Possum Sept 20

Django wouldn't come in one night. This is why. Check out the teeth on this guy!

Splotchy and Bondie!

These were taken Sept. 3 and 4.

Juvenile male Cardinal. Blonde Scquirrel.

Last hummer photos this year

Here's a nice series of shots I got of the Ruby Throats September 3 and 4,

Check it out.

Anhinga!

Yesterday (11-21-06)Virginia and I were picnicking on Roast Beef sammichs from the Kitchen Door (very excellent by the way) at Red Bud Isle just below the Tom Miller dam. We heard so chipping sparrows in the trees, but I didn't get a good enough look to confirm. What we did see though was the South American Anhinga, a cormorant-like bird that gets up here along the coast and on large water ways during the summer. I thought it odd he would be up here this late, but his fan tail, long slender neck and dart like head and beak was pretty unmistakable. (I only saw him flying, low over the water, and originally thought he might be a cormorant, but the book confirmed he was an Anhinga. Pretty cool.

Beautiful day, but those were the only birds we saw.

Wren Family Moves in!

You may wonder at the exclamation point in the heading. Why all the fuss over a nesting pair of Carolina Wrens on my porch?

Well, it's because it was these energetic little birds that got me interested in learning about avians in the first place. While laid off in January of 2002, I noticed a nest in the shelving of my back porch built in a space between two power tools. Then I noticed the parents, little brown-red birds flitting in and out with nest material and later insects in their bills. I later found one dead in my house, no doubt the work of my wily kitty. While I regretted the loss of one of the parent birds, the silver lining was I got to closely examine it and was armed with excellent info when trying to identify it.

I went to the Bookstop and leafed through bird books, trying to find the little bird. Most of the books were bewildering. I had no idea how to classify the bird and thus refine my search to the proper part of the book. (Luckily it wasn't a sea bird, so that eliminated about half the birds in the book.) I knew it was only 4 inches long or so, so that eliminated larger birds, but still, all the sparrows and warblers and other small songbirds were still in play. And most books used drawings, and not pictures, and were of no help to me at all. To my brain, the drawings were totally misleading.

Finally, I found Kenn Kaufman's Field Focus guide and there it was! Under Wrens. In a minute or two, I narrowed it down to the Carolina and Bewick (pronounced Buick)wren and then decided it must be the Carolina.

Well, inordinately excited by this I went home and monitored the nest very closely. Soon I heard cheaping in there and noticed that there were 5 little chicks. Soon, they were fledging, leaving the nest. Three were strong enough to follow dad around and learn to feed. Two weren't so strong but were forced from the nest nonetheless. Kitty was really interested in them. I rescued them and put them up in a tree away from the cat, but am pretty sure they became food for some animal.

Last winter, a wren again built a nest in my back porch, but for some reason he abandoned it. Either he couldn't attract a mate or he felt it unsafe, I don't know. I was disappointed, but I never disturbed the nest.

I got to meet Kenn Kaufman at the Wildflower Center this spring and while in line to get him to sign my book, someone mentioned they couldn't keep wrens out of their hanging basket planters. That stuck in my brain and while at Home Depot for another item saw one on sale in the garden center, so I grabbed one, hung it on the front porch, and then carefully removed the old nest from the back porch and placed it in the planter.

I had no idea if a wren would come and use it, but about 2 weekends ago, I saw a wren on the front porch, early morning, flitting about, eating insects and flying up to the hanging basket. I saw him again this weekend but I didn't think he had occupied the nest until Monday, when I showed Virginia the nest. She asked me if it was occupied, and right as I said no, a wren popped out of the nest entrance and flew away!

Then I took a close look at the nest and it was obviously modified and renovated. The entrance hole was even moved and rebuilt. I'll try to get a picture soon.

Hopefully, this means chicks are coming. I'll try to provide pix as it happens. More as it happens.

Hawk!

Okay, this wasn't taken in my back yard but it was taken nearby in a residential area of central Austin. (Arroyo Seco and Justin Lane) Looks a lot like the guy in my back yard.

Wow, long time no blog. Hummers Gone, Hooters here

Well, the hummingbirds have been gone for about a month and a half now. Just yesterday evening about 6:30, my neighbors Mike and Barbara called me over to their house. They had the Eastern Screech owls living and breathing in their yard this spring. This time, they heard hooting. That's an owl, but no little screech owl. It was a pair of Great Horned owls two house up in an Elm tree. I tried to get a shot but no luck.

These are magnificent looking, impressive birds. We all involuntarily gasped when they took off and fly away, their wingspan is so impressive. That reminded me that I saw a hawk in my yard a few weekends back, attacking a sparrow nest in a bush in my side yard. Didn't get a shot of that either, darn it.

That same weekend, I saw a Carolina wren on my front porch, eating insects and checking out the nest I put up there in a hanging basket. I was hope he'd claim it as his own for breeding. But I haven't seen him since.

I put up two new thistle feeders in the attempt to attract finches. No luck yet.

