My neighbor and I have begun taking our cameras on our walks because we’re seeing more and more of the Spring migrating birds passing though. Last week on a longer walk to another neighborhood we spotted this guy eating those Russian Olives. Don’t they look like pearls?
Sage Thrasher
They are the smallest of the Thrashers and love the sagebrush of the western states. We’re on the western edge of its breeding territory. They mimic other birds while they sing. I didn’t hear this one singing though.
I was surprised to see this one up in tree! They usually are hanging around the sagebrush and will hide in it.
I hope you all have a great weekend, and if you’re watching the game I hope your team wins.
I told you I would show you the beautiful Vermilion Flycatcher that I went to see in Maxwell, CA a few week ago, and today is the day! He’s a year round resident of Mexico and South America. He does come north to So. Texas and So. California for breeding season, and has been seen in the states along the gulf coast states. How this one found his way up here in Central Calif. is a mystery, but it’s been returning for 5 winters now. He’s rare there.
Isn’t he pretty?
Fuji X-T3 w/ Fuji 100-400mm lens @400mm
Almost two weeks ago He-Man went up to Washoe Co. the next county over to go on a bike ride and I went with him not to ride, but to bird while he rode and guess who I saw? The White-headed Woodpecker! This is a male. I only saw this species for the first time last year so I still do a happy dance when I see one.
This one was so busy foraging he didn’t care about me too much. Once in awhile he did check me out.
Fuji X-T3| Fuji 100-400mm @400mm
Sunday two neighbors and I went for our walk and we decided to go further than the mailbox and go up the hill and come home the back way where we saw Mountain Bluebirds foraging in the Russian Olive trees. The Olives are like little nuts that they seem to really like.
I saw this species for the first time last Spring, but didn’t have my camera with me but, by the time I raced home on foot to get the camera and return to the spot I saw one it was gone. I am so glad I had a camera with me on Sunday! Mountain Bluebird Male–
Panasonic Lumix FZ200 @600mm
It’s been a good birdy couple of weeks that has been waylaid by weather. We’ve had snow! I won’t be out birding for a few days.
I hope you all have a lovely weekend, stay healthy, and safe.
This is a Breeding adult which you can easily ID by the fan of golden feathers at the “ear”. This image is from early spring where I spied it swimming in one of the ponds at the golf course where we live.
Fun fact- Grebes have lobed rather than fully webbed feet that sit at the rear of their body.
Fuji X-T3| Fujinon XF 100-400mm@400mm| PS CC 21.2.1
For this week’s Friday’s Feathered Friends, and Lisa’s Weekly Bird Challenge whose theme this week is Yellow Birds I have to share the male Bullock’s Oriole!
They pass through here during mating season and stay high up in the treetops making photographing them a challenge. I saw this guy not too long ago in April while birding.
Fuji X-T3| Fujinon XF100-400mm LM OIS| PS CC 21.1.2
Look at this one taking two seeds at a time! I love it! I didn’t realize it had taken two until I uploaded my images.
I didn’t crop it in too much so you can see the environment we snowshoed into to see and feed these birds. It was pretty cool being out here almost alone for a good bit. As the morning wore on though more and more snowshoers started coming up the mountain. We spent an hour and a half feeding the Chickadees then headed down to venture to other places to see what we could find. I’ll share those finds in future posts.
I hope you all have a good week-end!
Fuji X-T3| Fujinon XF 100-400mm LM OIS| PS CC 21.0.3
Last week was pretty full. I went to see Baby Girl, and the Grandson’s for a couple of days then got home and had friends from out of town over for the week-end.
We went birding. I shared with them the spot where the Chick-a-dees ate from my hand we were fortunate and saw them again and they ate from our hands. It was just as fun, exciting, and awesome as it was the first time.
Two Chick-a-dees landed on my hand to get seeds and one didn’t like the idea of sharing at. all. 😂
They were quite picky about the sunflowers seeds they would take often spitting several overboard before selecting one and flying off to the trees with it.
In this image, you can see the seed and its shadow in the air in my hand that the Chick-a-dee just discarded. They all did it. Perhaps they were saving some for later?
My friend Anna was wearing a beanie which was perfect to put some seeds on it and get the Chick-a-dees to land on her cap. They did!
This was our first birding stop for the day and it was so much fun.
I’ll share other birds and wild mustangs from the week-end in future posts.
I hope you all are having a great Friday, and your week-end is a good one!
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