Stellar Jay

A rich time of year, many birds, adult and immatures, coming in to feed, bathe, drink. This morning, the sun caught a beautiful stellar jay sitting in the spruce tree right outside our window. His feathers were gleaming iridescently, and I tried to capture it with a camera, no luck.

Last evening, twice, a golden-crowned kinglet showed up to bathe, both times, the golden crown was slightly raised and exposed the little bit of red that they have in there somewhere.

Juncos, nuthatches, boreal and black-capped chickadees, one male/female redpoll pair, myrtle warblers, white-crowned sparrows, robins, gray jays, stellar jays, immature crossbills. The highest number of one species is pine siskins. Golden-crowned kinglets. Swallows way overhead. A very occasional sharp-shinned hawk. This is our summertime backyard fare presently, a nice variety.

Robin Alert

I recalled that when I had the hawk-nuthatch standoff the other day, the reason I became aware of the hawk's presence, was that the robins were calling. Their warning for a bird predator is different than when it's a cat in the yard. It's a fast "chee-chee-chee-chee"....fairly high-pitched. I heard that call and looked out and saw the hawk landing in the spruces.

Robins' cat warning is a persistent paced, "chip, chip, chip, chip." Not to sound too formulaic, but - it's almost a "chirp, chirp, chirp!" very sharp and short.

Checking out the Backyard

Yesterday morning, a backyard drama - a sharp-shinned hawk flew into the copse of trees around our one feeder. Sitting on a pole on our backporch, about 10 feet away, was a nuthatch eating peanut butter. The nuthatch froze into position, not one blink, not one feather moved. This lasted about 5 minutes or so. The hawk walked out on the branch and sat there looking around. I watched from inside, hating the thought of the hawk catching that nuthatch in front of my eyes. I know they need to eat too! Some line from a book ran through my mind, no one dies today. So I went to the back door and moved my hand around in the window to make the hawk more cautious. He walked backwards back into the tree. I cautiously opened the backdoor, thinking too sudden of a move might spook the nuthatch as well. The hawk went around behind the trunk of the middle tree and disappeared from view. Then I saw him fly out of the tree to the east, while the nuthatch continued to sit frozen, in a westerly direction. Within about 5 seconds, birds began flocking into the feeder and water system. The nuthatch took off. Crisis averted. The hawk will find a meal somewhere else.

Solstice and Beyond

The days leading up to Solstice were sunny, beautiful, warm-ish. We have had more birds coming in every day, lined up to take baths, and flitting around in the trees, shrubbery and on our porch. Many immatures. We finally saw our first immature white-crowned sparrow yesterday. Many immature siskins, there must be 2 dozen siskins in our backyard presently. And almost that many nuthatches. This morning we saw two golden-crowned kinglets bathing together, we are assuming one is a young one. So far only one at a time, till today. Still seeing immature crossbills. Myrtle's warblers. Robins. Both kinds of jays. Heard a song sparrow yesterday. A very quick sighting of possibly a Savannah Sparrow at the bath.

Today, the day after Solstice, a bit windy, still sunny-ish. Fog floating around, so it's not warm. It's so exciting to see all the immatures coming in, and possibly other new visitors who see the activity and come check it out.

White-winged Crossbills

This morning, about 6:30AM, a family of crossbills came to our birdbath for a drink..a male, female and about 3 immatures. They flitted about the trees, stayed for a total of about 1 minute. The intense red of the male is breath-taking.

Birding Elsewhere

Yesterday we visited friends in Sterling, enjoyed hearing the very raucous call of the ruby-crowned kinglet the instant we opened the car door. Also heard varied thrushes, robins, and snipes.

This morning, I took an early morning birding walk with a friend out north. We saw and/or heard song sparrows, robins, white-crowned sparrows, various warblers (I'm not confident about the three-four different warbler songs), mallards and chicks, red-necked grebes, common loons, and a belted kingfisher. Really fun - different habitat.

Many New Baby Birds

Today we saw a huge influx of immature birds, out of their nests for the first day, maybe. There were 4 nuthatches, along with their parent bird, sitting on branches around one of the feeders. They sat perfectly still, two of them even sat crowded close together and moved their heads and beaks around in sychronized movement. They seemed like Siamese nuthatches. Not much moving around, just sitting and waiting for food and further instructions. Also saw more pine siskins than ever, and chickadees that looked quite fuzzy and almost grubby. Several times this evening we saw the golden-crowned kinglet. Around 3 pm we had a flyover by a Northern harrier. Also had a visit from a female crossbill to our birdbath. It's been a busy day.

A family member from CA sent this picture today. Exotic and amazing looking bird - white-tailed kite, our book calls it the black-shouldered kite. Very beautiful.

Neighboring Bird Life

Our neighbors who live on the bluff, and have somewhat different habitat, particularly with the bluff and beach immediately adjacent, have been seeing crossbills regularly, and this morning I saw a group of about 6 immature crossbills eating cones on their driveway. Also observed a fox sparrow, myrtle's warbler and heard a savannah sparrow. Earlier on a bike ride along the beach frontage road, we saw a Yellow Warbler. Back here at home, a golden-crowned kinglet flew in just as I looked out the window. Great time of year!

A Visit from Somebunny

Baby bunnies yesterday (snowshoe hares). A sharp-shinned hawk continues to check our backyard. Almost daily sightings of our golden-crowned kinglet. One glance outside to the birdbath at around 4:30 pm, myrtle warblers, juncos, white-crowned sparrows and pine siskins waiting to bathe.

Hawk Visitor

Yesterday early evening, sitting at our window, I happened to glance up in time to see a fanned tail with horizontal bars of light brown and white and a spruce branch waving up and down as a bird landed on it. Our sharp-shinned hawk is back. We have seen him about half a dozen times in the past two weeks. We also have had a couple flyovers of Northern Harriers.

We watched our golden-crowned kinglet bathe in the early morning. Later two Myrtle Warblers were there, along with about 6-7 pine siskins. And another batch of gray jay immatures are coming in to drink and bathe.

Our guests include a two-and-a-half year old. She is identifying gray jays, puffins, nuthatches and chickadees. She claims to have seen a humming bird out the window. I was impressed that she even knew about them. A new birder in the family!

Golden Crowned Kinglet

He/she is becoming a daily visitor to our birdbath. We are hearing the song sparrow, savannah sparrow, white-crowned sparrow, robin, ruby-crowned kinglets, all regularly. Of course the usual group of backyard birds in addition. Very cool.

Two New Returnees

This morning while we were watching our birdbath, a little bird flew in to bathe, and I thought it was an immature Nuthatch, with the stripes around the eyes, so we grabbed binoculars and watched as he bathed, but then his little topknot parted as he was splashing, and we saw the firey crest of a golden-crowned kinglet! Because of his/her markings, we think it was an immature golden-crowned.

And then about an hour later, I stepped outside and heard the call of a Savannah Sparrow, calling from somewhere in our "savannah" section, the more open part of our property, where we've been keeping trees out and maintaining it as a sort of meadow. Along with that lovely familiar call, I heard white-crowned sparrows and other beautiful morning bird calls. After two days of intermittent rain, the sun today makes everything look shiny.