We have a Sharp-Shinned Hawk that has apparently taken up residence, during the day, in the trees in my side yard. (Here in Richmond)
I haven't gotten the best looks at it but my neighbor has watched it quite a bit. It apparently took out a Finch from one of his feeders on Friday. It's got some great hunting here since all of my neighbors have very popular feeders.
I'm a little concerned for my Wren and Titmouse that usually stop by about once a day.
"That young man has an extra step on his ladder the rest of us just don't have."
birds are coming back North in droves, great to hear them. Meanwhile a nearby popular park has a Barred Owl warning, evidently he's (she's) taken a dive at some people...
Lots of migrating warblers coming through now. Looking for the rose breasted
grosbeaks as well.
I’m at my second home in Cedar Key, FL, teaching online to my students in West Palm Beach. Yesterday I saw an albino hawk. I don’t know the type of hawk. It’s small and very beautiful. There are also white Pelicans here. I’ve never seen them in SE Florida.
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
Had a vet once who was licensed in three states: NC, LA, and CA. His specialty was pelicans, and he had a contract with fish and wildlife to rehab injured ones. Not enough of them to run a full practice, fortunately.
I was there once when he was working on one with a wing fully tangled in fishing line. It had been like that for several weeks at least, but he wasn't sure how long. It was a really large bird up close!
-jk
As you enter the island, on the left-hand side, there is a sandbar that is exposed on low tide. There are around seventy-five, I would guess, that sit together on the bar. It’s quite beautiful. I guess they fly off to feed on high tide when the water covers the bar.
I’m hoping to get a good look at some roseate spoonbills next week.
My backyard is a small wetlands island across a narrow channel of the bay newr the bottom of New Jersey.
It has several Osprey stands and the closest one had the male Osprey return from wintering down south yesterday. He rested for a few hours and then went out a caught a fish. The stand is a good distance away - this is shot with a 500mm zoom and still not all that tight. It’s catches him in his stand with the fish in his talons while a jealous seagull flies by. I included a shot with little or no zoom to give a better feel for the larger scene.
I really hope to study the stand this year. The female should be arriving shortly. It’s pretty quickly into baby making with babies arriving around the 4th of July. I’ll provide periodic updates and get closer to the stand as I get my kayak out.
Cool. Sounds a like a nice spot.
I’m at my parents’ house on a golf course on the SC coast right now. Been working from an upstairs porch. Each of the last 2 days a large hawk has landed on the same spot mid-fairway and just sat there fir 10 minutes. Thinking he may be a juvenile. If he does it again, I’ll grab a pic.
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
A Carolina Chickadee keeps trying to fly into my kitchen window this morning, where the feeder is. Either he sees his reflection, or he's trying to tell me the feeder is getting low.
I'm not feeding birds as I'm tired of feeding squirrels - and I've had multiple "squirrel proof" feeders. I've given up on it. However, I do enjoy making birdhouses, and we have two of them right outside our kitchen nook, handing from a shepherd's crook. Over the years they have alternatively housed chickadees and bluebirds. The latter are really beautiful but I have grown tired of them pecking on the window. I almost suspect they're doing it to annoy, rather than out of mistake in seeing a reflection. Anyway, this year was a changeover, and we're seeing chickadees there. Bluebirds took over one of my carpenter bee traps (enlarging one of the entry holes).
About a week ago the removable bottom fell out of one of the two birdhouses. Two bits of wood pivot under to hold it in place. Somehow both got pivoted outward. I felt bad as I thought there was some nesting going on in there (as there was in the other). Once the coast was clear of any recovery efforts (by the birds) I replaced the floor. Within just 3 days I noticed chickadees going in and out again.
The next day, I saw a wren REMOVING chickadee bedding from the other birdhouse! Trying to evict them! "No my friend, we must not interfere, for it is nature's way ..."
[can anyone get the reference without googling?]
Saw some other nice birds in the area too. Female cardinal; what I thought was a finch (like the kind I see in doctors' offices) but had more of a "mohawk" atop the head. I need to look that one up. And our usual assortment of sparrows, crows, bluebirds, and so forth. All without feeding! Granted, when I was buying the $pendy birdfood, we were getting amazing birds. But this is still pretty good.
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Curious if this was bird action:
I went to mow the yard yesterday, and as part of my pre-mow walkaround, I saw two adjacent piles of freshly-cut, small branches at the foot of our oak tree. The branches were a bit thinner than a pencil's diameter. My initial reaction was, "Did our gutter guy come out today and cut those off - were they encroaching the house?" No. "Could that be the start of a failed squirrel nest, that got blown out of the tree?" Well, we haven't had unusually high winds in the last few days. Now I wonder if birds cut them, and were actually collecting them there to pick up and move later. Would be a big bird. These little branches were about 1.5-2.0 feet in length, with leaves on them. I don't know what to think. Any ideas?