tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68505787240535536832024-02-07T15:08:49.480-08:00Birdland West<big>"... sentient beings are numberless ..."</big>
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<small>Unless otherwise stated, all photographs in this blog were taken by me, are copyrighted by me, and can only be re-used with my permission.</small>Alex Washoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03810893702064198273noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6850578724053553683.post-4486804922300799302012-07-24T08:47:00.000-07:002012-07-24T08:47:04.299-07:00WE'VE MOVED!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPO7pWDRBPTejbxJwi4XO8EzMIqKbjVzxEMR86syCyRPVfB1voUDpBMLeF1Us1R0_kZykCUwUg0IBSN1wYNCAA47WMZ41c9Zr77hZbUZvosHJZUSeDAzpwNc4-5I1zret-D-lG_Y4zB4EU/s1600/crows+flocking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPO7pWDRBPTejbxJwi4XO8EzMIqKbjVzxEMR86syCyRPVfB1voUDpBMLeF1Us1R0_kZykCUwUg0IBSN1wYNCAA47WMZ41c9Zr77hZbUZvosHJZUSeDAzpwNc4-5I1zret-D-lG_Y4zB4EU/s400/crows+flocking.jpg" width="400" /></a>I am pleased to announce that Birdland West is moving!<br />
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We will now be part of the all new <a href="http://alexwashoe.com/">alexwashoe.com</a> If you have enjoyed the blog, please continue to follow it at the new location. <br />
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<a href="http://www.alexwashoe.com/birdland-west/" target="_blank">BIRDLAND WEST </a><br />
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Thanks, and I'm looking forward to seeing you there.<br />
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Alex WashoeAlex Washoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03810893702064198273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6850578724053553683.post-83708910866630461942012-04-23T13:26:00.000-07:002012-04-23T13:26:16.592-07:00More About FinchesLast week I was speculating about the possibility of an inter-species romance in my front yard -- based on a photo I took of a male Goldfinch and a female Pine Siskin apparently hanging out together. The two species are closely related, and interbreeding, producing hybrid offspring, is known to occur (thought not very often). The idea set me off on a small quest for information about hybridization, avian genetics and finches. I found some interesting stuff, but not necessarily what I was looking for. I still have a lot of questions about inter-species matches: How do they happen? Why do they happen? And so on.<br />
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But, in regards to the birds in my front yard -- at least the one's I was writing about specifically -- those questions might be moot. Because, this past weekend, I took these photos in my front yard.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaUT68DSAD3rdWJRL5fTCSJwzxqmocRk3frLVLbwRilwOgfuSb22PxBuds2D-vvLQA6pVCykSxwazMKoIBLmYrkSvj391ympkKECq6JOUtG2ElkwIblvVuDBISgIaZfgtsMHl21x4YlCSW/s1600/Male+Goldfinch+in+tree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="393" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaUT68DSAD3rdWJRL5fTCSJwzxqmocRk3frLVLbwRilwOgfuSb22PxBuds2D-vvLQA6pVCykSxwazMKoIBLmYrkSvj391ympkKECq6JOUtG2ElkwIblvVuDBISgIaZfgtsMHl21x4YlCSW/s640/Male+Goldfinch+in+tree.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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This is my male Goldfinch -- looking at the molting spots on his back and neck I was pretty sure that he was the same bird I photographed last week. He was in the Cherry tree. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrp7cXFgJyEwcvuwEv7gKAYVr3uNWu8NFXDs9VbD_nQwn3eOIYfeBM0ImWnPCWX8vxnV4tv8R-Acx0iYDJR0dibgEbd6CHfOLjijGfL2AR2mccyAfCjoG15aHvD0I8S5lGrMqRdkIrxw-m/s1600/chickadee+in+cherry+tree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrp7cXFgJyEwcvuwEv7gKAYVr3uNWu8NFXDs9VbD_nQwn3eOIYfeBM0ImWnPCWX8vxnV4tv8R-Acx0iYDJR0dibgEbd6CHfOLjijGfL2AR2mccyAfCjoG15aHvD0I8S5lGrMqRdkIrxw-m/s400/chickadee+in+cherry+tree.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
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As and aside, the Cherry Tree came into bloom this weekend, and it was busy with birds. Even the most familiar birds look fresh in that setting.<br />
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Also hanging out in the Cherry Tree was my resident House Finch. He actually has a small part in this story, which I'll get back to later.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWtOr7_ps9sFvXdvuzfSjlmmradEA929tTZoa_wq8Lu4isCUBDYx6gR14yJgBt5WwD8CHwC_k-dynJrqGXoLg3wy25dBOhhT6zHL5ZkXO7jPA3m1aeeiDWkRKL6JtNCjm-_kSlvEbUHf2g/s1600/HF+Couple+on+feeder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWtOr7_ps9sFvXdvuzfSjlmmradEA929tTZoa_wq8Lu4isCUBDYx6gR14yJgBt5WwD8CHwC_k-dynJrqGXoLg3wy25dBOhhT6zHL5ZkXO7jPA3m1aeeiDWkRKL6JtNCjm-_kSlvEbUHf2g/s400/HF+Couple+on+feeder.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
The House Finch couple are one of my favorites to watch, because they sing to each other. I understand that in most songbirds species, the singing is done by the male, but the House Finches clearly sing back and forth -- even if you can only see one of them, you can hear the response of the mate each time they sing. It is very sweet. <br />
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Which brings us back to the Goldfinches. The male Goldfinch and the male House Finch were frequently in view together. <br />
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However, I also spotted this pretty sight in the tree. Clearly, a female Goldfinch.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5rlaRcMso4Y4df__NWM4g8PO0zI4w97OUaXMcnUNEhabKW13EWYabNvHlWEZhntHpUWODuy3_1dGAvCdQaaakzYWFykioysRDtz19XFL76f0um8nS1cGtttORkcredfeXPpC7YZElSKGb/s1600/female+Goldfinch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5rlaRcMso4Y4df__NWM4g8PO0zI4w97OUaXMcnUNEhabKW13EWYabNvHlWEZhntHpUWODuy3_1dGAvCdQaaakzYWFykioysRDtz19XFL76f0um8nS1cGtttORkcredfeXPpC7YZElSKGb/s640/female+Goldfinch.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Still, there have been a number of Goldfinches around this spring, and just because she's visiting the cherry tree at the same time as my mottled male doesn't mean they're an item. Right?<br />
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But consider this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjixnRhyphenhyphen80RX6YwJNRhR684HTLluTQqtK1nQ6Z3tdsWXtuLLEwzuKez2LGNqNXs6vS-Y0D_674P08wi8-OnDtPlnPYMhrupL_Y2pXhl0_rKO80vrps_6eSBvkEIz8-E163B9bgWroFTAS8R/s1600/three+finches+at+the+feeder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjixnRhyphenhyphen80RX6YwJNRhR684HTLluTQqtK1nQ6Z3tdsWXtuLLEwzuKez2LGNqNXs6vS-Y0D_674P08wi8-OnDtPlnPYMhrupL_Y2pXhl0_rKO80vrps_6eSBvkEIz8-E163B9bgWroFTAS8R/s400/three+finches+at+the+feeder.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Here we see the Male House Finch together with both Goldfinches -- and they sure do look like a couple don't they? I observed them for quite a while this weekend, and I think it's pretty clear that the male Goldfinch has, indeed, found himself a species appropriate mate. I wouldn't worry too much about the Pine Siskin though -- there are plenty of males of her species around for her to hook up with.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOjxThogBixO_bNBoyhikwv4GNK3aWt7hHGCRDez97ipHXMocdUyhNzKXdYIBAA4nGl9etDHD-1WojY0SiSSG3NrVoi7MeES8Ivf7l3ahwn5J12IpsFBJ-J3Nwm5ovg8yDgrgTwEvBOyG4/s1600/asorted+finches+at+feeder2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOjxThogBixO_bNBoyhikwv4GNK3aWt7hHGCRDez97ipHXMocdUyhNzKXdYIBAA4nGl9etDHD-1WojY0SiSSG3NrVoi7MeES8Ivf7l3ahwn5J12IpsFBJ-J3Nwm5ovg8yDgrgTwEvBOyG4/s400/asorted+finches+at+feeder2.jpg" width="400" /></a> One final shot. Even thought you can't see all four of the birds clearly here, this is both Finch Couples on the feeder together, like Couples Night Out. The female House Finch is in the back. It seemed like they were all having a pleasant Saturday night in the front yard.<br />
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<br />Alex Washoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03810893702064198273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6850578724053553683.post-7951736738031296552012-04-19T12:09:00.000-07:002012-04-19T12:09:59.489-07:00A Tale of Two Finches<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3IURCO5482VNaPBES8aNj1oSIZ4s_bpoTJXYTtsP88Tar77CqIr8nk5as1EXwTuHKEpYbe1z7F4RPHFPOEga2E4vZdEqcZGbPyybCWniiyIYWWZHNyO9oo8VvTmqnX5r9sfeZqLZBI07R/s1600/goldfinch+and+who.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3IURCO5482VNaPBES8aNj1oSIZ4s_bpoTJXYTtsP88Tar77CqIr8nk5as1EXwTuHKEpYbe1z7F4RPHFPOEga2E4vZdEqcZGbPyybCWniiyIYWWZHNyO9oo8VvTmqnX5r9sfeZqLZBI07R/s400/goldfinch+and+who.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
This photo was the beginning of an very interesting story. Or, maybe, several stories. One about identification, one about animal behavior, and one about how incredibly difficult it can be to find what seems like pretty simple information. Lets start at the beginning. <br />
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Last week, I spotted these two birds on the rail outside my living room window. They were there for quite a while, and I was able to get plenty of photos. I've had lots of finches around this year -- and the colorful Goldfinches stand out. The flash of yellow in the trees always gets my attention. When I uploaded the photos, though, I was a little baffled. Just who is that second bird handing out with the Goldfinch?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh63p61mS-GadyOtlT09Gh3HnBWYKJnlP-EXBziMAwLYLceD0-usORDz2RYYXWTAmNo_Rg_8m4ol9YMegPAxc3KEF6i1Adq8_sVAcf7v8x5scQYyMxpY8IACZPsETQEDxOnD1weYXA1A0OL/s1600/molting+goldfinch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh63p61mS-GadyOtlT09Gh3HnBWYKJnlP-EXBziMAwLYLceD0-usORDz2RYYXWTAmNo_Rg_8m4ol9YMegPAxc3KEF6i1Adq8_sVAcf7v8x5scQYyMxpY8IACZPsETQEDxOnD1weYXA1A0OL/s400/molting+goldfinch.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
First, I should tell you I blew the identification even on the most obvious bird. Looking at my photos, and looking at descriptions in the birding guides, I concluded that the dark discolorations on his back were the olive coloring that is characteristic of female Goldfinches. Strike one.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghi5mhJSA1SrU7clCp2aZPyCSoRq52JGxrQxfIhkmLG6UP9BL5ihaWK4_aJCkTH4sJyfw7iOK1PigRrVRjRT0cq_q6HzIhuaZFopnGi2T8qi7sA9anw-a2l_rhH3gWSUrFWVTEJ-dSlC-J/s1600/goldfinch+and+who2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghi5mhJSA1SrU7clCp2aZPyCSoRq52JGxrQxfIhkmLG6UP9BL5ihaWK4_aJCkTH4sJyfw7iOK1PigRrVRjRT0cq_q6HzIhuaZFopnGi2T8qi7sA9anw-a2l_rhH3gWSUrFWVTEJ-dSlC-J/s400/goldfinch+and+who2.jpg" width="400" /></a>Then, I started looking at the second bird. Well, it's not a sparrow. It's not a female House Finch (the beak is way to small). What is it? There have been a lot of Pine Siskins around this year -- and you can clearly see that small beak -- so naturally I considered that. It didn't look like any of the Pine Siskins I've seen though. And it didn't look like any of the photos I could find in my guides or online. So? Finally, I decided that it must be a juvenile Siskin. Strike two.<br />
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So I sent my photo off with my best guesses to my friend Kevin, who's the naturalist at the <a href="http://www.paws.org/about-wildlife-center.html" target="_blank">PAWS Wildlife Center</a>. And it turns out I was totally wrong. If you look at the photos, the Goldfinch is clearly male. He has the little black cap on his head (which always reminds me of Moe from the Three Stooges). The dark spots are because he's molting, just coming into his full spring colors. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSZEf5bqzri-kVy50jspKNppeX9z0Dk-3BTMNy_7z-XnOxtAlg2rlUKEb0VvyvIfMAb6gZxoMEUBRthbX6nB_RO6lOKVjRyXMcJRF1exVFl9ZYAeAQ9JICXkebAvyc1ghfS33_wj1DdWI0/s1600/female+pine+siskin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSZEf5bqzri-kVy50jspKNppeX9z0Dk-3BTMNy_7z-XnOxtAlg2rlUKEb0VvyvIfMAb6gZxoMEUBRthbX6nB_RO6lOKVjRyXMcJRF1exVFl9ZYAeAQ9JICXkebAvyc1ghfS33_wj1DdWI0/s400/female+pine+siskin.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
And the second bird. Well, it turns out, she's a female Pine Siskin. Yep. In both cases I had the species right and the specifics wrong. I've lost count of what strike that is, but I'm probably out.<br />
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However, Kevin had a question. Which opens up the second part of the story: "Were these guys part of a larger flock, or were they just hanging out together?"<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQeJL4Ez1QE39b3jxxze2A_DOhSich0J4XuKRMS6CdljsQkTV_kJcVxNHBgvUqHAuhjl83iyg6mt5WxWIHp0gPqmTa-TNHQqq0Nypawpc6fz6oI9JUCnJC0i4ZEwPTqlJrStgAPq3oW03d/s1600/eating+together.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQeJL4Ez1QE39b3jxxze2A_DOhSich0J4XuKRMS6CdljsQkTV_kJcVxNHBgvUqHAuhjl83iyg6mt5WxWIHp0gPqmTa-TNHQqq0Nypawpc6fz6oI9JUCnJC0i4ZEwPTqlJrStgAPq3oW03d/s320/eating+together.jpg" width="320" /></a>I don't really have the answer to that . There has definitely been a large flock of Siskins around for the last month or so. They're beginning to thin out a little now, but there are still plenty of them here. And there have been a number of Goldfinches around too -- not flocks of them, but I have often seen two or three in the cherry tree at the same time, which has never happened before this spring. But for the time I was watching them -- which must have been about half an hour -- these two were hanging out together on the rail, eating. It was just them, and when they left, they left together. Circumstantial evidence at best. But it turns out that Goldfinches and Pine Siskins, being closely related, and having a tendency to intermingle, can occasionally interbreed. "You might have an interesting inter-species romance going on in your yard," Kevin wrote. <br />
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Well, "inter-species" is a phrase that always gets my attention. I'm a sucker for all those photos on the web of different animals who become friends. And I'm fascinated by the whole topic of inter-species communication. So naturally, I love the idea of a mixed romance going on right outside my window. I went looking for more information on the web about interbreeding in finches and hybridization in general. Turns out, it's a very big field. A couple of years ago, <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/03/070314-hybrids.html" target="_blank">National Geographic ran an interesting article</a> on the role that hybrids might play in evolution -- how they could actually lead to the creation of new species. It might be much more common than scientists thought, especially among insects like butterflies. But what I couldn't find were any photos of Goldfinch/Pine Siskin hybrids, although the possibility was mentioned in several sources. (And I discovered interesting facts along the way -- such as: The Goldfinch is sometimes called the "wild canary" and they have been interbred with domesticated canaries to create pet birds.)<br />
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But mostly, the topic of hybridization raised more questions than it answered. For instance, under what circumstances would an animal be attracted to a member of another species? It would seems, even in closely related species, like Goldfinches and Pine Siskins, individuals of another species would lack the markers that would activate attraction. But as the National Geographic article suggests, there could be an evolutionary advantage to occasional interbreeding -- freshening the gene pool for instance, or allowing for new kinds of adaptations. I have to wonder if, as climate conditions continue to change and that change accelerates, we might see more of these kinds of "wild" evolutionary strategies. It would be worth exploring.<br />
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Which brings me to the final part of the story. I wondered whether Goldfinches and Pine Siskins were closely enough related that their offspring would be fertile. Many species (like horses and donkeys or lions and tigers) can interbreed, but the offspring is infertile -- a mule. And so I started looking for what I thought was a simple piece of information: how many chromosomes do Goldfinches and Pine Siskins have? Is it the same number or different? I assumed that in today's world, with genomes being decoded left and right, it would be a relatively easy question to answer. I was wrong. I couldn't find it. The librarians I talked to couldn't find it. And the experts haven't returned my emails. So I don't have that "simple" fact to pass on.<br />
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If anyone out there know more about Goldfinch/Pine Siskin hybrids -- especially if you've seen photos -- or about finch genetics -- I'd love to hear from you.<br />
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<b>If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/">Books and Beasts</a>, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.</b> </div>
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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 <a href="http://alexwashoe.imagekind.com/">http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.</a>
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.)</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />Alex Washoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03810893702064198273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6850578724053553683.post-39665338792481482912012-04-12T15:16:00.000-07:002012-04-12T17:18:48.030-07:00Birds Do It<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHBLRYdQXblvO9ejkifTcT0G2stlgXLsmCGlxR9oNZq4y1kRAGAIZfgrrQNPMvVzeZHADLcxBptdO4n_cFppLn-Et9IYMwCC0gd8f7XLv0ksCrPIwgBR0JaFemMzbFfMSAdqTCmrDJBXoy/s1600/goldfinch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHBLRYdQXblvO9ejkifTcT0G2stlgXLsmCGlxR9oNZq4y1kRAGAIZfgrrQNPMvVzeZHADLcxBptdO4n_cFppLn-Et9IYMwCC0gd8f7XLv0ksCrPIwgBR0JaFemMzbFfMSAdqTCmrDJBXoy/s640/goldfinch.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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It seems to be Finch Spring this year around my neighborhood. Last week I mentioned the <a href="http://birdlandwest.blogspot.com/2012/03/newcomer-to-yard-list-takes-over-fast.html" target="_blank">Pine Siskins</a> who have been all over the feeders, and the familiar <a href="http://birdlandwest.blogspot.com/2012/04/familiar-but-welcome-visitors.html" target="_blank">House Finch couple</a> who have been handing out. They're always together. But this week, a new visitor showed up, wearing his bright spring time colors. The American Goldfinch is the state bird of Washington (and a couple of other states, I believe). I think his little black crown makes him look like Moe from the Three Stooges.<br />
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And then:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQri9ebKRudO3l9ZXqIpVz_LpxIn9cJP2CNJtexoxvOy5X0YiFejSe9i_Y7TiNf1MOyE9SUNknOIi52OEQtjVTdKrmEF8l4QlfRWqLQHo5HVRcQVHWdaPCOE-Z3afrYbhq5fDCzlnzp2HI/s1600/mating3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="446" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQri9ebKRudO3l9ZXqIpVz_LpxIn9cJP2CNJtexoxvOy5X0YiFejSe9i_Y7TiNf1MOyE9SUNknOIi52OEQtjVTdKrmEF8l4QlfRWqLQHo5HVRcQVHWdaPCOE-Z3afrYbhq5fDCzlnzp2HI/s640/mating3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9ATn1bxMAhHbpyu_uEFqXceNLklF25l2DDZ4eg8wPWvsT1aGRpVeHoBHt9KxDVsC9YDzZ5ofVViE4MMJaZWRfR8zC3HlJ5nh9qLB6E4v2muvY8lv8DfxoZnaBM7jNgv2GNYI1KPU3c9UN/s1600/mating2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="371" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9ATn1bxMAhHbpyu_uEFqXceNLklF25l2DDZ4eg8wPWvsT1aGRpVeHoBHt9KxDVsC9YDzZ5ofVViE4MMJaZWRfR8zC3HlJ5nh9qLB6E4v2muvY8lv8DfxoZnaBM7jNgv2GNYI1KPU3c9UN/s640/mating2.jpg" width="640" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglBBkLCHdQ9MsweZRxmXvQoaYF5tuGO_lSxI01TLniTZ-50lR62pJff4psSSUQTHfVxPV2DKVuiZA-7kwf9TMPiriS5dRnbJNqcwmJf5hwwionjJKp7XRLxluiD0paN6YMlQh0DwJRZRg1/s1600/mating.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglBBkLCHdQ9MsweZRxmXvQoaYF5tuGO_lSxI01TLniTZ-50lR62pJff4psSSUQTHfVxPV2DKVuiZA-7kwf9TMPiriS5dRnbJNqcwmJf5hwwionjJKp7XRLxluiD0paN6YMlQh0DwJRZRg1/s640/mating.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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I've never watched, let along captured mating behavior in my front yard before. These two House Sparrows are definitely working on love, though.<br />
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Next comes nesting. This photo, taken just after the courtship, shows the male Sparrow starting to gather nest materials. He didn't seem to be too sure what to do with them though. <br />
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Since we had House Sparrows nests nearby last year, and several fledglings at the feeders, its very likely he's doing to be building soon.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgWlQSOVAgIFoiCBgZM4vOlTNP7QPYCXQBILcQGq0GJ7ujVeeq3PaqfBNw7qQ4RzpcCYQNIp2-oURWE7ULxh4c8GW5fgEp3O5qIGkbA94qFnax3-WzlvinBENO32c7CuTtZNfZwZMR8Bks/s1600/sparrow+suet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgWlQSOVAgIFoiCBgZM4vOlTNP7QPYCXQBILcQGq0GJ7ujVeeq3PaqfBNw7qQ4RzpcCYQNIp2-oURWE7ULxh4c8GW5fgEp3O5qIGkbA94qFnax3-WzlvinBENO32c7CuTtZNfZwZMR8Bks/s400/sparrow+suet.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
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And finally, after all that excitement, it's time to eat.<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<b>If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/">Books and Beasts</a>, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
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 <a href="http://alexwashoe.imagekind.com/">http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.</a>
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.)</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Alex Washoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03810893702064198273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6850578724053553683.post-88273948788489330382012-04-03T13:41:00.000-07:002012-04-03T13:41:09.445-07:00Familiar (but welcome) visitorsThe nice weather this month has brought out a lot of activity in the yard. I was on the deck yesterday and I noticed this couple on the feeder. At first glance, I mistook the female for a Pine Siskin. They've been so common this spring that I just expected to see them. But then I caught a flash of red on the male, and when I looked closer I saw that both birds were too big to be Siskins, and they had shorter, heavier beaks.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijljz758pptml2MdOIPKHs32c6uOzgDg6J7cQmPHvwPz5OTGjJAjaScjhyGZvJI4aYruIqR_MK5vYDW0n69i3JdGFtEraIaeig_2G7_iej9EOgzv9dq35teYG377Evy38ZjFMN7Ejefe_W/s1600/Finch+couple.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijljz758pptml2MdOIPKHs32c6uOzgDg6J7cQmPHvwPz5OTGjJAjaScjhyGZvJI4aYruIqR_MK5vYDW0n69i3JdGFtEraIaeig_2G7_iej9EOgzv9dq35teYG377Evy38ZjFMN7Ejefe_W/s640/Finch+couple.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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I don't know if this is the same House Finch couple that hung around most of last summer -- or if this is perhaps the young male Finch who was also here last year. As I understand it, House Finches often form new couples each year, so either or both of these birds could be new. It's good to see them though. I've added a finch feeder since last year, so we'll see if they visit that too.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWJVnChPCdGpetcijYJ1GweKDlV-NpIWZnrTKIqjtozJLxygHaQ3joq2zOb4-7-3FIOJwARF24MfMo-j9kuPO7kiIKRxu6aVrEdKBJqWHwVpgV0yZqjEuF5q-pC_gvjlwqmf9T6xxu-jxM/s1600/handsome+sparrow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWJVnChPCdGpetcijYJ1GweKDlV-NpIWZnrTKIqjtozJLxygHaQ3joq2zOb4-7-3FIOJwARF24MfMo-j9kuPO7kiIKRxu6aVrEdKBJqWHwVpgV0yZqjEuF5q-pC_gvjlwqmf9T6xxu-jxM/s400/handsome+sparrow.jpg" width="400" /></a>Speaking of familiar faces, this handsome House Sparrow was also hanging out in the cherry tree. There are a lot of sparrows around -- House Sparrows, Song Sparrows, and one Golden-Crowned Sparrow (that I blogged about recently). I've noticed a lot of sparrow squabbling this year. One day a tangle of three sparrows whirled right past my head as I was walking my dog. Lots of excitement.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTWvjIX3GARn9LJn2HC5AO-umA7HNPZNwBvnoOuLEIUgIwTjxg_ZfyLI2dBIl8ACHzXNb3exZDebS0yQOZE9OoMAccZFjbR5EhmSDI_0GWYEr6zXLvBDNAqVazpVC_-afFSBN5bsJxn-Pj/s1600/siskins+get+busy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTWvjIX3GARn9LJn2HC5AO-umA7HNPZNwBvnoOuLEIUgIwTjxg_ZfyLI2dBIl8ACHzXNb3exZDebS0yQOZE9OoMAccZFjbR5EhmSDI_0GWYEr6zXLvBDNAqVazpVC_-afFSBN5bsJxn-Pj/s400/siskins+get+busy.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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As I mentioned above, the Pine Siskins have been everywhere this year. I got this photo of a small flock of them working the feeder. <br />
