Two New Hummingbird Nests

It has been a busy Spring for birds here at the Dallas Retirement Village, especially in the Central Courtyard. Eurasian Collared-Doves produced a baby this year. European Starlings are currently feeding young ones. And, most importantly, the Anna's Hummingbirds had two nests, not just one, and both nests had two babies. In mid-April, the juveniles in both nests fledged. Because Anna's Hummingbirds can have more than one brood a year, I have been keeping an eye peeled for a second round of nests. For a couple of weeks, I have noticed a hummingbird going into a certain tree but try as I might I could not find a nest. I finally asked Jeanette to take a look.  She walked right up to the tree and pointed it out. I now know there are two eggs in the nest.  Then resident Carol Combs told us she had discovered a nest in the tree in front of her patio. Low and behold it contained two juveniles as shown in the photo below.  In the photo above, Jeanette is showing resident Ron David the nest at Carol's patio.

These are good sized juveniles, so I imagine they will be fledging soon.

    

 

Thursday's Bird Watch

This great photo of a Bald Eagle was sent to us from Christine who works the Front Desk at The Club House here in Dallas Retirement Village.  While visiting a friend who lives on Rickreall Creek, Christine noticed the Bald Eagle and her friend took the photo.  Bald Eagles are increasingly becoming a common sight in recent years, particularly along our waterways.  However, the downside is population of Great Herons and Osprey are decreasing.  

 

Riverview Park

 

Del Warren, a friend and fellow resident here at Dallas Retirement Village, explained to us that the birds were very plentiful when he was at the Riverview Park in Independence. We made it a point to stop by yesterday morning and give it a try.  Immediately on getting out of the care we were surrounded by bird songs, so many that our Merlin app had identified 10 species before we left the car.  It's easy to walk the path along the river and Jeanette was kept busy entering in our total species count of 37 on eBird in her iPhone. Here is the link to our eBird Checklist.

The best photo shot of the day was this Osprey male bringing a fish to his female on the nest. Notice the flat look to the front of the fish.  This is because of the normal practice of the male to eat the head off before bringing the fish to the female. This nest site is located next to the Independence Hotel, and it is easy to observe the nest from the Riverview Park parking lot. The exciting thing for birders is that there is a live camera on the nest.  We can watch it on your iPhone, tablet, and TV, but I think for the observation to count on eBird it needs to be in person rather than a screen shot.  We know there are three eggs in the nest, so this scene will be repeated many times in the days to come as the male brings his catch to the female on the nest. 

 

Happy Anniversary to Us

 On this day 32 years ago Jeanette and I got married at Silver Falls State Park. We are celebrating with a trip to the Oregon Coast for the night.  We are camped at Carter Lake Campground with our friend Glenn Pannier, who is the volunteer campground host for this season. We drove over this morning in our van and spent the afternoon birding in the campground with Glenn. Here is our bird list. 

Jeanette and I met through a common interest in bicycling. But soon discovered that we both enjoyed hiking. We added backpacking and cross-country skiing. As we aged, we traveled a lot in RVs. Now the most age-appropriate sport for us is birding. Through all these years what we have enjoyed the most is the time we spend together wherever our interests take us in the great outdoors.

Thursday's Bird Watch!

Eurasian Collard-Doves have made a nest this year at Dallas Retirment Village in the balcony rafters of Diane Wetherbee's 3rd floor Lodge residence.  Last Thursday I got a call from Ann Rolfe about a baby bird on her 2nd floor balcony, which is directly below Diane's place.  The baby turned out to be the juvenile Eurasian Collard-Dove in this photo.  It has also been seen down on the first floor of Del Warren's patio.  So, we know it can fly on its own.  Notice that it does not have the black "collar" on the neck that is so easy for identification of the adults. This is kind of a big deal because this is the first juvenile I have ever seen. It we be interesting to see what happens in the days ahead with this young bird.  
 

Thursday's Bird Watch!

 Recently, several Dallas Retirement Village residents have asked me about a hawk that has been seen in the backyards of the east-side Garden Homes. This photo is I believe what they have been seeing, taken on March 13th, a Cooper's Hawk. They are the most common of a group of hawks known as Accipiters, which prey on other birds. Here at DRV, they seem to prefer the small Pine Siskins which we have hanging around in flocks in the trees between the Garden Homes. In past years we have been able to observe the Cooper's nesting in tall trees in the Dallas City Park, which as "the crow flies", is just a short distance away from DRV. 

Owl Adventure

 For the last two weeks I have been on a quest to photograph an owl here at Dallas Retirement Village. It started with a late-night text from a neighbor. I missed it, but luckily Jeanette heard it and woke me up to explain that the neighbor had just seen a large white owl at her balcony. We rushed down to have a look, and did get a quick glimpse of what we believed were two Barn Owls.  Since 2024, they have been known as American Barn Owls.  After finding pellets we suspected that we had owls but had assumed Great Horned Owls.  We were disappointed that no one was hearing the hoot of the Great Horned Owl. Once we realized that we had Barn Owls, which have a sound more like a clicking or screaming, things fell into place, and early this morning I was finally able to get some photos.