Hawks and Hounds

Today I just have a few quick photos to share.

Recently, I wrote about the death of one of my pigeons.  By "my pigeons" of course, I mean the pigeons that hang out in my neighborhood and eat in my yard.  My naturalist friend Kevin was pretty confident that the killer was a hawk -- even though I wasn't able to get any hard evidence at the time.

Well, now I have.  This last week, after something spooked and scattered all the birds in my yard, I took this picture of the culprit, perched in a tall tree across the street.  That day he flew straight threw my yard, even pausing for a second in the cherry tree by my front deck.  Since then, we've seen him perched on the post of our front steps.  He's definitely staked out the neighborhood as his hunting grounds.  With breeding season coming, I suspect the crows are not going to be happy about that.

Earlier this month, I attended the Seattle Kennel Club Dog show, and spent several hours watching my second favorite sport -- Canine Agility.  I love watching the dogs run the course, and one -- this Afghan -- was especially striking.

 

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If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog Books and Beasts, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.

 Many of the original photographs featured on Birdland West are available for sale as art quality prints.  You can check out all of our offerings at http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.  If you see an image here that does not show up on our Imagekind site please contact me directly and I'll let you know about availability.)

Where You Least Expect Them

After a protracted struggle (it actually snowed on St. Patrick’s Day at my house!) Spring seems to be gaining the upper hand around Seattle.  The last few days have been wonderful – and I’ve gone on two long walks with my dogs this week.  Good to be out and about again.  If you go back and look at my posts from last year, you might see that I was quite enthusiastic about the prospects of winter birding.  Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to its promise – not because nature wasn’t cooperating, but because I got wrapped up in other things and let the winter pass without enough observation.  Those “other things” – including an emotionally demanding writing project, ending one business and planning another – were all important.  But I disappointed myself with my unwillingness to brave the cold and dark in search of birds.

Anna's Hummingbird

The one bright spot throughout the winter was my hummingbird feeder.  The Anna’s not only stayed all winter (through snow and storm) but there were more of them here than I’ve ever seen.  One combative little guy staked out our tree and yard as his territory and defended them bravely, but that didn’t stop others from making a run at the feeder whenever they could.

A couple of days ago, I was out on my porch with my roommate and the dogs, enjoying the novelty of sun, when I noticed a hummingbird on the feeder.  It was one of those sights that have become so common I almost passed over it.  But something didn’t seem right.  

My roommate saw it too.  “That doesn’t look like the same hummingbird,” he said.  

This hummingbird – obviously a male – was smaller, and his coloring wasn’t quite right.  I ran inside to get my camera, but by the time I got back he was gone.  I’m pretty sure he was the first Rufous Hummingbird of the new season, back just a little early from his winter in Mexico.  I will be watching for him now, and hoping to get photos.

“Look for surprises among what you take for granted” seems to be the theme so far this year.  There is no more ubiquitous bird in my neighborhood than the Black-Capped Chickadee.  I see them all the time, and as much as I love them, it’s easy sometimes to almost stop seeing them.  When I have the camera, I often think, “One more photo of a chickadee – you have thousands.”  Which is true, I do.  Still, I’ve found surprises hiding among the chickadees before.  A couple of years ago, I found Nuthatches in the chickadee flock in my yard.  So when I started seeing flashes of brown I thought that’s what it must be.

But it wasn’t.

Chestnut-Backed Chickadee

A friend who was visiting watched the feeders with me for a few minutes.  I mentioned the brown interlopers and suggested there might be nuthatches in the flock again.  He wasn’t convinced.

“Those are definitely chickadees,” he said.

Chestnut-Backed Chickadee

He was right.  The next day I started to get photos, and they were definitely chickadees.  Just not Black-Capped Chickadees.  For some reason I had the idea that Chestnut-Backed Chickadees were usually found only in the woods, not around neighborhoods or urban parks.  I was wrong about that.  I asked my naturalist friend and he assured me it was quite common for them to form mixed flocks with Black-Capped cousins in the spring and early summer.  But I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen them in my yard before.  

Pine Siskin

 The same holds true for the Pine Siskins I wrote about in an earlier post.  I’ve seen them around Seattle, but they’ve never been common in my neighborhood – until this year, when they’re everywhere.  Change, it would seem, is in the air.