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A friend of mine at the PAWS Wildlife Center told me that they have been seeing a lot of cases of salmonella in Pine Siskins this year. So if you have Siskins around it's important to be very vigilant about cleaning the feeders. Washing them out regularly with a weak (about 10%) bleach solution is ideal. <br />
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Bewick's Wrens are infrequent visitors to my yard, and usually they move too fast for me to get a decent photo. I caught this one hopping around yesterday though and was able to capture him before he disappeared. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj98knMs9Hs97e5o1XRM1GWFnbTVVA6Fla3iQYdf98Ewcn0emwjpX_a7Wqgb-X3Qx_ra2Iv9gI7xKwD7heqnyMmQy1HuHbYPl8xKT77zyKvU960vel-npctSuwlYSKnS8VIHCEJuoAM9_Cb/s1600/pigeon+on+roof.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj98knMs9Hs97e5o1XRM1GWFnbTVVA6Fla3iQYdf98Ewcn0emwjpX_a7Wqgb-X3Qx_ra2Iv9gI7xKwD7heqnyMmQy1HuHbYPl8xKT77zyKvU960vel-npctSuwlYSKnS8VIHCEJuoAM9_Cb/s400/pigeon+on+roof.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
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Finally -- it just wouldn't be Birdland West without frequent visits from our Pigeon Friends. Here is one of mine waiting on the roof for the dogs to go inside so he can come down and eat. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8wndABACjtdScfiim0JgW6Y8FRM5QzobDzUdDpu7Pdbo5dMe0X_-iUh43sBCppHjZeCgRCHE0ASN1z0DxPL_80D3qaQLy1jpi4xKQrxNgNjip8CHy_zfRZ9rVbqrGVfKcQ4OCcA3ulM2r/s1600/pigeon+on+ground.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8wndABACjtdScfiim0JgW6Y8FRM5QzobDzUdDpu7Pdbo5dMe0X_-iUh43sBCppHjZeCgRCHE0ASN1z0DxPL_80D3qaQLy1jpi4xKQrxNgNjip8CHy_zfRZ9rVbqrGVfKcQ4OCcA3ulM2r/s400/pigeon+on+ground.jpg" width="400" /></a> Our dog Lulubelle loves to bark at the pigeons and seems to take great pleasure in scaring them off. But they always return, usually as soon as she goes inside. </div>
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<b>If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/">Books and Beasts</a>, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.</b></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
</div>
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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 <a href="http://alexwashoe.imagekind.com/">http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.</a>
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.)</div>Alex Washoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03810893702064198273noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6850578724053553683.post-69975272606904171812012-03-29T17:17:00.000-07:002012-03-30T05:59:26.090-07:00Hawks and HoundsToday I just have a few quick photos to share.<br />
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Recently, I wrote about the <a href="http://birdlandwest.blogspot.com/2012/01/csi-pigeon-town.html" target="_blank">death of one of my pigeons</a>. 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.<br />
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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.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0bU8J9RaoVpO161Tf2rZA6BetBsYVXpXQqiIyZh2KYkPAXOiXYU4kIRGcTDtHH1hpW-SOy23fdZP7uaJn1a3q_bKk1lAgfb4GhBHom6JiHOLHmDAM-2th6GPlFOo4C9CeW1CW2-IukASr/s1600/cooper's+hawk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0bU8J9RaoVpO161Tf2rZA6BetBsYVXpXQqiIyZh2KYkPAXOiXYU4kIRGcTDtHH1hpW-SOy23fdZP7uaJn1a3q_bKk1lAgfb4GhBHom6JiHOLHmDAM-2th6GPlFOo4C9CeW1CW2-IukASr/s640/cooper's+hawk.jpg" width="476" /></a></div>
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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.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKwTcGmicjB0UGhtu9EXwuj80ZefxULXKC2yJy5NWzFgED0UBX0xup0i1sA8cuhyphenhyphenCEoz1cdqkDBSUa21JVv-9M9HZPXRxAJnbmvio3eJSk6SUTmp_sC_y7No5ubjPzaNURCt3pqgmqVeJ1/s1600/afghan+leaps.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKwTcGmicjB0UGhtu9EXwuj80ZefxULXKC2yJy5NWzFgED0UBX0xup0i1sA8cuhyphenhyphenCEoz1cdqkDBSUa21JVv-9M9HZPXRxAJnbmvio3eJSk6SUTmp_sC_y7No5ubjPzaNURCt3pqgmqVeJ1/s400/afghan+leaps.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/">Books and Beasts</a>, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.</b></div>
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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 <a href="http://alexwashoe.imagekind.com/">http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.</a>
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.)</div>
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<br />Alex Washoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03810893702064198273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6850578724053553683.post-65485355511782475182012-03-26T08:08:00.001-07:002012-03-26T08:08:40.863-07:00Where You Least Expect Them<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The last few days have been
wonderful – and I’ve gone on two long walks with my dogs this week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Good to be out and about again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those “other things” –
including an emotionally demanding writing project, ending one business and
planning another – were all important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But I disappointed myself with my unwillingness to brave the cold and
dark in search of birds.</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjQIMFTlDXnCczoQeGATDN9QGOJPsJ6HaCYHk7-Rd-jZIW0iwc1DT1bCN5OSKS-pX82hCTscgB9N0cedJBi4siHcgcitHrMUQXAy319qGXgSGcOzdzEM8QBfuRZLpx-BgtymUWSpv93Hgr/s1600/hum+in+snow2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjQIMFTlDXnCczoQeGATDN9QGOJPsJ6HaCYHk7-Rd-jZIW0iwc1DT1bCN5OSKS-pX82hCTscgB9N0cedJBi4siHcgcitHrMUQXAy319qGXgSGcOzdzEM8QBfuRZLpx-BgtymUWSpv93Hgr/s400/hum+in+snow2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anna's Hummingbird</td></tr>
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The one bright spot throughout the winter was my hummingbird
feeder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Anna’s not only stayed all
winter (through snow and storm) but there were more of them here than I’ve ever
seen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was one of those sights that
have become so common I almost passed over it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But something didn’t seem right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My roommate saw it too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“That doesn’t look like the same hummingbird,” he said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This hummingbird – obviously a male – was smaller, and his
coloring wasn’t quite right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ran
inside to get my camera, but by the time I got back he was gone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m pretty sure he was the first Rufous
Hummingbird of the new season, back just a little early from his winter in
Mexico.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will be watching for him now,
and hoping to get photos.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Look for surprises among what you take for granted” seems
to be the theme so far this year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
is no more ubiquitous bird in my neighborhood than the Black-Capped
Chickadee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I see them all the time, and
as much as I love them, it’s easy sometimes to almost stop seeing them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I have the camera, I often think, “One
more photo of a chickadee – you have thousands.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which is true, I do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still, I’ve found surprises hiding among the
chickadees before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A couple of years
ago, I found Nuthatches in the chickadee flock in my yard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So when I started seeing flashes of brown I
thought that’s what it must be.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But it wasn’t.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCvSziRqx3l0GF-ipTu_QiyTOGpUjruj0JYukmLQOZzVw7TLmu27ZAPyRczaB7lEUwdIEBhKZCnVQQ_WWJyVjK1L8IcsdwAiGPr1hjej3ITKlYFR3I72x8YxIfLij8F4-ITSOWtIfMt7bP/s1600/chestnut+chickadee+at+feeder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCvSziRqx3l0GF-ipTu_QiyTOGpUjruj0JYukmLQOZzVw7TLmu27ZAPyRczaB7lEUwdIEBhKZCnVQQ_WWJyVjK1L8IcsdwAiGPr1hjej3ITKlYFR3I72x8YxIfLij8F4-ITSOWtIfMt7bP/s400/chestnut+chickadee+at+feeder.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chestnut-Backed Chickadee</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A friend who was visiting watched the feeders with me for a
few minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I mentioned the brown
interlopers and suggested there might be nuthatches in the flock again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He wasn’t convinced.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Those are definitely chickadees,” he said.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghWZxq6QCzXjrUMNY8_OHPl5v8HhsrVE4shIHQcVpRHZP60YFSPlZb8tk-BqHbzp1lDUqQWsJL8KPlX0zj1jbO4TUORV6d41W1LhA4IT59bKea1zU8wp8saS7u4MKzjymVhf2bKFs3C1zo/s1600/cnbchickadee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghWZxq6QCzXjrUMNY8_OHPl5v8HhsrVE4shIHQcVpRHZP60YFSPlZb8tk-BqHbzp1lDUqQWsJL8KPlX0zj1jbO4TUORV6d41W1LhA4IT59bKea1zU8wp8saS7u4MKzjymVhf2bKFs3C1zo/s400/cnbchickadee.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chestnut-Backed Chickadee</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He was right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
next day I started to get photos, and they were definitely chickadees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just not Black-Capped Chickadees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For some reason I had the idea that
Chestnut-Backed Chickadees were usually found only in the woods, not around
neighborhoods or urban parks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was
wrong about that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen them in
my yard before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCf0Aq4RhV22ILfUeKsNXvoYE6XCTLBxASbq2g9XvOauRrQPg_RYxmYqiMrGO2_Qs2v73Qqkx-TbANOdmQykJyCirNaZm6zUM9ITj9BZXYojdeLFCZFKEO3jsZU_cK99zhkmHjF7AyyMUE/s1600/siskin+at+feeder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCf0Aq4RhV22ILfUeKsNXvoYE6XCTLBxASbq2g9XvOauRrQPg_RYxmYqiMrGO2_Qs2v73Qqkx-TbANOdmQykJyCirNaZm6zUM9ITj9BZXYojdeLFCZFKEO3jsZU_cK99zhkmHjF7AyyMUE/s400/siskin+at+feeder.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pine Siskin</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The same holds true for the <a href="http://birdlandwest.blogspot.com/2012/03/newcomer-to-yard-list-takes-over-fast.html" target="_blank">Pine Siskins I wrote about in an earlier post</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve seen them around
Seattle, but <span id="goog_864804355"></span><span id="goog_864804356"></span>they’ve never been common in my neighborhood – until this year,
when they’re everywhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Change, it would
seem, is in the air. </div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQnaKnzFOX1098ctb7kIZMlfTr8RTOvuZDIA8RqQ7gfp1ix1vaM5cyXjWnvZk8m5Rx1NYu-s9ISK7cuNpK8tDePnjm-wH6o25p8ajwcFcjlqNjujx9iUibL4K1P0IP4wUE-pWRfFD-xxeD/s1600/two+siskins+at+feeder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQnaKnzFOX1098ctb7kIZMlfTr8RTOvuZDIA8RqQ7gfp1ix1vaM5cyXjWnvZk8m5Rx1NYu-s9ISK7cuNpK8tDePnjm-wH6o25p8ajwcFcjlqNjujx9iUibL4K1P0IP4wUE-pWRfFD-xxeD/s400/two+siskins+at+feeder.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pine Siskins</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, encouraged by the new discoveries, I spent a little more
time on the deck this past week, and snapped a lot of photos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I found some familiar, but entertaining
fellows – like this puffed up House Sparrow, and a much shier Song Sparrow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But once again, it was a case of finding the
unexpected among the most familiar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When
I looked through my sparrow photos, I found this.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Do you know who this is?</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijxNq96tzEb6XQB4MnR4jk39Vr4yQIgo-wnz54whhzLlEjLhEwvglFEUizzKCKdM8d4d2gleVFnq31hm6qExVW9wLXpcvCbRx-Ebo5hVob95q46XdG4CQnPitLYX04-pXO86OUmH-rCf_n/s1600/unidentified+bird2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="562" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijxNq96tzEb6XQB4MnR4jk39Vr4yQIgo-wnz54whhzLlEjLhEwvglFEUizzKCKdM8d4d2gleVFnq31hm6qExVW9wLXpcvCbRx-Ebo5hVob95q46XdG4CQnPitLYX04-pXO86OUmH-rCf_n/s640/unidentified+bird2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I had to get help with this ID, but if you said
“Gold-Crowned Sparrow”, you’re right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s a juvenile, born last year and almost ready to molt into his full
adult plumage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s no chance at all
that I would have spotted him with my naked eye.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not a bad start at all.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(And I’ll get back to that hawk very soon.) </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
###</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<b>If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/">Books and Beasts</a>, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(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 <a href="http://alexwashoe.imagekind.com/">http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.</a>
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.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>Alex Washoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03810893702064198273noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6850578724053553683.post-10825784078099204762012-03-06T16:10:00.000-08:002012-03-06T16:27:02.784-08:00A Newcomer to the Yard List Takes Over Fast<h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}">
<a href="http://bit.ly/wYzHzO" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank">
</a></h6>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0CQzh9JS-YRTNj6rkgmWzyIPta14BSobO4w1fg7Dji44b38L-_xoOp9NJBn6-23RjM7O5qYhMp7Pc-keZpjx7Op9_WeihSD4lMx9zOAALZzBQCulvN5ijS_bwmg0kQyb9md3WLaa5FgJQ/s1600/whobird2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0CQzh9JS-YRTNj6rkgmWzyIPta14BSobO4w1fg7Dji44b38L-_xoOp9NJBn6-23RjM7O5qYhMp7Pc-keZpjx7Op9_WeihSD4lMx9zOAALZzBQCulvN5ijS_bwmg0kQyb9md3WLaa5FgJQ/s400/whobird2.jpg" width="400" /></a>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.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6FNsTpmEsuXu34GLzvoZrzoon59iVkUqsGF1xFDgk9ltdu1nQBzbiATFsrwlozpYHUq-IQwj3sUBPtKeu8luYHKgnfyosw236Y1xypBIpQyNjOUSK5pFze4kQu3-d-NK0CnLWo5czqdxV/s400/whobird.jpg" width="400" /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span id="goog_536310528"></span><span id="goog_536310529"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
But no.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAvXnjp7HbYEzrDAB91muo8fB7mAI2oFMSoCGqhZRUA4zT0QgguFFN9Sg0ZNJI5QE6ecq7AjUda0QeqlVdESZl_QvSo4_Gox-m5hB7qmgj3qT0wbgXaeSjvBe4j06Ahev1CEeg7XE2_R6g/s1600/siskin4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAvXnjp7HbYEzrDAB91muo8fB7mAI2oFMSoCGqhZRUA4zT0QgguFFN9Sg0ZNJI5QE6ecq7AjUda0QeqlVdESZl_QvSo4_Gox-m5hB7qmgj3qT0wbgXaeSjvBe4j06Ahev1CEeg7XE2_R6g/s400/siskin4.jpg" width="400" /></a>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. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Pine Siskins are Finches, and according to <a href="http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pine_Siskin/id/ac">“All About Birds”</a>
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. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMWRpFw12xJCU9xPMSDV1N6VXL8F-Rv76USL8qGjlaYK_As8_0requ9L18TTBohJmZjec-yxLir6xfgzdOx-LHmaURyicjG4Z7Uh2nMqS_UT_r9z8YRNZ2l4Q3Fa0Htsx1d4UG1zifT3qC/s1600/siskin3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMWRpFw12xJCU9xPMSDV1N6VXL8F-Rv76USL8qGjlaYK_As8_0requ9L18TTBohJmZjec-yxLir6xfgzdOx-LHmaURyicjG4Z7Uh2nMqS_UT_r9z8YRNZ2l4Q3Fa0Htsx1d4UG1zifT3qC/s400/siskin3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Little Gluttons for sure.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But for the moment, they're Kings of the Yard.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
###</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<b>If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/">Books and Beasts</a>, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(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 <a href="http://alexwashoe.imagekind.com/">http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.</a>
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.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</div>Alex Washoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03810893702064198273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6850578724053553683.post-57957190525623620482012-01-04T10:05:00.000-08:002012-01-04T10:05:50.195-08:00CSI: Pigeon Town<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSqpBSwbgv64tjilwxwlSKo8PRrgyaAvRHs5P7CoS8w3WbTZGK4JBuPTnC9voWAG2LqlwmEQks7BzPX8ET6PbjOW8ZuPHhyqt6S9Hrl9Ha7C4SBcaIsQTnNs7lMHybO2UgYEHYxG_ZGHnu/s1600/cooper%2527s+hawk2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSqpBSwbgv64tjilwxwlSKo8PRrgyaAvRHs5P7CoS8w3WbTZGK4JBuPTnC9voWAG2LqlwmEQks7BzPX8ET6PbjOW8ZuPHhyqt6S9Hrl9Ha7C4SBcaIsQTnNs7lMHybO2UgYEHYxG_ZGHnu/s400/cooper%2527s+hawk2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not the bird from last week, a young Cooper's Hawk from a nearby park last winter.</td></tr>
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About mid-morning last Friday, while I was working at my desk
in the back of the house, I heard a crow in the front yard screeching his
displeasure at something.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It went on for
several minutes, and I thought about going out to see what was bothering him --
following the lead of agitated crows usually leads to something interesting --
but this was only one crow, not a mob, and I was focused on the blog post I was
writing, so I didn't get up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few
minutes later my roommate Dan called me, from the front yard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had just gotten home, and he was
whispering into his cell phone, "Dude, get the camera.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There's a small hawk in the tree
outside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hurry."</div>
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<br /></div>
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I got the camera (which is not stored conveniently on the
table by the door any more, since my dog Zeke decided to chew up one of my
lenses) but by the time I got to the window, the hawk had noticed Dan and taken
off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn't get to see him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, Dan paged through the field guide
and quickly identified him as a Cooper's Hawk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That made sense, because I know there are Cooper's Hawks in this
area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I've seen them more than once in
the park where I take Zeke to play.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
was mildly disappointed that I didn't get to see him myself, since I've never
actually seen a hawk in our yard.</div>
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<br /></div>
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A few hours later, we were getting ready to go shopping, and
Dan took the dogs out before we left.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
followed him a few minutes later and he told me, "Don't look over the side
rail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There's been a death."</div>
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My first thought was that it must be one of the rats that
live under the fence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I haven't seen
them in a while, and I've been a little worried about what happened to
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But unfortunately, this was a
death that hit even closer to home.</div>
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<br /></div>
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It was one of the pigeons.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Anyone who reads my blog probably knows that I am fond of
pigeons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I take care of the little
collection of <a href="http://birdlandwest.blogspot.com/2011/09/island-yard-of-misfit-birds.html">"misfit" pigeons</a> who hang out in this neighborhood --
mostly because they are centered around <a href="http://birdlandwest.blogspot.com/2011/06/timmy.html">Timmy</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I have a history with Timmy, and feel some responsibility for him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I enjoy watching the pigeons when they
come to eat (and often squabble) on my front deck.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They don't hang around here otherwise -- even
Timmy has stopped hanging around much other than mealtimes -- so they aren't a
nuisance to me or the neighbors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I often
see them perched on the power lines behind the house, watching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I put food down they begin to swoop in.</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuHkxGqDtp1vTKiJr2HDAWBWeK1pttlGPiFVcqP8u_7VxYbWWMmLyppIRRTyyZg-ZHrfFcDi-7VHqp6zgGUaPag_gdSbUmVUmkvo51InDTk1wR_uBXf6cX__vSjX7MadN2GFZDjZh7Y1Mx/s1600/timmy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuHkxGqDtp1vTKiJr2HDAWBWeK1pttlGPiFVcqP8u_7VxYbWWMmLyppIRRTyyZg-ZHrfFcDi-7VHqp6zgGUaPag_gdSbUmVUmkvo51InDTk1wR_uBXf6cX__vSjX7MadN2GFZDjZh7Y1Mx/s400/timmy.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The "victim", fortunately, was not Timmy or Timmy's Friend.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
