Cranky Pants

Today I am cranky. I'm allowed to be cranky. 

A Few Items Worth Mentioning

• Just a few hours after I posted about male cardinals feeding the females, I actually witnessed this! I don't think they were mating because it seems too late for that, and the female was not scruffy like the juvenile I had seen a few weeks prior so I assumed it was an adult female. It looked like she was receiving a sweet kiss from her love. 

• Later that day a bluebird took a quick respite from flying in the heat to perch on the top of the shepherd's hook. I have never seen a bluebird before so this was very exciting for me. He had his mouth wide open. I've seen other birds do this and I wondered if it's a cooling mechanism, much like panting for a dog. Turns out it is, the internet says. It was pretty hot that day. 

• The blue jays have been very noisy today! I rarely hear them, and usually only so when I walk through the parts of the neighborhood where the trees are thicker. They're so loud I expect a flock of them to land in my yard to begin the Angry Blue Jay Territory Convention.  

• On my way to the library yesterday I saw a dark wide wingspan circle over the street a ways in front of me and land over some road kill. I was able to drive right up to it before it flew away revealing itself to be a turkey vulture! Before I knew what it was I was describing it to Rob and said it looked like a big black bird with a red turkey head. I wouldn't call them "pretty." 

• I love it when I surprise the birds at my feeder. Many of them are so focused on eating that they don't hear me walking from the car to the front door. When I get right next to the feeder they all scream, fly to the nearest branch, and if they're chickadees, they scold me until I shut the front door behind me. Last week I surprised a goldfinch. He looked right at me, paused as if processing what he saw, then gave a startled warble before flying away. 

Barred Owl

This post comes all the way from Illinois. I bet my Uncle Todd doesn't know he's a contributing editor to this blog!

Thought you might get a kick out of the new resident in our birch tree 10 feet from the front porch.

Its a barred owl. I’ve never seen one before. He just sits in the tree (no nest) and gets chased occasionally by other birds (for the last few days) but always returns. The limb is over the sidewalk and besides the white splots he emits, there are also grayish balls consisting of tiny bones, fur, and feathers of the creatures he has dined on. He looks pretty well fed.

Anyway, its kind of neat. We are enjoying his company. He is a pretty good size owl.

Breakfast Date

I often see a pair of cardinals feeding in the yard together. I've read that during their courtship the male actually feeds the female, though I've never actually witnessed this myself. As that early romance fades, the simply sweet companionship remains. These days when hormone levels are lower, I see the female eating from the tray while the male forages on the ground.

Here they are on a breakfast date, chaperoned by a baby bunny (the brownish blur above Mr. Cardinal).

Maybe My Current Favorite

Look at this little sweetie! This is a chipping sparrow. Smaller than the house sparrow, they have a chestnut colored cap on their head. I saw one bouncing around restlessly, almost wren-like. Their call is much like their name would suggest, a high-pitched trill, and a chip, chip, chip!

Dallas Meets Skye

Hey Dallas, what are you looking at?

Oh, nothing............

My parents' parakeet fascinated her for hours. 

"One Good Tern Deserves Another"

To continue my Duluth Birdservations, here is a shot of a sandy island in the St. Louis Bay where hundreds of gulls and terns nest. The guide of our boat tour told us that terns like to nest mate for life, which prompted him to say "one good tern deserves another!"

As we approached the island, their perpetual and tortuous shrieks became the sort of soundtrack I imagine my brain would play if I ever went crazy. Instead of voices, I'd hear seagulls. Hundreds and hundreds of seagulls.

Duluth Hummingbird

A hummingbird, getting its morning nectar from my Mom's feeder.

Duluth Birdservations!

A few weeks ago I got a visit from a white-breasted nuthatch. In Duluth this weekend I managed to snap a few photos of his cousin, the red-breasted nuthatch. They were so tame I could stand right under the feeder and they'd keep eating, with an occasional glance in my direction. 

Goldfinch

Goldfinches are nearly impossible to photograph because they always have their backs turned towards the house, or they're concealed by birch tree leaves.

Then I got lucky.

Wrens

These are the wrens that have been hanging out in our garden areas. I followed one as he slipped into a canopy of leafy plants. When he realized I was there he flitted to the fence where he scolded me. I apologized but he wasn't ready to forgive me, and he flew away.

Another wren was in our front yard by the perennials. 

Then I struck gold when I looked out the kitchen window and saw three of them sitting in a row on the fence. I grabbed the camera and went outside. I got even more scolding for these photos.

Weekend Update

• I'm thrilled to report that the Indigo Bunting returned twice today after gracing me with his presence for the first time yesterday.

• Wrens, wrens everywhere! They have been hanging out in our garden areas so there must be a nest somewhere nearby. I received many baleful scoldings from them as I got too close in my attempts to photograph them. 

• Lately I've been really lazy about filling the hummingbird feeder. A wave of guilt washes over me whenever I look at it, and the hummingbirds haven't returned (from what I've seen). But yesterday there were two sweet little butterflies resting on its red plastic base so I felt better knowing someone was getting something from it. Speaking of butterflies, they're everywhere! It's fun to watch them.

