Friday’s Feathered Friends – Page 2 – Circadianreflections Blog

Friday’s Feathered Friends- Tundra Swan

February 7, 2025February 5, 2025Posted in birding, Birding in Nevada, Friday's Feathered Friends, NikonTagged Birding, Birds in Flight, Friday's Feathered Friends, Photography, Tundra Swan54 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

While out birding with the group last Friday morning we had the pleasure of a Tundra Swan fly-by. The single Swan flew by three times actually. Probably checking out the slough and ponds to see if that was the place to land or if his partner was there. We didn’t see a another swan and after three passes we didn’t see it again.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//:circadianreflections.com Image

Here it was flying over my head.

Both images are cropped a bit. It was higher in the sky than these make it look.

Fun Facts:

Lewis and Clark provided the first written description of the Tundra Swan during their expedition to the West, where the birds’ whistle-like calls prompted Meriwether Lewis to dub them “whistling swans.”
The whistling swan, the American race of the Tundra Swan, currently is considered the same species as the Eurasian race, the Bewick’s swan. They were considered separate species in the past, distinguished by the large yellow patches on the face of the Bewick’s swan.
The Tundra Swan stays in flocks except when on a breeding territory. Although most swans spread out to breed, a large proportion of the population on the breeding grounds still can be found in flocks. These swans are not breeding, and may be young birds that have not yet bred, adult pairs whose breeding attempts failed, or adults that bred in the past but for some reason do not in that year.
During the breeding season the Tundra Swan sleeps almost entirely on land, but in the winter it sleeps more often on water.
Tundra Swans breed in the remote arctic of North America. Parents defend their nests and young against a host of predators including foxes, weasels, wolves, and bears, as well as birds such as Glaucous Gulls, Common Ravens, Parasitic Jaegers, Pomarine Jaegers, and Golden Eagles. If the parents are present, they are able to defend the nest and nestlings from these threats. Wolves, people, and bears, however, are too big to fight, and most incubating swans leave their nests while these large predators are far away. By leaving quickly when large predators approach, the parents may make the nest harder to find.
Tundra Swans wintering in Chesapeake Bay feed almost exclusively on clams that they dislodge from the mud. But it can be challenging to enjoy a peaceful meal: often the swan has to fend off a Ring-billed, Herring, or Greater Black-backed gull that swoops in to grab a clam from the swan’s bill – a successful tactic in about half of these “kleptoparasitic” encounters.
Swans have long been associated with ideals of romance. Added to their elegant outlines and all-white plumage is their tendency to form permanent pair bonds by the time they’re 2-3 years old. Once a pair forms, Tundra Swans feed and roost together year-round.
Based on banding records, the oldest known Tundra Swan was a female and at least 23 years, 7 months old when she was identified by her band in the wild, in Ohio. She was originally banded in the same state.

Fun Facts gleaned from allaboutbirds.org

If the rain holds off this morning I’ll be birding so I may be late getting to your blogs, and comments.

more to come…

Friday’s Feathered Friends- Hermit Thrush

January 31, 2025January 28, 2025Posted in birding, Friday's Feathered FriendsTagged Birds in the Wild, Hermit Thrush, Nature, Photography, Santa Barbara Botanical Garden, Travel and Tourism46 Comments

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While we were visiting the Santa Barbara Botanical gardens recently He-Man stopped in a little garden rest area with a bench to retie his shoe and out popped a Hermit Thrush! I was so excited because I don’t see these shy birds too often.

We got several minutes of good looks at it while it was foraging around area.

Fun Facts-

Males usually gather food for the nest, while females feed the nestlings. The young birds start by eating bits of larvae, then grasshoppers, moths, and spiders. They sometimes eat small vertebrates such as salamanders.
Hermit Thrushes usually make their nests in and around trees and shrubs, but they can also get more creative. Nests have been found on a cemetery grave, on a golf course, and in a mine shaft.
Hermit Thrushes sometimes forage by “foot quivering,” where they shake bits of grass with their feet to get insects. They also typically begin to quiver their feet as they relax after seeing a flying predator.
East of the Rocky Mountains the Hermit Thrush usually nests on the ground. In the West, it is more likely to nest in trees.
Hermit Thrushes make several distinct calls around their nests. They will sometimes make a rising byob sound similar to a mewing kitten. Females frequently rearrange their eggs while making quit quit noises. In the morning, two adults meeting near the nest will greet each other with a pweet pweet call.
Hermit Thrushes are part of a genus (Catharus) that includes four other similar thrushes in North America: the Veery, Swainson’s Thrush, Gray-cheeked Thrush, and Bicknell’s Thrush. In the northeastern mountains, the Veery lives at the lowest elevations, Hermit Thrushes at middle elevations, and Swainson’s Thrushes at high elevations.
The oldest recorded Hermit Thrush was at least 10 years, 10 months old when it was recaptured and rereleased during banding operations in Maryland in 2009. It was originally banded there in 1999.