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The dead pigeon was not Timmy, or "Timmy's Friend".<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(You can see my
earlier posts about Timmy and the other pigeons <a href="http://birdlandwest.blogspot.com/2011/07/pigeon-watch.html">here </a>and <a href="http://birdlandwest.blogspot.com/2011/07/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none.html">here</a>.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, judging by the wing patterns, it wasn't
a pigeon I was familiar with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I examined
the body and the "crime scene" -- and I took lots of photos, which
I'm going to spare my readers, since they are pretty gruesome.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Suffice it to say that the pigeon was
apparently eating on the rail when it was attacked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It looks like it was killed almost instantly,
because it was on the ground just below the rail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Its head was gone, and its crop was still
filled with undigested seed which it had obviously just eaten.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were blood and feathers around the
body, and more at another spot a few feet away, under the stairs.</div>
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<br /></div>
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My first thought was that a cat was the culprit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are occasionally free roaming cats in
our neighborhood, and any bird lover has to be concerned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I put off bird feeding for many years because
the area I used to live in -- Ballard -- was full of feral and semi-feral
cats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don't get me wrong, I'm not
anti-cat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I am anti-outdoor
cats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the wildlife center where I
volunteer, a very large percentage of all the animal injuries that come in --
especially birds -- are cat attacks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Outdoor cats are an environmental horror story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I'll come back to that in a later post.</div>
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It didn't even occur to me, at first, that the Hawk killed
the pigeon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But of course, that was the
most likely scenario.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I sent my crime
scene photos off to my friend Kevin, who's the staff naturalist at <a href="http://www.paws.org/about-wildlife-center.html">Paws WildlifeCenter.</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here's what he said:</div>
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"From looking at the photos of the pigeon, I would say
you are looking at the work of a hawk, rather than the work of a cat.
First of all, it looks like the pigeon’s tail and rump feathers are
intact. In almost all cat attacks you will see wounds over the rump and
missing tail feathers because the cat attacks from behind as the bird tries to
fly away. Hawks usually hit much farther forward on the body. Once
they have a good grip on their prey, they kill it by biting through one of the
cervical vertebrae at the back of the neck. They then tend to eat from
the head down. Hawks pluck the feathers from the area in which they wish
to feed. This leaves a scattered pile of loose but completely intact
feathers. Cats bite into birds right through the feathers. Feathers are
generally pulled away in clumps, usually with skin still attached, and the
feathers themselves are often broken or otherwise damaged. The loose
feathers around this pigeon’s body all look like they have been individually
plucked, again indicating a hawk rather than a cat."</div>
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Sad news.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But on the
other hand, I had a Cooper's Hawk lunching in my yard.</div>
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<b>If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/">Books and Beasts</a>, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.</b></div>
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(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 <a href="http://alexwashoe.imagekind.com/">http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.</a>
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.)</div>
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<br /></div>Alex Washoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03810893702064198273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6850578724053553683.post-63432315322285153362011-11-06T12:41:00.000-08:002011-11-06T13:09:32.819-08:00Accepting the Birds that Come<div class="MsoNormal">It is currently 39 degrees and sunny in Seattle, but I'm sitting here at my desk in a heavy coat because my dogs want to have access to the front deck. Sigh.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Long ago, when I was an art student, studying drawing and photography, I learned a valuable lesson: don't wait for the perfect subject, draw what's in front of you. It seems like an easy principle to master, but it turns out it's one of those things you have to learn over and over again.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh3nCy-jVQUbwRjbMS1f7PoP9F9jrML6YBtrcd6zljj96pv_t94edmFqzLl_Rn8EQWenZSrXUVqJkdnNdvSZz7QZgUOgjIttONhN0FTX4lvveNTBR2CSRpyhkYrwfnZoFDJNH-07bvIuO5/s1600/Starling+and+sparrow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh3nCy-jVQUbwRjbMS1f7PoP9F9jrML6YBtrcd6zljj96pv_t94edmFqzLl_Rn8EQWenZSrXUVqJkdnNdvSZz7QZgUOgjIttONhN0FTX4lvveNTBR2CSRpyhkYrwfnZoFDJNH-07bvIuO5/s400/Starling+and+sparrow.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Starling and Sparrow, familiar visitors, in an uncommon mutual pose.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">Take birds, for example. As a birdwatcher, and as a photographer, I am always hoping for the next big, unexpected find. For some rare (or at least previously unseen) bird to fly onto my yard list, or alight on the bushes at the dog park. Of course, the definition of "rare" means that it's something which very seldom happens. So the artist who waits for "rare" subjects -- unless he takes off for Tahiti like Gauguin -- may have a long wait. (I couldn't come up with Paul Gauguin's name to save my life just now, so I Googled "Tahiti Artist" and it was the first hit -- I love the Internet.) There are days when I take my camera outside and I think, "Nothing here but more chickadees, Juncos and pigeons. I have thousands of pictures of them, why do I need more?"</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvrJPIOzO03f-av8xzMukMuQkQ8Ao9TR3g8tUsnUfUXSZpqBIboODtivvd_CysmiWX20pePzwF1E5jnZ-gp5pI4VvylMj-zVzWp0ywyA-xvAPjJ9XcnQMGgdqWcrOb-eHWxF3HAACvAh1S/s1600/junco.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvrJPIOzO03f-av8xzMukMuQkQ8Ao9TR3g8tUsnUfUXSZpqBIboODtivvd_CysmiWX20pePzwF1E5jnZ-gp5pI4VvylMj-zVzWp0ywyA-xvAPjJ9XcnQMGgdqWcrOb-eHWxF3HAACvAh1S/s400/junco.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beautiful rich colors make this Junco stand out.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">The answer is, "I don't." But I need to take more pictures of them. It's not the end product, it's the process. That may sound like a cliche, but it's true. Most basically, because it keeps your skills and your eye sharp -- the way practicing scales keeps a musicians hands limber and ears tuned. But it's also true for a couple of other reasons (that I know how to articulate).</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">First, is receptivity. As an artist -- photographer, writer or birdwatcher -- receptivity is one of the most important traits you can possess. (Reactivity is another, but I'll write about that some other day.) You could compare it to the chemical nature of film (remember film? If you're too young, Google it). The chemicals on the film are sensitive to light and they react in its presence, creating an image. Similarly, the artist has to be available to the "light" of the world around him, has to let it in and let it change him. The inner film develops these images, stores them, and they become the raw material out of with art is created. Standing on my deck, with my camera, I am at my best when I can cultivate a state of open receptivity. If I was religious I could phrase it as, "Not my will, but yours be done." In other words, I will accept what comes. I'll photograph what's in front of me instead of complaining that I don't get anything "new". Out of that openness comes possibility, the chance for something unexpected and creative to occur. Without that openness, nothing is possible.</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKwTPq7btdWBghui2WoZC0saVxlkbQKK9i3Q6jVWBYs3nGlOweQFVG7bTvTJeDfLjqo6dCBpM0qvGgQKcODuxRzOxHnrlWplS7X_bVj1r6hBA0Rcw3eV4g5Wp-iz4N2xWHlCLMN9CMXA9f/s1600/pigeon+peaks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKwTPq7btdWBghui2WoZC0saVxlkbQKK9i3Q6jVWBYs3nGlOweQFVG7bTvTJeDfLjqo6dCBpM0qvGgQKcODuxRzOxHnrlWplS7X_bVj1r6hBA0Rcw3eV4g5Wp-iz4N2xWHlCLMN9CMXA9f/s400/pigeon+peaks.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A distinctive mostly white Pigeon surveys the deck.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpPurmtKejoMp7qg4mBIDJkoLHJFIMfT661PfzVRyWKweaNgiwE54j_IbXeSrv6mfpkuJgZvwi-CAWaHy61ZOzoNfZ_yyT3SHXLnYyczQIfMXTA9g_6UXnAordip1-5-Hc8iCpXn4hgtI_/s1600/pigeons1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpPurmtKejoMp7qg4mBIDJkoLHJFIMfT661PfzVRyWKweaNgiwE54j_IbXeSrv6mfpkuJgZvwi-CAWaHy61ZOzoNfZ_yyT3SHXLnYyczQIfMXTA9g_6UXnAordip1-5-Hc8iCpXn4hgtI_/s400/pigeons1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I love pigeons!</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">Henry James -- not usually one of my favorite writing mentors, but you really can't escape his influence -- advised us to strive to be someone on whom nothing is lost. The emphasis on striving (James said, "try" but it's the same point) is important. It's a goal we can't reach. Still, it's crucial. As soon as I begin thinking, "Oh, they're just chickadees, just pigeons, I've seen them a thousand times before," then the doors of my perception are closed. The world is being lost on me. The chickadees that I see today may or may not be the actual birds I've seen before -- it's very difficult to tell. (Actually, sonograms of the songs of individual birds can help you identify whether the particular birds in your yard are the ones you've seen before -- another topic to get into later.) With pigeons it's a little easier. I saw four pigeons on my deck yesterday and, because I forced myself for a moment to put down all the things I was worrying about and everything I "should" be doing, I got some really great photos of them. Two of them I knew and two were really striking, mostly white birds that I'm not sure I've seen before. I love pigeons, but familiarity can blunt even our greatest passions. Only openness and receptivity -- being the present moment without any certainties -- can reignite that love. My pigeons reminded me of that.</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGgZoJBWZPG47DvOQuFEOjR1nRMt0X2GOq1zlqMvojymep9p0k-xZnLmYkQHIuUP_NOpfeiXNnHnYtCPy-2tkRVViZ5_Y2CtPHllGntFgbBKVfTElPU4mOT0tGnJwKk4UW8iEIIDWxvm5F/s1600/pigeons2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGgZoJBWZPG47DvOQuFEOjR1nRMt0X2GOq1zlqMvojymep9p0k-xZnLmYkQHIuUP_NOpfeiXNnHnYtCPy-2tkRVViZ5_Y2CtPHllGntFgbBKVfTElPU4mOT0tGnJwKk4UW8iEIIDWxvm5F/s400/pigeons2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Like the Four Stooges having lunch.</td></tr>
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">And ultimately, the birds that I see today are not the birds that I've seen before -- and I am not the person who saw them. A photographer knows that from moment to moment the light moves and the image changes. The photographer changes too. No amount of clinging to my opinions or preferences will prevent that. Tomorrow, the birds will be different and I will be different. The tree will have a few less leaves, the monster dog on the deck beside me will be a little bigger, and the light will keep moving.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZQkdOrs9qoYHpIL956_RL7uX_zNdHfSa-JUKVGTfl0DmbyPA9NkDt4x3ih0KhHPQu_OBBDh50mB7bTgIkXEcLUym1Q6heM_ndUxZ2P8Yck_aDoh1O-0ABlCKPUjdIngBC1qVTGK38pzqK/s1600/pigeons3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZQkdOrs9qoYHpIL956_RL7uX_zNdHfSa-JUKVGTfl0DmbyPA9NkDt4x3ih0KhHPQu_OBBDh50mB7bTgIkXEcLUym1Q6heM_ndUxZ2P8Yck_aDoh1O-0ABlCKPUjdIngBC1qVTGK38pzqK/s320/pigeons3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">And the pigeons will have something new to say.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"> I've been a little busy this month doing <a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/participants/alex-washoe/novels/a-mind-of-his-own">NaNoWriMo</a> and other writing related activities. So far, it's been a pretty good year for writing. If you're interested, you can check out some of my other work. Starting with our sister Blog, <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/">Books and Beasts</a>. Also, the Seattle Mariners Blog, <a href="http://sodomojo.com/">Sodo Mojo</a> has been hosting my posts every Sunday morning for a couple of months. You can check out some of my pieces (and the great baseball analysis of the rest of the site's writers) <a href="http://sodomojo.com/author/alexwashoe/">here</a>. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">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 <a href="http://alexwashoe.imagekind.com/">http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.</a> 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.)</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div>Alex Washoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03810893702064198273noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6850578724053553683.post-5704269966436391592011-10-13T10:38:00.000-07:002011-11-06T11:29:43.407-08:00The Warriors of Winter<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">Since I was writing about hummingbirds in my <a href="http://birdlandwest.blogspot.com/2011/10/annas-hummingbird.html">previous post</a>, it seems appropriate to continue.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqTL0_uUwc7UFuzPcByXHc7jHym9vR5sYnoyzkf5TEXoTP4C2VbrKC-cU0pSWkvHu68WfalQS799zqg9Bq3W-D6kxED7gbWqRKRWlL6lHAsm8pGzTEuvP7UAiB3yF8wnAivLYrcx34ZGvR/s1600/zekesept11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqTL0_uUwc7UFuzPcByXHc7jHym9vR5sYnoyzkf5TEXoTP4C2VbrKC-cU0pSWkvHu68WfalQS799zqg9Bq3W-D6kxED7gbWqRKRWlL6lHAsm8pGzTEuvP7UAiB3yF8wnAivLYrcx34ZGvR/s320/zekesept11.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zeke is weatherproof.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">It's been wintery in Seattle this week. Grey wet weather and cold temperatures have moved in. We had to close the house up for the first time -- although my dog Zeke insists on having the door open as much as possible, in spite of the weather. In fact, Zeke, with his St. Bernard ancestry, is thriving. The cooler it gets, the happier and more energetic he becomes.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">The sense of winter may have been as much internal as external though. I've been tired lately, feeling my age. And I've been in the midst of what is most likely a hopeless infatuation. At least it seems that way on long gray days when I'm home with the dogs working alone. When she's around me, I can convince myself that anything is possible.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUDYuKALuBfUga-FFIompomDHWZqm_ExZnOno5DzqjQUGR0VitLhyphenhyphenpKt6QC21WXIOHLRlEc7jiK9zCPr-Z15ODoo6TmQjvtOlcWs0JZ89eIf1Od1FUXevhqzecN6wOrZrWQEXrkzUVYE44/s1600/christmaswebs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUDYuKALuBfUga-FFIompomDHWZqm_ExZnOno5DzqjQUGR0VitLhyphenhyphenpKt6QC21WXIOHLRlEc7jiK9zCPr-Z15ODoo6TmQjvtOlcWs0JZ89eIf1Od1FUXevhqzecN6wOrZrWQEXrkzUVYE44/s320/christmaswebs.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Webs decorated by winter (photo by Dan)</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">But seasons are slippery things. They resist our attempts to turn them into metaphor. Last year, as winter turned into spring, I got excited about the possibilities for bird watching around my home. I already had twenty-plus species on my yard list and I was expecting that to burgeon. The list did grow, but not dramatically. And I did see some excitement with fledglings, but overall there actually seemed to be a drop off in bird activity during the spring and summer. Perhaps because of the unusually cool weather -- we never really got a sustained summer going -- the ripening of fruit on the cherry tree didn't draw nearly as much activity as it had the year before. So -- because of that and other, unrelated things -- I was feeling kind of down.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">But seasons -- as I said -- are slippery things.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEircOFzZ-hXGb0Owzy4_PJEmMr0xYKbzjSm-qqtEaHzssnKGq2HsHMSbqUrbuhHGq8RrE2kChxPPMxKTAE6dbqGV0sAYN_1HmP_pZlKSyBxERVM4LGTlQF39sapFdjBhvCh1UaTtrlnXZpC/s1600/humminflightbydan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEircOFzZ-hXGb0Owzy4_PJEmMr0xYKbzjSm-qqtEaHzssnKGq2HsHMSbqUrbuhHGq8RrE2kChxPPMxKTAE6dbqGV0sAYN_1HmP_pZlKSyBxERVM4LGTlQF39sapFdjBhvCh1UaTtrlnXZpC/s320/humminflightbydan.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Male Anna's (photo by Dan)</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">This past week, as storm clouds move in and winds pick up, the hummingbirds have returned in force. Most people think of hummingbirds as tropical birds, summer friends. But in my yard they are creatures of the snow and rain. I already had two female Anna's visiting me regularly -- one looks young and the other is more mature. But this week the males arrived. Not just one, but two. And the yard became a battleground.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQDe6Ry-gFwsliodKdJpzzhP3kC2r09qzHRYpCHlnLKxvFXlZvwaLU3Y6H-w55jMT3lAnoqNxBkPpR_tCs9JSP7g2opwyr72ANRxSneD_G8ribWrt3hxLVfIkf7-QuEX4HMiDHJpuqx8ta/s1600/hummstandsguard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQDe6Ry-gFwsliodKdJpzzhP3kC2r09qzHRYpCHlnLKxvFXlZvwaLU3Y6H-w55jMT3lAnoqNxBkPpR_tCs9JSP7g2opwyr72ANRxSneD_G8ribWrt3hxLVfIkf7-QuEX4HMiDHJpuqx8ta/s320/hummstandsguard.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The male keeps his lonely vigil.</td></tr>
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</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">I've written before about fierce these little guys are. How the Aztecs considered hummingbirds to be warrior symbols, and wore their feathers into battle. </div><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYoWi1JvvpAmAGDo4hFImE8WRrPsza-WOCcNpd3lpLBL_Wg50FogRRAcdNTEQgaZP88uH3BeAJIik9bkbTlstlyNPanKkOztrx0joNW8pPx3mSD-Pi6X3Mq_iQy_FiUw9MioBOoA_6YGAC/s1600/hummwithdraws.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
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</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYoWi1JvvpAmAGDo4hFImE8WRrPsza-WOCcNpd3lpLBL_Wg50FogRRAcdNTEQgaZP88uH3BeAJIik9bkbTlstlyNPanKkOztrx0joNW8pPx3mSD-Pi6X3Mq_iQy_FiUw9MioBOoA_6YGAC/s1600/hummwithdraws.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Over and over he stood off attacks.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"> Well, this week they proved it. I stood out on the deck and watched a male Anna's sitting at the very top of the cherry tree, loudly asserting his position. Then the second male began to buzz him, swooping by again and again at full speed, each time making with a piercing chirp as he passed, almost like a high-pitched sonic boom. The first hummingbird stood his ground for a long time though before abandoning his perch. I wasn't able to get any photos of them together, but I did get some shots of the first male holding his perch, and a shot of what I assume was the attacker pulling up out of one of his attack dives. </div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYoWi1JvvpAmAGDo4hFImE8WRrPsza-WOCcNpd3lpLBL_Wg50FogRRAcdNTEQgaZP88uH3BeAJIik9bkbTlstlyNPanKkOztrx0joNW8pPx3mSD-Pi6X3Mq_iQy_FiUw9MioBOoA_6YGAC/s320/hummwithdraws.jpg" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I believe this is the attacker, pulling out of his dive.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">Twice, afterwards, I saw them "dance" with each other around the feeder. The would fly straight at each other and then spin around a common center, cursing all the while. </div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">None of this drama seems to bother the females, who continue to come regularly.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"> It might look like winter, but around here every gray day has a scarlet and emerald lining.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><b>If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/">Books and Beasts</a>, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.</b></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">I have also begun writing regular Sunday morning posts for <a href="http://sodomojo.com/">SoDo Mojo</a>, a Seattle Mariner's blog. Check out my most recent post, <a href="http://sodomojo.com/2011/10/02/change-of-season/">Change of Season</a>.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"> 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 <a href="http://alexwashoe.imagekind.com/">http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.</a> 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.)</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div>Alex Washoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03810893702064198273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6850578724053553683.post-10553091451753928372011-10-07T07:15:00.000-07:002011-10-07T07:26:05.495-07:00Anna's Hummingbird<blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><i>[Today's post marks something new from Birdland West. I want, from time to time, to post experiments in fictional technique, short stories or sketches that attempt to bring more of the non-human world into fictional forms. At this moment, this all experiment and feeling my way forward in the dark. I hope that readers will offer feedback and ideas in response.]</i></div></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">The hummingbird hung motionless, except for its furious wings, above the feeder. The red plastic -- a human would have called it red -- glowed like a beacon in the bird's vision, reflecting parts of the spectrum no mammal could see. Light glinted off the bird's feathers which broke it apart like millions of tiny prisms, throwing flashes of green and red. (Again, green and red as humans would see them -- with their primate color vision, recently recovered in evolutionary time, and so limited as compared to the bird's). The hummingbird poised above the feeder.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Almost no one noticed. The writer -- who lived in the house attached to the yard where the feeder hung -- was uncommonly aware of the sounds of the bird's presence -- the high pitched, fast sound, like a telegraph key -- but the weather was growing cold and the doors and windows of his house were shut. Besides, he was preoccupied with work (or with the distractions that kept him from working). And he was thinking about a young woman he had recently become interested in and what seemed like the impossibility that she could be interested in (old, fat, unsuccessful) him. He didn't hear the hummingbird's approach or sense it hovering over the feeder in the bush at the front of the yard.