Copyright ©2024 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.
I’m guessing it wasn’t a good day fishing?
Nikon D810| Nikkor 500mm PF-e| PS CC 25.4.0
more to come…
Whatever Weds. Backlash
Tag: Nevada
Friday’s Feathered Friends- Ruddy’s got the Blues
Copyright ©2024 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.
Things are changin’, Ruddy is showing off his Blues and Ruddy feathers for Spring and hoping he’s got what it takes to persuade a cute little female Ruddy Duck to be his love for the season.
Fun Facts:
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- Ruddy Ducks lay big, white, pebbly-textured eggs—the largest of all duck eggs relative to body size. Energetically expensive to produce, the eggs hatch into well-developed ducklings that require only a short period of care.
- The bright colors and odd behavior of male Ruddy Ducks drew attention from early naturalists, though they didn’t pull any punches. One 1926 account states, “Its intimate habits, its stupidity, its curious nesting customs and ludicrous courtship performance place it in a niche by itself…. Everything about this bird is interesting to the naturalist, but almost nothing about it is interesting to the sportsman.”
- Pleistocene fossils of Ruddy Ducks, at least 11,000 years old, have been unearthed in Oregon, California, Virginia, Florida, and Illinois.
- Ruddy Ducks are very aggressive toward each other and toward other species, especially during the breeding season. They are even known to chase rabbits feeding on the shore.
- Though Ruddy Ducks are native to the Americas, one population became established in England after captive ducks escaped in 1952. This population grew to about 3,500 individuals by 1992, and now appears to be expanding into the Netherlands, France, Belgium, and Spain.
- Ruddy Ducks get harassed by Horned Grebes, Pied-billed Grebes, and American Coots during the breeding season. The grebes sometimes attack Ruddy Ducks from below the water, a behavior known as “submarining.”
- The oldest Ruddy Duck on record was a male and at least 13 years, 7 months old when he was found in Oregon in 1964. He was banded in British Columbia in 1951.
Fun Facts gleaned from https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Ruddy_Duck/
Nikon D810| Nikkor 500mm PF| PS CC 25.4
more to come…
Friday’s Feathered Friends- Cedar Waxing
Copyright ©2024 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.
Last week while birding I saw so many Cedar Waxwings at 2 places I visited. There were about 120 in all! At one of the places they were gorging on ripe, plump red berries.
I was doing my happy dance to see that!
It was a great birdy day.
Fun Facts:
- The name “waxwing” comes from the waxy red secretions found on the tips of the secondaries of some birds. The exact function of these tips is not known, but they may help attract mates.
- Cedar Waxwings with orange instead of yellow tail tips began appearing in the northeastern U.S. and southeastern Canada in the 1960s. The orange color is the result of a red pigment picked up from the berries of an introduced species of honeysuckle. If a waxwing eats enough of the berries while it is growing a tail feather, the tip of the feather will be orange.
- The Cedar Waxwing is one of the few North American birds that specializes in eating fruit. It can survive on fruit alone for several months. Brown-headed Cowbirds that are raised in Cedar Waxwing nests typically don’t survive, in part because the cowbird chicks can’t develop on such a high-fruit diet.
- Many birds that eat a lot of fruit separate out the seeds and regurgitate them, but the Cedar Waxwing lets them pass right through. Scientists have used this trait to estimate how fast waxwings can digest fruits.
- Because they eat so much fruit, Cedar Waxwings occasionally become intoxicated or even die when they run across overripe berries that have started to ferment and produce alcohol.
- Building a nest takes a female Cedar Waxwing 5 to 6 days and may require more than 2,500 individual trips to the nest. They occasionally save time by taking nest materials from other birds’ nests, including nests of Eastern Kingbirds, Yellow-throated Vireos, orioles, robins, and Yellow Warblers.
- The oldest recorded Cedar Waxwing was a male and at least 7 years, 1 month old when he was recaptured and rereleased during banding operations in Maryland in 2014. He was originally banded in the same state in 2008.
Fun facts gleaned from https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Cedar_Waxwing
It’s snowing as I type this but, supposed to be sunny but cold on Saturday. I hope to go out birding for a bit if that forecast holds. I hope you all have a grand week-end!
more to come…
Something for Sat. Ruby Crowned-Kinglet
Copyright ©2024 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.
I don’t want the week to go by without a post so here we have me posting on a rare Saturday.
This little Kinglet is so cute, but very flitty normally but, on this day earlier this month I was able to get quite a few good looks at this one.
They’re a small bird being only 3.5-4.3 inches in length, and weigh 0.2-0.3 ounces.
I have yet to see it flared, but here’s a look at the top of its head showing the Ruby spot.
This one is busy being an acrobat which afforded me a good look at its Ruby Spot which was a treat. Just look at how light they are it’s holding onto those pine needles and they aren’t bending!
