Saying yes...

Bird Nerd Report

Yesterday was a premo bird-viewing day from my desk. Here is a lovely view from my desk. It looks out onto my neighbor's lovely garage. There's also a firebush right by my window and it's always getting bird action.

I'm familiar with the usual cast of bird characters that the seasons bring, but this year has been a bit different. We of course had an extended visit from the Red Breasted Nuthatch and now, as spring is underway, another cute little bird is in our midst. It's the Acadian Flycatcher! I can't say that I've ever heard of one up until now let alone seen one, but I've had a couple of crazed ones hanging in my shrubs.

They're funky little birds, about 4 inches from tip of beak to tip of tail (photo not mine, apologies to the rightful owner. My bird was moving too fast, although I have many lovely shots of the bush). They have a really bizarre flight pattern and can zip to and fro. They can fly backwards and they can hover. I saw one hover right in front of my window. It probably wondered why the woman on the other side of the window appeared to be hovering and flapping her wings while yelling, "WHAT ARE YOU!!??!" I finally found a photo online and another in a birding book that led me to believe an Acadian Fycatcher might be what it was. A neighbor confirmed that they had been seen in the area.

As I mentioned, my window had major bird action yesterday. While the cute little flycatcher was zipping about, some Finches frolicked on my neighbor's rose. A pair of Mourning Doves were cooing at me from the garage roof and a Downy Woodpecker was plucking out bugs from in between the bricks. A couple of Cardinals were also on the scene as well as some spastic Robins that no doubt have been having their way with the old fermented crab apples on the front tree.

I know it's probably crazy to get so excited about a new bird, one that's even considered common, but if we can get new birds in the hood, it gives me hope for a new neighbor or two... maybe even ones that don't need to wear a flag lapel pin.

As seen outside my friend's window this morning

We have the occasional fox in our neighborhood. They say they live around the golf course. I've seen one saunter up and down our street before, but I've never seen anything like this. This photo was taken by my friend. This was the scene outside her window this morning

And no, Snag... this is NOT Uruguay... so don't get any ideas about foxkebabs.

Outside my window...

This little guy just came to visit. He hung out in the bush that's right outside my window (the window that still has a screen on it hence the dark photo). Looks like he scored some tasty seed.

I keep thinking they should be leaving soon. They're breeding territory is way up north. Our other bird populations seem to be making their seasonal switch, but the ol' red-breasted nuthatch, my new bird crush, is still hanging on.

That's not a bird... THIS is a bird!

What is it with men and size?? The relatively scarce Billy Pilgrim has surfaced long enough to send me a photo of the bird that alit on one of his limbs (and I mean his own, not his tree's) and apparently his bird is bigger! It's also more colorful. It's beautiful. It ain't no nuthatch though. It didn't randomly show up in his backyard and swoop down for an early morning chat. No, he said it's obviously some kind of *parrot-y* type of bird. At least it's not dead! I know a dead parrot when I see one!  He also had to go to the San Diego Wild Animal Park to find this one... and then lure it with sugar water. I lured my nuthatches with the pure sugar of my being...

Still, what an awesome shot. If I flinched when my cute little nuthatch came down on my hand, I might have screamed and flailed when this big-beaked-baby decided to perch.

FYI- I have it on good authority that that is really BP's arm! Funny... when I first saw it, I thought it was Michael McDonald's.

Thanks for the bird picture, BP! Thanks for the gratuitous arm shot!

Bird Nirvana!!!

Updated below:

As was mentioned a few weeks ago, a new bird had been hanging around our place. At first I thought it was a Chickadee or some variety of Junco, but it turned out to be a Red-Breasted Nuthatch. I had never seen a Nuthatch before, but apparently they're in our area in record numbers since 1989.

It seems as though Nuthatches are also a calm bird, the only bird that will stay at the feeder while squirrels and/or people are around. Our area newspaper ran an article stating that it was fairly easy to get one to eat from your hand! I so wanted to try, but of course didn't have many Nuthatch sightings after the one where I realized what it was.

Well today, today while reading, I looked up from the Sunday paper and saw not one, but two in our back tree. I ran to the basement (it's garden-level) to get a better look at them, you can see the feeder from this spot. I noticed the two frolicking on the tree. They are indeed tree-clingers and were much smaller than I originally thought.

