Rain Society

The last three weeks have been rainy-stormy. Then a few days of clear weather and colder, with frost. Today, cloudy and now raining again. We have seen a male hairy woodpecker the last week, approximately. Hadn't seen him practically all summer. Nice to have him rejoin our backyard club.

Fun Fun Fun

Two days ago, we saw an immature yellow-rumped warbler, also known as Myrtle's warbler. There was a gathering of juncos and pine siskins at the feeder, during a break in the rain, and one little guy sat off to the side, looking slightly different and behaving slightly differently. I took a look with binoculars, and sure enough, it was an immature warbler. Then yesterday, again during a break in the rain, we saw a ruby-crowned kinglet and a fox sparrow. The fox sparrow was flying around our tripod where we have our recirculating water for the bird bath, but that was disconnected and drained the previous day. So he was looking for his usual bath, but did not find it. Just goes to prove how they are such creatures of habit. The edge of the porch, only a few feet away, holds two small birdbaths, standing water, not recirculating, but the birds tend not to go there unless they are crowded out of the moving birdbath. So he just flew around where it should have been and then left.

Fall is Here

Back after a long absence. Saw some nice birds while Outside, including two new birds, Red-Eyed Vireo and Carolina Wren. Also saw black-throated green warbler, one we've seen before but only one time. The Vireo is not a new sighting either but we've never positively identified it before. Lots of familiar birds, cardinals, blue jays, tufted titmice, white-breasted nuthatches, doves, chickadees, goldfinches and house finches. Saw flying overhead several times, a great blue heron. Also red-tailed hawks and turkey vultures. Plus wild turkeys.

On our return, we noticed a lot of juncos of various maturities, as well as some immature sparrows, and one or two white-crowned adults, an occasional golden-crowned sparrow, and a fox sparrow. Some of these birds we don't see so often, like the fox sparrow, but they often show up at the end of the season. Stellars Jays seem to be back. Although there aren't many fall colors yet and no frost here at our house, the air feels more fall-ish.

Hawk Sighting

Nothing much to write about for a while - had a great sighting today, though, of a Northern Harrier swooping around our backyard for about 5 seconds. Woulda missed it if I hadn't just coincidentally been looking out. We have had dozens of immature white-crowned sparrows, nuthatches, boreal and black-capped chickadees, juncos and pine siskins, coming into feed and drink, bathe, hang out. It's been a very busy month. Nothing very new or exciting. No kinglets for ages, and only a couple of sightings of myrtle's warblers.

Sunny Bath

This afternoon was very sunny, had not been watching outside for a few hours. Then around 5 pm, we looked out and saw a brown creeper on our spruce tree copse, and in a few moments, he was on the tripod at the birdbath along with three immatures. They flitted around and finally settled in to bathe. The most we have ever seen is one at a time! This was pretty cool. A lot of immature birds of various species coming in to bathe, the last several days.

Blink of An Eye

Three sightings in the last 3-4 days -- owl flying over our house in the late evening on Solstice, I looked one way and Tom looked the other, he saw the owl, I did not. Next morning, I saw a harrier fly over our backporch while I was glancing out the back window, no more than 10' up off the ground. Tom had just looked down into his breakfast plate. He missed it this time, I was the lucky one. Then yesterday, out on the Kenai River flats, 2nd visit, I stood and stared at the flats and kept looking for the Willet which had been reported. Suddenly the wings flashed by my field of vision (prob. 400 yards or more out) - I looked at the bird landing - he stood there and looked around, ate, walked, did nothing much. I kept hoping he'd fly again to make sure I knew what I was seeing. After about 3-4 minutes he did fly, and the distinctive wing pattern appeared. I watched him fly off for about 5 seconds. Yippee! A new bird on my list. Came back later - more people there, including Tom, no luck. Again this morning, no luck.

Harrier

Great sighting of a northern harrier today, swooping thru and around in our backyard, thru the trees, more amazingly since the harrier's wing span is so huge and there is not much space to navigate, but he turned sideways and went up and over and around. Assumed he was chasing some prey, never did see what it was or if he caught it. Quite a sight. All in all, probably took about 10 seconds or maybe a bit more. One glance in the wrong direction, would have missed it entirely.

Sweet Songster

Early this morning we started hearing the golden-crowned sparrow's song nearby. All day long I heard it in our front yard and frequently saw one of them hopping around our front window. I feel it's possible they have a nest in our yard. If so, it would be the first time since we've lived here for almost 30 years. It was a special treat to hear their song all day.