Fun facts gleaned as always from allaboutbirds.org

I’ll be a little late replying to your comments as I’m out birding this morning.

Nikon D850|Nikkor 500mm PF-e lens

more to come…

Friday’s Feathered Friends- The Anhinga

November 22, 2024November 21, 2024Posted in Bird Photography, Birding in Nevada, Friday's Feathered FriendsTagged Anhinga, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Florida Birding, Flowers, grass, late summer, Nature, Nikon39 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

The Anhinga was one of 4 birds I really wanted to see while I was in Florida in September and I saw 3 of them! One male and two Females…I think.

It’s another pre-historic cool looking bird.

I think this is a male because his neck is black. He’s drying his wings.

Here’s the female also drying out her wings. Like Cormorants they don’t have waterproof feathers so they get on a perch or land and spread them open to dry them out.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//:circadianreflections.com
As I crept closer to her to get a better shot I spooked her and off she flew.

Fun Facts:

The Anhinga’s distinctive shape earned it the nickname “water turkey” for its turkeylike tail, and “snake bird” for its long snakelike neck as it slithers through the water.
Unlike most waterbirds, the Anhinga doesn’t have waterproof feathers. While that may seem like a disadvantage for their watery lifestyle, their wet feathers and dense bones help them slowly submerge their bodies under the water so they can slyly stalk fish.
The name Anhinga comes from the Tupi Indians in Brazil, meaning “devil bird” or “evil spirit of the woods.”
The oldest recorded Anhinga was at least 12 years old when it was shot in Louisiana in 1948.

Fun facts gleaned from https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Anhinga/overview

We may have a break from the wind and beat the rain this morning so I’m going birding with friends which means I’ll be a bit late checking out your blogs, and reading comments.

more to come…

Friday’s Feathered Friends-Birds!

November 8, 2024November 13, 2024Posted in birding, Birds of North America, Friday's Feathered Friends, PhotographyTagged Birds in the Wild, Florida, Ibis, Magnificent Frigatebird, Nature, Nikon, Plovers59 Comments

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It’s been awhile since I shared any birds so I’m going to share several I saw while in Florida this past September. It was a fantastic trip. I saw 21 new to me birds aka “Lifers”. I won’t share all of them in this post. 😊

Black-bellied Plover

Semipalmated Plover

A Magnificent Frigatebird. This was the first time I’d ever seen it in the United States. I have seen it in Mexico before.

And a White Ibis

Aren’t they great? I’m still excited to have seen them.

How’d you all do with the time change for those of you in states and places that end Daylight Savings Time? How many clocks did you have to reset? We have 8 clocks we needed to change including the thermostat and our cars. I’ve been waking up earlier than normal so back to my natural rhythm at last!

I hope you all have a lovely week-end.

Nikon D850|Nikkor 500mm| PS CC

more to come…

Friday’s Feathered Friends- American Redstart

September 6, 2024September 5, 2024Posted in Bird Photography, birding, Friday's Feathered Friends, Nature, Nikon, SpringTagged American Redstart, Birds of North America, Colorful Birds, Friday's Feathered Friends, Ohio Spring Warblers39 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

Going back to my Spring trip to Ohio for these images. The American Redstart male.

He’s a Warbler. I’m on the edge of it’s range. If only one or two would stray a bit further west I wouldn’t have needed to go to Ohio to this one. 😂

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com

Here’s an audio clip of its song.

https://www.bird-sounds.net/american-redstart/

Fun Fact:

Like the Painted Redstart and other “redstarts” of the Neotropics, the American Redstart flashes the bright patches in its tail and wings. This seems to startle insect prey and give the birds an opportunity to catch them. Though these birds share a common name, they are not closely related to each other. In fact, there are other unrelated birds around the world—such as the fantails of Australia and southeastern Asia, and other redstarts of Europe—that share the same foraging tricks.
Young male American Redstarts have gray-and-yellow plumage, like females, until their second fall. Yearling males sing vigorously in the attempt to hold territories and attract mates. Some succeed, but most do not breed successfully until the following year when they develop black-and-orange breeding plumage.
The male American Redstart sometimes has two mates at the same time. While many other polygamous bird species involve two females nesting in the same territory, the redstart holds two separate territories that can be separated by a quarter-mile. The male begins attracting a second female after the first has completed her clutch and is incubating the eggs.
The oldest American Redstart was at least 10 years and one month old, when he was recaptured and rereleased during a banding operation in Ontario.

