January 12, 2021

Starling Shelter

January 12, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

Our neighbor’s house is missing a triangular cover on part of their eaves…and it appeared that some starlings moved into the protected space on the last day of 2020.

Fortunately, the birds are almost to heavy to get seed from our feeder so I see them more on the gutter and roof of our covered deck.

I saw one that came to the top of the feeder while the female red-bellied woodpecker was there and the woodpecker became very territorial…moving toward the starling and making threatening sounds/moving its open beak like a pair of open scissors toward the starling. The starling made a hasty retreat!

There are times that I appreciate the look of the starlings. Their feathers do have a green or purple sheen ….and the black tipped beak is interesting too.

May 15, 2020

Filling a Day of Social Distancing - 5/14/2020

May 15, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

Birds nesting in our neighbor’s eaves. A pair of European Starlings found a way under the eaves of our neighbor’s house and they have nestlings. One came out this morning and looked more like a juvenile Brown-headed Cowbird than a juvenile starling. The cowbirds have been around a lot this spring. Now I don’t seem around the feeder as much so maybe they are moving to new territory.

Grocery delivery. First thing in the morning I made the final tweaks to the list. Is it feeling ‘normal’ to have my groceries delivered? No - I don’t think it ever will. I like to do my own shopping and will get back to it as soon as I can. It took the shopper an hour to find 18 items. It was stressful to stay glued to my phone for that length of time to respond to substitutions; the web page stopped working for a short period of time too. This was the 7th delivery so if it were going to achieve the comfort of ‘new normal’ I think it would have already. It’s been a new shopper every time and maybe that makes it continuously ‘new’ each week.

Mowing the grass. It had been dry for a few days and the temperature was in the 60s…a good day to mow the yard. The south side that had been too wet the last time we mowed so the grass there was getting high. I decided to experiment with making a short video during the first part of the mowing. I used an old larger name tag holder from a conference that was big enough to hold my phone then taped it to myself rather than letting it swing from the lanyard. I started the video, put it in the holder and started mowing. I had put the tape too low on the name tag and the weight of the phone caused it to tilt down a little. The two pictures below are clipped from the video…a part where I was mowing the tallest grass and the lawn mower stalled…I turned off the video. I’ll be refining my technique…but it was a fun experiment.

Two beauties at the bird feeder. As I was starting my day, the bird feeder was active with the woodpeckers and two early birds that seem to be around more often right now: Indigo Bunting and American Goldfinch – both males. Until this spring, seeing an Indigo Buntings were a rare treat but they seem to be enjoying our birdfeeder and we see the males more than the females.

Several years ago, I saw one feeding in the meadow at Howard County Conservancy with a flock of gold finches while I was hiking with a 2nd grade school group in the fall. We all stood and watched the birds until they moved too far away. One little girl commented – “I thought they were butterflies…but they’re birds!” It was a magical moment in nature for me … and the group of children (and chaperone) I had with me.

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

February 13, 2020

Birding at Josey Ranch Lake – Part 2

February 13, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing my post about my walks around the lake at Josey Ranch (near the public library on Keller Springs in Carrollton Texas)…

There were 6 birds that I only saw on one of the three days.

I saw a pair of Eastern Bluebirds near the library building. They appeared to be investigating possible nesting sites. There were not nesting boxes around….or trees big enough to have cavities for nesting. They were looking at vent openings in the building --- probably not a good site.

As I walked , I saw a bluebird across the lake from the library. It could have been one of the pair….or not.

On the one sunny day, I saw a juvenile Yellow-crowned Night-heron – I didn’t yet have the distinctive face marking but it’s body shape/posture and leg length made this the likely identification (rather than a juvenile Black-crowned Night-heron).

The Pied-billed Grebe is small and dives….but I did get three pictures. There might have been a pair, or the pictures could have been the same bird.

A small group of Ruddy Ducks made a rest stop on the lake. It was a mixed group of males and females.

Other ducks that were only at the lake one of the cloudy days were Ring-necks – yes, the ring is on the bill rather than the neck….the name is misleading.

Finally – I saw one European Starling. The grackles seem so dominate that the starlings stay away! Or something else might be going on…and they aren’t as numerous as they once were.

While I was in the area – I walked through the Pocket Prairie that will be bursting with spring wildflowers…but is now dormant. The dried vegetation was mostly cleared…but the green leaves of perennials were visible…some of the leaves had red highlights!

I also photographed some feathers on the one sunny day. Birds preen to keep their feathers in working order – the barbicels and barbs perfectly aligned. Once the feathers are detached from the bird, the barbicels unzip…clumps of barbs form…the feather begins to degrade.

As usual – I enjoyed the walks at Josey Ranch. There are enough people and birds to make it a little different every day!

February 25, 2019

Birding through a Window – February 2019

February 25, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

It’s great to see birds from my office window – I take a little break to observe while staying warm…and I get other things done between sightings.

Some kinds of birds I see every day.

2019 01 IMG_4208.jpg — The Blue Jays generally make a lot of noise, so I notice when they are around. They come for the water in the heated bird bath and then for seed if it’s spilled out from the feeder (the feeder itself does not work for jay-sized birds). Somehow, they always seem to be looking in my direction when I take a picture of them.

The Dark-eyed Juncos are also around every day. They come for the seed and, sometimes, the birdbath.

The Northern Cardinal also is a frequent visitor. We have a resident pair that stays around our area. They made their nest in the bushes in front of our house last season. Sometimes more than the pair are around…but not every day.

Mourning Doves are plentiful. One morning we heard one seemingly very close to our breakfast area door but couldn’t see it. My husband opened the door and it flew from it’s hiding place under the deck railing. These birds are also too big for the feeder, but they enjoy any seed on the ground and the bird bath and just sitting around on the deck railing or the roof of the covered deck.

The Tufted Titmouse makes rapid transits between the feeder or birdbath and the red maple. It must feel safer in the maple. We have at least one pair, and maybe more, that frequent our deck.

The Carolina Chickadees are very similar to the titmice in that they don’t linger on the deck. They prefer to get seed and take it back to the maple.

This year we have more American Gold Finches coming to the feeder. In previous years we’ve had more House Finches but I’ve only seen one this year and I didn’t get a picture.

And there are birds I don’t see as frequently.

One American Robin came to the bird bath – and I got a picture. There will be a lot more of them around soon.

2019 01 IMG_4271.jpg — Sometimes we have Northern Flickers visit – usually as a pair. They like the heated bird bath in very cold weather. The area under the pines appears to be a good place for them to find insects.

The Downy Woodpecker returns again and again to some damaged branches not that far from my window. I’ve seen a male and female…only got pictures of the female this month.

European Starlings are not an everyday occurrence in our yard. There must be better food sources for them elsewhere. That’s probably a good thing.

We have a White-Breasted Nuthatch that comes to our feeder occasionally. It moves very quickly and goes back to the forest.

There are birds that I remember seeing but didn’t manage to photograph this month: Red-winged blackbirds, Turkey vultures, Black Vultures, Pileated woodpecker, red-bellied woodpecker, and House sparrow. Overall – not a bad month for birding through window.