They flew off so I figured it would be a good time to fill up the feeder. Two slacker squirrels had just had their way with it and it appeared to be empty. I filled up a container with bird feed and went out back into our icy tundra. I was paying more attention to all of the ice and doggie land mines and not so much on the tree so wasn't I surprised when I got to the feeder and there were my nuthatches, literally inches from my face. They danced, they swung upside down on branches, they flitted to the feeder as I was thinking about filling it. I was just frozen with the excitement of these teeny-tiny, cute little birds taking care of business right in front of me. Did I say RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME? I did, but I had to say it again because I've never had birds just hang out in front of my face. Sure, I've had plenty of Seagulls try to attack my grocery bags in the parking lot. I've spent my fair share of time wading through pigeons in the park, but something about these birds was different. I expected them to fly away the minute they heard me clomping over the ice. BUT THEY DIDN'T! They were inches from me!

And then... then the best thing happened... I remembered the article had said they'll eat out of your hand. I didn't have any peanuts handy (how they can eat peanuts is beyond me, these are tiny! Smaller than a Peep!), but I was holding the container of bird seed. I poured some into one of my hands and held it out. The male spied it and kept tilting his head way to one side to get a look and then way back the other way to look at the feeder. The next thing I knew, he swooped into my hand. I flinched a tad and he hopped off and went for the feeder. He was still much less than a foot away.

I wanted to stay and see if I could get one of them to land in my hand again, a bird in the hand and all, but I knew the lamblets would love this. I went inside, made them get dressed asap and hauled them out on a cold Sunday morning. The birds did not disappoint. While none landed in our open hands, they did do their bit of prancing, dancing and scurrying right in front of us. They also regaled us with their gentle chirps and their crazy lady calls. You're right Lance, they do sound like a crazy woman locked up in the attic and yes, I was able to differentiate from my own cackles. :)

The birds even humored us long enough for the eldest lamblet to run in and get her camera. She got a photo of the female (her breast is just tinged with the slightest bit of rust whereas the male is much redder) clinging to the tree. Credit for the above photo goes to her.

Update: Anyone with nuthatch experience please feel free to chime in. As I mentioned above, I had never actually seen one of these birds until this winter. The ones I have seen have definitely had a very rusty breast and would fall into the Red-breasted Nuthatch category. After looking at more images today, the one in my daughter's photo almost looks more like a White-breasted Nuthatch. Would a white and red hang out together? The other bird of the pair I saw today was definitely had a red breast and was a more intense blue which led me to believe the one above was the female.

I'll be out back tomorrow with my salt-free, non-roasted peanuts. My neighbors will probably start to think I'm a scarecrow.

Thar be whales!

I had the nice surprise of being able to spend my morning with one of my nieces. I got to see her at work. The Today Show was doing a remote broadcast from the Georgia Aquarium where my lovely niece is a whale biologist. My niece is on the left. That's Meredith Vieira on the right and that's either Nico or Maris in the water.

I was able to see my niece in person and in action on the opening day of the aquarium. It was awesome seeing her dive. It was wonderful to watch her interact with the whales. They love her. Who wouldn't??

I'm also amazed at how fearless she is around these huge yet gentle creatures. She's also seems fearless when she dives. She had the privilege of going to Taiwan when the aquarium acquired more whale sharks. (The sharks were taken out of the allotment that the Taiwanese normally use for human consumption.) She talked about how awesome it was being in the ocean with these gentle creatures as well.

Yes, I am amazed. I still so vividly remember the little girl who would run at the sight of a small lizard. Come to think of it, she still runs at the sight of a small lizard, but whales are a different story.

It was nice spending the morning with you, E! Your aunt is proud (she's proud of all of her nieces and nephews). More important, your aunt is so very happy you're doing what you love. Of course, your aunt would be happier if you did what you loved closer to her....

Hawks on the prowl for rabbits

Maybe I'm feeling extra sensitive today since the book I'm supposed to be is Watership Down, but I was reminded a little bit ago that hawks are still large. Hawks are still fierce. We have at least a pair of hawks that hang out in our hood. They even look large and ominous from 3 yards away, but today, they buzzed my house. I nearly had a heart attack wondering why a small child or two was going past my 2nd story window. It wasn't until they landed in the neighbor's tree that I realized they were hawks. They looked like red-tailed hawks, not even in the large range for a hawk, but still MIGHTY BIG and intimidating.

They're probably having a field day out there. We got another 10 inches or so of snow yesterday and there is not a thing outside that is not covered in white. I can only imagine how visible every little scurrying rabbit or rodent must be. I can't even imagine what it must be like to know that creature is coming for you. Heck, I was inside and I ducked and took cover.

Ahhhhh, there's nothing like the relief of finding out what it is you've been looking at...

