent several hours sitting in the yard to photograph birds this afternoon.  Primary targets were female Rufous hummingbirds on our crocosmia and perhaps the almost grown covey of California quail that visit the yard several times a day.  We're into the summer doldrums here so I didn't expect to see anything different.  Towards the last of my vigil a male Black-headed grosbeak made a brief visit to the yard and I obtained a single, unremarkable photo.

Aside from the hummingbird photos I obtained a male House sparrow feeding one or more young sparrows.  (Oh joy, even more to look forward to this next year!).

 After dinner I decided to try to get a jump on processing my photos and to possibly post a photo or two to this blog.  I was ho-humming my way through my photos when I came across what I had thought was a male House finch getting a drink of water from our water feature, but as I was processing the photo I kept looking at it and thinking that the finch had a very large bill.  I finally focused on the bill and realized that something was definitely afoot... whatever I had photographed, it was not a male House finch.  I thought it was a grosbeak because of the size of the bill, but it was not a species with which I was familiar.  After a little research I thought it had to be a Pine grosbeak... which would have been the third species of grosbeak (in addition to Black-headed and Evening) we've seen in the yard.  I originally published this blog with that identification but this morning I was corrected... it was a Purple finch. 

This brings up an interesting point... I didn't think I could reliably identify a male Purple finch due to its resemblance to a male House finch and have always relied on using the female Purple finch for identification.  (She has a white swath over her eyes.)  After more carefully reviewing the male Purple finch beak and the male House finch's beak there seems, at least in some cases, to be a significant difference.  

So here, rather than a Pine grosbeak, is a male Purple finch!  

Sorry about the delay in posting more photos. 

I'm attempting to work my way through my Southwest US trip but hit a snag when I was unable to identify a couple of sparrows and a thrasher that I saw on the trip.  I had to consult with more experienced birders for these identifications and I was asked to please pass on any disagreements with the identifications.  I think I can safely point out that we're all working outside our area (as in location!) of expertise here since the photos were taken in New Mexico. 

First up is apparently a Vesper sparrow.  I failed to recognize it because I'm used to using a rufous shoulder patch for identification and I just can't see it here.  I was impressed with the fine striping along the top of the bird's head. 

Next up is apparently a Brewer's sparrow, identified I am told, by elimination of other possible sparrow species.  In a way this was a real coup... I have always hoped to photograph some of the sparrows that we don't have in the PacNW but I never had much hope of identifying such a bird at the time I was photographing it.  I just photographed birds (sparrows) and hoped for the best.  In this case things seem to have worked out! 

It seemed that this bird, since it was a sparrow, shouldn't have been difficult to photograph, but it was.  I spent 20-30 minutes attempting to photograph it but its behavior was much more like a warbler or vireo than a sparrow... it never quit moving  It confined its activities to this single species of bush and I couldn't tell if it was feeding on insects or seeds.  Intervening branches and twigs and the harsh New Mexico sun added to my photographic problems. 

 

Finally, in virtually the same location, I photographed this thrasher which was partially lured by a little 'habitat enhancer' and other birds.   I won't go into it here, but one of my big theories is that birds attract other birds so you can improve your species count by luring the easy to attract species and letting them attract the harder to attract species.  Make sense?   (I didn't think so!) 

I'm told that this is probably a Curve-billed thrasher... the other possibility is a Bendire's thrasher. 

And finally, since you've waited awhile for this most recent post, I'm going to tell you a little story.  In a land far, far away I took a sparrow class... and since sparrows can be one of the more difficult species to identify I took the course a second time.  I wasn't happy with the way the material was organized and presented and saw a way to improve the class by offering a handout.  I actually went to the trouble to create the handout and present it to the instructor (who I think I can safely say was an expert in sparrow identification).  He wasn't interested. 

I bided my time and my skills grew to some extent.  I am still very humble concerning my skills as a birder, but I consider that I have a knack for organizing and presenting information.  So as my skills grew I took the time to outline a beginning birding course but without any real plans or motivation to teach such a course.  After I moved to the Pacific NW (April of 2001) I happened to mention my outline to the then-president of the local birding organization and he seemed enthusiastic about me teaching a course. 

Several months passed with no further discussion, then in September of 2001 I received a phone call saying that the deadline for publication for the class was the next day.  It was one thing to have a rough outline for a class and yet another to have a detailed outline with handouts and be prepared to stand up and discuss birding for some twelve hours of classes!  However I put the work in and for the past nine years have either taught beginning birding classes for the local birding organization or the local community college. 

