Where You Least Expect Them

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

Anna's Hummingbird

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

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

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

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

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

But it wasn’t.

Chestnut-Backed Chickadee

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

“Those are definitely chickadees,” he said.

Chestnut-Backed Chickadee

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

Pine Siskin

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

Pine Siskins

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

Do you know who this is?

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

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

Not a bad start at all.

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

 ###

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

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

A Newcomer to the Yard List Takes Over Fast

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

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

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

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

But no.

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

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

Little Gluttons for sure.

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

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

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

###

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

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

Updating the Yard LIst

Summer has finally come to Seattle and we've had a stretch of mostly dry, warm weather.  The wildflowers are blooming in the garden (which was taken over by weeds before they arrived).  And the Seattle Mariners followed up their surprisingly good first half with a club record 16 straight losses in July.  Yikes. 

But on to the wildlife. 

Sunday morning I was looking out my window and I spied an unlikely couple having breakfast together.  They're both frequent visitors to the feeders, but I've never seen them together before.  There they were, just chowing down like old friends.  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.

Sunday Brunch with a pal.

My dog Lulubelle routinely flushes the squirrels off the porch in the mornings.  It's impressive to see them leap into the branches of the cherry tree.  The House Finch has been here since winter.  He and his mate are here almost every day.  I haven't seen any young finches though.

Speaking of the cherry tree, it is heavy with fruit.  Most of it is beyond human reach (unless you know someone with one of those cherry picker trucks).  However, the ripe fruit usually brings a burst of bird activity.  As soon as some of the fruit begins to fall I expect to see robins and many other birds congregating in the yard.   Last year, it also brought a raccoon.  They're always around the neighborhood but we very rarely see them.  I'll be keeping my eyes on the tree in the evenings, though, hoping to get a good shot.

My second discovery was even more exciting, because it was a new species for the yard list.  Over the weekend I saw a bird with a lot of bright orange on its undersides.  I thought it might be the Black Headed Grosbeak who was here earlier in the winter, but who I never managed to get good photos of.  This time I was able to get some good shots, but when  I looked at them it wasn't the Grosbeak at all.  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.) 

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). 

Yep, that's a Spotted Towhee.  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.

With the good weather expected this week I hope to get outside a lot and find some new interesting activity to report.  

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):

  June 2010 through December 31, 2010
1. American Goldfinch (winter plumage)
2. American Robin
3. Anna's hummingbird
4. Bewick's Wren
5. Black Capped Chickadee
6. American Crow
7. Dark-eyed Juncos
8. European Starlings
9. Northern Flicker
10. Red-breasted Nuthatch
11. Rock Pigeons
12. Steller's Jay
Jan 1st 2011 through June 21st 2011
13. House Finch
14. Song Sparrow
15. Yellow-rumped warbler
16. Bushtit
17. House Sparrow
18. Black-Headed Grosbeak
19. Wilson's Warbler 
 June 22nd 2011 through _____
20. Rufus Hummingbird
21. Spotted Towhee
 

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

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

Birds of Winter

Winter was  unusually wet and dismal in Seattle this year.  I grew up in Florida where the length of the days doesn't change significantly through the year, and maybe for that reason I'm generally not bothered by seasonal depression.  But this year I felt the winter blues.   This is the kind of weather people who don't live here think we have all the time.  And it hasn't let up for spring -- our March was the wettest on record, and April continues to be sodden.  But through all this gloom (and a fair bit of personal stress) one bright spot of pleasure and distraction has remained:  my bird feeders.

Last year I relocated from Ballard, just north of downtown Seattle, where I lived in one of the more industrial neighborhoods in town, to West Seattle.  We are now about as far South as you can go and still be in the city.  The neighborhood has more of a suburban feel, lots of trees along the streets, and we are surrounded by parks and greenbelts.  The difference in the bird life is amazing.  

 In Ballard, my neighborhood was dominated almost entirely by crows, who shared their turf uneasily with seagulls, pigeons, starlings, and sparrows.

   

(The sparrows lived mostly in the parking garage of the Safeway across the street and nested in the small trees along the sidewalk.  What is it with sparrows and grocery stores?  It is an almost ubiquitous combination in Seattle.)  And our neighborhood was so thick with feral cats that I didn't dare set up bird feeders.

Here in West Seattle, the situation is very different.  Bird activity is much higher, and the number of species are far greater.  Even though I moved here at the end of summer and didn't get my feeders set up until early Autumn, I've had amazing success.  I have positively identified 17 different species in my yard over the winter. (Not counting others -- including a Red-Tailed Hawk -- that have been in the neighborhood, but never actually on my property.)  This is my "yard list" for the winter and early Spring: 

Seen on our property (West Seattle)  June 2010 through December 31, 2010

1.       American Goldfinch (winter plumage)

2.       American Robin

3.       Anna's hummingbird

4.       Bewick's Wren

5.       Black Capped Chickadee

6.       Crow

7.       Dark-eyed Juncos

8.       European Starlings

9.       Northern Flicker

10.   Red-breasted Nuthatch

11.   Rock Pigeons

12.   Steller's Jay

Jan 1st 2011 through April 14 2011

13.   House Finch

14.   Song Sparrow

15.   Yellow-rumped warbler

16.   Bushtit

17.   House Sparrow

I'm pretty happy with that list.

 

Some of the birds have come to seem like constant companions -- friends even.   The chickadees, for instance, have been here almost every day.  Their curiosity and fearlessness makes them great birds for close observation.   

 

Also, the Dark-eyed Juncos, who not only eat at my feeders and in the yard below, but frequently even on the railing of my deck.  One Junco in particular, a fellow with prominent leucism (lack of pigment)  on his face, was a frequent guest throughout the winter.

 Anna's Hummingbirds have been another real blessing this winter.  They've hung out in my yard through snow, rain, heavy winds and (occasionally) sun.  There is at least one male/female pair in the neighborhood, so I am hoping to see hummingbird fledglings before too long. (Here you see a noticeably sluggish Anna's Hummingbird at my feeder during our first big snow in November. I had to go out every hour or so and bring the feeder in to thaw it out.)

This really just scratches the surface of the pleasure my bird watching has given me over the past eight months or so.  As I go forward with this blog, I plan to give many of my avian friends a more in depth look, and also to keep you up to date on the excitement of Spring in West Seattle.

Let me leave you, though, with a shot of one of my non-bird "friends" -- the clever and resourceful nemesis of birdfeeders everywhere.  I have more to say about him in the future as well.