Weekend birds.

No grand adventures this weekend thanks to work so all birds from the yard (the Great Backyard Bird Count!) and a dog walk yesterday evening.  Let's start with the dog walk...


We made it to our favorite Great Horned Owl nest just as the sun was setting yesterday.  An owl parent and owlet were cuddled up on a branch looking adorable.



I also stopped to see the kestrels that are looking very lovey-dovey lately.  It was too dark for decent photos, but here is the tree where their nest hole is located:


Fingers crossed for kestrel babies in my future.

Back to the yard.  While my family in Massachusetts keeps getting buried in snow, here in the Pacific Northwest our crocuses and daffodils are blooming and the temperatures have been disturbingly high. 


My Anna's Hummingbirds have become faithful yard visitors with at least two females and one male regularly stopping by.  Saturday evening I came home to two females on the feeder at the same time.  Previously I had seen two visit together many times, but never share the feeder directly.


Most of the yard action these days is dominated by finches and sparrows.  A sad, probably dying Lesser Goldfinch was around Saturday morning.

Sad bird on left

 Hawk food.

 The rest of the finch party is mostly siskins and American Goldfinches.



My slate-colored junco has been coming around regularly, often with a slightly less slate-colored bird.  I've considered both Cassiar and female slate-colored for the bird, but there is just so much variation among juncos.

 Dark-eyed Junco of uncertain subspecies


Slate-colored Dark-eyed Junco

I find the first bird more interesting now that I've realized he/she hangs around primarily with the slate-colored.

Lastly, for some reason Michele thinks I need a squirrel-proof feeder...


That's about it.  Hopefully I'll get out on my day off tomorrow for some more interesting birds, or maybe I'll just fly to Florida on Thursday night.  Who knows.  Good times!

Comments

  1. That LEGO does look delicious.

    A fly-by-wind trip to FL eh? You running from something Jen? To something?
    Be sure to bring some loud hippity hop music and a skateboard to keep away the swarms of curious elderly.

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  2. re: junco
    Because the dark gray hood contrasts sharply with the gray sides, Cassiar is the proper choice.

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  3. Florida...sounds good right about now we are freezing our buns...and I have tons of ICE storm debris now in the yard to deal with...Im thinking FL or southern AZ where there's NO TREES!!
    Good yard birds I skipped the back yard count...our weather was horrible!

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