Look! A bird!

[mamselle]

We had squirrels get into the attic via the eaves above our bedroom when we were kids; it took a bit of doing to get them out.

One place I lived, a few years back, was in the 2nd floor of a house. I kept hearing something scrabbling about over my head near the bathroom one winter. I stopped using the washer/dryer unit which backed up to it, until it could be seen to, figuring it was a bird's nest in the vent. 

The heat might have caught a nest on fire, it seemed to me, although everyone else pooh-poohed the idea.

Turned out it was the shower vent: my neighbors saw a starling go in with twigs one day, and a worm the next; the scrabbling was the babies in the nest hatching and moving about (the ceiling was too well-insulated, so I hadn't heard them cheep).

The repair guy carefully escorted them to a nearby tree, nest and all, then put square thick wire over all the vents.

When he checked the other vent, there was an old, dry nest in there, too.

I was glad I'd stopped using the dryer....

M.

[Langue_doc]

A flock of about two dozen Brandt geese mostly in the water; a few of them were launching themselves from the rocks into the water. There were, in addition, groups of four to six swimming in other parts of the same stretch of water. Some of them were also foraging for food, plant-based, on the algae covering the rocks. The usual gulls were there in large numbers, happily eating whatever live morsels brought in by the tide.

[Harlow2]

Kingfishers patrolling the creek when I scouted a hike this weekend.   (Not a bird, but I saw the fattest beaver I've ever seen swimming upstream a few minutes later)

[mamselle]

A bunch of geese were rather tightly packed into a small brook where I don't usually see geese. Its usually smaller g
Birds--ducks, the mergansers, the herons, and a cormorant, once--who show up there.

I was puzzled as to why the geese had chosen to cram themselves together Ike that, until I passed the confluence with the wider river where they usually hang out...er, swim around.

It was frozen solid. Not a waterbird in sight anywhere.

Suddenly, it all made sense.

M.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I had the displeasure of witnessing a hawk (red shouldered?), that had just caught a red-winged blackbird, process its kill in my backyard. That was a few days ago.

I also saw about 20 black vultures standing in someone's yard as if they were having some kind of ceremony.

[mamselle]

To mix group names, a congregation of vultures?

(Or else something large had died there and they were preparing for lunch...?)

M.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

To mix group names, a congregation of vultures?

(Or else something large had died there and they were preparing for lunch...?)

M.

I looked it up and a group of vultures is called a wake. Fitting.

[nebo113]

For some reason, I am rather fond of vultures.  Lots of road kill deer around here, so vultures are well fed.

Yesterday, a bald eagle flew about 15 over my head.  Wow!

[paultuttle]

For some reason, I am rather fond of vultures.  Lots of road kill deer around here, so vultures are well fed.

Yesterday, a bald eagle flew about 15 over my head.  Wow!

In the city, so squirrels, not deer, and crows, not vultures, but otherwise, same.

[Thursday's_Child]

It's getting to be Spring:  bluebirds started singing last weekend & a male pine warbler in gorgeous plumage bested an aggressive yellow-rump warbler in the feeder.  Also saw a golden-crowned kinglet!  Ruby-crowned are far more common, so I was thrilled.

[mamselle]

Wow, you get spring early.

It was 7 F when I arose this AM, warmed up to 22 around noon.

I haven't been out for a bit, and only to run errands when I was out last; the walkways I usually take to see the birds get slick, slippery, and slimy in various iterations of snow, sleet and rain, and I'm still wary of anything that could destabilize an upright walking figure the way it did a couple years ago! (Silly, really, I know, but there it is. I did NOT enjoy my time spent in a cast....)

We won't see spring for at least two months yet, maybe three.

So---Enjoy it for me!!

M.

[Harlow2]

Our buffleheads are back! At least for a while. It's so cool to watch them dive and hang out underwater, well,  too cold to watch the underwater part. They bob around much more than other ducks. 

[mamselle]

I had to look that up.

Now I'm wondering if that's what I was seeing, rather than mergansers?

Are they related?

Now I'll have to look THAT up!

Tres cool.

M.

[cathwen]

When I lived in Upstate NY, my husband and I used to drive up one of the lakes to watch the winter waterfowl.  My favorites were always the buffleheads.  Such cuties!

[Thursday's_Child]

Bird Alert!  Beautiful underwater view of an Anhinga hunting in Biscayne Bay / Port Miami this morning.  It's at 10:46:27 live-stream time - clock is in the lower left corner.  Will only be there for either 11 or 12 hours before it rolls off the live stream.  If you miss it, I'm almost positive it'll be reposted on various social media.

Coral City Camera:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i8ARjIeM2k