Pine Siskins

So, encouraged by the new discoveries, I spent a little more time on the deck this past week, and snapped a lot of photos.  I found some familiar, but entertaining fellows – like this puffed up House Sparrow, and a much shier Song Sparrow.  But once again, it was a case of finding the unexpected among the most familiar.  When I looked through my sparrow photos, I found this.

Do you know who this is?

I had to get help with this ID, but if you said “Gold-Crowned Sparrow”, you’re right.  It’s a juvenile, born last year and almost ready to molt into his full adult plumage.  There’s no chance at all that I would have spotted him with my naked eye.  

So far this year, I’ve added four species to the yard list (Gold-Crowned Sparrow, Pine Siskin, Chestnut-Backed Chickadees, and Cooper’s Hawk) and three to my lifetime list (Snow Goose, Chestnut-Backed Chickadees and Gold-Crowned Sparrow).  

Not a bad start at all.

(And I’ll get back to that hawk very soon.) 

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If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog Books and Beasts, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.

(Many of the original photographs featured on Birdland West are available for sale as art quality prints.  You can check out all of our offerings at http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.  If you see an image here that does not show up on our Imagekind site please contact me directly and I'll let you know about availability.)

A Newcomer to the Yard List Takes Over Fast

Anyone who has lived in the Pacific Northwest for very long knows that spring can be a little -- unpredictable.  But this year, winter and spring seem to be engaged in a protracted slap-down, and it's still not clear who will be the winner.  Today is a perfect example:  when we woke up this morning, there was snow on the ground!  Snow! On March 6? And now, it's a bright, sunny day outside (cool and windy to be sure).  We seem to be alternating seasons every day, one nice, one cold and dark. 

But the natural world doesn't seem confused.  I was in the park a few days ago with my dog Zeke and the pink cherry trees were putting out blossoms.  And the bird activity in my yard has been frantic.  Of course, my yard is very active all winter -- I often have more birds around in the winter than I do in the summer and autumn -- but the last couple of weeks it's been very busy.  My birdseed budget has more than doubled!

This year, there's something new and interesting going on. About three weeks ago I noticed an unusual pair of birds in my yard.  I spotted them a couple of times but couldn't get photos.  So I wasn't sure if it was someone new.  Then, I got these shots -- see if you can identify them before I tell you.

Yep, those are Pine Siskins -- not showing their full summer plumage yet, but you can see the faint yellow on the wings and tails (not so well in the photo).  They were new to the yard list, and I thought it was just a pair of them.   

But no.

Suddenly, there's a whole flock of Siskins in my yard.  And unlike the chickadees who grab a few seeds and move on, these guys are occupying the feeders.  Almost every time I go out now, there's a Siskin sitting on one or both of the feeders.  Sitting there, eating or not, until another comes along and convinces him to give up the perch. 

Pine Siskins are Finches, and according to “All About Birds” they are very nomadic, and it’s not uncommon to have a flock in your yard one year and not the next.  In fact, every few years they make “irruptions” into the east and south.  They also have adaptations to allow them to survive in extreme temperatures – they can “ramp up” their metabolisms, even accelerating their heartbeat as much as five times the normal rate, to help them get through cold nights.  And they put on half again as much winter weight as close relatives like the Goldfinch.  Judging from how much seed they’ve been eating at my house, I can understand why.  But that’s not all – they store seed that totals up to 10% of their body weight in their crop. 

Little Gluttons for sure.

The last time I was at the birding store, I picked up an easy Finch Feeder -- it’s basically a net bag filled with Nyjer seed -- to hang up.  Sure enough, the Siskins have been eating there too.  I'm not completely sure there aren't some other Finch species hiding among the Siskins, but I don't proof of it.

So, for the moment, I'm just waiting to see what's going to happen.  What brought the flock here this year, when I've never seen them in the yard before?  I'm not sure.  How long will they stay?  Well I would expect them, in the not too distant future, to begin to break up into mating pairs and spread out to nest.

But for the moment, they're Kings of the Yard.

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If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog Books and Beasts, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.

(Many of the original photographs featured on Birdland West are available for sale as art quality prints.  You can check out all of our offerings at http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.  If you see an image here that does not show up on our Imagekind site please contact me directly and I'll let you know about availability.)