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHWlwRjRLkx3_RKndvFJBEhrEGgjwCvfI5pPGF3cLu_HQP9br7b_KQdlso5rg6JEYUPvMjZXFDDuu9OwTSLzELBnN-B2odj-xA8TTD8Mi09rvLdQBmS-fWIazWGU7yBalSCSmXzFXTGEIK/s1600/malehum2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHWlwRjRLkx3_RKndvFJBEhrEGgjwCvfI5pPGF3cLu_HQP9br7b_KQdlso5rg6JEYUPvMjZXFDDuu9OwTSLzELBnN-B2odj-xA8TTD8Mi09rvLdQBmS-fWIazWGU7yBalSCSmXzFXTGEIK/s400/malehum2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal">Across the street, a woman had just come out of her split-level home, carrying her son in her arms. He had just turned a year old and was large for his age, with a thick tassel of very dark hair and dark eyes. His mother looked as if she could barely hold him. She was from China, but spoke English with only the barest trace of an accent, having lived in Europe for years before the US. The writer, who was probably old enough to be her father, thought she was beautiful. Her son was moody, and sometimes when he cried she would bring him across the street to the sidewalk outside the writer's house to look at the writer's dogs -- especially the huge St. Bernard mix puppy who liked to hang out on the front deck in all kinds of weather. He was oblivious to cold or rain or snow. Children loved him, with his goofy face and harlequin colors. He would stand up on his hand legs and put his paws on the rail and the little boy's fussing would turn to laughter. He would point and laugh. The funny dog was too big and rambunctious to play with small children though. Ironically it was the older dog, a female pit bull two thirds the size of the clown dog -- the type of dog that some people crossed the street to avoid -- who was really good with children. She understood that they were like puppies.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The little girl who lived three houses down also loved the dogs. She was a few months older than the boy, much smaller, but already walking. Running. Her mother -- tall, slim and unselfconsciously lovely -- was always chasing her up and down the sidewalk. They were a Mormon family, the mother and father had met at Brigham Young University, moved here because of his work, and were renting a house on the block until they could find one of their own to buy. The little girl was fearless. She would run down the sidewalk, and back down the stairs into people's yards. Once, she had started climbing the steps to the writer's deck with the clown-dog, who outweighed her by three times or more -- at the top of the stairs, behind the gate barking. Whenever she saw the dogs she would point and squeal. Her mother believed her first word had been "dog".</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">But today the sky was gray and the mood was drizzly. The writer's door was closed and the dog's were inside. The mother, struggling with her son's weight, sighed and headed off down the sidewalk, hoping a little more walking would ease his mood.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">She didn't see the hummingbird.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In the cherry tree, which grew in a neighbor's yard but overhung the writer's yard, chickadees were queuing up to take their turn at the brass feeder which swung from one of the lower branches. They leapt from branch to branch, their sharp black and white markings standing out when they landed in the light. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chicka-dee-dee. Chicka-dee-dee. </i>Their call had a wheezy sound and the writer often whistled, absently, a rough approximation of the tune. Nothing any chickadee would recognize. The little birds seemed almost fearless, and they would sit on the feeder and look into the eyes of a person standing on the stairs only a few feet away. They could, with a little patience, have been coaxed into eating out of the writer's hand. They would even scavenge seed off the boards of the deck while the clown dog lay close by, watching. They were smart enough not to try that with the older dog.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Suddenly, a young grey squirrel raced up the trunk and out along one of the branches. Chickadees, startled by the sudden movement, dived upwards into the air. The squirrel leapt heavily off the swaying branch and landed on the rail of the porch, where seed had been scattered (by the writer) for the pigeons and other birds, like the Juncos who preferred to eat off the ground or rail instead of a feeder. Just as often, though, it was the squirrels who ate it, or one of the rats that lived in burrows underneath the fence.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Inside the house, the clown-dog, whose hearing was acute, jumped on the couch beneath the window and bayed. The blinds were down, so he couldn't see out, but his eyesight was not so good anyway. His ears never failed. The older dog's head bobbed up out of sleep at the sound of the baying. She jumped up on the couch beside him. Even with her front feet on the back of the couch, standing nearly erect, she wasn't as tall as the clown dog sitting on his rump. Her three short, hoarse barks counterpointed his bay.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">On the rail, the squirrel pivoted, changed directions almost as if he had turned himself inside out. His busy tail sprang upward and he reversed his leap, catching the thin branch -- which dipped precariously under his weight -- and hugging it with all four paws. He flowed rapidly along the branch and down the trunk, disappearing into the neighbor's yard.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">After a moment the dogs fell silent, but the clown-dog kept his ears cocked. Somewhere down the block, the little boy was crying.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The hummingbird, all but unseen, alighted on the perch of the feeder and drank.<br />
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</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><b>If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/">Books and Beasts</a>, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.</b></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">I have also begun writing regular Sunday morning posts for <a href="http://sodomojo.com/">SoDo Mojo</a>, a Seattle Mariner's blog. Check out my most recent post, <a href="http://sodomojo.com/2011/10/02/change-of-season/">Change of Season</a>.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"> 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 <a href="http://alexwashoe.imagekind.com/">http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.</a> 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.)</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div>Alex Washoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03810893702064198273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6850578724053553683.post-52478277272126664472011-09-23T15:21:00.000-07:002011-09-23T15:22:48.436-07:00Where to from Here?<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmTwqA5M9PDdrvG-vexxmls_3Fl-UdSEaD3Bdi5iMGuDy9-6c0ZtnPPBFvs-Q4eiLY1Q6za8-Vv-I9pGzLDuqiDBkieh0FHyXQLVSwPhJB22Y4iY1uhLZ3e8yVcv_vlyFQTw-DFwGgVBfN/s1600/AnHum5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmTwqA5M9PDdrvG-vexxmls_3Fl-UdSEaD3Bdi5iMGuDy9-6c0ZtnPPBFvs-Q4eiLY1Q6za8-Vv-I9pGzLDuqiDBkieh0FHyXQLVSwPhJB22Y4iY1uhLZ3e8yVcv_vlyFQTw-DFwGgVBfN/s400/AnHum5.jpg" width="400" /></a>It's been about six months since I started this blog -- it seems so much longer. Spring (which never really got on its feet this year) was just "<a href="http://birdlandwest.blogspot.com/2011/04/i-was-on-my-deck-yesterday-in-morning.html">heating up</a>" back then. There were Flickers and Starlings on my suet feeder, the hummingbirds had braved the snows in my yard, and the rats were foraging under the fence. Six months later the rats are still there, the Starlings are re-forming their winter flocks after the breeding season (there were two in my backyard this morning making such an incredible variety of sounds it seemed like a huge mixed flock), and the hummingbirds are coming back. Most people have hummingbirds in the summer who leave in the fall. Around here, it's been different. The hummingbirds left for the summer (because there were so many other food sources, I guess) and now that the weather has begun to cool a little and most of the flowers are gone, they're coming back. This past week I've seen almost constant hummingbird activity. They're so vocal (a lot of hummingbird sounds are not actually vocal, they're made by wings and tail) I can hear them from inside the house. There have been at least two here regularly, a young female and an older female. I'm on the lookout for more.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic_-8tJlPJoeRlKaJ5WQEW7koSJyBJ4lt_U3Jsx_JOPXLWB17iBUseQCCsPE0hPe1d6Vfh5vsHJ-dUfRdOrtltnYYvaDALRnW1pr-Y34SZV6NFCEZpyntRvmV1vLy_jeqX0hqi_88-Hj0M/s1600/Zeke%2527s+First+Day+Home+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic_-8tJlPJoeRlKaJ5WQEW7koSJyBJ4lt_U3Jsx_JOPXLWB17iBUseQCCsPE0hPe1d6Vfh5vsHJ-dUfRdOrtltnYYvaDALRnW1pr-Y34SZV6NFCEZpyntRvmV1vLy_jeqX0hqi_88-Hj0M/s400/Zeke%2527s+First+Day+Home+small.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zeke's first day home.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">When I started the blog I did it for a number of reasons -- the most important of which are spelled out on my "<a href="http://birdlandwest.blogspot.com/p/about.html">About</a>" page. It was pretty dark time in my life, I had gone through the deaths of my mother and my canine companion Roscoe, and through it all it was bird watching and observing wildlife that really got me through. Since I started, some things have changed-- for instance, my "puppy" Zeke now weighs close to 120 pounds -- and some things haven't. Bird watching is still very important to me.</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zeke today.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">It's been a pretty good year for my writing in general. Both this blog and its companion, <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/">Books and Beasts</a>, have been pretty well received. I had an article about Roscoe published by <a href="http://www.wholelifemagazine.com/blog/?p=2115">Whole Life Times</a>. I've done a couple of guest posts for 10000 Birds. (<a href="http://10000birds.com/consider-the-chickadee.htm">Consider the Chickadee</a> and <a href="http://10000birds.com/crazy-flickers.htm">Crazy Flickers</a>). I may soon be doing a regular post for <a href="http://sodomojo.com/">SodoMojo</a>, a blog which covers the Seattle Mariners. And my <a href="http://klout.com/#/alexwashoe">Klout Score</a> (if anyone can explain to me how that thing really works, I'd love to hear it) is hovering somewhere around 47, give or take. Not bad, all things considered. It's a far cry from making a living as a writer, but I'm having fun.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">Meanwhile, I keep thinking about what I want to do with these blogs. Between them, they take up a fair amount of my time now, and I want to keep them as fresh an interesting to the readers as I can. Without losing what's good about them so far -- I have some ideas that I am hoping to try out in the months to come.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">The first of these involves my puppy Zeke. I will soon be doing a review for Books and Beasts of Mary R. Burch's book <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Citizen-Canine-American-Kennel-Club/dp/1593786441/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1316815949&sr=1-2">Citizen Canine</a></i>, about training for the Canine Good Citizen test. Following that review, Zeke and I are going to undertake a regular training regimen with the goal of his passing the test at next year's <a href="http://www.pawswalk.net/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=482755">Paws Walk</a>. And my intention is to document that training here -- with regular updates, and even videos of his progress. I'll tell you a lot more about it in the near future, but if you think this would be an interesting addition to this blog, I'd love to hear from you. (And if you don't, I'll still be glad for the feedback.)</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">The second thing is fiction. I've written a little here, and a lot more at <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/">Books and Beasts</a>, about point of view in fiction, and how incorporating the consciousness of other species might effect that. I've also been working on that problem more practically in my own fiction, and what I hope to do is share some of that work with my readers from time to time. I'm thinking of having a semi-regular short fiction post in addition to the regular contents of the blog. Again, I'd appreciate any thoughts readers have on this idea.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">Meanwhile, I'll keep doing what I'm doing, keeping you informed on what's going on with the birds and wildlife in this tiny corner of the world. I hope it makes interesting reading.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKafDf1MqkXGxktTBkgXF3tThnEMyOmdLin1sEe39QAubCGrNxYLiwQ46j6JnGnqAly4_GUHqRrSSVgNQxNpxmy7M_d3cVLVrNlcbGV8RpmsTljNcqnJEMC8sIiP75iU0MOfh2XCo5jV34/s1600/flicker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKafDf1MqkXGxktTBkgXF3tThnEMyOmdLin1sEe39QAubCGrNxYLiwQ46j6JnGnqAly4_GUHqRrSSVgNQxNpxmy7M_d3cVLVrNlcbGV8RpmsTljNcqnJEMC8sIiP75iU0MOfh2XCo5jV34/s640/flicker.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><b>If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/">Books and Beasts</a>, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.</b></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"> 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 <a href="http://alexwashoe.imagekind.com/">http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.</a> 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.)</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div>Alex Washoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03810893702064198273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6850578724053553683.post-47016504060677198752011-09-20T18:33:00.000-07:002011-09-20T18:33:43.551-07:00A Busy Day at the Bird Feeders<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">Yesterday, in the afternoon, the sun came out unexpectedly after a cold, rainy weekend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The yard was glistening in a way that I usually associate more with spring than late-summer-fading-into-Autumn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But then, we didn't get much spring in Seattle this year, so I'll take it.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjciNT4yYQARrYGIB5sCr9bIEUIIUCOX-z7_zOr4BUecOgUfB3l8q1SBu0ebarFbfJD5Ac7_Y_Ph1gAkap-r9o9N7JZAuiM_Suw5Pl0YI7M3g7Ulm1sdMn_FF07f44wQs5e8oaDWs7ihBvg/s1600/bcchick1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjciNT4yYQARrYGIB5sCr9bIEUIIUCOX-z7_zOr4BUecOgUfB3l8q1SBu0ebarFbfJD5Ac7_Y_Ph1gAkap-r9o9N7JZAuiM_Suw5Pl0YI7M3g7Ulm1sdMn_FF07f44wQs5e8oaDWs7ihBvg/s400/bcchick1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Black-Capped Chickadee with his prize, perched in cherry tree.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSesCb6o0bZxOxGgjkjkRCIe4pUL16AqKQMBNdeKcF7u0u71sLIcGcvGPkHisigSeY-B-vTg8WlfJh4jzO4ViqNNQfY3SY1UZBPAaqUUqfGR5I9zkRMnDNQdIFDir8Yjo6Xb5ZPBP-VQoz/s1600/bcchick2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSesCb6o0bZxOxGgjkjkRCIe4pUL16AqKQMBNdeKcF7u0u71sLIcGcvGPkHisigSeY-B-vTg8WlfJh4jzO4ViqNNQfY3SY1UZBPAaqUUqfGR5I9zkRMnDNQdIFDir8Yjo6Xb5ZPBP-VQoz/s400/bcchick2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Waiting his turn.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">I don't know if it was the sunshine, the cooler, crisper temperatures or just a coincidence, but suddenly the yard was alive with birds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chickadees, who are always around, were out in force.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They queue up in the cherry tree and wait their turn at the feeder -- it seems to be a chickadee rule that only one bird can use the feeder at time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sparrows and finches and Juncos are glad to double up, but chickadees wait their turn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Usually, the next chickadee waits on the branch above the feeder until the one who is there leaves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They never take very long, picking out the seed they want and flying back up into the tree with it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every once in a while a chickadee approaches the feeder and realizes at the last minute that there's someone already there, then pulls up in a whuff of wings and lands in the tree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But they never seem to squabble the way sparrows and other birds do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It's all very orderly and efficient.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">I wasn't the only one watching the chickadees yesterday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another familiar visitor was out and about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I'm pretty sure that this is the same young House Finch that I photographed (and blogged about) earlier this summer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">He's looking much more adult now, but he still has a tentative, uncertain air.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn't ever see him use the feeder, but he did sit on the chickadees' queue branch and watch them for quite awhile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seemed like he was observing their use of the feeder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"> I also saw another return guest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This Bewick's Wren was foraging in the Morning Glory vines along the fence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I haven't seen a BW in months.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"> And, the young Anna's Hummingbird that I've seen and reported on a couple of times recently was back. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, I could hear her periodically throughout the day -- a rapid chirp sound like a high-pitched telegraph key -- but it wasn't until late in the afternoon (when the light was fading) that I managed to get some shots of her.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">So, counting the crows who were foraging on the sidewalk and the House Sparrow at the feeder -- not counting the Starlings I could hear in the back yard or the pigeons who I didn't see until evening -- that's five species that I counted standing on my deck, without even really trying hard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>None of them were new or unusual, but it was still pretty exciting.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">And just to top things off, today I was drawn outside again by the Anna's Hummingbird sound, only to find a totally different bird at the feeder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This one, as you can see, is quite a bit larger and clearly full grown.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"> <b>If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/">Books and Beasts</a>, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.</b></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"> 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 <a href="http://alexwashoe.imagekind.com/">http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.</a> 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.)</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"> </div>Alex Washoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03810893702064198273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6850578724053553683.post-77346665097206972772011-09-12T12:40:00.000-07:002011-09-12T12:53:09.730-07:00The Nest Generation<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyFmwzlhcRMj8hiEzAUt4I2iyHjXTzjQId0LPYuPWRIyx6ogCGeqI87TFaXQYGOS3GAil6hjWEv4okkl4tzxgOudQOds9E28tfDNqpciGwBN0pw0IiGSX5pNU2_6eycztFuO7Nt7xTaUvz/s1600/newhummer1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyFmwzlhcRMj8hiEzAUt4I2iyHjXTzjQId0LPYuPWRIyx6ogCGeqI87TFaXQYGOS3GAil6hjWEv4okkl4tzxgOudQOds9E28tfDNqpciGwBN0pw0IiGSX5pNU2_6eycztFuO7Nt7xTaUvz/s400/newhummer1.jpg" width="400" /></a>Despite the belated summer weather here in Seattle -- we just went through a record setting late September spell of nine over eighty degree days (after an almost nonexistent spring and unusually cool summer) -- the birds seem to know that fall is coming and they are changing their patterns. I've seen a couple of species back around my yard in the past week that haven't been around much during the summer.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioaM2KvcQtQ6FW0zqduTwVQSpmGKC61QGRxkUFAo9wVYr1wz-03VvRNlWzYVTTEJjOw50uuSEUD6PTKqXuMFnQjfuXd8M_nrX3Sj43iidyJcetrQkHAlBzHxx9U7hM5fxxm21XsiXNXSyX/s1600/Newhummer2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioaM2KvcQtQ6FW0zqduTwVQSpmGKC61QGRxkUFAo9wVYr1wz-03VvRNlWzYVTTEJjOw50uuSEUD6PTKqXuMFnQjfuXd8M_nrX3Sj43iidyJcetrQkHAlBzHxx9U7hM5fxxm21XsiXNXSyX/s320/Newhummer2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">First -- a hummingbird. Anna's hummingbirds were frequent guests in my yard all winter. In fact, on very cold mornings I had to keep rushing outside to make sure that the feeders weren't frozen. I got very good at thawing them out, and keeping two in rotations, one inside the house to stay warm, one outside for the birds until it got too cold. </div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">I haven't seen them much this summer, though. Which seems opposite of what you would expect. But Seattle is a city full of flowers (a blooming city, you could say) and I suspect that the hummingbirds just had plenty of food sources and didn't need my feeders. Now, the blooms are fading and they're coming back.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">At least this little gal is. This is an Anna's hummingbird, and though it's not easy to be sure from the photos, probably a female and very likely a juvenile. (You don't have much scale in the photos, but if you could see her in person, and you know Anna's at all, you'd realize she's pretty small.)</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0X19B9pYi_Wi0gp7y0iV1oxnhP7djLXIsphiLGNUTfCeJxPpXN58hWg_54d0AAezjjnM6LLTvYhgh7K5eqPfoODxGWhyphenhyphenIwGjcsTsoe5stabMRlFKEW38Qd-UGcGsvXwj5cBOvpdOiSiLh/s1600/hummbydan+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0X19B9pYi_Wi0gp7y0iV1oxnhP7djLXIsphiLGNUTfCeJxPpXN58hWg_54d0AAezjjnM6LLTvYhgh7K5eqPfoODxGWhyphenhyphenIwGjcsTsoe5stabMRlFKEW38Qd-UGcGsvXwj5cBOvpdOiSiLh/s400/hummbydan+%25282%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Photo by my roommate Dan)</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">I also saw this week -- not in my yard, but at a nearby bus stop -- a busy flock of bushtits. These guys are frequent visitors to my yard and suet feeder, and they have also been mostly AWOL during the summer. I was happy to see them back -- they come sweeping in with lots of activity and chirping like a sudden rain squall, and then, just as suddenly they're gone. Off down the road to another yard. I'll be keeping my eyes (and ears -- I frequently hear them before I see them) open for them at home.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnWlGZx4NtgjIDndRCXljC_4a8sgF9bMQ39o3LEZpGr6nfKGLzwAQCH3MpfV647DcscwPbqQBLWHtU4en0VfhYkKiHi5OsJm7Dce2pXmtiwLQu7FXqNO8i2CirUYYDPozh4WDl_F78QYB-/s1600/Steller%2527s+Jay+sept.