So my start with teaching beginning birding classes had its birth with sparrows!

Ruby Lake NWR (NV)

Back to my three-week April and May driving trip through the Southwest…

In continuing to process photos I’m realizing that although there were areas (hotspots) where I saw a lot of birds, my really good photos only came from only a few places on the trip.  I spent a couple of days in the Malheur NWR but other than some serendipity occasions most of my good photos came from one lucky afternoon at the headquarters and three productive bushes.  Had I not happened on a large group of migrating  spring warblers fly-catching from those bushes I would have been very disappointed.  

The drive out of the Malheur NWR south was a travel day and I took very few photos.  I photographed a small group of deer, some antelope lying in a field of wildflowers and this female Ring-necked pheasant along the road.  

I was also disappointed in the Ruby Lake NWR… not only is the refuge located in a very remote area of Nevada but they allow hunting on the refuge and all of the waterfowl seemed to be very skittish.  However I did come up with a nice shot of an eagle and had two encounters with wild horses which I managed to document.  

As I approached the Ruby Lake NWR from the north I encountered several Turkey vultures at various places along the unpaved access road.  I have a better vulture photo taken in the area but wanted to post this one to show the snow that was falling in the area.  The white patches on the back of this vulture are snow... it would be doing precious little soaring on this particular day!  

I managed to get this photo of a vulture taking off from a  fence post and thought it somewhat artistic! 

Finally, on the south (warmer) side of the Ruby Lake NWR I encountered two different herds of wild horses.  I'm not a horse person but I have to admit that these horses were not only magnificent but also inspiring.  I was surprised that they seemed unafraid of me, at least while I was in my vehicle.  

Ospreys & Yard Birds

I’m going to take a brief break from my driving trip through the Southwest to chronicle some developments closer to home. 

My big news is that I drove down to Seattle on Saturday (7/2/2011) and picked up my camera (a Nikon D300S) which had been in Nikon hands for a little over two weeks.  I’ve had some very occasional problems with the camera failing to recall images to the LCD screen and once displayed not being able to manipulate the images.  I wanted the camera checked out while it was still under warranty.  So I’m back in the business of photographing local birds! 

On Monday we had a very rare visit from a male Hairy woodpecker.  During the afternoon I saw it make at least three trips to our peanut feeder and each visit lasted from 10-15 minutes!  Not long after we moved into our house (almost four years ago) we had regular visits from a Hairy woodpecker but they finally stopped and I think it’s probably been 2-3 years since we’ve seen one in the yard.  We host Northern flickers and Downy woodpeckers but the Hairy woodpecker is rare here at the house.  I took photos of the bird on the feeder but was never able to get a good photo when it was staging on one of the nearby trees.  Unfortunately I haven’t seen the bird in the two days since the original sighting. 

The other big news is that I got a call from a neighbor on Tuesday afternoon that alerted me to a pair of Ospreys perched in the dead top of another neighbor’s tree.  I thought about it for a minute then went for the camera, which I have begun storing ‘assembled’ and ready for action.  Although the Osprey were less than a block away (I could actually see them from our house) I drove the car as a precaution… it would allow me a shooting platform from the window and allow me to quickly explore different angles. 

My first stop was ultimately the best and I took over 20 photos of one of the Osprey perched in the top of the tree in full sunlight.  While I was away briefly consulting with a neighbor an eagle caused one of the Osprey to fly to a different tree, but I still had the first one to shoot for probably close to 30 minutes.  These are probably the Osprey that have built a nest on an old light standard located about a mile (as the Osprey flies!) south of us.  To my knowledge these are the first Osprey to land in the neighborhood.  We’ve had very rare flyovers but that’s been about the extent of our contact.  

We now seem to be into the summer doldrums, if we can finally believe it’s summer here.  We have a pair of White-crowned sparrows visiting the yard (usually a rarity in our yard at this time of the year) and only a single Black-headed Grosbeak making a visit or two a day, although it did take a long bath in the water feature a couple of days ago.  Gone are all our exciting visitors... the Cedar waxwings, Western tanager, warblers, male Rufous hummingbirds, Anna’s hummingbirds, Evening grosbeaks and apparently all but one of the Black-headed grosbeaks.  We’ve stopped hearing the Great Horned owls that have been calling mornings and evenings for the past couple of months, but I’m sure they nested somewhere in the woods nearby.  On the other side of the coin, the hordes of immature European starlings have finally thinned so I can start being a bit more generous with my suet cakes.