Fun facts gleaned from allaboutbirds.org

I may be late replying this morning as I’m starting my week-end birding a new to me area in South Lake Tahoe. I hope you all have a great day and week-end.

more to come…

Friday’s Feathered Friends-A Great Day Birding

May 10, 2024May 5, 2024Posted in Birds, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Friday's Feathered Friends, PhotographyTagged American Bald Eagle, Birds in Flight, Birds of Prey, Black-billed Magpie, Brewer's Sparrow, Friday's Feathered Friends, Lark Sparrow, Marsh Wren, Nikon, Sage Thrasher, Song Birds57 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

Last week I was birding with a group I belong to. We had a very exciting birding day with 66 species sighted. There were lots of great sightings, one was while in a big field in a Washoe Co. in the sagebrush, we saw a Brewer’s Sparrow and I got a few good images. It’s a “lifer” for me. A “lifer” is the first time you’ve ever seen a bird species.

*Brewer’s Sparrow Singing its Morning Song*

We saw two adult Bald Eagles which was exciting because one flew onto a telephone pole carrying food of some sort and started eating. Then we heard another Eagle call out and fly into the scene ready to attack from behind!

It tried to steal the food of the BE on the pole. The BE with the food took its prey and flew over to a nearby telephone pole and carried on eating while the would-be thief sat on top of the pole trying to figure out what went wrong and why he now had control of the pole but no food. 😂

In three images: The approach, The Attack, and the would-be thief flying off several minutes later very disappointed. I was too far away from the poles to get good images, but they’re keepers and good enough to tell the story with.

The Would-be thief flyby was better as I had moved closer by then.

Some other cool birds I saw and photographed were:

*Black-billed Magpie with Blue reflected in its eye*

I don’t have any cool bird fun facts for you today as the post would be too long. It’s already longer than my usual post.

FYI, I will be late getting back to you on the comments but, I will get to them.

I hope you all have a great week-end!

Nikon D850|Nikkor 500mm PF-e| PS CC 25.7.0

more to come…

Friday’s Feathered Friends- Western Wood Peewee

March 1, 2024February 29, 2024Posted in Birding in Nevada, Friday's Feathered Friends, PhotographyTagged Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Flycatchers, Nature, Nikon, weather, Western Wood Peewee42 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

I don’t think I’ve ever shared this bird before. This is an image I made last summer.

Fun Facts:

The breeding ranges of the nearly identical Eastern and Western Wood-Pewees overlap only in a very narrow zone in the Great Plains. Despite the birds’ physical similarity, no evidence has ever been found that the two species interbreed in that area—perhaps because their songs sound so different.
Where exactly the Western Wood-Pewee goes in the winter is still a mystery. Both Eastern and Western Wood-Pewees migrate to northern South America, but because they look so similar and they don’t call much on the wintering ground it’s hard to say for certain where each species spends its winter.
The scientific name of the Western Wood-Pewee is Contopus sordidulus. Contopus comes from the Greek word kontos which means short and pous which means foot—referring to the relatively short legs on Contopus flycatchers. Sordidulus means dirty or unkempt, a reference to the dusky brown wash to the breast and flanks.
The Western Wood-Pewee makes a clapping noise with its bill while chasing and attacking intruders in nest defense.
The oldest recorded Western Wood-Pewee was a female, and at least 8 years, 1 month old when she was recaptured and rereleased during banding operations in California in 2002. She had been banded in the same state in 1995.
Fun Facts gleaned from allaboutbirds.org

Nikon D810| Nikkor 300mm f/4| PS CC

We’ve been under a high wind and storm watch since yesterday morning. As I write this the wind is howling at 24 mph with gusts up to 47 mph. They’re saying we may get 8 inches of snow between now and Saturday. The sun is out, the clouds are big white and fluffy in some spots to the east but, gray and looming over the Sierras to the west. As you can imagine we’re hanging out at home.

I was planning to go birding with a local birding group this morning, but due to the weather that’s been rescheduled.

I’ve been re-watching The Expanse while waiting for the new season of Vera to be released on Wednesday. After I finish The Expanse I’ll be binge watching Vera if all the episodes are available, and I’m still working my way through the Woodlands and Trees Ready to Paint class in a book. I finished exercise 6 but, the little wood bridge over the creek came out really wonky…even more wonky than my normal wonky so, I’m on my second attempt with that one, and I mixed up a dark green shade of paint that I don’t like on this second pass, so they’ll probably be a 3rd attempt at mastering exercise #6. 😀

That’s me all caught up. What’s happening with you?

more to come…

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