Snowing on the First Weekend in Spring?

I said that Thursday was the first day of spring, according to the Cassin's Kingbirds. Then I woke up this morning to an inch of snow on the ground. And it's still snowing. Yesterday, I unplugged the heater I use to keep the water pipes from busting. Today, I plugged it back in.

Yesterday, I went to Talin's Market to get some quail eggs. I was going to make some decoy nests for Brown-headed cowbirds. Today, I'm looking out the window at an almost horizontal sheet of falling snow. Temperature outside is 30 degrees Fahrenheit, and wind speed is 20 miles per hour.

Some people say "When life hands you lemon, make lemonade." You might expect me to close with a sentiment like that. But I just wish the sun would come out. I've waited months for spring. Now that it's arrived, I don't think it's too much to ask that it would just stop snowing.

Brown Headed Cowbird. They're here too. :(

I heard the call of a Brown-headed cowbird in a wooded area next to my house today, 4/30/2011. I didn't see it, but I know it's there.  I'm not particularly overjoyed about this, because these birds are a parasite on other species, the welfare bums of the bird world.  They aren't hard to look at, however, so I'll post some pictures of them this summer sometime.

Tomorrow I'll go to Talin market, pick up some quail eggs and make some nests in hopes I can get the cowbirds to replace those eggs instead of the eggs of the birds that live around my house.  I'll post pictures of everything I do, and will let you know if I am successful.

Black-Headed Grosbeaks Have Arrived!

The Black-headed Grosbeaks arrived today (or last night), 4/30/2011. I took some pictures this morning, but I was using a 2x extender at the time and there wasn't enough light so the pictures didn't come out too well.  That's ok -- here's  a picture I took a couple of years ago:

Black-headed grosbeaks are fruit-eaters except during the nesting season. During this time, they eat plenty of grasshoppers, too. But they love strawberry jam, and will spend a lot of time at your jam feeder if you put one up.  See previous posts in this blog for a few jam feeders I've made over the past two years.

Cassin's Kingbirds Have Arrived!

I walked outside and heard the unmistakable call of a Cassin's Kingbird this morning! Two were flying overhead. I saw two more in an oak tree. I ran in and shouted to my wife,

"Babe! What day is it today?"

"Saturday."

"Yes, but what day is it today?"

"I don't know."

"It's the day in 2011 that the Cassin's Kingbirds arrived! It's the first day of spring!"

"No, they've been here a couple of days."

"What? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I forgot."

"You forgot? How could you forget?"

After going back and forth like this for a couple of minutes, we established that their arrival (and the first day of spring) was Thursday, 4/28/2011.

I tried to get some pictures, but they were too far away. I'll go stealth tomorrow morning for a couple of hours when they're most active.

Yellow-Rumped Warbler Arrives!

Dendroica coronata (s. auduboni), the Yellow-Rumped warbler, has arrived! Sibley's says they eat flying insects mostly, and I believe that's true. Although I have a very healthy grasshopper population, I don't think I've ever seen a Yellow-Rumped warbler hunting them. I believe this bird inhabits a hunting niche between 3' and 20' off the ground. This keeps it from competing with the Ash-Throated flycatcher (which actually eats mostly grasshoppers around here) and the Cassin's kingbird, which eats grasshoppers and does a lot of hawking but in open fields.

This bird is easy to identify because its coloration (yellow splashes on high-contrast silver and white), and the way it flits about are both unique and very enjoyable to watch. As you can see in this picture, it's truly a gorgeous bird. Because of how it moves, it's much better "live" than in a still picture.  But that's probably true of any bird.

This is a male of the Audubon's subspecies. He may have arrived yesterday, 4/24/2011, but he might just as well have arrived this morning or a week ago. Every year they nest in the same place; just outside of my yard in a dense 40'x40' successional stand of mixed juniper, pinon and gambel oak, surrounded by a large open field. I can't be sure of the date, because I only see him when I sit down near the thicket for an hour or so, and today is the first time I've done that this year. According to the Natl Geographic text*, this bird arrives in late April. So if he arrived today he's right on schedule. I will check next year starting on 4/10 to get a more accurate arrival date, however.

This is a tough bird to photograph, at least for me. He's nervous and doesn't stay in one place for very long. In fact, he spends more time doing this than anything else:

But what makes it most difficult for me, is that I have to focus manually, because he likes to perch inside the confines of the thicket and that confuses the autofocus too often to make using it anything but a risky endeavor. He rarely hangs out at the edges except when in transit, and he never hangs out anywhere for long. This spring I resolve to set up a comfortable folding recliner, a gallon of ice tea, and sit out there until I get a good picture.

The top picture (blurry as it is) is the best picture I've ever taken of this bird, so I do feel encouraged.

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* The Natl Geographic reference text: National Geographic Complete Birds of North America. For quick reference it's not quite as handy or small as Sibley's. But it has more in-depth information and is a needed complement to the Sibley's guide in my opinion.

Greed: The Corvid Condition

I like to feed crows leftovers, because I know they're going to keep coming to visit my camera until the food is gone, no matter how much food I put out. Many bird species, but especially those in the corvid family, stash away food as insurance against future hunger.

This guy kept coming back until he had disposed of four slices of bread.  At first he took the bread and dunked it in water, I think so that it would go down faster. He ate his fill that way, which probably took fully half of the bread I put out. Once full, he started taking bread away to stash in a safe place, or maybe to feed his offspring.

My wife was telling me she took a fried chicken drumstick out of the fridge yesterday that had been there for awhile, and put it on the feeder platform shown in the pictures.  This crow took it out into our yard and spent the next hour or so stripping off the meat and carting it off. He then left the bone behind and one of our dogs found it.

Greed is not just a human condition. It's a behavior that ensures survival for animals. Next time someone says you're selfish, tell them it's a survival instinct.

Oh, and P.S: That feeder platform?  You're right -- it is a satellite dish.

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I am a little disappointed in these pictures. The field of view is too short, and his eye is a little out of focus as a result. But next time I put out food for crows I'll take another shot at it.

Brewer's Blackbird has Arrived!

Sometime yesterday afternoon (4/22/2011), the Brewer's blackbirds (and probably the Brown-Headed cowbirds) arrived.  I took this picture this morning. It's not a very good picture, but I'll take some more after they've had a couple of days to settle down.

So far there are just 3 or 4 blackbirds, and I haven't positively identified cowbirds at my house. But I heard the call of a cowbird about 10 miles from my house when driving home yesterday. So I know the babykillers are in the East Mountains too.

More on Ash-Throated Flycatcher

This Ash-Throated flycatcher has been hanging around the house waiting for his wife to show up. Chee! Chee! CheeChee! She (if it's the same pair) usually nests in a box on a fence in my yard. I hope she made it this time. He's been here for a couple of weeks already. Unless he is actually a she. I can't tell until I see both of them together.

These birds are master grasshopper hunters. I haven't watched them for a full 16-hour day. But if they hunt grasshoppers all day at the rate they do when I am watching them, they're capable, combined, of killing 200 grasshoppers a day. That's why not mowing your lawn can be so important.