Fun Facts:
- The Ruby-crowned Kinglet is a tiny bird that lays a very large clutch of eggs—there can be up to 12 in a single nest. Although the eggs themselves weigh only about a fiftieth of an ounce, an entire clutch can weigh as much as the female herself.
- Ruby-crowned Kinglets seem nervous as they flit through the foliage, flicking their wings nearly constantly. Keeping an eye out for this habit can be a useful aid to identifying kinglets.
- Metabolic studies on Ruby-crowned Kinglets suggest that these tiny birds use only about 10 calories (technically, kilocalories) per day.
- The oldest known Ruby-crowned Kinglet was a female, and at least 8 years, 8 months old, when she was recaptured and rereleased during banding operations in Texas in 2017. She was banded in the same state in 2008.
Fun facts gleaned from allaboutbirds.orghttps://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Ruby-crowned_Kinglet/overview
I hope you all have a great week-end!
Nikon D810| Nikkor 500mm PF-e| PS CC 25.3.1
more to come…
Whatever Weds. American Kestrel
Copyright ©2023 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.
This is a Kestrel I saw in December. I’ll show her from the two sides I got to observe her from. It’s a treat to actually get two side views of a bird.
When I first spotted her high in a Cottonwood tree-
They’re one of the smallest birds of prey, but so cute.
Here she is from the other side, with her chest showing.
Fun Facts:
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- Sports fans in some cities get an extra show during night games: kestrels perching on light standards or foul poles, tracking moths and other insects in the powerful stadium light beams and catching these snacks on the wing. Some of their hunting flights have even made it onto TV sports coverage.
- When nature calls, nestling kestrels back up, raise their tails, and squirt feces onto the walls of the nest cavity. The feces dry on the cavity walls and stay off the nestlings. The nest gets to be a smelly place, with feces on the walls and uneaten parts of small animals on the floor.
- It can be tough being one of the smallest birds of prey. Despite their fierce lifestyle, American Kestrels end up as prey for larger birds such as Northern Goshawks, Red-tailed Hawks, Barn Owls, American Crows, and Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s Hawks, as well as rat snakes, corn snakes, and even fire ants.
- In winter in many southern parts of the range, female and male American Kestrels use different habitats. Females use the typical open habitat, and males use areas with more trees. This situation appears to be the result of the females migrating south first and establishing winter territories, leaving males to the more wooded areas.
- Unlike humans, birds can see ultraviolet light. This enables kestrels to make out the trails of urine that voles, a common prey mammal, leave as they run along the ground. Like neon diner signs, these bright paths may highlight the way to a meal—as has been observed in the Eurasian Kestrel, a close relative.
- Kestrels hide surplus kills in grass clumps, tree roots, bushes, fence posts, tree limbs, and cavities, to save the food for lean times or to hide it from thieves.
- The oldest American Kestrel was a male and at least 14 years, 8 months old when he was found in Utah in 2001. He was banded in the same state in 1987.
“Like neon diner signs”! 😂 I loved that description.
Fun facts gleaned from allaboutbirds.org
Happy New Year to all my blogging friends, and visitors!
Nikon D810| Nikkor 500mm| PS CC 25.3.1
more to come…
Whatever Weds. Yellowlegs
Copyright ©2023 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.
I saw this one foraging in a shallow pond earlier in the month. I think it’s a Lesser Yellowlegs, but if I’m wrong let me know! It’s so hard to tell it apart from the Greater Yellowlegs. I’m going on the bill not being too much longer than its head.
I don’t see this type of bird too often so it’s pretty neat when I do. It’s either passing through or hanging out for winter migration.
Fun Facts:
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- Despite their very similar appearance, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs are not each other’s closest relatives. Lesser Yellowlegs is more closely related to the much larger Willet.
- Lesser Yellowlegs are known for their steadfast defense of their eggs and chicks. Biologist William Rowan once noted, “they will be perched there as though the safety of the entire universe depended on the amount of noise they made.”
- Both the male and female Lesser Yellowlegs provide parental care to the young, but the female tends to leave the breeding area before the chicks can fly, thus leaving the male to defend the young until fledging.
- The Lesser Yellowlegs saw significant declines due to market hunting for the fashion trade. The species’ tendency to return and hover above wounded flock mates made them easy targets. Populations rebounded when market hunting was banned in the U.S and Canada in the early 20th century.
- The oldest recorded Lesser Yellowlegs was at least 4 years, 11 months old when it was found in South Dakota in 1965. It had been banded in the Lesser Antilles in 1960.
more to come…
Sunday Stillness-Sliders & a Softshell
Copyright ©2023 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.
Nikon D810| Nikkor 24-120mm & iPhone 14 Pro
more to come…
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