Denizens of the Brush Pile

We returned from a Lindblad cruise to Baja California Sunday (3/14) and within a couple of hours I had observed a male Rufous hummingbird visiting our feeder that we maintained over the winter for Anna’s hummingbirds. This was our first Rufous of the season although it's possible we had this or others visit earlier while we were away.  Also back this week were a Brown creeper (a not unusual but erratic visitor), a Bald eagle being harassed by crows, a Varied thrush and a male Northern flicker (a usually consistent visitor but less common for the past couple of months). Early this morning while working on the computer a faint sound in the background caught my attention and I opened my window to hear a Barred owl calling in the distance... a very rare treat.

We had a day of full sunshine so late this afternoon I took my camera out to the brush pile in our front yard and scattered some seed on the ground. I haven’t been out in quite a while so the birds are shy, but lurking around in the brush pile were two Spotted towhees, two Golden-crowned sparrows (which will soon be leaving for their breeding season elsewhere) and the ever-present Song sparrow. Although in decline due to the upcoming breeding season, we still have a healthy supply of Dark-eyed juncos (Oregon race). They’ll be leaving soon for higher ground but will be evident at higher elevations such as Washington Park and Mount Erie.

(4:35pm) Bulletin!

Just as I removed my camera media card to download photos for this posting I saw a large bird fly down into or onto the brush pile. I grabbed my binoculars and searched the pile to no avail, but a couple walking a dog soon flushed an accipiter from the brush pile. I reloaded my camera and went outside to get a photo, but the bird flushed, landing in two different fir trees in the front yard before finally flying off to the north. I did get two photos but I already have much better photos posted in prior blogs so I won’t post the accipiter photos. I appreciate it a lot more if it would help clean out last year’s crop of House sparrows but I’m sure it’s not that selective and would just as soon dine on some of the aforementioned birds!

Spotted towhee

Song sparrow

Red-Tailed Hawk and Accipiter

Around mid-morning one of my birding neighbors called me and told me that there was a hawk in the top of a tree down the hill and he was trying for a positive identification.  His attention had been drawn to the hawk by crows which were harassing it.  I was reading the paper but it was an easy task for me to retrieve my binoculars and look out the window.  I didn't have a completely clear view of the hawk but after a minute or two of observation I could tell it was clearly a Red-tailed hawk. This is the first Red-tailed hawk I've seen in the neighborhood in several months. 

This afternoon (about 4pm) I walked out the front door to see what kinds of birds might be on and around our brush pile.  I was startled to see an accipiter, upside down, makimg its way down the side of the brush pile!  I immediately rushed for my camera (which unfortunately was  upstairs) and started out the front door.  By this time the accipiter had flown to a low branch on a madrona tree about 15' from the brush pile.  I was in the process of readying my camera when the accipiter flew back to the brush pile and disappeared behind it.  I used the opportunity to approach much closer, but after just a few seconds the accipiter flew, transitioning from a SE direction into an arc that carried it through the forest far to the SW.  So I didn't get a photo but I think I have one posted of an accipiter on almost the same madrona branch from several months ago. 

Our Very Own Bald Eagle

I feel somewhat guilty about not having photographs to post, but my recovery from knee replacement surgery and the winter weather have reduced my opportunities for photography.  I hope that situation will change by mid-March. 

Yesterday (2/20/2010) my attention was diverted from a conversation with a neighbor by the sounds of crows and an eagle.  I focused on the crows and realized that they were providing some passing harassment to a mature Bald eagle that was atop one of the tall fir trees located in our yard!  I think this is only the second time that I have seen a Bald eagle in one of our own trees.  For whatever reason the crows were content on just flying by and didn't concentrate on full-blown harassment.  The eagle remained in the tree for at least twenty minutes. 

I took advantage of some of the sunny, warm weather to improve my watercourse/photography environment for the coming spring.  A neighbor had unearthed a long, slender rock and had graciously offered it to me.  I stood the rock on end and mounted it immediately adjacent to our watercourse, giving the birds another staging point and at the same time creating an ideal point for natural-appearing photographs.  This rock supplements a dead branch I use for a staging area on the other side of the water feature. 

A neighbor had recently given me a large patch of moss and I split it up to try to get it started on and between some of the rocks that constitute the water course.  I haven't had a lot of luck with such projects in the past but hope springs eternal... especially in the spring! 

The yard birds lately have been rather boring.  On a good day we can field between twenty and thirty Dark-eyed juncos but all will be leaving for higher breeding grounds later this spring.  We have a bumper crop of House sparrows from this past year and I'm contemplating how I can move them on.  We've had at least one Anna's hummingbird all winter and recently I've observed the bird twice using the watercourse in near-twilight conditions.  We're also getting an occasional visit from one or more Downy woodpeckers after an absence of a couple of months.  Perhaps our biggest breakthrough is the presence of up to four American Goldfinches which occasionally visit the yard.  Although present in the Skagit Valley in the winter this is the first winter in the eight we have lived here that we've had them in the yard.  I briefly observed an Orange-crowned warbler in the yard about three weeks ago and saw some unidentified warblers high (80-100') in our fir trees late yesterday afternoon.