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnWlGZx4NtgjIDndRCXljC_4a8sgF9bMQ39o3LEZpGr6nfKGLzwAQCH3MpfV647DcscwPbqQBLWHtU4en0VfhYkKiHi5OsJm7Dce2pXmtiwLQu7FXqNO8i2CirUYYDPozh4WDl_F78QYB-/s640/Steller%2527s+Jay+sept.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Photo by Dan)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBCZy-W4aRS3s7HT0ppeMdYDs4Qs8haYha5cuWs-nCrOCLqQjoujdtT-9RGRr2yJAQseoWD3KQ6-0P0mWjyNDYgVykgRL4bWNIhOZfH7MeEIcIwJmVe0XjwsTRbQ4ym6yPHU6bMPtx-OdP/s1600/Jaybydan2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBCZy-W4aRS3s7HT0ppeMdYDs4Qs8haYha5cuWs-nCrOCLqQjoujdtT-9RGRr2yJAQseoWD3KQ6-0P0mWjyNDYgVykgRL4bWNIhOZfH7MeEIcIwJmVe0XjwsTRbQ4ym6yPHU6bMPtx-OdP/s400/Jaybydan2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Photo by Dan)</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</tbody></table><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">I mentioned in my last post that I had seen a Steller's Jay eating on the rail with Timmy (my resident pigeon). I got a few photos of him, and roommate got some more soon after. You might not think it's the same Jay from the different angles in the photos, but I'm pretty sure he is. And if you look closely at the photos you can see, at the corner of his bill a trace of a lighter color. That, most likely, is the remnant of gape flanges which allow juvenile birds to open their beaks extra wide (to "gape" in other words) so that they can be fed by their parents. In a fully mature Steller's Jay the beak is dark all the way down, with no lighter coloring visible. That means this guy is very likely one of this year's fledglings. It also might explain why he's on his own and looking for new sources of food.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><b>A sad note:</b> One of my personal heroes passed away recently. Sarge the Elderbull was a tireless advocate for his breed, for dog lovers (and dogs who love dog lovers) and for the welfare of shelter dogs everywhere. You can check out this sweet remembrance of him at <a href="http://stubbydog.org/2011/08/sarge-the-superherosarge-the-elderbull/">Stubby Dog</a>, as well as their loving <a href="http://stubbydog.org/2011/07/thank-you-sarge/">obituary</a>. Also, you can check out Sarge's own site at <a href="http://www.elderbulls.blogspot.com/">Elderbulls</a> and his <a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001029752461&sk=info">Facebook page</a>. Sarge was a true American hero. Thank you to Sarge and to his human family who carry on his work.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">###</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">You can also enjoy my recent article "<a href="http://10000birds.com/crazy-flickers.htm">Crazy Flickers</a>" over at 10,000 Birds. They have a great site, well worth checking out even if I wasn't included.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><b>If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/">Books and Beasts</a>, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.</b> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div>Alex Washoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03810893702064198273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6850578724053553683.post-77835184659860937722011-09-08T09:15:00.000-07:002011-09-11T09:31:31.859-07:00The Island (Yard) of Misfit Birds<div class="MsoNormal">Things have been hoppin' in Pigeon Town.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPaY782NcAhwt2Fw1xZa-9MHgwUH0Ueb2QOY3GRZRJz3j0UN0sj5N9Zz5HhSFPC6lLE04QtsRKUM5qkFIhD7C6iinAMUxvwVoW-QooVEaLIFFQDiW6_1fKaa0Brv7RaF9xXvPk2RuaQ2JQ/s1600/timmy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPaY782NcAhwt2Fw1xZa-9MHgwUH0Ueb2QOY3GRZRJz3j0UN0sj5N9Zz5HhSFPC6lLE04QtsRKUM5qkFIhD7C6iinAMUxvwVoW-QooVEaLIFFQDiW6_1fKaa0Brv7RaF9xXvPk2RuaQ2JQ/s320/timmy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Timmy!</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">As I've mentioned before, I have a resident "special needs" pigeon named Timmy who lives (or at least hangs out most of the time, I don't actually know where he roosts) around my house. Timmy was briefly trapped in our attic last year when we evicted his parents and sealed up the opening. We were sure everyone was out, but it turns out Timmy wasn't, and was trapped in the attic for several days. I'd feel even if I hadn't noticed before that Timmy was a weird bird. Special. At least I know that the trauma we accidentally inflicted on him is not the cause of his oddness. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirN9YFCuILt3wEPC3Yqu59O2ZVRkaUGgn-muogsCq_BBTAe1i9ehYwiwJfC4wabVcytu4PzopjXXrMU4jfzNCxsa3LAXjken0F9eXkJCTOdzEAJ1QBrSGiYEahhRljXA-5i_Cv0eHdF2A7/s1600/Timmy%2527s+friend+on+the+roof.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirN9YFCuILt3wEPC3Yqu59O2ZVRkaUGgn-muogsCq_BBTAe1i9ehYwiwJfC4wabVcytu4PzopjXXrMU4jfzNCxsa3LAXjken0F9eXkJCTOdzEAJ1QBrSGiYEahhRljXA-5i_Cv0eHdF2A7/s320/Timmy%2527s+friend+on+the+roof.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Timmy's Plus One</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">Timmy (who despite his behavioral issues is a big, beautiful and healthy looking pigeon) now has a friend. Who I call "Timmy's Plus One". Of course I can't tell a male a pigeon from a female pigeon even if they're dressed for the prom, so I don't know whether Timmy is male or his friend is female, or the other way around. They could both be males or both be females for all I know (not that there's anything wrong with that). But pigeons are known to mate for life, and these two seem to be a couple. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">(I've read speculation on how birds recognize each other and distinguish gender -- in many birds it's easy because differences in coloration or size are so striking -- but in birds like pigeons and crows, who don't show much sexual dimorphism, it's more of a puzzle. Mammals do it mainly by smell, and by visual cues in some species, for instance primates whose noses are not good. Most birds have only a rudimentary sense of smell -- so there must be other kinds of cues. I would suggest looking at them more in the infra-red part of the spectrum, which we can't see naturally but they can. Could it be they have hidden patterns on them like some flowers do, or that the oils in their feathers show some difference in those wavelengths? I haven't been able to find any photos of birds in the infrared, but I'd be curious to know if anyone has explored it.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Lately, there have been two other pigeons dropping by (I unfortunately do not have photos of them yet). They are both unusual in their own way -- mostly white with gray mottling. One of them is almost albino. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I have observed -- and have also read -- that pigeons sometimes seem to shy away from the "odd" members of their flock, and that unusual coloration may make a bird unwelcome. But I'm not totally sure that's true. The <a href="http://www.birds.cornell.edu/Page.aspx?pid=1478">Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology</a>, as part of their Celebrate Urban Bird project has <a href="http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pigeonwatch">Project Pigeon Watch</a>, a chance for citizen scientists to contribute their observations, and one of their goals is to study how different color patterns among feral pigeons effect mating. Anyway, these two pigeons have been hanging around lately and I started wondering if maybe our yard was becoming a sort of island of misfit birds. Like Timmy, these guys might be less at home in the big flocks that hang out down the road in White Center. I've often observed the two mottled pigeons eating on my rail together, and I've seen them eating along with Timmy's friend. I've never actually seen Timmy eating with them though.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Saturday, I finally saw them together, and it got pretty exciting. First, I saw Timmy's friend on the rail with one of the white birds. They were eating together like usual, and then suddenly a fight broke out. Timmy's friend and the mottle pigeon were going at each other up and down the rail for about a minute, and then they both flew off. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I thought maybe the food was getting low and that sparked the argument. So I went out and put more food on the rail. A little while later Timmy and his friend came back and while they were eating the mottle pigeon showed up again. This time, Timmy got into it with him. It even looked like Timmy attacked first. There was a brief squabble and then all three birds took off. I was standing in the front door watching and one of the pigeons -- I think it was Timmy -- flashed by just a few feet from my face with a loud crack of his wings. Timmy, who is by far the biggest of the pigeons that visit here, seemed to have things well in hand.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">That wasn't the end of the excitement though. Timmy and his friend came back a little later. I was watching from inside, under the window blinds. I could see Timmy, clearly recognizable by his banded wings, and it seemed like there was another pigeon too -- but a very small one. I got closer to window and caught my breath. It wasn't a pigeon at all.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">It was a Steller's Jay.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-7mF2cmftxFGLc1Z11IOnQqiqCNTID3nptee6UOOvhznYGPofPdgo4-ygL5APinT0e4_3VjZq7F4iYcCM6Ua5vKrqun7jxtynGyZatgyfzaAfBLCanCM0I_d6MyD0V2tPBJQocrEDwkYV/s1600/Steller%2527s+Jay+sept.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-7mF2cmftxFGLc1Z11IOnQqiqCNTID3nptee6UOOvhznYGPofPdgo4-ygL5APinT0e4_3VjZq7F4iYcCM6Ua5vKrqun7jxtynGyZatgyfzaAfBLCanCM0I_d6MyD0V2tPBJQocrEDwkYV/s400/Steller%2527s+Jay+sept.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is the Jay that was eating with Timmy.</td></tr>
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">Last winter, and well into the spring, the Jays were frequent visitors to my yard. They come swooping in with their wings spread wide, looking like a caped superhero and announcing their arrival with loud screeches. I haven't seen them in a while, but all day Saturday I kept hearing them. When I was out for a walk with my dog Lulubelle, and when I took my "puppy" Zeke to the park, I could hear the Jays but I never saw them. And now here he was.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">So, fighting pigeons and then Timmy sharing dinner with a Jay -- that's lot of adventure for one Saturday afternoon.<br />
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For previous posts about Timmy and pigeons see "<a href="http://birdlandwest.blogspot.com/2011/08/around-yard-and-around-web.html">Around the Yard and Around the Web</a>", "<a href="http://birdlandwest.blogspot.com/2011/07/pigeon-watch.html">Pigeon Watch</a>" and "<a href="http://birdlandwest.blogspot.com/2011/06/timmy.html">Timmy</a>!"<br />
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You can also enjoy my recent article "<a href="http://10000birds.com/crazy-flickers.htm">Crazy Flickers</a>" over at 10,000 Birds. They have a great site, well worth checking out even if I wasn't included. <br />
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<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: bold; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Birdland West</span> readers will be interested in my review of <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/2011/06/feathers-evolution-of-natural-miracle.html">Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle by Thor Hanson</a>, which is posted now at <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/">Books and Beasts</a>. It's a great book and a must read for all bird lovers. Check out the review <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/">here</a>.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"> (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 <a href="http://alexwashoe.imagekind.com/">http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.</a> 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.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Alex Washoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03810893702064198273noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6850578724053553683.post-10094868003875780752011-08-30T07:36:00.000-07:002011-08-30T07:36:41.953-07:00Spiders! (and a butterfly too)<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal">When in doubt, ask for help.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigvcGKGovl-uAqdPNnb1hhkPVxYm0297Li3tagUXxqpvgeygjBXzOMytgNMF2D0LxqCc0E6AnFwj_Dk9vQHsDDpicRGVC2Dbi_wC8dsZVIH9Z3IIAvrOuHdYIcPyvlYgPg0yoFPqjNDJBU/s1600/Zeke%2527s+First+Day+Home+114+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigvcGKGovl-uAqdPNnb1hhkPVxYm0297Li3tagUXxqpvgeygjBXzOMytgNMF2D0LxqCc0E6AnFwj_Dk9vQHsDDpicRGVC2Dbi_wC8dsZVIH9Z3IIAvrOuHdYIcPyvlYgPg0yoFPqjNDJBU/s320/Zeke%2527s+First+Day+Home+114+%25282%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zeke as a tiny puppy in the plot that now holds kale flowers.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">Normally, I am pretty careful to identify the subjects of my photos before I post them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today, however, I'm having some trouble with IDs, and so I decided to get some help from readers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Because bird activity has been slow in my yard the last couple of weeks, I have turned my attention to the small denizens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Warmer weather in August, plus the decay of the cherry tree crop, and the still blooming flowers brought out the insects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the insects brought out the spiders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At any given time my front yard seems to be host to a dozen or more spider webs -- some of them quite large.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Before I get to the arachnids, though, let me present one visitor who I can (I'm almost certain) identify.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmLD3NT0bKO7e1dgRDPVR3YI3ADOyU-lqPMYXRwV-LAJBpx9c0dkyO1j5lHSA0V64t4YbSuVwm85abaG6iEmLV6gGPJIKznPG0IiXsGbtvIR_NOHrx6AGiWNFxmub-xWI6PdpskvDMp59R/s1600/butterfly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmLD3NT0bKO7e1dgRDPVR3YI3ADOyU-lqPMYXRwV-LAJBpx9c0dkyO1j5lHSA0V64t4YbSuVwm85abaG6iEmLV6gGPJIKznPG0IiXsGbtvIR_NOHrx6AGiWNFxmub-xWI6PdpskvDMp59R/s400/butterfly.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal">This lady is an example of what is commonly called the "Cabbage White" butterfly (Pieris rapae).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I happen to have in my yard a Kale plant which has gone to flower (it belongs to my dog Zeke now, who thinks kale is great to eat and even better to pee on), as well as some flowering wild green bean plants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These butterflies (which are supposed to be fond of cruciferous vegetable flowers) seem to really like both plants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The guide that I consulted says that you can tell the sex of the individual by the number of spots on the wing -- one for male, two for female.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Making this one a "she".<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Now back to the spiders (and other arachnids).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-sRzERTrbXisLpwLcyZBrJ5UMy06jDwF6MN1ePIPrTto7R4-_B4o7dzNbnj-mIWmGoePOy-RklTyNdgZtFQWXpqQSaiPbwiOWqSx9EOlKiS6IcEbaLN3yt4Bt3loD7zElHMGnq6HAJlny/s1600/grandaddy+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-sRzERTrbXisLpwLcyZBrJ5UMy06jDwF6MN1ePIPrTto7R4-_B4o7dzNbnj-mIWmGoePOy-RklTyNdgZtFQWXpqQSaiPbwiOWqSx9EOlKiS6IcEbaLN3yt4Bt3loD7zElHMGnq6HAJlny/s640/grandaddy+%25282%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal">The most exciting find, to me, was this one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of the type commonly called "granddaddy long-legs" and more formally known as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opiliones"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">harvestmen</i></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Technically (and I didn't know this until I started looking him up) harvestmen are not spiders at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are closely related arachnids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was really fascinated with this guy (odds are, any spider-like individual you see is female, I think -- but how would I know for sure?) because I had just finished reading an <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110823115149.htm">article about newly discovered fossils</a> that show harvestmen ancestors from around 300 million years ago who are virtually unchanged from the ones we know today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That would make them among the earliest known land animals to assume their modern form. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pretty exciting to think that after all those millions of years they are still stalking around my front yard.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_EP7UGyaDJhCMCbDezlDWpEnqyVsbMLZdtHK8US_ZiKEUa3Qr2woCGDGPDh71Yq0kAQbzCy2iF6jGAqL0yHX1MnCr_NH2grOb_qtAsrm6IB9J-ZbXJnPJU4lCXDQijlNrLU3PnMxIds47/s1600/spider1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_EP7UGyaDJhCMCbDezlDWpEnqyVsbMLZdtHK8US_ZiKEUa3Qr2woCGDGPDh71Yq0kAQbzCy2iF6jGAqL0yHX1MnCr_NH2grOb_qtAsrm6IB9J-ZbXJnPJU4lCXDQijlNrLU3PnMxIds47/s320/spider1.jpg" width="320" /></a> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">These other spiders, I am embarrassed to say, I have not identified.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLIiuzT99tsvsbTyHMSlmiprnHaW4um9cYtQ33p3xsvbaMrfr8l6Iszb4U99ZA4O55snx96Eiphus_YiRg5S0oDcxuefpNiSn6bTCsvxefavUjVwV4xK0OqCrhnPCicQkUDC4GO94H_Plb/s1600/spider3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLIiuzT99tsvsbTyHMSlmiprnHaW4um9cYtQ33p3xsvbaMrfr8l6Iszb4U99ZA4O55snx96Eiphus_YiRg5S0oDcxuefpNiSn6bTCsvxefavUjVwV4xK0OqCrhnPCicQkUDC4GO94H_Plb/s640/spider3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Look at these guys closely and see if you know what they are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I'm a little obsessive about identifying things and then reading about them, so any information you can provide to point me in the right direction would be great.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I'll give credit in a future post to whoever comes up with the right ID.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Thanks.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"> ###</div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/">Books and Beasts</a>, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">(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 <a href="http://alexwashoe.imagekind.com/">http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.</a> 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.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div>Alex Washoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03810893702064198273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6850578724053553683.post-82412059988022287992011-08-18T17:18:00.000-07:002011-08-22T11:20:24.429-07:00A Sad DigressionI planned to post my first attempts at butterfly photography this week (they're still coming; you don't get off that easy). But after being disconnected for a few days with the flu, I came back online this morning to a very sad piece of news. Sad, but not unexpected or unpredicted.<br />
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</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">Those of you who have checked out my other blog, Books and Beasts, will know that I've written a couple of times about wild animals in entertainment. In fact, a piece I wrote earlier this year about elephants is probably my most viewed blog post. But the abuse goes on.<br />
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A number of news outlets are reporting this week that a female elephant, named Sarah, collapsed Sunday night outside the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA, following a show. What makes this case particularly upsetting is that Ringling Brothers was cited earlier this year for "failing to adequately treat Sarah for a pus-like discharge present during urination". (According to the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/10/elephant-abuse-adi-protest_n_923882.html">Huffington Post</a> quoting both USDA documents and eyewitnesses from <a href="http://www.ad-international.org/adi_usa/">Animal Defenders International.</a>) Sarah is 54 years old, and has been owned by Ringling Brothers for 43 years. She was captured in the wild in Asia in 1957.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.ad-international.org/adi_usa/">Animal Defenders International</a> has released this video of Sarah.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/8X7jbxiy29Y?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe> </div><br />
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I have had my own experience with how disingenuous the Ringling Brothers people can be. (See <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/2011/05/tears-for-elephants.html">Tears for Elephants</a> for more details.) They want to present themselves as wholesome family entertainment -- and even as supporters of conservation -- but they're not. They're an outmoded form of entertainment built on crass exploitation and cruelty to animals. It's no more wholesome or acceptable than dog fighting. And it needs to stop. Now. (You can check out the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/10/elephant-abuse-adi-protest_n_923882.html">Huffington Post</a> article, or <a href="http://www.ad-international.org/adi_usa/">Animal Defenders</a> website, or <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/2011/05/tears-for-elephants.html">my previous article</a> for more details.) </div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">This topic is especially apropos for those of us in Western Washington, because in just a couple of weeks -- on Septermber 1st through 5-- Ringling Brothers will be in Kent, Washington, at the <a href="http://www.showarecenter.com/">ShoWare Center</a>. Then they will be in Everett, WA at the <a href="http://www.comcastarenaeverett.com/Events/GeneralEvents.ashx?p=1154&70_evntdt=967&70_evnt=669">ComCast Center</a> on September 5-11. We should certainly encourage Kent and Everett not to support Ringling Brothers </div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">I am asking all my readers to take action -- and speak up for Sarah and others like her. To start with, you can urge Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to take action. Sara should be taken away from Ringling Brothers and sent to an animal sanctuary where she has a chance of getting the medical care she needs. </div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture, USDA<br />
1400 Independence Avenue SW<br />
Washington DC 20250<br />
phone (202) 720-3631<br />
fax (202) 720-2166<br />
