Thought the birders would be interested in this story. Features DBR's own sagegrouse who I've always assumed is an actual sage grouse.
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
Thought you guys might enjoy this...
My daughter is naming all the daily birds that come to my feeder after Classic Rock Stars (Yes, she's that bored.)
The pair of Cardinals - Sonny and Cher
The Nuthatch and Chickadee - Gene and Ace (the white and black around the eyes/face = KISS)
The Mourning Doves - Ozzy and Sharon (he had such the rapport with Doves)
The Tufted Titmouse - Freddie
She hasn't finalized but she's leaning toward Bowie for the Blue Jay
She says she's open to suggestions on the Chipping Sparrow and the Hummingbirds.
"That young man has an extra step on his ladder the rest of us just don't have."
She might enjoy this Birdfeeder Bingo game, too. A friend's kids are doing it with their birdfeeders.
I'd just like a good chart or something to keep track of all the bird's that come to my feeders...if anyone has any suggestions?
I just keep a daily log. Gives me something to do now that I am retired.
Just make entries of each species that shows up on that date.
The Sibley books and laminated charts are good.
Today's 6:30 a.m. surprise when I took the hound out to fetch the newspaper was a big fat wild turkey dropping out of a 70 ft. pine tree next to my driveway...impressive how such a big fat bird can fly that well...still no hummingbirds, two snow events in the past week probably got them to U-turn back to Mexico.
My two hummingbirds seemed to disappear during the cold spell but one was back yesterday. Haven't seen what I think was a female in about a week.
Here's my boy... (not the best pic, lighting wasn't great, but I'm working on it)
Hummingbird 2.jpg
"That young man has an extra step on his ladder the rest of us just don't have."
They're great fun to watch, they can really scoot...a real success story here, they had to be reintroduced to the state some decades ago with the fear that the winter would be too cold for them (25 below zero not unusual) but they've flourished and now there are 50,000 or so of them running and flying around...
He's been pretty lucky so far, no competition that I've seen. I think I had a female last week and they took turns without much interaction. Couldn't get a good enough look to know for certain. Must do more monitoring! (sitting on the deck with camera in one hand and beer in the other)
"That young man has an extra step on his ladder the rest of us just don't have."
We had set up a 2x2 piece of plywood on a 4x4 6ft up.we used to feed the birds on.
My lab never bothered them.
But what i believe is a coopers hawk set up shop.felt like i was baiting them for death.
So, there are some green herons hanging around my yard that appear to be back after making a first appearance last year. They're mostly hidden deep in my norway spruce trees. I found them last year when I started hearing a croaking sound I couldn't ID (the first call in the link below). I finally put eyes on one of the birds and was able to figure it out. I don't know if they're nesting and rearing young in my trees but there are several of them that must visit some of the local creeks and low areas.
Anyway, I just started hearing the telltale croaking a few days ago. Haven't seen one yet but I know they are there!
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Green_Heron/sounds
Those are great birds...i've seen a few flying around already, quite distinctive.
Another very interesting water bird is the American Bittern...they'll hang out where there are lots of tall reeds and things, and if they hear you coming, they extend their heads upward and sway with the rhythm of the reeds around them, "I'm invisible."...very cool to watch...,
This guy was on my parents' front porch a long time ago (35 mm film camera).
tom turkey.jpg
We have a mess of wild turkeys in our neighborhood. They used to be somewhat seasonal, leaving up th mountain in the fall, returning early spring. Their winter escape was turned into new houses, so now they stay year round. Observations over the years:
The males get extremely aggressive with each other during mating season. I've seen them viscously attack each other to near the point of death.
Baby turkeys are incredibly cute. They look like fuzzy tennis balls with legs. They are also apparently quite tasty, as their numbers diminish very quickly.
We had a female roost in our yard one year. She camped near our basement door for several weeks before nine of her ten babies hatched. Watching them waddle around the yard was adorable.
Big turkeys are amazing to watch fly. They are ungainly and their aim is poor. My analogy is that turkeys can fly about like I can run. I will if someone's chasing me, but it ain't pretty.
Had a female sharp shinned hawk make a run at my sunflower seed feeders this afternoon. The sharp shinned is a nearly identical, but smaller version of the Cooper's hawk.