My latest wild bird sighting is the Scarlet-fronted Parakeet (today) and the next most recent were a pair of hummingbirds, the Blue-tailed Emerald and the quite impressive Booted Racket-tail...but then "we're not in Kansas anymore".
Pitter--
How do you tell summer from winter?
Hi Farmerman:
The pal I band with Mike Olmstead has been banding hawks for over 55 years. He learned as a teenager from his aunt at Hawk Mountain. I've already got Hawk Mountain's site bookmarked. There's a reason it's the main banding site along with supplying bird counts. It's the convergence of the Ohio flyway and the eastern coast flyway.
Funny story. Mike was there when one of the spotters alerted them of an approaching hawk. they dove in the blind to lure him in. Just before he struck someone yelled out "Hawk -- that's no hawk. It's a golden eagle. Immediately after that they had a 7 foot hole in their net.
Noddy there are two rainy seasons (winters?) and two dry seasons. When the temperature plumets to say 76 everybody puts on their warmest coats and go around saying "que frio!" to each other. The two most common raptors here in Cali are the Yellow-headed Caracara and Kestral
bobsmythhawk. I have respect for you guys who do lots of th heavy lifting in the birds of prey ecology programs
As a kid we did a field ecology section as an honors project with dr Mauricee Brown, the original super at Hawk Mountain.we did a project on the kestrel aand predation on voles and little critters it was hard work and it took many weeks of learning to just sit quietly. Ive since become an expert at sitting quietly for hours in my outside studio which is a refrigerator case. ispray the thing with orange spray and watch for foxes to sketch
shhhhhh be vewy vewy quiet.
My red-bellied woodpecker is a feisty lil cutie. He points his beak threateningly at any blue jays or starlings who dare to enter the feeder while he's dining, and they scatter away. Cardinals and nuthatches usually stay away until he's gone, but chickadees and sparrows are allowed to share a meal with the red-bellied. Red-bellied, what a misnomer...you have a bright red nape (and head if you're a male), now turn around so we can see your tummy...
The male cardinal is singing his spring mating tune. It's uncharacteristically warm here in this corner of the Midwest, but it's only early February...
It's really not that soon. Great horned owls begin mating mid February. They're one of the first. Red tailed hawks and others are about a month later. When pal Mike and I used to climb trees and band baby hawks and owls great horned owls would be on the nest covered in snow.
I saw an interesting bird in Harvard Yard. I couldn't ID it, and only caught a glimpse. It was pale on the underside, dark on top and not a whole lot bigger than a pigeon. Indeed, I begane to wonder if maybe it was a pigeon. But, I hoped it was a peregrin falcon.
There's been a bit of a thaw, the ice is gone in certain spots along the Mystic River and the Sandy Lakes in Medford. The pair of swans are back and a lone great blue heron has been hunched in the shallows with the ducks. Both the swans and the heron look gorgeous with the stark backdrop of white snow and dark mud.
Finally. The cardinals showed up. Pretty pairs--about four pair. Travelling and twittling together in a red and tan tornado.
The geese are gone now. Mockingbirds sort of reign. Never did like them much. Pretty fat little bluebirds.
Buzzards. (Lots of roadkill today--a skunk, two deer, two cats on the commute.)
Uh, today, my wife said she saw 2 robins, and they werent skittish ( so she said). What to feed early onset robins, there is still a foot of snow back at home
farmerman wrote:Uh, today, my wife said she saw 2 robins, and they werent skittish ( so she said). What to feed early onset robins, there is still a foot of snow back at home
Well, as you know, farmer, robins are mainly carnivorous. Maybe some suet might tempt them.
Down here Robin species come and chow down on the banana I put out for the tanagers and Euphonias. I've seen other bug eaters like Kiskadee species and Acorn Woodpeckers eating it too. Desert I guess
Robins adore raisins--especially wormy raisins.
I saw the same hunting bird today. It's hard to track a bird like that in the city - he buildings block the view. It had a light underside with dark wingtips, I didn't catch it's topside.
