Baby Chickadees

Just today we became aware that we had baby Black-capped Chickadees.  If you look closely you can count four.  We have been seeing some activity at the bird house for a number of days and were under the impression and hoping that they were building a nest.  Wrong, the nest had already been built, eggs laid, incubated, and hatched.  How could we have missed so much?  In past years this box has been used by Violet-green Swallows, and they are easy to spot with their long graceful swoops, and aerial insect catches.  After hearing the babies today and then watching closely, I realized the Chickadees have a much shorter exposer time.  They make a quick dart from the protection of the cherry tree a few feet away and enter directly into the bird house. Upon exiting they fly directly into the nearby fir trees and disappear to search for insects completely out of sight.  Swallows on the other hand, after their long swoops, land on the outside of the bird house hole and pause briefly before entering. Upon exiting they resume their swooping flight in full view for yet another insect.  

Buster Makes A Find

This morning when we stepped out of the car on Mehl Creek Road to do some birding, we spotted a Killdeer who immediately went into a series of strange body postures as shown in this photo.

We recognize this behavior as an effort on the killdeer’s part to lure us away from its nesting site.  We ride this section of road a lot on our bicycles and have long given up on finding the nest.  Killdeer make their nest right in the gravel and the eggs and chicks blend in so well it is always almost impossible to find.  Today two adult killdeer where doing their best to lure us away along the north side of the road.  As we were about to leave I went to call Buster and I noticed that he was on the south side of the road and had found something.  A closer look revealed that he had found the nest with four baby killdeer.  Buster never touched the chicks; he really does not have a killer instinct, just extremely curious.

Western Kingbird

Back in Elkton - - and back to the routine; which is to say, take Buster for the morning dog/bird walk.  This morning we took our familiar walk along the river out to the Elkton Community Education Center and back.  At the E.C.E.C. I spotted this lone Western Kingbird.  A while back we had two Kingbirds hanging out around the Post Office just across from our house.  But a short time ago we no longer saw them there but did see two out at the E.C.E.C. Now, for the last two times I have only seen one Kingbird.  My guess is this lone bird is the male and the missing one is the female who is sitting on a nest nearby.

Birding with Uncle Allen

Jeanette’s Uncle Allen is in a care unit on the north end of Corvallis.  We have been trying to coordinate a birding trip for him at the near-by Jackson-Frazier Wetland for several months.  Today all the forces of weather and schedule came together and his son Larry and wife Ginny brought Allen to Jackson-Frazier where we met to walk the board walk. The weather was perfect and we heard and spotted several Marsh Wrens as shown in the lower photo.  We also identified the unusual Sora, and Virginia Rail. Uncle Allen has been and inspiration and roll model for Jeanette and I for many years. He and his wife were RV’ers for many years, and he had a huge knowledge of birds. Early on in our birding hobby, we visited Uncle Allen and Aunt Fransie during the winter in Arizona.  He introduced us to several birds we did not know and impressed us with his ability to identify birds just by their song.   

Angry Wrentit ?

Yesterday this Wrentit seemed to strike an angry pose as it stared out of the bushes with its long tail held erect.  Since learning their song last year we have discovered that they are quiet numerous.  We now hear them almost daily, but rarely see them. They seem to prefer to stay well hidden in the brush, although their song clearly gives away their presence.  We have resorted to kind of a trick to be able to see them; we play their song from a bird App on an iPod, then they quickly appear from hiding. I’m not sure out of curiosity or a defense of territory, but they appear to lose all timidity and become very brave.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

I received an e-mail with an attached photo yesterday from Elkton resident, Paula Swanson.  She had just photographed this Rose-breasted Grosbeak at her back-yard feeder.  It took a while for my brain to kick into gear, and to realize what she had. This is a bird that for the most part resides east of the Rockies.  There have been very few sighting in Oregon, and none that I could find in Douglas County. It is indeed a rare sighting.  Fortunately she got this great photo so there can be no doubt about what she saw. Thanks Paula.

Western Tanager

We have been hanging around home here in Elkton for almost 2 weeks now. It’s pretty easy to understand why I am content with birding right here at home when you consider that I can walk right out my front door and in a couple of hours count over 2 dozen different species of birds,  and in that mix would be strikingly beautiful birds like this male Western Tanager. With the summer migrants back it’s interesting to see new/old friends in various swallows and warblers.