Thursday's Bird Watch!

If the minute you walk out the door, you hear a bird singing, chances are almost 100% it's a White-crowned Sparrow.  For the past month the song of the male White-crowned Sparrow has dominated the bird world throughout the Dallas Retirement Village.  He can be heard and seen in all four corners of the Village.  I can think of no other song-bird that puts its heart and soul into its son quite like the White-crowned Sparrow.
 

Thursday's Bird Watch

 An Osprey brings in a stick for the nest on April 5th, marking a new season of nesting.  This is probably one of my favorite times of year, when the Osprey return from their winter thousands of miles away to build their nest, mate, and raise their young. Jeanette and I keep track of about a dozen Osprey nest locations in Polk County, but this is the only one in Dallas.  It's easy to find, just off South Main Street in the old Willamette Mill site.  Check it out as they go about their housekeeping chores and hopefully raise some young.

New Baby Hummingbird!

You will have to look closely to see this mother Anna's Hummingbird feeding her newborn. We have a scope set up in our living room in our second-floor apartment here at Dallas Retirment Village, trained on this hummingbird nest in a dogwood tree in the Central Courtyard.  We check on it many times a day, and notice when the female leaves the nest, and most of the time comes to the juice feeder in our balcony.  This morning on one of her return trips to the nest I spotted her feeding her baby!  Jeanette went to the garage and got a step ladder for me to stand on down by the nest to get this photo. We have been folowing this nest closely since finding it on Tues March 26th.   

Village Birders at Sarah Helmick Park

The Village Birders from Dallas Retirement Village took their first Birding Bus Trip of the year to Sarah Helmick State Park today, April 4th, 2024.  This is our forth year of Birding Bus Trips.  We lucked out on the weather and missed the rain altogether. 

Sharp eyes, aided by binoculars, and e-Bird's Merlin Identification app allowed us to observe and identify 15 different species.  Here is our e-Bird Observation List. 

Our most interesting observation were the Turkey Vultures warming up in the morning sun and launching into circles to gain altitude and travel out to find their prey for the day. 

Of course all was not about birds, we enjoyed some of the first of the Spring wildflowers.

 

Shooting Star

Fawn Lily

 

 

Thursday's Bird Watch

Dale Pader, Facility Operations Director here at Dallas Retirement Village, stopped us on the street last Tuesday, March 26th, to alert us to a nesting Anna's Hummingbird in the Central Courtyard.  I went directly to the Courtyard, found the nesting bird, and took this photo.  Unfortunately, I lost track of the tree the nest was in, and mistakenly found an empty nest in another tree, which led me to conclude for three days that the bird had abandoned the nest.  Very fortunately, Dale just happened by the Courtyard on Friday the 29th,  and pointed out the bird and the nest to us.  I was both embarrassed and elated at the same time.  Anna's Hummingbirds have an average of 16 day incubation period, so we will be looking for the hatchlings in a couple of weeks 
 

Murlark Osprey Pair

The pair of Osprey that visit a nest site in West Salem seasonally to raise their chicks is becoming a lesson in persistence. Osprey are known for returning to the same nest year after year. Salem Electric in an effort to draw Osprey away from nesting atop power poles has put up a number of platforms on poles to provide them an alternative. In this case, this pair of Osprey have their own opinions, and their continued success year after year points to their stubbornness or persistence. They are the most successful nesting pair in the West Salem area. Always the first to return from their wintering grounds someplace in Mexico or Central America, they always produce the most young.  All this in spite of the fact that their nest has been moved on them at least four times in the last few years. When we stopped by to check on them this morning at their most recent nest building project on a pole put up by Salem Electric on Edgewater St NW, we were surprised to find it empty. We turned down Murlark Ave to check on another nest site on Patterson, when all of a sudden Jeanette spotted a new nest on a power power pole on Murlark Ave with three or four birds. Stopping to examine closer, we found this start of a nest on a pole with two Osprey, and two decoy birds that had obviously been placed to discourage their nesting.   

Here it looks like there is an "eye to eye" conversation going on between the Osprey and the fake bird,  perhaps about who actually belongs at this location.  

Thursday's Bird Watch

 

While on a bird walk here at Dallas Retirement Village on Saturday morning this past week, I heard a loud drumming sound, possibly coming from the large aluminum streetlight pole at the corner of Tilgner and Brentwood, but I could not see it.  I suspected it was a Northern Flicker, well known for their antics in Spring when they drum out loudly on metal roof flashing and rain gutters to impress the fairer sex.   Luckily for me, DRV resident Joyce Pelo came by walking her little dog, and she spotted it on the shady side of the street sign.  Much to my surprise it was this little Red-breasted Sapsucker! Although I have heard and seen Northern Flickers many times making this loud drumming sound, never before have I seen and heard the much smaller Red-breasted Sapsucker.  I hope he is successful in attracting a mate!