AgSec@usda.gov</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">But rescuing Sarah is only the beginning. The use of wild and exotic animals in entertainment needs to be ended. One way to help bring this about is by helping to educate people about the problem. And by encouraging our local governments and events centers not to host these events.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">You can contact the <a href="http://www.showarecenter.com/">ShoWare Center</a>, to let them know how you feel about Ringling Brothers coming to our area, by calling 253-856-6777. </div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">You can also contact the city of Kent by calling the Mayor's Office at <b><span style="font-weight: normal;">253-</span></b><b><span style="font-weight: normal;">856-5700</span></b><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> or the City Council's Office at 253-856-5712. </span></b></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;">Here are some sites to check out for information before you call or write, so you can be as specific as possible in your complaints:</span></b></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.paws.org/circus-cruelty.html">PAWS</a> (Progressive Animal Welfare Society) in Lynwood, WA.</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.bornfreeusa.org/a1a_circus.php">Born Free USA </a></span></b></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.elephants.com/">The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee</a> (this one is guaranteed to make you feel hopeful again)</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-weight: normal;">And information on local protests against the Ringling Brothers shows can be found at <a href="http://www.narn.org/index.php">NARN</a> (Northwest Animal Rights Network) </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-weight: normal;">Please do whatever you can to help Sarah and others like her. </span></b><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> ###</span></b></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><b>If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/">Books and Beasts</a>, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">(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 <a href="http://alexwashoe.imagekind.com/">http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.</a> 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.)</div></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div>Alex Washoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03810893702064198273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6850578724053553683.post-36724395255265496412011-08-11T11:09:00.000-07:002011-08-11T11:11:44.886-07:00Success at last! (Sort of)<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">After spending most of the summer looking for them, I finally spotted a juvenile House Finch this week. I thought I had seen him twice before, but I didn't get a good enough look or any photos to confirm it. Then, Sunday morning, there he was.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7kaBzmw6svqIrr2xePXuid1jex8pt_cnWBTM_PUEZJB1k91kdrc-sgIrjrkfwndtgFF-A2RX8JMmIsKFGmUXQCzWST6IYKA4JxwCocBzEXrJ79m69wXpx2RviZo_ROE8mnMAGZFBYAreJ/s1600/juv+finch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7kaBzmw6svqIrr2xePXuid1jex8pt_cnWBTM_PUEZJB1k91kdrc-sgIrjrkfwndtgFF-A2RX8JMmIsKFGmUXQCzWST6IYKA4JxwCocBzEXrJ79m69wXpx2RviZo_ROE8mnMAGZFBYAreJ/s400/juv+finch.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">If you read my blog occasionally you probably know that the adult House Finches have been regular guests here throughout the year. I was pretty sure that they were nesting nearby, and was hoping to see fledglings before the summer was done. House Finches sometimes nest late in the summer -- in fact, they can sometimes produce two broods in a season -- but as weeks went by I began to worry that I'd missed them, or they weren't going to show this year. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">So you can imagine my excitement when I finally spotted this guy. His nascent coloring identifies him as a male, in the transitional stage to adult plumage. I was sure that I'd finally found my Finch couple's kids.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">House Finch Couple</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">Only, it's not quite that simple. According to my naturalist friend, Kevin, House Finches only molt once a year, and since this guy is transitioning, the chances are he's one of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">last year's</i> fledglings. House Finches don't migrate; they stay here all year round, so it's entirely possible that he's from the same family. Possible, but not guaranteed. Kevin gave me a quick lesson in the family dynamics of House Finches. Unlike many songbirds, they form new pair bond's each breeding season -- the couple I've been observing may not have been together last year, and may not pair up next year. Also, young birds disperse, immigrating to new areas and emigrating in from other areas to mix up the gene pool. All my House Finch friends could be from one family, or they could be totally unrelated. Short of inviting them in for a DNA test, it's very hard to be sure. </div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">Still, the juvenile House Finch was on my wish list this year, and I got to see one at last.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/">Books and Beasts</a>, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">(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 <a href="http://alexwashoe.imagekind.com/">http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.</a> 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.)</div>Alex Washoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03810893702064198273noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6850578724053553683.post-5897544567971084792011-08-08T11:29:00.000-07:002011-08-08T13:59:30.762-07:00Around the Yard and Around the Web<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">Crows are geeks.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSkXdLpb6zxfAiotq7VePOtTsIZmLroLSQUI_wr5lsGi5wGA1MRdS_C39Vy3TjcvrpfFgmxSo9N9Mu9JnQOOuV1UKgVff5yJSOMmpEglUh9DzmKh1AX7git1mhrRl_ENVFjkloNmI4xF_B/s1600/crow++geek3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSkXdLpb6zxfAiotq7VePOtTsIZmLroLSQUI_wr5lsGi5wGA1MRdS_C39Vy3TjcvrpfFgmxSo9N9Mu9JnQOOuV1UKgVff5yJSOMmpEglUh9DzmKh1AX7git1mhrRl_ENVFjkloNmI4xF_B/s400/crow++geek3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">And if you have any doubt, let me offer some evidence. This crow is clearly an "early adopter". I photographed him this weekend helping himself to cherries in the cherry tree. </div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"> Even though the cherries are very ripe, most of the birds haven't quite gotten around to feasting on them yet. (Although, Saturday night, coming home from a monthly poker game, my roommate and I surprised a raccoon in the tree. He -- actual gender unknown -- was pretty small, so I'm guessing he was one of this year's crop. I got to see his masked face for just a second before he vanished into the shadows. ) The crow however is on top of things, and getting first jump on the cherries.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxjwGI6bhiw82wN8vWJpDe7z5cUAOtQyE2kggNY1zgIocTJwvkZIggUaf4YIfrqmu_MrN0_FF2abpD7dtFJoXcGF9qNQUEnUOSuzZbAKlHjrGiP0EgIyezy14WIi7wqVj5pIFvNM2hr-tJ/s1600/crow+geek4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxjwGI6bhiw82wN8vWJpDe7z5cUAOtQyE2kggNY1zgIocTJwvkZIggUaf4YIfrqmu_MrN0_FF2abpD7dtFJoXcGF9qNQUEnUOSuzZbAKlHjrGiP0EgIyezy14WIi7wqVj5pIFvNM2hr-tJ/s400/crow+geek4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIdTM7h9Y-8bxB-xHKFUpxxriJXTYfmnCpjhrMqdjV2XavELvZU_xInNJETSfwAvH0Auvr30DIfBtRhCF6c65DGHzD_0X4m2PV5Iu6mB_9SQNZGTS87hcuPcI40kuWmUo7CS_-S_UPjDHu/s1600/juv+sparrow2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIdTM7h9Y-8bxB-xHKFUpxxriJXTYfmnCpjhrMqdjV2XavELvZU_xInNJETSfwAvH0Auvr30DIfBtRhCF6c65DGHzD_0X4m2PV5Iu6mB_9SQNZGTS87hcuPcI40kuWmUo7CS_-S_UPjDHu/s320/juv+sparrow2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">It continues to be an exciting year for fledglings and juveniles. At least one group of House Sparrow young'uns is coming of age around my yard. I now have photos of them at several stages of development. I suspect that there is more than one group though, because I took some photographs of slightly older fledglings a week or so before I caught shots of younger ones. (You can see those photos <a href="http://birdlandwest.blogspot.com/2011/07/identifying-fledglings.html">here </a>and <a href="http://birdlandwest.blogspot.com/2011/07/fledglings-in-seattle-gulls-in-new.html">here</a>.) </div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirN9YFCuILt3wEPC3Yqu59O2ZVRkaUGgn-muogsCq_BBTAe1i9ehYwiwJfC4wabVcytu4PzopjXXrMU4jfzNCxsa3LAXjken0F9eXkJCTOdzEAJ1QBrSGiYEahhRljXA-5i_Cv0eHdF2A7/s1600/Timmy%2527s+friend+on+the+roof.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirN9YFCuILt3wEPC3Yqu59O2ZVRkaUGgn-muogsCq_BBTAe1i9ehYwiwJfC4wabVcytu4PzopjXXrMU4jfzNCxsa3LAXjken0F9eXkJCTOdzEAJ1QBrSGiYEahhRljXA-5i_Cv0eHdF2A7/s320/Timmy%2527s+friend+on+the+roof.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Timmy's Friend</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsSA6CaolWZm2bl3P_DdTUPG0g892mUk5D-8APcu55-SArMLQKYf0LneV1Cdf_Rw0kKGrTpVQqGn_defZiEfMByw7-ivudyoRciQzzwMozS32V6QIMiHWZci_Yd6v3rH4dsLVcXTxthQ1t/s1600/Timmy+on+the+roof.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsSA6CaolWZm2bl3P_DdTUPG0g892mUk5D-8APcu55-SArMLQKYf0LneV1Cdf_Rw0kKGrTpVQqGn_defZiEfMByw7-ivudyoRciQzzwMozS32V6QIMiHWZci_Yd6v3rH4dsLVcXTxthQ1t/s320/Timmy+on+the+roof.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Timmy!</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">I also managed to get some good shots of my resident Pigeon <a href="http://birdlandwest.blogspot.com/2011/06/timmy.html">Timmy</a>, along with his frequent companion. Timmy is the larger pigeon with the lighter colored wings. I have also noticed a new pigeon in the neighborhood -- a thin, mostly white pigeon that I haven't seen until recently. I'll keep an eye on this new arrival and see if I can get some photos.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">The great challenge of the season, for me, remains the House Finch fledglings. The couple has been here almost all year, and I was pretty sure they were nesting nearby, but so far I have no definitive proof of juvenile finches. I saw some birds recently on the rail that could have been the elusive youngsters, but I didn't get a good enough look, and couldn't get any photos. Like Captain Ahab, though, I will continue to pursue them.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><h1 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Updates, Follow-ups and interesting links</span></h1><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">I was very happy to be included in the most recent <a href="http://carnivalofevolution.blogspot.com/">Carnival of Evolution</a>. If you haven't seen it (or don't know what a blog carnival is -- I didn't until recently) it is basically a regular round up of blog writing on a certain topic -- in this case evolution, which is broad enough to include many things. My recent post <a href="http://birdlandwest.blogspot.com/2011/07/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none.html">Game Show Pigeons and Ball Playing Dogs</a> was included and I've been gratified to see a nice up-tick in viewings as a result. If you're interested in biology, evolution, science writing or any number of related topics I suggest you check it out. It comes out monthly and is hosted on a different blog each time. This edition was hosted on Lawrence E. Moran's blog <a href="http://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2011/07/carnival-of-evolution-38.html">Sandwalk</a> -- which is, itself, well worth checking out. (There's even a musical interlude called "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMwxwRA9Xr8&feature=player_embedded">Cambrian Explosion</a>" that you really have to see.)</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">There are blog carnivals, by the way, on all kinds of topics. If you're curious, you can check out <a href="http://blogcarnival.com/bc/">Blog Carnival</a> to get an idea of what's out there.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">One of the people who found my posting from the carnival was <a href="http://roslyndakin.com/">Roslyn Dakin</a>, a PhD student from Kingston, Ontario. Turns out, she also has an interest in the Monty Hall problem. Her take is somewhat different than mine and well worth checking out. In fact, her whole blog is very rewarding. You can check out her Monty Hall article <a href="http://roslyndakin.com/archives/909">here</a>, and her most recent posts <a href="http://roslyndakin.com/blog">here</a>.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">And, finally, there's a great article in the Grand Forks Herald recently, by Herald editor/publisher Mike Jacobs. "<a href="http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/212013/">Target Species Enrich Birding Experience</a>", about the joys and expenses of having a birding wish list. (I have a wish list -- both local and more farfetched -- which I'll be sharing in the near future.) </div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/">Books and Beasts</a>, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">(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 <a href="http://alexwashoe.imagekind.com/">http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.</a> 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.)</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div>Alex Washoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03810893702064198273noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6850578724053553683.post-75274898314205230632011-08-01T11:03:00.000-07:002011-08-01T11:03:29.290-07:00Updating the Yard LIst<!--[if gte mso 10]> <style>
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</style> <![endif]--> <div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;">Summer has finally come to Seattle and we've had a stretch of mostly dry, warm weather.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The wildflowers are blooming in the garden (which was taken over by weeds before they arrived).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the Seattle Mariners followed up their surprisingly good first half with a club record 16 straight losses in July.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yikes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;">But on to the wildlife.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;">Sunday morning I was looking out my window and I spied an unlikely couple having breakfast together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They're both frequent visitors to the feeders, but I've never seen them together before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There they were, just chowing down like old friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had to take the pictures through the window, because there's no way I could have gotten out on the deck without both of them taking off. They hung out for about ten minutes, not the least bit concerned with each other.</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG3x4UZGHCVgyzFN4-GAqyCbnZlB4B0KisWwucYvw0_MpoEfiGOJNxjt1v10zAOUtXAv9gXpcWAc2Z8uYS_Ue-1SKS1AywJOS_74Wl5MgkInTcJynUPtfPNNWHsAYorsn84xW_RDrASONm/s1600/breakfast+on+the+rail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG3x4UZGHCVgyzFN4-GAqyCbnZlB4B0KisWwucYvw0_MpoEfiGOJNxjt1v10zAOUtXAv9gXpcWAc2Z8uYS_Ue-1SKS1AywJOS_74Wl5MgkInTcJynUPtfPNNWHsAYorsn84xW_RDrASONm/s400/breakfast+on+the+rail.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sunday Brunch with a pal.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;">My dog Lulubelle routinely flushes the squirrels off the porch in the mornings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It's impressive to see them leap into the branches of the cherry tree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The House Finch has been here since winter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He and his mate are here almost every day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I haven't seen any young finches though.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;">Speaking of the cherry tree, it is heavy with fruit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of it is beyond human reach (unless you know someone with one of those cherry picker trucks).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, the ripe fruit usually brings a burst of bird activity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As soon as some of the fruit begins to fall I expect to see robins and many other birds congregating in the yard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Last year, it also brought a raccoon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They're always around the neighborhood but we very rarely see them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I'll be keeping my eyes on the tree in the evenings, though, hoping to get a good shot.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv6Q0gQTXDUyDZ3usEEpfYABrfVfrMspDjieuELhz5LQHq90PPnuK6_Y3MvRyyHXcfO0ET6fmMKJYt64KOgpMYbo8JVm4_8nAJPo_R1OVkbxblQOnFh6OgpE_9WqRP7Fh_gHovamEF8oEK/s1600/towhee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv6Q0gQTXDUyDZ3usEEpfYABrfVfrMspDjieuELhz5LQHq90PPnuK6_Y3MvRyyHXcfO0ET6fmMKJYt64KOgpMYbo8JVm4_8nAJPo_R1OVkbxblQOnFh6OgpE_9WqRP7Fh_gHovamEF8oEK/s320/towhee.jpg" width="320" /></a>My second discovery was even more exciting, because it was a new species for the yard list.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over the weekend I saw a bird with a lot of bright orange on its undersides.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought it might be the <a href="http://birdlandwest.blogspot.com/2011/06/cannon-revel-and-zen-of-birding.html">Black Headed Grosbeak</a> who was here earlier in the winter, but who I never managed to get good photos of.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This time I was able to get some good shots, but when I looked at them it wasn't the Grosbeak at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was someone I've never seen in the wild before (although I've seen them a number of times at the wildlife rehab center.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;">Recognize him? (Because of the blackness of his hood and tail, I'm assuming he's male, since the females are supposed to have a greyer coloring, but I'm not totally certain about that).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV3oQAvWJuka8io5py-SxfqtL1RNlTQvGulf4fiDXNLkhYR98WhPuxM4nBc9w9HptLMeJOnSx2Brs4361g5IHnuGx94eTb756bV9EsskWeyLLhthkHxSu6Ugd_WMiaH7H67GMiAdYTZtYA/s1600/towhee2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV3oQAvWJuka8io5py-SxfqtL1RNlTQvGulf4fiDXNLkhYR98WhPuxM4nBc9w9HptLMeJOnSx2Brs4361g5IHnuGx94eTb756bV9EsskWeyLLhthkHxSu6Ugd_WMiaH7H67GMiAdYTZtYA/s320/towhee2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;">Yep, that's a Spotted Towhee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Beautiful bird isn't he? There were actually two of them in the yard at the same time. I don't know if they were a couple, or just buddies. My guide says they prefer to eat off the ground, but these guys were eating at the feeder. I guess they didn't read the guide.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;">With the good weather expected this week I hope to get outside a lot and find some new interesting activity to report.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;"><span>And just in cast you're interested, this is my Yard List since moving to West Seattle last summer (not counting the Red-Tailed Hawk who was mobbed by crows in the tree across the street):</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;"><span> </span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;"><span> </span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;"><span> </span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;"> </div><ol style="direction: ltr; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.3902in; margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed;"><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">
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</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b>June 2010 through December 31, 2010 </b></div><li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;" value="1"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">American Goldfinch (winter plumage)</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;" value="2"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">American Robin</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;" value="3"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Anna's hummingbird</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;" value="4"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Bewick's Wren</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;" value="5"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Black Capped Chickadee</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;" value="6"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">American Crow</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;" value="7"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Dark-eyed Juncos</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;" value="8"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">European Starlings</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;" value="9"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Northern Flicker</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;" value="10"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Red-breasted Nuthatch</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;" value="11"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Rock Pigeons</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;" value="12"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Steller's Jay</span></li>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;"><b>Jan 1st 2011 through June 21st 2011 </b></div><li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;" value="13"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">House Finch</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;" value="14"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Song Sparrow</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;" value="15"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Yellow-rumped warbler</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;" value="16"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Bushtit</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;" value="17"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">House Sparrow</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;" value="18"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Black-Headed Grosbeak</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; vertical-align: middle;" value="19"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">Wilson's Warbler </span></li>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"> <b>June 22nd 2011 through _____</b> </div><li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;" value="20"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Rufus Hummingbird</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; vertical-align: middle;" value="21"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Spotted Towhee</span></li>
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</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;"> </div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
</div></ol><div class="MsoNormal"><b>If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/">Books and Beasts</a>, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">(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 <a href="http://alexwashoe.imagekind.com/">http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.</a> 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.)</div><ol style="direction: ltr; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3902in; margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed;"><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