• A cowbird with a most embarrassing situation visited our feeder yesterday. As it turns out, humans aren't the only ones who must watch for bird poo bombs from above. Yes, that's what the streak of white is on his back. Hopefully it was an accident and not a malicious attack, but when you've got a reputation like the cowbird, you never know...

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Delicious Birdseed!

Knowing the chances of seeing a bald eagle fly majestically over my yard on Independence Day were pretty low, I was wondering what other patriotic theme I could go with to celebrate today. And then, an Indigo Bunting stopped by (which is so exciting because I haven't seen one since I left Duluth)!

Thanks to the inspiration he provided, here's the Official Birdservation Salute to America:

RED!

WHITE!

BLUE!

Red-winged Blackbird

I have fond memories of red-winged blackbirds from my childhood. They remind me of making the drive to my Grandma and Grandpa's farm in Chisago County. I remember staring out the car window at the wash of golden farm land and being thrilled to see their bright colors as they perched on the cattails growing in marshy ditches.

When I first saw one at my feeder I was so excited! And since that first visit I only need to hear them sing to know one is in my yard. It's a distinct call; very different from the ongoing medley of finch and sparrow song.

I have a pair of red-winged blackbirds who visit my feeder, most often just the male.  Sometimes his girlfriend stops by, but it's almost never a "date" as they usually visit the feeder solo. I've read that these birds are polygynous (meaning, one male bird mates with many females), so the female I see might be one of several girlfriends. Out for a quick meal away from the sister-wives. Kind of like the Big Love of blackbirds.

From the photo below you can hardly see any red on his shoulders, it's mostly hidden by black top feathers.

But when he's air-borne his color pops (as you can see from the blurry blob at the top of this picture!). 

Hay Bale Owl. I Think.

As seen in Bayfield, WI in October 2008.

Not So Darling Starling

I don't see a lot of starlings in my yard. In fact I see more while I'm idling in the highway's on-ramp on the way to work than I do in my whole neighborhood.

This one walked all the way across the yard to the marigolds and savagely tore a few petals off (don't ask me what that was all about).

Then he scrounged in the dirt, presumably in search of a creepy crawler for lunch.

An Unfortunate Nesting Location

As my mom would say, "Robins must be really dumb."

To explain, over the past several years Mom has taken note of all the bizarre locations that the robins in Duluth have chosen to nest.

There was the summer of 2005 when one robin made her nest in the hanging basket right outside the front door to their house. We tried to accommodate her as best we could by avoiding use of the front door, and I think it was working pretty well. Then we threw my dad a retirement party and all the extra humans made for one nervous momma. Sadly, she did not hatch any babies.

Two years ago another robin also nested in a hanging flower basket. My mom would keep tabs on her, with one update to us saying, "Mother robin is stoically keeping to her nest, trying to hatch those babies."

More recently, there was a story in the Duluth News Tribune about a robin who made her nest in a $14.95 rose bush at the Cub Foods garden center and would chase unsuspecting patrons away. 

In the end though, I'm not so sure that robins are dumb, but that we make it really easy for them to nest in inconvenient places. 

Thunderstorm

We're under a thunderstorm warning. About 15 minutes ago the sky got so dark I had to turn on some inside lights which, unless it's winter, is unnecessary at 6:00 PM. Then I heard the eerie sounds of the siren as it blasted its song through the streets in 360 degrees.

Not to worry! The birds are still chirping away as if nothing is wrong. I watched as two robins got cantankerous with each other in their quest for worms. The rolling thunder that causes the dog's ears to flatten against her head, giving her a look of bewilderment, is the same noise that seems to go unnoticed by the birds. Life as usual here in bird land!

Another Installment of Weekend Birdservations!

• A baby chickadee with a particular bald spot on his forehead finally learned how to eat from the suet grate.

• Never before seen in our yard, a white-breasted nuthatch made an appearance. Since the visit I've heard their nasal "yaank yaank!" call from both ends of our front yard. I was able to get pretty close to one too as he waited in the tree for me to fill the bird feeder.

• A raptor (falcon? kestrel?) stalked the feeder until he snagged his evening meal of sparrow. He came back for a second meal Sunday morning, and later awed the guests of our Father's Day picnic as he flew across the backyard.

• The hungry baby chipping sparrow I mentioned the other day ended up being a baby cowbird that a family of chipping sparrows fostered. I guessed this because the markings on the baby was not consistent with sparrows of any kind, was twice the size of its parents, and much hungrier than most sparrow babies. A week after I captured those photos I noticed them again and learned that those sparrows are actually raising two cowbird babies. 

• Juvenile robins have been practicing their songs as the afternoons fade to evening. A little sputtery at times, but sounding more and more like their parents every day. 

Hungry Baby Bird

This happened June 12.

I watched this little baby bird for about 15 minutes. At first I thought he had been abandoned or got lost because he was all alone on the sidewalk (seen here with a few house sparrows who didn't acknowledge him), looking around as if he was waiting for his mommy to come back.

Then mom (or dad) chipping sparrow swooped in and fed him for about 10 minutes. He was very, very hungry.