Secret Sighting

A friend called me to a secret location to look at two hawk owls, that were sitting in two trees, near each other. We stood in awe and viewing with binocs. The one owl, the only we were seeing at the moment, began its soft trilling sound. Answered by a nearby domestic rooster. And several more times. As I left, we looked at the other tree across the opening where the owls had been sighted previously. There sat the other one. Then the gulls began shrieking and diving. Fortunately there was enough cover and distance that the owls sat fairly unperturbed. We were so privileged to see them.

Least weasel

Early evening yesterday, saw a tiny weasel running through the backyard grasses and in and out of little miniature tunnels, he was so small, maybe a least weasel but seemed much shorter than the 8-10" they are supposed to be. Also heard a varied thrush late last night, around 10:30 pm. Always a lovely sound hearing thrushes at sundown. Have been seeing myrtle's warblers and robins, white-crowned and golden-crowned sparrows. Yesterday saw a baby redpoll being fed by an adult.

New Returning Bird

This afternoon while watching for the partial solar eclipse (which we never really saw because of overcast) I saw a Myrtle's warbler fly into the bird bath and splash around. First one of the season. Yippee!

Waterfowl

Today we saw a ring-necked duck male and female in a little pond which is down the road from us about 4 miles, one of the little areas that holds meltwater in spring and early summer and later dries up. This spring the ditches and swampy areas are very full of water, great for migration. The Kenai River flats yielded a couple of teal today, also American widgeons. The larger flocks of sandhill cranes seemed to have moved on. We are anxiously awaiting the black-bellied plovers. White-crowned sparrows, kinglets and other songbirds as well - every evening and morning we listen for them.

Spring Birds

This morning we heard a robin and a junco singing in the backyard. Finally! We plan to visit the Kenai River flats later today. Still a lot of snow, but it's melting.

Rockin Robin

Apparently there are robins in the vicinity - not our yard but yards within 10 miles. We saw a junco two weeks ago, then not again for a week, but they're in the area. Swans, snow geese, Canada geese, mallard, pintails, all showing up on the Kenai River Flats. A friend said they've heard ruby-crowned kinglets, other warblers and sandhill cranes. So - things are happening!

Spring

Warming up finally, snow melting, sun, temps in the 40's. This afternoon at 1 PM, saw our first male junco of the season. What a nice treat! Earlier, a sharp-shinned hawk zoomed around trying to get a redpoll. Never saw if he was successful, might have been.

Sun is Returning

This morning, while shoveling in the early morning, but already light out, we saw a sharp-shinned hawk up at the top of a spruce tree, watching the whole back yard. Yesterday, early morning, we saw a spruce grouse out back. Longer days are nice! still cold and snowy tho.

Midnight Visitor

Night before last, we awoke and looked out at our spruce copse right by the back porch. There saw our little saw-whet owl, in the same place where we've seen one before, in the past two-three years. He was very cute and tiny. Just loved seeing him again. We've had some voles on the snow, so we were wondering if an owl would show up.

Today during the day, we saw our brown creeper once again, first time in a couple of months.

Familiar Friend

Early this morning we left for about an hour, and when we returned, we spooked a spruce grouse out of one of our snow-packed trails, where there was a teeny bit of gravel showing. It flew up into the trees right by our studio window. Had not seen one of these for a long time. He/she is still there about 4 hours later, and meanwhile, we've spread a little more gravel on the pathways that she or he might like.

Owl on the Kenai River Flats

Today we saw the owl once again, and it sat there while we backed up and looked with binoculars. It was not a short-eared owl, but a hawk owl, horizontal brown and white streaks on his breast, very beautiful.

Blizzard Weather

We've been having blizzards and a lot of snow. A lot of redpolls are coming in, along with our chickadees, nuthatches, several magpies, and stellar's jays. No siskins presently. The brown creeper shows up often enough, that we're pretty sure he's a daily customer. We did have a northern shrike three times in the last week and a half. Probably also a sharp-shinned hawk, as occasionally the yard is cleared of birds, except for a nuthatch frozen into position for 2-3 minutes. We can't see a hawk but that doesn't mean he isn't there back behind a tree out of view from our windows. Several snowshoe hares frequently coming in. Nothing else of note. We did see a smallish - medium-sized owl in the top of tree on the Kenai River flats the other day, we decided based only on size, that it was probably a short-eared owl. We turned around to go back and see it, but the instant we changed the flow of traffic the owl took off.