Showing posts with label Western Bluebird. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Western Bluebird. Show all posts
May 26, 2013
May 14, 2013
Shots on a Fence
My lifer Lawrence's Goldfinches at Pinnacles last week.
Western Bluebird
Female Brewer's Blackbird getting ready to feed her young.
Western Bluebird
Female Brewer's Blackbird getting ready to feed her young.
April 11, 2013
June 20, 2012
Go to your hole
In the last week or two nest searching has become increasing difficult. Likely as a result of the low amount of snow in the area this winter and spring the birds are fledging earlier than expected. As a result, I've spent up to an hour searching for a nest, only to discover that food carried by adults is going directly to the gaping mouths of baby birds that have already left their cozy little holes. Curses.
Juncos are nesting in huge numbers this year (on the ground, per usual), hopefully making up for last year when snow covered the ground in some areas well into July.
Insane mouthful of worms for the young.
A fat-lipped junco, fresh out of the nest. These guys still trip me up for a second when I first see them...then I look at the tail.
Hairy Woodpeckers have noticeably been the most commonly fledged nests thus far, making finding an actually nest nearly impossible. The nice thing about working in burns is that it makes it very easy to tell an adult Hairy from a freshly fledged bird. The young have a crisp clean white to them, whereas the adults white is covered in soot.
This guy is ready to go!
This is a crappy photo, but it shows the result of about an hour of searching for a Western Bluebird nest...a needy fledgling.
It might be better if you just ignore this photo entirely, but it is the fruits of my labor for the day. Though I did find two Hairy families, happy barfing into each others mouths out of the nest, I was glad to actually find some babies where they belonged. But I only had my binoculars and a point and shoot.
Two Pileated Woodpecker nestlings, noisily demanding their next meal.
With only a couple more days of nest searching left I'm hoping to complete my list of species' nests found by adding Red-breasted Sapsucker and Lewis's Woodpecker to it, but I just don't see it happening. So far I've found nests for: Western Bluebird, Mountain Bluebird, Hairy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, White-headed Woodpecker, Black-backed Woodpecker, Wiliamson's Sapsucker, Pileated Woodpecker, and American Kestrel. I've also happened upon nests for Mountain Chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, White-breasted Nuthatch and Northern Flying Squirrel, all of which we don't care about for the purposes of our project.
Juncos are nesting in huge numbers this year (on the ground, per usual), hopefully making up for last year when snow covered the ground in some areas well into July.
Insane mouthful of worms for the young.
A fat-lipped junco, fresh out of the nest. These guys still trip me up for a second when I first see them...then I look at the tail.
Hairy Woodpeckers have noticeably been the most commonly fledged nests thus far, making finding an actually nest nearly impossible. The nice thing about working in burns is that it makes it very easy to tell an adult Hairy from a freshly fledged bird. The young have a crisp clean white to them, whereas the adults white is covered in soot.
This guy is ready to go!
This is a crappy photo, but it shows the result of about an hour of searching for a Western Bluebird nest...a needy fledgling.
It might be better if you just ignore this photo entirely, but it is the fruits of my labor for the day. Though I did find two Hairy families, happy barfing into each others mouths out of the nest, I was glad to actually find some babies where they belonged. But I only had my binoculars and a point and shoot.
Two Pileated Woodpecker nestlings, noisily demanding their next meal.
With only a couple more days of nest searching left I'm hoping to complete my list of species' nests found by adding Red-breasted Sapsucker and Lewis's Woodpecker to it, but I just don't see it happening. So far I've found nests for: Western Bluebird, Mountain Bluebird, Hairy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, White-headed Woodpecker, Black-backed Woodpecker, Wiliamson's Sapsucker, Pileated Woodpecker, and American Kestrel. I've also happened upon nests for Mountain Chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, White-breasted Nuthatch and Northern Flying Squirrel, all of which we don't care about for the purposes of our project.
April 27, 2012
Weekend off
Beautiful day, finding our first Fox Sparrows and Green-tailed Towhees of the year and LIFE (for the Towhee). We have the WHOLE weekend off, not sure what we'll do, but probably head down slope for for hikes and birding.
Western Bluebird at the farm
Western Bluebird at the farm
July 17, 2011
SW fest
Bushtit
Black Phoebe with a dragonfly in mouth
Female western bluebird with huge cricket of some sort
Black Phoebe with a dragonfly in mouth
Female western bluebird with huge cricket of some sort
July 12, 2011
July 6, 2011
July 3, 2011
The fourth
Tomorrow's the fourth. We made a float and it rules.
Western bluebird with a food carry
Allen's hummingbird
Western bluebird with a food carry
Allen's hummingbird
July 2, 2011
June 29, 2011
April 27, 2011
Western bluebirds
This pair of Western bluebirds has been around the station for a few weeks now. It's hard to tell if they have fully claimed one of the old cliff swallow nests, but they seem to be staking them out, and chasing off swallows when they get near.
Female
Male
Pair
Female
Male
Pair
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