Unusual Visitor

There’s big bird news this morning. When I went out to clear snow from a couple of areas where I could feed the birds I found bird prints all around the yard in the snow. This meant that the birds were out looking for food early. We have California quail in the yard, but somewhat fewer than the eleven we counted a week or so ago.


Next up… a Ruby-crowned kinglet that is using one of the inverted suet feeders. I had seen the kinglet in the yard yesterday and seen an unusual bird on the suet yesterday but couldn’t put it all together until this morning when the kinglet made several trips to the suet feeder. For those not aware of this, kinglets are usually insect eaters but will very rarely utilize a suet feeder. Judging from past experience once a primarily insect-eating bird gets started on the suet feeders it may continue for awhile.

The biggest sighting occurred while I was writing this. I saw an unusual shape moving up the trunk of our largest fir tree, and upon examination with my binoculars I found that it was a Red-breasted sapsucker… a species we haven’t seen around here in at least two years. The last time we had sapsuckers there were two fighting and they took the fight to the ground at the bottom of the same tree. I took several photos but it was difficult to tell what you were seeing.

On a sadder note, we haven’t seen the male Anna’s hummingbird that was frequenting our feeder since Tuesday afternoon. We’re hoping it survived but it seems strange that it would abandon the feeder during weather such as this. However when we had multiple snows with snow on the ground for two weeks year before last, we had an Anna’s that survived so we’re hoping for the best.

We have .lots of other common birds in the yard… mostly Dark-eyed juncos and House sparrows but including Golden-crowned sparrows, Spotted towhees, a female Downy woodpecker, a couple of Northern flickers and a handful of Eurasian starlings. I just realized that I hadn’t seen a Rock pigeon in many days… I’m sure it’s too early to begin hoping that they might have moved on.

And Another New Yard Visitor Sans Photo!

Just a couple of weeks after hosting a Band-tailed pigeon in our pine tree, this morning my wife told me to look out my office window at the top of the (truncated) pine tree in our yard.  There, sitting on one of the top branches, was a Mourning dove!  While they're not particularly rare in the county, they're not exactly abundant either.  And this is only the second I have seen in the neighborhood, the first being about four years ago when we were living in a rent house down the hill. 

The bird has since flown down to the ground, BUT the wind is howling outside and it just started raining.  Hopes for a photo are dimming!  

Update on Yard Birds

This has been a good week for yard birds but unfortunately I don't have any photographs to go with it.  Blame the weather! 

We had a Red-tailed hawk fly either over our house or from trees in our yard to a perch overlooking our neighbor's hillside.  We don't get many Red-tails here due to the forest-like habitat.  I would love for them to get a couple of squirrels! 

Our yard is filled with Dark-eyed juncos, sometimes between 30-40 at a time.  I usually scatter hulled sunflower seed on the ground but they make short work of it.  The juncos are very attuned to my presence, and often when I broadcast the seed my subsequent handfuls fall on top of juncos already availing themselves of the first handfuls. 

I watched rather carefully after one of my broadcasts and there, for the fourth winter in a row, was a relatively rare (for this area) Slate-colored junco.  I would dearly love to know if it has been the same one each year but there's no hope of that without banding.  Again I was able to distinguish this relatively rare visitor not so much by its plumage as by its behavior.  It just doesn't quite fit in with the feeding patterns and gregariousness of the other juncos, although I can't tell you why.  If it weren't for its behavior I might never see it in all the activity of the other juncos. 

Also in the yard this past week:  a Northern flicker, both male and female Downy woodpeckers, at least one (and probably more) Golden-crowned kinglets, a Brown creeper, Song sparrow, Golden-crowned sparrow and the return of one of our favorite winter visitors, the Varied thrushes.  The thrushes often like to run with the American robins, so when we have robins in the yard it pays to examine each closely for a possible thrush.  The robins are rather common birds.  As most of you know, nobody, but nobody loves a bird bath more than a robin!  I often have to go out and refill the bird bath after a single robin bathes. 

We're still nursing along at least two Anna's hummingbirds.  On the one hand I feel guilty about feeding them through the winter, but on the other hand they're here during the winter whether I have my feeder out or not, so it seems like I should help them along.  It gets to be a lot of trouble when we have freezing weather during the day, but then I think about the impact on the hummingbirds and figure that it might be a matter of life or death for them.  I'm still trying to come up with some way to heat the hummingbird feeder other than with a lamp. 

And on a very sad note, I got an email from a friend late Friday night that he had found an owl with an injured wing on the road.  He wrapped it in a blanket and put it in a box and wanted to know what to do with it.  I met him with a wildlife intake/rehabilitator/friend Saturday morning.  She was concerned the owl couldn't be saved but took it to the vet.  I just heard this morning that the owl had a compound fracture at a joint and couldn't be saved.  It makes me sad... this was an absolutely beautiful bird.  I've seen a lot of owl photographs but none can do the bird justice when it's alive and sitting less than two feet from you.  The feathers and features were absolutely beautiful. 

We thought at the time that it might have been a Western Screech owl but I was told this morning that it was a Short-eared owl.