I like animals. I like seeing what will show up around my home. Ok, I was not so happy with the mice that made their way through out attic, into our basement, but still, I'm always happy when I see that our surroundings are animal-friendly, animal-inviting if you will.

My computer faces a window that has a large fire bush right next to it. Even if I could see nothing else, I could probably tell what time of year it was by which type of bird shows up in that bush. That bush gets a lot of action. I've even seen little teeny-tiny hummingbirds perching in it during late summer. That's a very odd site, one I'll never get used to.

During this time of year that bush is visited by a lot of Juncos (I like to call them snowbirds) and the occasional Cardinal which is why I was surprised when I saw a Junco-sized bird show up that was definitely not a Junco. This bird had a dark head, some white around the head or neck, a rusty breast and it was a steely blue-gray. I had no idea what it was. I looked in my Audubon book. That didn't help. I looked online. That didn't really help either. I asked my bird-friendly, blogging friend, Lance. He suggested it might be a Chickadee of sorts since they like to hang out with Cardinals.

Ok... I can buy that. I looked up Chickadees, but it was not the black-capped one and the one it most resembled didn't really show up this far north. I put it out of my mind until today, when at our bird feeder was a bright steely-blue bird with a red chest and that black head with white! It couldn't be a bluebird... they don't have black. What was it!?!?

I tried to get a photo, but was inside and the window I was at still had a screen on it. The camera kept focusing on the screen! I went back to the internet... maybe I could put in the right combo of words and teh Google would deliver my bird! It didn't deliver my bird, but it delivered the next best thing... a site that would ask me questions relevant to my bird and then we could pare it down.

I found my bird! I then found it in my Audubon book. I had been looking in the wrong part. I had assumed it was a perching bird because I had first seen it in the bush and then on a feeder. It's not a perching bird. It's a tree-clinger. I even took photos (bad photos... blame the screen) of it today, CLINGING TO THE TREE... it didn't dawn on me that it was a tree-clinger until Lance asked me if I had seen it "walk up the tree".

Oh wait! I haven't even told you what the bird is yet, have I?!? It's a Red-breasted Nuthatch. It's adorable. It's really blue against the snow and the blue/orange combo of it reminds me of my favorite sneakers I had as a young girl...

Lance told me to keep an ear out for its laugh. He said it sounds like a mad woman locked in the attic. I love that! I asked him how I'd be able to differentiate it from my own cackles... He was too gentlemanly to respond.

Well, that's it. I've got bird-closure. It was some excitement in what was otherwise a day filled with rather mundane tasks.

Someone is grooving on the snow

We've got snow. We've got lots of snow. I'm loving it. I'll be singing a different song come late March/early April, but for now, I'm loving it. I'm not alone. Our poochiest of pooches is loving it as well.

Truman, aka Mr. Moose, aka Bruce, is the one dog Grizzled and I have had who you can't trust to stay. He (unless up at our place in WI) still needs to be on a leash or a chain. We have a 40 ft one for him in the backyard which we then hook up to his 10 ft leash. He has running and fetching room while on this contraption. I took him out yesterday to play fetch, I had his newest rubber squeaky ball and I threw it. He brought it back only to drop it and head off in the direction of a scent. He stuck his head deep down in the snow and plowed through the yard, back and forth. I thought he had caught the scent of a rabbit or a squirrel so I went inside for a moment. When I came out I found him lying on the patio with his nasty chewed up "Flail-a-Fowl". It was a cloth/rope toy that was kind of like a Frisbee for dogs. It had a cartoon chicken on it hence the "fowl" name. He loved that toy. He loved it so much he finally ripped out the rope and marked it in other ways I won't mention here. It had been left out in the yard to slowly rot. But... he found it, frozen solid, and in his eyes, good as new for throwing. I must admit, it was much easier to throw again.

It's gorgeous outside and for right now, we're loving the snow.

Give it up for the lizard!

Ok, ok, we may have had a bad patch of luck with our beloved Neebles, but Ponce, our wonder lizard, is thriving!!

Ponce was teeny-weeny when we brought her into our home. Look at that photo! She's minuscule! She's an afterthought of a lizard! A mere wisp of reptileness. She was approximately 1 1/2 inches long (most of it tail) when Grizzled rescued her from his office building, Ponce having traveled from Florida in a potted plant.

But as I said... look at her now! She's approximately 5 inches long, with once again, most of it being tail, but look at that face. Is that not a gorgeous lizard face?! And look at those scales! Those are fully lizarded-out scales.

Ponce is indeed reveling in her lizardness and we're reveling in Ponce!

Give it up for the lizard!