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</div></ol><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;"><span> </span></div>Alex Washoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03810893702064198273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6850578724053553683.post-57148132808562143002011-07-27T10:45:00.000-07:002011-07-27T18:27:53.736-07:00Pigeon Watch<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;">I was talking about pigeons. (<a href="http://birdlandwest.blogspot.com/2011/07/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none.html">Here</a>)</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: right;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivg0dEH589lS8CnlZQyevUyvYIiRiKTVceYlH5HgC5FOCJAQ-cBTtbTx8aF2toe-N7akbANgwS6er4P5Eg3y12we1A-fJVbUkch2lYgyuKhGpkCFeVyJ-LF2-CQr5oo-SIRI3LDzQVMPql/s1600/pretty+pigeon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivg0dEH589lS8CnlZQyevUyvYIiRiKTVceYlH5HgC5FOCJAQ-cBTtbTx8aF2toe-N7akbANgwS6er4P5Eg3y12we1A-fJVbUkch2lYgyuKhGpkCFeVyJ-LF2-CQr5oo-SIRI3LDzQVMPql/s400/pretty+pigeon.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;">The common pigeon -- the Rock Dove or Rock Pigeon familiar to city dwellers around the world -- is one of those ubiquitous creatures -- like crows -- that we see so often that we almost don't see them at all. Not as flashy or charismatic as crows, they have been with us for a very long time. Though most of us don't see them this way, pigeons belong to a select group of animals -- along with dogs, horses and possibly cats -- that have been companions of humans and contributors to our civilization for thousands and thousands of years. </div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigzYs3KZjil-HTIkbCqNC0Dy10LSas2aDmO5tmbxxstmzllcVnKXvYU2y0UoOYFA7B6_PATpzG8CHOe8BGfmvXgj5ymQEtL-OxNOH3Y8SeHTHX0JauFMaq-fgqi4IYtEYzaFQGS4owzY6K/s1600/rooftop+pigeons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigzYs3KZjil-HTIkbCqNC0Dy10LSas2aDmO5tmbxxstmzllcVnKXvYU2y0UoOYFA7B6_PATpzG8CHOe8BGfmvXgj5ymQEtL-OxNOH3Y8SeHTHX0JauFMaq-fgqi4IYtEYzaFQGS4owzY6K/s320/rooftop+pigeons.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ballard (Seattle, WA) June, 2009</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;">Just consider this: all the Rock Pigeons around the world are the descendants of domesticated birds. We know that, between five and ten thousand years ago, Egyptians were using pigeons to carry messages up and down the Nile. We also know that there were already feral pigeons living in the streets of ancient Rome, pretty much the way they do now. They were introduced into North America probably in the 1600's from Europe, and the Army was still using them to send messages as late as World Wars I and II. Properly speaking, they are not wild birds; they are feral -- domesticated animals that have returned to the wild. Sort of. You don't find many Rock Pigeons out in the forest (where their wild cousins do still live -- in this area, we have Band-Tailed Pigeons and Mourning Doves for instance). They are urban animals. Or, if you prefer (I do), civilized.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Pigeons-Fascinating-Worlds-Revered-Reviled/dp/B001SARE82?ie=UTF8&tag=booksan-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World's Most Revered and Reviled Bird" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B001SARE82&tag=booksan-20" /></a>Many of these stories, and much more, are related in <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Pigeons-Fascinating-Worlds-Revered-Reviled/dp/B001SARE82?ie=UTF8&tag=booksan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World's More <img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=booksan-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B001SARE82" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />Revered and Reviled Bird</a></i><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=booksan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B001SARE82" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> by Andrew D. Blechman. I first read this book a couple of years ago, and have gone back to it many times to check on certain anecdotes or re-read certain stories. It is a rich, fascinating popular science book that not only gives us the history of the bird, but also introduces us to the incredible cast of characters and subcultures that have grown up around pigeons in the present day. From weird pigeon hunts to racers to oddball environmentalists to good old fashioned breeders. The pigeon has inspired more hate and love than just about any other bird (People as diverse as Charles Darwin, who bred pigeons while developing his theory of natural selection, and Mike Tyson, who has been a lifelong lover of pigeons, raised them as a child, and reputedly had his first fight with an older boy who killed one of his birds.)</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.birds.cornell.edu/Page.aspx?pid=1478">TheCornell Lab of Ornithology</a> has a special "<a href="http://www.birds.cornell.edu/celebration">Urban Bird Project</a>" and as part of that project they have "<a href="http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pigeonwatch">Operation Pigeon Watch</a>". Now, next to watching dogs play, and seagulls fly, and the endlessly inventive antics of crows, there are few things I find more entertaining than pigeons. (Okay, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc47LcvIxyI">Jennifer Aniston</a>, but that's a whole different topic.) So when I found out about project Pigeon Watch, I was hooked. As I've mentioned before, I have a resident pigeon at my house who I call Timmy. I call him a special needs pigeon because he seems to be a little ... well, handicapped. But he's a big, beautiful healthy looking pigeon none-the-less. Lately, Timmy has been showing up with a friend. I think of "her" as Timmy's girlfriend, but of course I have no idea of either of their genders. She's smaller than Timmy, with darker colored wings. </div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgL2lfqe0hZCF-M4bhIP4HnE-iesBPH6PIBbbVfpyi96ndN3p7VLRGh5zzYIwyeKP-2NoLqA_b7dIYgkkHTdZxvC4PFyImFQJAmtt4y_mMBq01jBNbC99Nt0pg29wM40SW15eT5X3jYiAm/s1600/timmy+eats+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgL2lfqe0hZCF-M4bhIP4HnE-iesBPH6PIBbbVfpyi96ndN3p7VLRGh5zzYIwyeKP-2NoLqA_b7dIYgkkHTdZxvC4PFyImFQJAmtt4y_mMBq01jBNbC99Nt0pg29wM40SW15eT5X3jYiAm/s400/timmy+eats+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Timmy!</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;">There are something like 28 "morphs" -- or different color patterns -- recognized for the feral Rock Pigeon, but Cornell's Pigeon Watch has <a href="http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pigeonwatch/GettingStarted/pigeonwatch-morphs">narrowed it down to five</a>. Timmy, for instance, is a "checker" because of the checker like pattern on his wings. Checker's can vary from light gray with a little black, like Timmy, to much darker patterns. I believe that Timmy's friend (who is shier and harder to photograph) might also be a checker, but with much darker wing patterns than Timmy's.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZP4S9nH-QRmXYAZxEPX-XEaIxIfJhLLYBClvmXhExPfnFUHJBylGLEFQZA6Me1ekP69fx8HoY5Nb9D9FOsjYTbRTxiiSW9mR0w0uP1cvCTRlHRYhz6OAszypG_LDIERq1WkkVGoIz2hhe/s1600/timmys+parents2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZP4S9nH-QRmXYAZxEPX-XEaIxIfJhLLYBClvmXhExPfnFUHJBylGLEFQZA6Me1ekP69fx8HoY5Nb9D9FOsjYTbRTxiiSW9mR0w0uP1cvCTRlHRYhz6OAszypG_LDIERq1WkkVGoIz2hhe/s320/timmys+parents2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Timmy's "parents", West Seattle, summer 2010</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;">One of the goals of the pigeon watch program is to observe mating habits among pigeons and learn which morphs mate with which others (to determine if they show a preference). I had a chance to observe Timmy's parents, when I first moved here -- the birds I assume were Timmy's parents because they were all sharing a nest -- and I believe I witnessed courting behavior several times. Pigeons court throughout the year, although (according to Cornell and other sources) they are more likely to mate in late winter or early spring. Once they mate though, they mate for life. I don't have the opportunity to observe the rest of the family any more, as they are all gone. But I will be watching Timmy and his friend whenever I get the chance.</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/">Books and Beasts</a>, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">(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 <a href="http://alexwashoe.imagekind.com/">http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.</a> 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.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;"><br />
</div>Alex Washoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03810893702064198273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6850578724053553683.post-11947530973118972392011-07-21T13:20:00.000-07:002011-08-03T12:47:02.934-07:00Game Show Pigeons and Ball Playing Dogs<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">You have to bear with me for a second, but this will get around to birds, I promise.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU8X8xk7L1bSDkyLfUcvosgG0ifTvUdr0ZfqMUQSmDb4MpNOSrVkxHhqkWvNk5hqYz55mPTFrR77M-Tw9s9RQ8DYOvzljuRHqssOWCNSt_fL_mjg1E4ak-I-GimefMFFS4V9LpGlDuCU75/s1600/timmy2a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU8X8xk7L1bSDkyLfUcvosgG0ifTvUdr0ZfqMUQSmDb4MpNOSrVkxHhqkWvNk5hqYz55mPTFrR77M-Tw9s9RQ8DYOvzljuRHqssOWCNSt_fL_mjg1E4ak-I-GimefMFFS4V9LpGlDuCU75/s400/timmy2a.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Timmy, my resident "special needs" pigeon.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">Over at <a href="http://sciencewriter.org/">Sciencewriter.org</a> (possibly the coolest domain name ever), Davide Castelvecchi, who is a physical sciences and mathematics editor at Scientific American, has been stirring up controversy recently by revisiting what's known as "<a href="http://sciencewriter.org/2011/04/revisiting-the-monty-hall-problem/">The Monty Hall Problem</a>". If you're not familiar with it -- where have you been? It's been discussed over the years everywhere from hard science magazines to Car Talk. It's derived from the problem that Monty Hall often presented to contestants on Let's Make A Deal. You have three curtains. Behind one of them is a car, and behind each of the other two is a worthless gag gift (like a donkey). (I know, I know -- who says a donkey is worthless? But that's not the point of the problem). You have to pick one of the curtains. Let's say you choose number One. After you make your choice, Monty reveals what's behind one of the other curtains, and the one he reveals is always a donkey. Let's say Monty opens number Two. Then, he offers you a choice. Do you want to keep the curtain you chose, or do you want to trade?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQxpPUd6FSt7Nbxfg-of7AroRHHrdlMU0mokruG3_mZi3a0JfzmZXfyr4oKSgbSR00BJIBv-bRvhL-O42gfKvI8xbEnNY_NFxky6swjGxVM1T3zIPnzHabRxmLmm3ErqN_rqMdhMK6dGay/s1600/lets-make-a-deal-doors-300x186.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQxpPUd6FSt7Nbxfg-of7AroRHHrdlMU0mokruG3_mZi3a0JfzmZXfyr4oKSgbSR00BJIBv-bRvhL-O42gfKvI8xbEnNY_NFxky6swjGxVM1T3zIPnzHabRxmLmm3ErqN_rqMdhMK6dGay/s1600/lets-make-a-deal-doors-300x186.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Monty's problem (not my photo, obviously).</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">For most of us, our intuitive guess is that it doesn't matter. We had a one in three chance of picking right the first time and that hasn't changed. Or, conversely, since there are now two unopened curtains, we have a fifty-fifty chance. Either way, switching can't increase our odds.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">It turns out though, that isn't true. Statistically you are always better off switching. In fact it almost doubles your chances. I'm not good with this sort of math so I'll just refer you over to those who are -- and if you want to argue about it (as a lot of people do, judging by the comments section) you can argue with them. Proving the solution isn't really my point here. (Check it out <a href="http://sciencewriter.org/2011/04/revisiting-the-monty-hall-problem/">here</a>.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">The reason this came up again at Scientific American, though, is because of an article they published back in January of this year. John Allen Paulos, a mathematician at Temple University, noted that pigeons didn't seem to have the same difficulty with the Monty Hall Problem that humans do. On the contrary, pigeons (being good empiricists, as Paulos says) learn the best strategy after only a few tries. (You can see the article <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=animal-instincts">here</a>.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">A few years ago another scientist -- Tim Pennings, a Professor at Hope College in Michigan -- was playing fetch with his dog, throwing a tennis ball into the water for the dog to retrieve. The dog, Elvis, would run along the shore and at some point plunge into the water toward the ball. What Pennings found was that, in most cases, Elvis was choosing a path that closely approximated the optimal path (the path with the shortest travel time) to the ball. The path can be worked out using fairly complicated calculus equation -- but Elvis seemed to be doing it "in his head" and "on the fly". (Again, I'm not going to try to explain the math -- you can look into it more <a href="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/7051/title/Calculating_Dogs">here </a>if you're interested.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixPAC1ZqZUsHHrsFi5cDfFYZQrG5CvyJeXoDkB-IoLhxTjgzKivqF2rJMX_gQGgAKHU4_RcXW7_q-vlIazjdvD6ac96K-tXsfRYdv5kdNOcKbWleHxEU3gywwyjcV2Ji2qPhBdQyw2O_sT/s1600/chickadee+lands+on+feeder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixPAC1ZqZUsHHrsFi5cDfFYZQrG5CvyJeXoDkB-IoLhxTjgzKivqF2rJMX_gQGgAKHU4_RcXW7_q-vlIazjdvD6ac96K-tXsfRYdv5kdNOcKbWleHxEU3gywwyjcV2Ji2qPhBdQyw2O_sT/s320/chickadee+lands+on+feeder.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Precision landings almost every time.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">These kind of remarkable abilities are everywhere in nature. The small songbirds in my yard routinely land on the thin perches of a bird feeder that is swaying in the wind -- and they do so coming from across the yard, setting their trajectory as they approach. Only a couple of times have I ever seen a bird have to pull up and come at it again. Squirrels leap from the rail of my deck to the cherry tree nearby, and catch the thin branches, which again are often swaying in the wind. Birds also fly through the cherry tree despite its dense branches and (at this time of year) leaves. They can fly straight through and out the other side. Imagine trying to write a computer program to pilot something the size of a chickadee through such a complex space, complicated more by ever changing light conditions, wind turbulence, and so on. The amount of calculation that it requires is staggering.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjqvfDN5y5cQIXn3Ocu11W1ty8j7Q2TbwHd78KqD9glDk2rABf9iQwUU5ArukBXwLWYrUCBERrSLJv1UbsC4AJajgACMm3aUbzbh-61LLtMQaVK806XKY04BJ7dUSNrEYm-01wWe4xXaz5/s1600/outfielder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjqvfDN5y5cQIXn3Ocu11W1ty8j7Q2TbwHd78KqD9glDk2rABf9iQwUU5ArukBXwLWYrUCBERrSLJv1UbsC4AJajgACMm3aUbzbh-61LLtMQaVK806XKY04BJ7dUSNrEYm-01wWe4xXaz5/s320/outfielder.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The catch looks easy, but try writing a program to do it.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">But let's not leave humans out. Ichiro Suzuki does the same thing nearly every day. When an outfielder hears the crack of the ball leaving the bat and starts to run, he has time for almost no conscious thought about where it's going or how to get there. Again, it's a complex mathematical problem solved on the fly -- timing his leap to catch the ball just before it goes over the wall. And I've seen dogs playing with Frisbees or tennis balls who were as good as any major leaguer.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAMLOuEtzyT0-9FnICK7bhSA6aQo-JkeGl7R87-NdRjdx_Tu8SAqfDzbk7prBoA0CTagLEOOIoqIO2D8qptQNEYM5t-Y74g-YR3v5mx6gEc_b6Ikp2OLYDhPkX3ZRyZUHt3x3Vl-IAnAce/s1600/Roscoe+plays+ball.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAMLOuEtzyT0-9FnICK7bhSA6aQo-JkeGl7R87-NdRjdx_Tu8SAqfDzbk7prBoA0CTagLEOOIoqIO2D8qptQNEYM5t-Y74g-YR3v5mx6gEc_b6Ikp2OLYDhPkX3ZRyZUHt3x3Vl-IAnAce/s400/Roscoe+plays+ball.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The greatest ball player I've ever known.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">Paulos warns against the mistake of thinking that these abilities reflect some kind of conscious knowledge on the part of animals. Of course, they don't. They represent the problem solving ability wired into brains over billions of years of evolution. (And in the case of dogs -- and to some degree pigeons -- of tens of thousands of years of intense breeding). Corgis, for instance, are herding dogs, whose job was to keep livestock moving in one direction. The ability to foresee the movements of a sheep and set your own course to intercept it effectively is not all that different from what Elvis was demonstrating on the beach. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">If you want to drive the unconscious nature of these faculties home, I invite you to walk into a room sometime and ask if anyone there is good at calculus. When almost everyone predictably says no, toss a tennis ball to one of them. Almost certainly, they will catch it, and when they do you can show them (with the help of a mathematician friend, if you're like me) the equation that describes what they just did. We're all better at math than we think.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">The furor over the Monty Hall problem does show, however, that for us humans our conscious thinking sometimes gets in the way. I learned this a long time ago in art school. One of the reasons why it's so hard for many people to learn to draw is because what we "know" about objects (say the size and form of a table) gets in the way of what we actually see before us. Most people asked to draw a table will draw an abstract representation of a table instead of the object they see before them, which is skewed by perspective and point of view and really looks nothing like our idealized notion of "table".</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi37NDaBjJ8c-7Cgih2PIrAn1-Tqf3trOpAmahYPllAphtqa4mWks2AZONYYr-092Tf2-IU_Kxu3YoxpHXkZbUd5Hu8V2RHEUapYr1CPRWnREC6ySLtzT5Z820KjJPtPH11L7lr0M3nkiOC/s1600/pretty+pigeon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi37NDaBjJ8c-7Cgih2PIrAn1-Tqf3trOpAmahYPllAphtqa4mWks2AZONYYr-092Tf2-IU_Kxu3YoxpHXkZbUd5Hu8V2RHEUapYr1CPRWnREC6ySLtzT5Z820KjJPtPH11L7lr0M3nkiOC/s320/pretty+pigeon.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;">Oh, and I wanted to get back to pigeons. More on that<a href="http://birdlandwest.blogspot.com/2011/07/pigeon-watch.html"> very soon</a>. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/">Books and Beasts</a>, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">(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 <a href="http://alexwashoe.imagekind.com/">http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.</a> 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.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Alex Washoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03810893702064198273noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6850578724053553683.post-80117305498011893012011-07-18T10:54:00.000-07:002011-07-18T10:54:21.442-07:00A Flock of New Books for Birders<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Birds-Puget-Sound-Region-Regional/dp/0964081024?ie=UTF8&tag=booksan-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="Birds of the Puget Sound Region (Regional Bird Books)" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=0964081024&tag=booksan-20" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">When I first got into birding, not that long ago, I did what I usually do with a new interest:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I read obsessively.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And quickly discovered that birds and birding are subjects about which much (unbelievably much) is written.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first things I checked out were Field Guides, since they're everywhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Someday soon <img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=booksan-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0964081024" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />maybe I'll write a little about Field Guides and my experience with them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For now, I'll just say that the guide I use most is <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Birds-Puget-Sound-Region-Regional/dp/0964081024?ie=UTF8&tag=booksan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Birds of the Puget Sound Region</a></i><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=booksan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0964081024" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> by Bob Morse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It works nicely for almost all of the birds I commonly encounter and is a little more wieldy than some of the bigger regional guides.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am very pleased with it and consult it almost daily.</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But if there's one thing I love as much as birds and wildlife, its books.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So here are some of the best new birding books I've come across this summer:</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Joy-Birding-Beginners-Guide/dp/1616081228?ie=UTF8&tag=booksan-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="The Joy of Birding: A Beginner's Guide (The Joy of Series)" height="320" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=1616081228&tag=booksan-20" width="214" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Joy-Birding-Beginners-Guide/dp/1616081228?ie=UTF8&tag=booksan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">The Joy of Birding: A Beginner's Guide</a></i><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=booksan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1616081228" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&tag=booksan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&search-alias=aps&field-keywords=Kate%20Rowinski%20" target="_blank">Kate Rowinski </a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=booksan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />is a book I would <img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=booksan-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1616081228" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />have eagerly welcomed when I stared out -- and it's still very rewarding now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is one of the best single volume introductions to birding I've seen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She begins at the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>birth of our fascination with birds, and with a perennial question:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you a Birder or a Bird-Watcher? