Category: Birds

Coming to a Bird Feeder Near You

Yes, this beautiful but also stern and rather solemn face can mean only one thing…”I’m on your fence and watching your feeder!”.

Although stunning, these hawks mean business and the more passerines you have munching on your bird seed, the more they’ll be attracted to your feeder, and more specifically to your birds.

But there’s hope. All About Birds says, “If a Cooper’s Hawk takes up residence in your yard, you can take your feeders down for a few days and the hawk will move on.”

And although they can be menacing, they do have some redeeming characteristics, as the site also states, “Males tend to be submissive to females and to listen out for reassuring call notes the females make when they’re willing to be approached. Males build the nest, then provide nearly all the food to females and young over the next 90 days before the young fledge.”

So, apparently, there’s some good in every inhabitant of the planet. We may just need to look a bit harder to find it…

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

You were expecting a leprechaun, or maybe a rainbow with a pot of gold?

Sorry, but I have yet to photograph either, but to offer my wishes for the day, I did find this Anna’s Hummingbird who was beautifully dressed in what else but…GREEN! He’s about to sip on some sweet nectar, and some of you may be doing the same today to celebrate. If so, if you have any good corned beef recipes to share, please let me know!

Otherwise, cheers to the Irish and to all of you!

Dinner on the Fly

Like many Americans, my spirit animal is the bald eagle, our national symbol. And at this time of year, local nest watching is often at the top of my list.

But when I can’t get out, like many others, I watch Jackie and Shadow, a nesting pairs of baldies in Big Bear, CA via a webcam on YouTube. This remarkable pair has a long history and considering the daily struggles they face, one wonders how they, or their offspring survive.

The camera is hosted by The Friends of Big Bear Valley, and as I write this, there are 38,405 viewers watching! But because of the site’s restrictions on reposting, I won’t go into more detail, but I do invite you to visit the site and to witness this amazing pair for yourselves.

And if you can get out and about here at home, be sure to swing by and view any of the nests we have in Sequim, but please do so respectfully, and quietly; we want to keep them active as long as possible.

And as this image displays, fish are a mainstay of the eagles’ diet, for both the parents and their chicks, and here in Sequim we are very fortunate have a good supply to accommodate them but unfortunately, we don’t have a webcam!

Incoming Eagle!

Every Spring, Sequim’s Olympic Audubon Society hosts the Olympic Bird Festival.

This year, it will be held April 10-13th, and if you haven’t participated, or you’re new to birding and not sure where to go or how to start, now’s your chance to get started and to discover what you’ve been missing.

Classes are offered (mostly at the Dungeness River Center), boat and field trips are available, and as always, an eager and helpful staff of professionals is there to help guide your way.

And If you’re a seasoned birder, then you already know the benefits of attending, so I expect to see you out there, along with this old baldy, who by the way, looked as if he was diving straight into my lens (and I couldn’t have been happier)!

Back to Nature

Although photographed in December, I stumbled over this photo today and couldn’t help but feel the need to post it.

I think most bird lovers are attracted to Varied Thrush, and this male couldn’t have been more attractive while perched on these bright red apples. And was he ever hangry! After taking a bite out of all three, he still wasn’t about to share with any others – and I felt quite privileged that he chose to pose for this shot!

As the Cornell Lab’s All About Birds site states, ‘Varied Thrushes are often aggressive toward each other and other bird species. At feeders, males sometimes defend small feeding territories, where they dominate sparrows, blackbirds, cowbirds, towhees and juncos. They usually defer to California Quails, Northern Flickers, Western Scrub-Jays, and American Robins. The only time Varied Thrushes flock with other species is when they occasionally forage for berries or earthworms on lawns with American Robins.’

So while rather self-centered, thrushes do have their strong points, and we are very lucky to have them here in Sequim. But sadly, they are on the ‘list of Common Birds in Steep Decline, for species that are still too numerous or widely distributed to warrant Watch-List status but have been experiencing troubling long-term declines’, so if you have the means to provide seed, fruit, and/or water, please do so, and they may be around to pose for you too!

The Dove Bar

Although mourning doves are quite common in our area, I found this particular one to be especially beautiful, and therefore my reason for sharing.

While perched on a tree limb (aka Dove Bar) in my backyard, this beauty and her mate chose to entertain us daily by cooing and coaxing us to add more seed to their feeder. But as time went by, our HOA requested we remove all feeders due to a rise in the rodent population, and the fear of bears. And although it was tough to accept, we complied and removed them.

Since then we now enjoy them and their gentle cooing whenever we walk at Carrie Blake or Pioneer Park, or on my computer.

However…the hummingbird feeders stay!

The Relationship Continues

After being so thrilled with their mates Valentines’ Day present, these two splashed about and thanked each other profusely, all to the delight of those of us with cameras and long lenses.

And fyi…here’s what www.AllAboutBirds.com has to say about these guys: ‘Trumpeter Swans form pair bonds when they are three or four years old. The pair stays together throughout the year, moving together in migratory populations. Trumpeters are assumed to mate for life, but some individuals do switch mates over their lifetimes. Some males that lost their mates did not mate again’.

Roses, chocolate, and a bottle of bubbly don’t mean a thing here though, and they’re certainly not a part of their recommended diet; and don’t count on bird seed, ‘Trumpeter Swans are mainly vegetarians, although they occasionally eat small fish and fish eggs….and, ‘To feed underwater they tip in the air like dabbling ducks, rooting beneath the surface to twist and pull up vegetation or freeing roots by paddling their feet in the mud.’