nlbarber

Prompted by a mention on Elizabeth Moon's SFF newsgroup, I decided to participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count this year. It's over the 4-day weekend, and basically you just identify the birds you see and count the maximum number of each species that you see at one time. I'm not planning any extraordinary activity for this--just seeing what shows up in my yard. I wasn't expecting much as the feeder activity remains low thanks to the mockingbird who has taken possession and runs everyone else off. That is, except the blue jays, who ignore the mocker.

However, I did a lot better than I thought I would--14 species today, plus a couple of unidentifieds. ( Today's results )

( And yesterday's results )

My friend and co-worker Krissi had an unfortunate encounter with a red-tailed hawk on her way to work Monday. Very unfortunate for the hawk, which caught its head in the side-view mirror of her minivan and was killed. Moderately unfortunate for Krissi, who got quite a scare, will have to replace the mechanized side-view mirror, and who is still feeling guilty about the hawk even though there was nothing she could have done to avoid it.

I feel very sorry for the hawk, indeed, but I'm still marveling over the picture Krissi sent me (will place behind a cut, and will link it to a larger version if you want more detail). The hawk had just caught a mouse and was trying to fly away with it--the mouse and a piece of grass are still firmly clutched in the hawk's talons, even as the car firmly clutches the hawk in a way. The field mouse's revenge, perhaps.

( The picture... )

A couple of weeks ago I finally moved the bird feeder pole from the back yard to the front, where it's visible from the breakfast bar in the kitchen. Now I can sit in my lovely new kitchen with the wonderful stone countertop, and watch the birds.

It took a week before they seemed to find the feeder, and last weekend the visitors were mostly Carolina chickadees, with a Carolina wren and a tufted titmouse for variety. But now everyone seems to know where the feeder is, and I'm digging for the binoculars and the Sibley (bird book) with great regularity. I've never been much more than a bird-feeder bird watcher, so my ID's are rather tentative as I scramble to spot distinguishing characteristics on "new" birds. So far, in addition to the 3 above, I've seen cardinals, a house finch, a goldfinch, blue jays (they haven't tried the feeder while I've been watching--they're a litle big for it), and woodpeckers--I think both a downy and a hairy, but I'm only sure of the downy. It's hard to check beak length when they're sticking said beak in the suet cake with great rapidity, and my eye isn't attuned enough yet to say "oh, that one's bigger, it must be a hairy woodpecker". Oh, and I think I saw both a white-breasted nuthatch and a brown-headed nuthatch, but these are both new birds for me so I'm not completely sure.

The Kodak Birdcam falcons have 3 hatchlings, with 3 more eggs to go. They raised 5 young each of the last 3 years, but this is the first time they've had 6 eggs.

One egg hatched Saturday and two more today. I haven't caught an actual hatching yet, but I've gotten peeks at an eyas when a parent was repositioning on the nest. Fuzzy eyas pictures can be seen on the Yahoo discussion group. (Kodak had to cut back their support for the birdcam, and their discussion board is one thing that went.)