My Oriole Feeder never attracted Orioles, just hummers. I'll try again in the spring.

And I'll try to stay up to date here from now on. Really. ;-)

Bonus bird pix!

Check out these nice photos.
Ruby throated Hummer Male--Lynchburg, Va.














Ruby throated Hummer Male--Lynchburg, Va.

















Ruby throated Hummer Male--Lynchburg, Va.



















Ruby throated Hummer Male--Lynchburg, Va.












Ruby throated Hummer female, tail feathers--Lynchburg, Va.




















House Finch Male--Lynchburg, Va.














GoldFinch Female--Lynchburg, Va.











Pair of goldfinches in crepe-myrtle-Lynchburg, Va.










Goldfinch Male--Lynchburg, Va.








Carolina Chickadee--Lynchburg, Va.

Turkey Vulture

Speaking of dead squirrels, one in the road in front of my house drew a Turkey Vulture, who has an amazing sense of smell. They sniff out their prey. that's why they can show up outta nowhere. This shot shows it on a nearby house where it took the squirrel after being spooked by a car. I made it nervous after this shot and off it went with the prey in tow.

7-29-06 Django the hunter, ex squirrels and possum

Back at home, the hummers were visiting in ever larger numbers, and my boy Django the great hunter preyed on young mammals. I saw this poor little squirrel in his jaws and asked him to drop it. He did. I buried the critter out back.

Later in the evening, he had something cornered in the back yard. Turned out it was this baby possum. I put the pup inside and the marsupioid-eventually-moved on.

July 24-Last Day and the Yard Fatty!

Last Day in Lynchburg. Got some cool shots of Julie's and David's groundhogs, or woodchucks. Julie and David call them Yard Fatties. I can see why.

July 23 Peaks of Otter, and birds

Today it was up to the Blueridge Parkway and a collection of mountains called the Peaks of Otter. On the grounds, I took this shot of a Raven.








Up on Sharp Top, once thought to be the highest peak in Virginia and the source for a piece of the Washington Monument, I took this shot of a dark-eyed Junco.

Back at the July and David and Julie ranch, I got these shots of Carolina Chickadees and Tufted Titmice and a Eastern Bluebird parent at the nest box.

July 22-Monticello and birds

Went to Monticello today and had to bear a old white man guide who spent as much time trying to preserve the conservative view of TJ as he did telling us about the home and history. I'll discuss this on my SomeModestProposals blog instead, but he tired to apologize for Jefferson's liaison with Sally Hemmings, his proclivity to spend too much, and his deism. Anyway, the house is amazing. Check it out.

Also, took these shots of male and female house finches and a female cardinal back in Lynchburg.

July 21-Don't mention the War!

We went to Appomatox Courthouse (the name of the town) to check out the last battle the Army of Northern Va. fought before surrendering to Grant. Lee's Army hadn't eaten in weeks and was heading here to hook up with trains full of food. Problem was the trains had been captured by Union Cavalry. They tried to bust through the Union lines once, but were repelled and then, surrendered.





But the populace seems not to have gotten the memo. On the way, we stopped at this place, a former motor hotel, now museum and gift shop. Check out these examples of southern resistance.

July 20-Virginia trip-birdwatcher heaven!

Virginia and I visited her sister Julie and her hubby David Schwartz, who's a prof of Philosophy at Randolph-Macon in Lynchburg (Lunchbag) Va. Bee-utiful place full of decaying mountains, rivers and very large trees and forests too. They got a beautiful house and they have an excellent array of bird feeders that brings the cool flying fauna to their big, plate-glass windows. And of course, I couldn't resist, especially with birds we don't get to see in Austin.

Check it out.

All this sites showed up on our first day there.






House Finches. Now, we get these in our neck of the woods but not around my house so much, so I went nuts with the camera. At home I saw them at the Niger thistle feeder, but here they were at the standard feeder. Indulge me.

Now these American Goldfinches are extremely cool. We don't get to see them in our hood. We get the lesser goldfinches, which are cool, don't get me wrong. But check out the striking colors on these birds. Even the drabber female is dang pretty.

And check out the Ruby-throats! I was so jealous there were so many. Probably ten to twenty times what I get at my house. And, lots of males here where most visitors at my house had been females. (When I got back, I suddenly saw lots of males at home too. Go figure.)

And check out Dolly, their crazy 13 month-old chocolate lab. Pretty no?

Also check out this beautiful flowering vine. Don't know what it is exactly, but I was compelled to see shoot it.

Plus, they had a bluebird nest box and it had 4 little one in it too! Of course, the parent Eastern Bluebirds had to be nearby, Here's one bringing worms. Really, worms, like in the picture books.

7-13 to 7-18, More nest disasters and casualties

Once again, I found a downed chimney swift nest and several smashed eggs. I have no idea what is ding this to the poor swift nests? Mice perhaps?

What's worse, I found a dead chimney swift in the front yard. I was excited to have the swifts in my chimney, so it was a bummer to see this dead bird.