12-MAR-2010
Dark-Eyed Junco (Oregon) #8037
This pretty little bird perched on a high rock in the late afternoon, providing me with a photo opportunity I could not pass up. I am calling this one an Oregon Junco, but he also looks a little pink.
10-MAR-2010
Bewick's Wren #7588
I posted a picture of this very tiny little bird back on Jan 31. Usually they fly in and visit a feeder, and then fly off again. This one decided to have a short rest in a Hibiscus shrub (Rose of Sharon) only 10 feet away from me, so in a frenzy I managed to get a few decent images of the bird doing something besides eating, before he took off. Today was overcast and a bit snowy, and almost all my avian visitors spent a lot of time in shrubs today.
09-MAR-2010
Intergrade Northern Flicker (Red-Shafted x Yellow-Shafted) #7400
Colaptes auratus cafer x Colaptes auratus auratus
I have seen this particular Flicker several times this winter -- the first time I saw it, I did not have my camera, but I realized it was unusual (and was not sure afterward if I really saw what I thought I did). By far the most common Flickers here are the Red-Shafted variety, where the males sport a red mustache below the eye. Yellow Shafted Northern Flickers have a black mustache and a red patch on the back of their heads. This one clearly has both markings in red! Along the Eastern Rocky Mountains, the two varieties overlap, and crossbreeding happens, producing offspring with characteristics of both subspecies.
08-MAR-2010
Dark-Eyed Junco #7295
Is this a Pink-Sided Junco (Junco hyemalis mearnsi) or an Oregon Junco (Junco hyemalis oreganus)? If it was a bit darker in the head cap, I would lean to calling it an Oregon Junco, and if its cap was a bit lighter and there was a bit more rufous color below the wings, I would want to call it a Pink-Sided Junco. Whatever it really is, this particular bird found something interesting in the grass, now that almost all the snow has melted away.
07-MAR-2010
House Sparrow Drinking #7151
Although our House Sparrows are frequent back-yard visitors, a family of more than a dozen live in bushes around the house, I don't see them drinking or taking a bath in the pond very often. I rained some today, and I noticed that many of the regular birds decided to take baths after the rain -- I don't exactly understand why, because they are already wet from the rain. Maybe they figure since they are already wet, why not do it right?
06-MAR-2010
American Robin #7063
Saturday was a slow day for birds. The birds in the backyard scatter for 30 minutes or more, so I suspect they are seeing some predators in the area (most likely Sharp-Shinned Hawks here) and ducking under cover. This Robin just finished drinking from the pond, sat upright, then let out a squawk and took off in a very big hurry.
05-MAR-2010
Red-Shafted Northern Flicker #6979
Flickers are fairly common in this area, even to the point that they annoy some homeowners who don't like the birds pecking away at their houses. Although I have seen as many as three or four at one time, most often it's just this one bird and (what I assume to be) his mate. They spend a lot of time in the pinon tree next doors, and venture out several times a day to whack away at suet or the block of seed. Less often, they'll take a drink from the pond.
04-MAR-2010
Eurasian Collared Dove #6856
Eurasian Collared Doves are not my favorite bird, but that's mostly because they'll hog all the food you could possibly put out for them. They'll chase away other birds, intimidating them by their size. The especially seem to get annoyed with the White-Winged Doves, which are a bit smaller (but like the Collared Doves, White-Winged Doves are food hogs too). The doves sit patiently in the tops of trees, waiting to move in and help themselves to whatever they can get.
03-MAR-2010
Red-Tailed Hawk Lift Off #6756
I took a drive around the area today, and spotted this Red-Tailed Hawk sitting on the top of a telephone pole. He waited patiently while I pulled over to the side of the highway, got out my camera, and pointed it in his direction. That was more attention than he was comfortable with, so he took off for other parts.
02-MAR-2010
Townsend's Solitaire #6560
Birds get up with the sunlight, and since it is getting light earlier now in the morning, I have to get up pretty early to see the "interesting" birds. In almost the same pose as a picture I took almost 2 months ago (Jan 10), this Townsend's Solitaire makes an almost daily run to the pond for a drink. He stays for about 30 seconds and then flies off. Most of the time, I can't get a decent picture of him because it's just too dark, and all I get is a motion-blurred image of a gray blob. Today, he (she?) cooperated by holding still in a plane perpendicular to the camera (so he's all in the plane of focus) so that the picture is reasonably sharp.
Once the sun comes up high enough, pretty much all I see each day is a procession of finches, sparrows, and Juncos.
01-MAR-2010
White-Crowned Sparrow #6407
A flock of House Sparrows live in a juniper bush in our front yard, and regularly make noisy forays into the back yard for food and drink. Once every few days, I see this (single) White-Crowned Sparrow mixed in with them. This is admittedly not the world's greatest photo of this bird (a foreground obstruction blurs the lower part of the image), but he rarely gets to a place where I can get a clear photo, and this is the first chance I have had to post a picture of one this year. He's foraging in yesterday's snow for some seed, along with the other sparrows and Juncos.
