Killdeer and Northern Harrier on Whidbey Island

This is a record... two posts in the same day, but since it's been awhile since I last posted any photos I thought I should get up some from the day's production. 

I drove down to Whidbey Island today with the objective of photographing some quackers in a pond.  Unfortunately the pond area was being visited by people celebrating the first good weather day we've had in weeks so the waterfowl were on the far side of the pond... too far for photos.  I'm making a mental note to return on a week day and in the morning when the light is more favorable. 

However on my way to the pond I happened on a pair of Killdeer and a male Northern Harrier.  You can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.  

Tree Trimming

We had a company trim some of the trees in our yard this past week.  They used two basket-lift trucks often operating at the same time, chain saws and a large commercial chipper whose noise emissions must approach those of a jet engine.  (I saw one crew member throw a 'log' at least 4" in diameter in the chipper and it just ate it whole!)  While part of the crew was cutting limbs in the treetops other crew members were using a chainsaw on smaller trees or gathering the slash below and running it through the chipper.  The conditions could pretty much be described as mayhem during much of the time the company was here. 

Our resident female Downy woodpecker had decided it was time for a meal and was not going to be detered.  At first she hung around on a pine tree waiting to get to the suet feeder, but she finally gave up on that and flew to the feeders closer to the house... slightly farther from all the noise and activity.  There she accessed the peanut feeder and watched as people paraded by.  It was difficult for me to believe that she would put up with all the noise and activity, but I've found the Downy woodpeckers to be extremely tolerant of people. 

One of the crew members was trimming a couple of limbs away from the house (they use no hand tools, only chain saws) and a Red-breasted nuthatch approached to within about four feet of him to see what was going on.  Meanwhile a chickadee continued to feed on one of the peanut feeders that was only about ten feet away. 

This past week we continue to have visits by the California quail (either nine or ten).  We've seen two Varied thrushes in the yard at the same time, a Brown creeper and we finally had a Fox sparrow show up.  We continue to have Golden-crowned sparrows in the yard and for the first time this winter I saw one that actually had some faded gold on its crown... probably a male. 

And for you gardners out there, we have two varieties of spinach planted and both survived temperatures down to about 20-degrees and at least 24 hours of snow! 

Inclement weather (overcast and cold) have discouraged me from taking any photographs, but there might be some forthcoming as I plan to travel to Whidbey Island today and the weather early this morning looks promising. 

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.