Look! A bird!

[FishProf]

In other news, our neighborhood watch northern mockingbird is still patrolling our street, as he landed on a neighbor's tree as soon as he saw me come out the front door, and stayed there, noisily making his presence known until I drove off.

Is that a mockingbird?

[apl68]

I was sitting on the bank at the pond at the city park around dawn this morning when I heard an outburst of avian ruckus some distance away.  There seemed to be multiple species involved.  The only one I could make out for sure was a screech owl that suddenly started screeching.  Maybe the others had interrupted it as it was trying to bed down for the day?  Then everything got quiet again.

[Langue_doc]

In other news, our neighborhood watch northern mockingbird is still patrolling our street, as he landed on a neighbor's tree as soon as he saw me come out the front door, and stayed there, noisily making his presence known until I drove off.

Is that a mockingbird?

I once came across a solitary individual mimicking an ambulance so realistically that I waited for the "ambulance" to pass before crossing the street. There was no ambulance, and the sirens seemed to be coming from above, so there he was, perched on a telephone pole, chirping away!

[Thursday's_Child]

There was about 20 minutes of hopping and ruckus from my Tea Olive hedge yesterday afternoon.  Most of the hopping was at least 15 Ruby-crowned Kinglets - I've never seen more than two at once before this!  The ruckus was from a couple of species that I couldn't identify beyond "probably Warbler".  Apparently Tea Olives are excellent places to forage after a flush of blooms, b/c I didn't see anything predatory.

[Langue_doc]

The highlights of yesterday's bird walk were more than 2000 brant swooping down onto the pond, a Wilson's snipe that was barely visible in the dried vegetation he was settled in, an eastern meadowlark, several species of ducks and other waterfowl, a few killdeer, a couple of oystercatchers, two or more northern harriers, a couple of Cooper's hawks, an American kestrel, several species of sparrows, a great blue heron, three or four great egrets, and other assorted birds.

[apl68]

Had several geese sightings while vacationing up north in the Mid-West. 

[Langue_doc]

On the bird walk this morning, we saw a kestrel emerge from its nest--nest was among the nests of a large non-raptor bird colony--, a few red-tailed hawks, a couple of sharp-shinned hawks, and much later into the walk, a sharp-shinned hawk trying to dislodge a kestrel from the top of a structure. Other birds included several sparrow species--chipping, white-throated, song, swamp, fox, and house sparrows. A few red-bellied woodpeckers, a couple of yellow-bellied sapsuckers, a northern flicker, a great blue heron standing knee-deep in water, nonchalanlty eyeing us walking past him, and flocks and flocks of birds including american crows, red-winged blackbirds, robins, and several other species.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I saw, what looked like, two Great Blue herons fly over campus the other day.

[apl68]

Yesterday I got a good view of one of our blue herons that hangs around the city park flying up from the bank and perching high on a tree. 

This morning, at dawn, I was sitting on the lower end of the pond at the park and thought I heard geese.  What were the park's geese doing way down there, away from their usual haunt in the upper pond?  Then I saw a small flock of wild geese come flying over.  Not the park's silly resident geese after all!

[Langue_doc]

I've been seeing herons up close. Last weekend, on a bird walk, we saw a couple of herons gracefully circle quite low and then land near fishermen. One of the herons stayed put for quite some time, waiting for free food. I'm not sure if fishing is allowed on that stretch because the fishermen were quickly packing up their fancy rods and the stands for their rods as we were taking pictures of the heron. Fishermen and heron were quite close to us--the fishermen seems more perturbed than the heron which appeared quite unflappable.

This past weekend, on a bird walk, we saw several herons perched on trees on the other side of the pond--I think it was the same pond, but in a differnt section of the preserve/park. They were in profile, on branches of three or four adjacent trees. We also saw a heron in the water, along the edge, looking for food. That was a spectacular sight, because his blue-gray feathers stood out from the background bushes/rushes that were browinsh.

The week before the heron wanting a handout, I ran into a fellow birder on an early moring bird walk, who asked if I'd seen the merlins, and then directed me to a spot about six trees away so that I could see the merlin (the mate had disappeared) sitting on one of the trees on the hillside.

[Thursday's_Child]

Winter Wren - a first for me! - and a Hermit Thrush, both willing to eat mealworms on the patio.  Thrush has located the mealworm feeder on the patio wall, but Wren doesn't seem to forage at that elevation.

[Puget]

Just came home from visiting grandma in southern Arizona. Visitors to her patio feeders included cactus wrens, gila woodpeckers, curve billed thrashers, cardinals, various finches and sparrows, quail, and doves. I also saw Cooper's hawks and a some sort of small falcon in the neighborhood. 

Need to refill my own feeders now that I'm home. They mainly attract sparrows, but they are still fun to watch for me, and especially for the cats (I call filling the feeders turning on the cat TV).

[paultuttle]

I heard the characteristic hoo-hoo-hoohooHOO of a great horned owl two mornings ago. It sounded as close as one or two blocks away.

I'm looking forward to seeing one again. The last time, one was in a tree in our backyard, and it was an amazing experience.

[apl68]

I hear owls now and then, but haven't actually seen one in years.  It's a memorable experience.

[apl68]

How do they survive
Birds no bigger than golf balls
In this winter freeze?