Yard Update

I mentioned that those last photos of American robins in the madrone trees were taken on a very cloudy day while it was raining.  Since then I've had a few periods of better weather and the opportunity to again photograph the robins in the madrone trees.  These photos are substantially better as far as quality is concerned so I'm posting them too. 

They robins typically land on a branch and lean to pluck a berry from the cluster.  However as time goes on the easier berries to reach have either fallen off of the tree or have already been eaten. 

This leads to leaning as far as possible, often losing one's balance and having to snatch a berry on the fly.

If you're good at the technique you are rewarded with a berry!

We've had several more influxes of American robins where there are about twenty in the yard feeding and utilizing the bird baths.  And again, that number doesn't include many other robins in the general area.  

As far as yard happenings, our California quail have returned after an absence of several weeks.  Midway through raising this season's brood the adult female disappeared and the male seemed to be rearing the young ones on his own.  Unfortunately we had an imbalance in sexes with this year's hatchlings and we are now left with a covey consisting of four males and one female.  This doesn't bode especially well for the breeding season next year. 

A while back I posted a photo of a Slate-colored junco we had in the yard.  I've been keeping a watchful eye since but haven't spotted the bird again.  I was really lucky to have been sitting in the yard with my camera that day when the bird made its appearance.  

I stepped out the south door today and when I did an accipiter flushed from our yew tree.  I don't think most of the birds realized that it had sneaked into the yard because they were still in the area until it flew.  This is at least the second time we know that the accipiter has been hunting from the yew tree. 

Coming next... birds of March's Point.  

A Yard Tale on an Inclement Weather Day

Sometimes you just get lucky and the subject for a post just falls into your lap!  Today was one of those days...

As those of you know who live on the island, we had a bit of moisture blow in this morning... not long after I correctly decided it might be too risky for my morning walk.  I was sitting at my computer in the late morning when I spied a Varied thrush in the area beyond what we define as 'yard'.  This was our second sighting of the fall. 

I noticed at the time that there were an unusual number of American robins in the yard... probably 20-30 with at least that many more in the surrounding area.  I also noticed that they were in the madrone tree that I've mentioned previously and that they were eating the berries.  It was raining but I decided I had to try for some photos, so I retrieved my camera, went out on the deck beside my office, and despite the rain and overcast began taking photos. 

I watched as the robins ate the berries and lamented that this might be my last chance for photos of the madrone berries with birds so I had better make of the opportunity what I could.  Since the most common technique was for the robins to fly from a limb, snatch a berry and keep going I was only able to get one photo of a robin with a berry in its mouth, and it wasn't a particularly good one.  So you won't see it here. 

While I was watching and photographing the robins a very bright (considering the lighting conditions) Varied thrush flew to the pond area and I was able to get several photos of it before it disappeared. 

I was taking photos fast and furiously when a good portion of the birds decided to fly out of the yard.  It wasn't exactly an explosion so I thought that it probably wasn't an accipiter... but I was wrong!  As I puzzled over the birds' relatively sudden departure an accipiter landed in the top of our dead pine tree, having flown there (by my wife's account) from the yew tree on the south side of our house. 

There was nothing left in the yard other than the accipiter so I began taking photos of it.  As many of the birds seem to do, it realized that I had a clear path to it for my photo so it moved just a few steps to one side so that a small, otherwise insignificant twig would be between it and the camera lens.  Ah... the trials and tribulations of a nature photographer! 

Unfortunately these photos aren't of very high quality... heavy overcast, rain which you can see n some of the photos and graininess caused by having to push my ISO beyond what I consider tolerable limits.  But I'm not giving up the opportunity to tell this story and provide some kind of photographic documentation! 

Yard Update... But No Photos

 Unfortunately my photographic activity in the yard is going downhill fast.  We have very tall fir trees to the south of us and the winter sun is not clearing the trees, so our yard is almost always in perpetual shade.  I have one small window of 20-30 minutes when my watercourse is illuminated (on rare sunny days) but I find that the intermittent bird activity usually doesn't coincide with that window.

Golden-crowned kinglets continue to visit the berry clusters on the madrona trees, searching for insects in the clusters.  Sometimes it's difficult to separate out the kinglets from all the other bird activity but I saw kinglets last Thursday and again yesterday (Sunday). 

On Friday we had another unusual visitor to the yard... a Townsend's warbler.  We had an influx two to three weeks ago but I figured they had all moved on when this straggler arrived.  It too was searching for insects in the madrona trees. 

Yesterday, just before dark, I saw a relatively large bird land in one of our fir trees in the front yard.  Just as I was acquiring the bird in my binoculars it flew towards me and over the house, presumably flying to the large madrona tree located immediately behind our house.  My initial reaction when the bird landed in the fir tree was that it was probably an American robin, but just as it flew I saw the marking on its breast that would indicate that it was a Varied thrush.  We've had quite a few robins over the last couple of weeks and I've been trying to keep a sharp eye out... this is the first Varied thrush that I've seen this year. 

I continue to see House finches eating berries in the madrona trees.  I'm running out of time for photographs as the berries are gradually fading and and either being eaten or dropping to the ground.  A mystery to me is why the House finches seem to enjoy the berries but the House sparrows, a very similar bird, don't seem to eat them.  In fact I very seldom see a House sparrow in the madrona trees at all. 

And speaking of House sparrows, for several months now I've let my large sunflower feeders stay empty in a fruitless effort to encourage the sparrows to go elsewhere.  Now that cold weather is back I've filled one of the feeders to benefit the Dark-eyed juncos and clinging birds.  In the meantime the juncos have learned how to access my feeders which discriminate against non-clinging birds.  In the case of the juncos I'm sure they learned the trick from the sparrows. 

Over the past two to three weeks most of our woodpeckers (Downys, Hairys and Northern flickers), which in warmer weather visited our feeder many times a day, seem to have moved on.  I think we're having an occasional visit by one of the Downy woodpeckers.