Feeder Update…

24Apr08

Today, a feeder update: as I said in the last post many of the birds I’ve mentioned are still around. There are only a couple of exceptions that my feed has brought in and I haven’t seen the evening grosbeak for a couple of weeks now.  Today it snowed and then rained so that proved to be a good excuse to stay on my deck and take shots of the birds that show up in my yard daily. There is also a decline in the amount of dark eyed juncos – today I saw about eleven juncos when usually I see thirty plus.

Let me shut up however and get to the photos…

There were plenty of Cassins Finch. But there was a bit of a shock – about a week ago I got this photograph and poured over the details. I knew immediately it was a flycatcher however it took me awhile to figure out which kind. (I’m still a little raw at ID’ing birds)

Then I got more shots of the same bird (or just the same species) there may just be one flitting about or many. It is nothing (in terms of size) to the Kingbirds that I expect will show up anytime. Instead it’s a smaller version however the flight patterns looks almost identical to the larger species.

In the end I decided it must be a Say’s Phoebe.

The Crossbills are still visiting and they seem to be in a constant conflict with the Redwinged blackbirds over the black sunflower seeds.

The Pine Siskins are still about and seem to favor landing on and playing in the bushes.

There were more Spotted Towhees, near the house, today, about four were feeding on the food I tossed out. I see them often when I go down by the creek and it almost seems like if there is a bush his distinguishable call will come from it. They stopped to visit to eat on some grain I threw down.

While they visited an identity crisis kicked in – “O’ no not a sparrow!” I can identify plenty of them just so long as they have a really distinct marking on them. This guy is the perfect type of bird that causes me many issues. I think he might be a fox sparrow and there were two of them; I’ll post both shots.

This plumb and a bit smaller guy…

And this relatively thinner fellow… I’ve read two blogs on fox sparrows one that Monarch posted and one that Zen the Birdfeeder posted, poured over page after page, looked in all the books I own. I was hoping that looking at their blogs helped me identify him properly however, if that’s not the case don’t think it has anything to do with their wonderful skills but my lack of ability to see a real difference between a Song, Lincoln or Fox sparrow. I’m just not one hundred percent sure. If anyone knows differently please correct me. (p.s. I see this guy all the time and even have winter shots of him.)

Update: I did indeed fail to correctly identify this species – Adam (once again coming to my aid; thank you!) Identified it as a Song Sparrow. You can find his photograph here that causes me to agree with him. In our area the fox sparrows are quite distinct and look shockingly different than the Eastern version. {note; if you want to look at quite a bit of eye candy concerning birds on the pacific coast Adam’s photograph is really the place to go! His tireless work has been foundational to this blog.} 

Okay and lastly, my hubby did take me on a quick photo-journalistic drive. We went over to an area where I knew there were large nests I’ve looked often there however, today – finally the reward!

p.s. there are two Osprey nests in this area – you’ll never believe it so I guess I’m just going to have to show you. One is occupied by this Osprey’s family the other…..?

yep, those are two Canadian Geese in an Osprey nest… (“boy,” I thought, “I’d hate to be the baby bird that has to walk out of that to learn to swim!”) The electrical lines are about 400 ft in the air! (They had to make them that high to get above the potential boats that come through.)

Things like this in nature make me giggle and amaze me all at the same time. 

 

 

Filed under: Bird Watching, Local Birds, Pacific Northwest   |  8 Comments
Tags: bird, Bird Watching, Canada Geese, Cassins Finch, Crossbills, Finch, Geese, Kettle Falls Washington, Local Birds, Orient Washington, Osprey, Pine Siskins, Red Crossbill, Say's Phoebe, Sparrow, Spotted Towhees, Towhee