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From there, Rowinski goes on to give us an introductory course in understanding birds, their behavior, habitats, food sources, calls, the basic families of birds and how they differ -- it's like Ornithology 101 with a passionate, knowledgeable and always entertaining teacher.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My one disappointment here was that her list of "25 Backyard Birds You Should Know" was slanted somewhat toward the eastern United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A lot of the birds she describes I will never see in my Seattle yard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But she goes on to cover feeders, recipes for special bird treats (Passerine Power Bars and Christmas Brunch Bark, for instance), ideas for turning your yard into a sanctuary, creating your life list, and even bird photography.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(And as much photographing of birds as I do, I found her section very helpful.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a book not just for the bare beginner, but for all of us who have become involved in birding and bird watching and are now ready to explore new possibilities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because it provides a good introduction to so many areas, I suspect that a lot of us will find something here to broaden and deepen our relationship to birds. </span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Backyard-Birding-Natural-Gardening-Attract/dp/1616082666?ie=UTF8&tag=booksan-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="Backyard Birding: Using Natural Gardening to Attract Birds" height="320" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=1616082666&tag=booksan-20" width="266" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">And if your interest is primarily in backyard bird watching and how to turn your yard into a haven for feathered friends (and other wildlife too, possibly) a very <img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=booksan-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1616082666" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />good next step would be <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&tag=booksan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&search-alias=aps&field-keywords=Julie%20Zickefoose" target="_blank">Julie Zickefoose</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=booksan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />'s wonderful book <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Backyard-Birding-Natural-Gardening-Attract/dp/1616082666?ie=UTF8&tag=booksan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Backyard Birding: Using Natural Gardening to Attract Birds.</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=booksan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1616082666" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /></i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(This book was written along with the editors and writers of Bird Watcher's Digest).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As someone who knows very little about gardening -- or about plants for that matter -- I was a little bit intimidated by the prospect of this book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My own efforts at gardening have been small and inconclusive so far. (Check it out <a href="http://birdlandwest.blogspot.com/2011/04/gardening-and-hummingbirds.html">here</a>). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, this is a delightful book, well organized, beautifully laid out and illustrated, which I think will appeal to both experienced gardeners who want to make their efforts more bird friendly and to birders, like myself, who might not know much about gardening, but want to attract more birds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Zickefoose packs this book with a wealth of information about layers of habitat, kinds of feeders and food, seasonal variations, bird friendly plants (and discussions of the importance of native plants), and even a little philosophy about living more harmoniously with nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a great book to follow up the previous selection, going more in depth about these particular topics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whether you want to go all out in creating a sanctuary or just want to add a few plants and features that will make your yard more attractive to birds this book is a trove of ideas.</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hummingbirds-Butterflies-Peterson-Watchers-Backyard/dp/061890445X?ie=UTF8&tag=booksan-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="Hummingbirds and Butterflies (Peterson Field Guides/Bird Watcher's Digest Backyard Bird Guides)" height="320" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=061890445X&tag=booksan-20" width="248" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=booksan-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=061890445X" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />Along the same lines, but more specialized, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&tag=booksan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&search-alias=aps&field-keywords=Bill%20Thompson%20III" target="_blank">Bill Thompson III</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=booksan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> & <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&tag=booksan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&search-alias=aps&field-keywords=Connie%20Toops" target="_blank">Connie Toops</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=booksan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> have written<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hummingbirds-Butterflies-Peterson-Watchers-Backyard/dp/061890445X?ie=UTF8&tag=booksan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank"> <i>Hummingbirds and Butterflies</i></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=booksan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=061890445X" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> (also a Bird Watcher's Digest book and part of the Peterson Field Guides series).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It's a wonderful overview of two groups that seem very distinct -- hummingbirds, or course, are birds and butterflies are insects -- but that appeal to us for many of the same reasons and are attracted to the same kinds of habitat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know a little bit about hummingbirds and almost nothing about butterflies (although now I'm getting interested, and in another year or so I may have these authors to blame for igniting a new obsession) but I was absolutely enthralled by the information provided on both groups -- as well as the beautiful photography.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think I learned as much about hummingbirds here as I have from any other source I've consulted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And since I was a total ignoramus about butterflies, I got to gorge myself on new information (always one of my favorite forms of binging.).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition to all this, though, they have species guides that provide wonderful information in a format that will be familiar to anyone who uses field guides.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The book is probably a little too heavy to take into the field comfortably, but since it (like the previous books) focuses a good bit on creating an environment that will attract these beauties to your yard, it is an excellent home reference.</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kaufman-Field-Advanced-Birding-Guides/dp/0547248326?ie=UTF8&tag=booksan-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="Kaufman Field Guide to Advanced Birding (Kaufman Field Guides)" height="320" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=0547248326&tag=booksan-20" width="198" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Moving from the easier to the more advanced, I'd like to round out with two books that really push the edges of my competence as a birder and a <img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=booksan-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0547248326" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />reviewer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kaufman-Field-Advanced-Birding-Guides/dp/0547248326?ie=UTF8&tag=booksan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">The Kaufman Field Guide to Advanced Birding</a></i><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=booksan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0547248326" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />, by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&tag=booksan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&search-alias=aps&field-keywords=Kenn%20Kaufman" target="_blank">Kenn Kaufman</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=booksan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />, is an incredibly rich, dense collection of expert information on identifying birds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Recognizing that birders today have a huge amount of information available to them in books, on the internet, even over their phones, Kaufman hasn't tried to produce another species by species guide -- rather, he has focused on learning the principles of identification that can make us expert birders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He begins with the general, the principles and approaches that are common to all birding -- avian physiology, terminology, general techniques for recognizing types of birds, bird calls -- and then he proceeds to apply the same approach to almost every category of bird, showing us how to apply these principles in field situations, what to look for, where the common pitfalls lie, and how to overcome the challenges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is definitely not a book that you sit down and read straight through.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a book to be studied and re-studied over a long period of time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Much of the information he presents is totally beyond my current level as a birder, but I've already found his ideas and approaches affecting the way I observe birds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I'm sure this is a book that will continue to teach me and influence my birding for years to come.</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bird-Feathers-American-Species-Ornithology/dp/0811736180?ie=UTF8&tag=booksan-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="Bird Feathers: A Guide to North American Species (Birds Ornithology)" height="320" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=0811736180&tag=booksan-20" width="216" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">And finally, the most esoteric of the books I've looked at recently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bird <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bird-Feathers-American-Species-Ornithology/dp/0811736180?ie=UTF8&tag=booksan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Feathers: A Guide to North American Species</a></i><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=booksan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0811736180" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> by S. David Scott and Casey <img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=booksan-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0811736180" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />McFarland.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This book was first recommended to me by a friend who is an expert tracker, and it definitely falls into the advanced category.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Last month, I reviewed <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Feathers-Evolution-Natural-Thor-Hanson/dp/0465020135?ie=UTF8&tag=booksan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle</a></i><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=booksan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0465020135" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> by Thor Hanson (you can see the review <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/2011/06/feathers-evolution-of-natural-miracle.html">here</a>) a book I enjoyed immensely, and this present volume would have been nice to have around for reference while I was reading that book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The introductory section of <i>Bird Feathers</i> provides a great overview of feathers, their different forms, structures and purposes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also has a great section on flight -- the different styles of flight of various groups of birds and how their wings and feathers are adapted to that style.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is one of the best general overviews of these subjects that I have ever seen, and if there was nothing else in the book, it would still (to me) be worth the price.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The latter part of the book, however, eludes me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not because of any faults in the book but because, quite frankly, I'm just not ready to make use of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a detailed field guide to the feathers of most North American species, with measurements and descriptions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would take a lot of study and experience for me to learn to make use of this part of the book, and many birders probably aren't ready to go that deeply into such a specialized pursuit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For those that are -- or for those like me who just want a good overview of how feathers and wing shape and flight are adapted to the lifestyles and behaviors of different birds -- this is a great book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And who knows, it might still inspire me to pursue feather identification more seriously.</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/">Books and Beasts</a>, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">(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 <a href="http://alexwashoe.imagekind.com/">http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.</a> 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.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div>Alex Washoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03810893702064198273noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6850578724053553683.post-47689439719557303052011-07-12T12:20:00.000-07:002011-07-18T10:55:05.567-07:00Fledglings in Seattle, Gulls in New Jersey<div class="MsoNormal">The beautiful summer weather that we had over the Fourth of July weekend has given way again to the cool, cloudy days we've been accustomed to this spring. The yard is quiet, not much going on. The dogs are restless and not happy about being inside. I've been spending too much time at the computer and not enough time outdoors.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVl12fRSlCVMiynzcbHVsnbGRiIQHEfRWR3tqhpx3gvns1ZePMaMSqgrNOAuFR5PNrW0OcYtokrylvwbmVG3naYdFCL3tkzCfaka-hQZpBaSy04i9_cuo1agAOUKTi5Lrt_ORcEaGUMeNf/s1600/who%2527s+this3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVl12fRSlCVMiynzcbHVsnbGRiIQHEfRWR3tqhpx3gvns1ZePMaMSqgrNOAuFR5PNrW0OcYtokrylvwbmVG3naYdFCL3tkzCfaka-hQZpBaSy04i9_cuo1agAOUKTi5Lrt_ORcEaGUMeNf/s400/who%2527s+this3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hose Sparrow fledgling. His gape flanges are still visible at the corners of his beak</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">But the big excitement continues to be fledglings. Day before yesterday there was a loud, insistent chirping in the cherry tree outside. (The cherries are starting to ripen, and when that happens we'll have all kinds of excitement around here for a couple of weeks.) It sounded almost like the demanding voices of baby birds in the nest. Working at a wildlife rehabilitation center, where the baby birds have to be fed constantly throughout the day, I've learned to recognize that sound. But I was pretty certain there was no nest in the cherry tree. It took me a long time, moving around on the deck and in the yard, to actually see the guys who were causing all the commotion.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZnFxq9mRPLwE3OfFwgK_8XWXGC56trh9WBH2oMr1pUv6xi1xz2zjr2kM8VsJRJ15PZ3d6E5Q7vs1gcw5ZAdFQAWy5U6mGgEPMAMUnhj-BBbJdok-v7xpTF33maS_shEClcrVp9ttlYRiU/s1600/who%2527s+this6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZnFxq9mRPLwE3OfFwgK_8XWXGC56trh9WBH2oMr1pUv6xi1xz2zjr2kM8VsJRJ15PZ3d6E5Q7vs1gcw5ZAdFQAWy5U6mGgEPMAMUnhj-BBbJdok-v7xpTF33maS_shEClcrVp9ttlYRiU/s320/who%2527s+this6.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">House Sparrow fledglings in the cherry tree.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">This is the second batch of fledgling House Sparrows that I've seen. If you remember, about a week ago, I posted a picture of a slightly older HS. These guys are even younger. According to my naturalist friend, Kevin, if you look closely you can still see the yellowish "gape flanges" at the corners of their mouths. The fellow I photographed before didn't have any remaining gape flanges. So far this year the House Sparrows are by far the most prolific (or at least the most obvious) breeders around.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSiFMmQYtl985laZxkWCUb_eUkhvhzbMlXGMGHOlfo8jmRc4P2vE0ihZ3gZUIkPyx6vKibOg9zjHOr8Klr03OuwbD70VHcNPVnrezaVoIzFl3QDYqHgB2ifViMdNg_hB2KcVOkVIcwYeLp/s1600/unknown+fledgling.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSiFMmQYtl985laZxkWCUb_eUkhvhzbMlXGMGHOlfo8jmRc4P2vE0ihZ3gZUIkPyx6vKibOg9zjHOr8Klr03OuwbD70VHcNPVnrezaVoIzFl3QDYqHgB2ifViMdNg_hB2KcVOkVIcwYeLp/s320/unknown+fledgling.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Slightly older House Sparrows form the week before.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">Summer is also the time baseball heats up. This year the Seattle Mariners are up and down, but they're managing to hang in the division race, which is a lot more than any of us expected. I love baseball. Safeco Field, which is the Mariners' home, opened in 2001 (the season the Mariner's set an American League record for most games won and Barry Bonds broke the single season home run record) and there is really nowhere better to be on a beautiful summer day in Seattle. It's a beautiful park, and there is literally not a bad seat in the place.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOKK0yEJbVFZe_aEjYVCrc8xH16VIes0vOQdFE3xjylOfB-1SPnQCQMxwfluXEzV25VLvK8zLPw2smKkwLATB0ffh9lgNstanoUUtnEQRyTREpNCwLr_z4EX62q_Ta67M-hHYFnydhKuIM/s1600/safeco+gull2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOKK0yEJbVFZe_aEjYVCrc8xH16VIes0vOQdFE3xjylOfB-1SPnQCQMxwfluXEzV25VLvK8zLPw2smKkwLATB0ffh9lgNstanoUUtnEQRyTREpNCwLr_z4EX62q_Ta67M-hHYFnydhKuIM/s320/safeco+gull2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Seagull impatiently waiting for the crowd to leave at Safeco Field.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">Seagulls love baseball too. Or at least, seagulls love Safeco Field. I guess they aren't really interested in the game, though, because they usually don't start showing up until about the eighth inning. They seem to have some sense of how long the game lasts, or else they're picking up on other clues, like fans starting to sneak out early to beat the traffic. I would imagine that once the people are gone the gulls have quite a feast on spilled and discarded food.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8PSiAQFnzjK46cBOnJesA5rFiPV1y3IlnvE15uvI0UKFo0ZMkeoZKattgPfXRuaGykWQigl5_qj0yTPaM6gsMxNKZjc2maXZb3DyrqyNJcejYb7VXRcJFtoJNVRhFlo0SKD0VheYDokGx/s1600/AC+gull2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz3wi0BhFkkwCpVc9uYrJBrobgSCAOV2dvVFg4fCQONxoeTBiTUJdEBrJwry1mrZx1RivVFCPllGOodwogaq1QFfJJZc23lc3Ltf8HrCvfNZ23gTkyPmN12HEuoma-3zfcw-dYVd5YwBjT/s1600/Ichioro+Yankee+Stadium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz3wi0BhFkkwCpVc9uYrJBrobgSCAOV2dvVFg4fCQONxoeTBiTUJdEBrJwry1mrZx1RivVFCPllGOodwogaq1QFfJJZc23lc3Ltf8HrCvfNZ23gTkyPmN12HEuoma-3zfcw-dYVd5YwBjT/s400/Ichioro+Yankee+Stadium.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ichiro in Yankee Stadium, May 2008. The Mariners got pounded.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8PSiAQFnzjK46cBOnJesA5rFiPV1y3IlnvE15uvI0UKFo0ZMkeoZKattgPfXRuaGykWQigl5_qj0yTPaM6gsMxNKZjc2maXZb3DyrqyNJcejYb7VXRcJFtoJNVRhFlo0SKD0VheYDokGx/s1600/AC+gull2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8PSiAQFnzjK46cBOnJesA5rFiPV1y3IlnvE15uvI0UKFo0ZMkeoZKattgPfXRuaGykWQigl5_qj0yTPaM6gsMxNKZjc2maXZb3DyrqyNJcejYb7VXRcJFtoJNVRhFlo0SKD0VheYDokGx/s320/AC+gull2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Laughing Gull, Atlantic City, NJ. May 2008</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">Back in 2008 (the last hurrah before the bottom fell out of the economy and my business) I took a trip back east to see the Mariners play at Yankee Stadium. That was the last season the Yankees played in the old stadium -- the House That Ruth Built -- and the baseball lover in me couldn't stand to let them tear it down without seeing it once, in person. I saw one game of the last series the Mariners ever played in that stadium in May of 2008. The Yankees creamed them by the way. Since I had to fly back -- and since it costs a fortune to stay in New York City (see how good I am at rationalizations?) I decided to spend a few days in Atlantic City, rent a hotel room there, and then drive up to New York to see the game. It worked out like that (more or less -- I wasn't really prepared for driving in the Bronx). I spent four days in Atlantic City, playing poker at night and hanging out on the Boardwalk in the day time. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHyRECukqC8cy66JFc__4TypXYPagVR6YJh6yTWQ3w0RSskJytia87Rd_xzq7k8ejVvG4r3_rRRYYFRAQzIVKlKbuTre3Ei9vL_vTUjd8Eba6QMJeU7nLws1uehFpjv41NNUck2sOLFnWQ/s1600/AC+Gulls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHyRECukqC8cy66JFc__4TypXYPagVR6YJh6yTWQ3w0RSskJytia87Rd_xzq7k8ejVvG4r3_rRRYYFRAQzIVKlKbuTre3Ei9vL_vTUjd8Eba6QMJeU7nLws1uehFpjv41NNUck2sOLFnWQ/s320/AC+Gulls.jpg" width="320" /></a>It turns out that the Boardwalk is home to a lot of seagulls -- mostly Laughing Gulls, which are different in several ways with the gulls we're familiar with here in Seattle. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1rYnLhIWTFGsqz02HJCqI87pUD_agd1C7-XBX9EdOuH8kgj8QWlRp4GH7sADH8rdL5rzhyphenhyphenO_Awb_i82RrP2TtZG7vJhbO0PyFMwb7AX0_p9Au3J7kDGM-qDfwr-jNGkDrs5DMVf9T6jzF/s1600/AC+gulls3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1rYnLhIWTFGsqz02HJCqI87pUD_agd1C7-XBX9EdOuH8kgj8QWlRp4GH7sADH8rdL5rzhyphenhyphenO_Awb_i82RrP2TtZG7vJhbO0PyFMwb7AX0_p9Au3J7kDGM-qDfwr-jNGkDrs5DMVf9T6jzF/s320/AC+gulls3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">I spent more time photographing gulls, pigeons and the semi-feral boardwalk cats than I did at the casinos, which is good because as much as I love poker, I lost every game I played there.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog <a href="http://booksandbeasts.blogspot.com/">Books and Beasts</a>, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">(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 <a href="http://alexwashoe.imagekind.com/">http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.</a> 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.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Alex Washoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03810893702064198273noreply@blogger.com1