Copyright ©2023 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.
Fuji X-T3|Fujinon 100-400mm@400mm| PS CC 24.4.1
more to come…
Wordless Weds. Great Horned Owlets!
Tag: Washoe County
Friday’s Feathered Friends-Pine Grosbeak
Copyright ©2021 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Last week I went birding with the Audubon Group and we were treated to a sighting that not only was a new to me bird, but a rare bird to this area too. Lifer number 6 for 2021 is the Pine Grosbeak. This is a female.
This was a “lifer” for about half the group and there were only 9 of us birding that morning. It was quite exciting!
Fun Facts-gleaned from allaboutbirds.org
- Pine Grosbeaks eat a lot of plants, but it can be tough for their nestlings to eat and digest all that vegetation. Instead of feeding plants directly to their nestlings, they regurgitate a paste of insects and vegetable matter that they store in pouches at the lower part of their jaw on either side of their tongues.
- Not all Pine Grosbeaks are the same. Not only do they differ in the amount and intensity of red across their range, they are also different sizes. Body size and wing and tail length generally increase from Newfoundland westward to the Yukon Territory. But birds on Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Island) in British Columbia, Canada, and in California are among the smallest of all Pine Grosbeaks. Wings and tails of birds on Haida Gwaii are around a half inch smaller than birds in Alaska.
- Pine Grosbeaks aren’t just in North America. They also breed in subalpine evergreen forests from eastern Asia to Scandinavia.
- The tameness and slow-moving behavior of the Pine Grosbeak prompted locals in Newfoundland to affectionately call it a “mope.”
- Winter flocks may stay near a tree with abundant fruit until all of it is consumed.
- The oldest recorded Pine Grosbeak was a male, and at least 9 years, 9 months old when he was found in Quebec in 1970. He was first captured and banded in Connecticut in 1961.
I hope you all have a wonderful week-end!
Fuji X-T3| Fuji 100-400mm| PS CC 22.4.2
more to come…
Wordless Weds. The Star Stop
Copyright © 2021 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Composite image:
Sky- Nikon D300s| 17mm| f90 secs| f/5.6| ISO 400 52 frames stacked in Photoshop
Foreground-Nikon D810|15 secs.|20mm| f/2.2| ISO 2000
I lit up the gazebo with 14 little tea lights. All the elements were blended in Photoshop CC 22.4.2
more to come…
Friday’s Feathered Friends- Lifers 3, 4, & 5 for 2021
Copyright ©2021 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
At the end of May He-Man and I went for a hike on a new to us trail called Deadman’s Creek Trail. It’s a nice short trail just a wee bit over a mile up and 280 foot elevation gain with a wonderful payoff at the end. There’s a lovely gazebo at the top of the hill, and the view is gorgeous.
To top this off being a nice hike it was an even better hike because I saw three new to me birds on this trail!!
Number 3 new bird for the year was the Rock Wren. It posed for me nicely. Later it sang for us too.
On the way down I saw the next two. First was the Female Lazuli Bunting. It’s not a great image as she was out of range of my lens, but it was a good enough look to get her identified. I’ve seen the male before but, not the female so I was excited to have now seen both the male and female of the species.
The last new to me bird was the Black-throated Sparrow. I’ve been back to try to get a better image of it twice, but I haven’t seen it again.
All I know of how the trail got its name is back in the 1860’s a man bought a ranch near here and grew produce to sell to the miners in the valley. In 1864 he sold half his ranch to another man who became his business partner, but in 1865 the two ranchers were found shot dead. It was first thought they were murdered, but later they changed the thinking to a murder suicide situation. It’s a story true to the Wild West tales that’s for sure.
On a happier note there were wildflowers in bloom along the trail too. I put together a Contact Sheet with several thumbnail images of the highlights of the hike to share.
We’ve had #1 Grandson with us for 11 days and Big Baby Boy flew up for a short visit too. We’ve been going to the lake to beat the heat and paddle on my SUP board. If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen some of my images and videos of that so I won’t repeat that here.
Big Baby Boy left Tuesday, and Baby Girl, The Handsome Surveyor, and Littlest are arriving this evening for a short overnight stay and take #1 Grandson home tomorrow. The visits went by too fast!! That catches you up on my doings. What’s new with you?
I hope you’re all having a lovely week, and you have a great week-end!
Fuji X-T3| Fuji 100-400mm| iPhone 7Plus| Photoshop CC 22.4.2
more to come…
Friday’s Feathered Friends-Warbling Vireo
Copyright ©2021 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Continuing on with the newest “lifers” that I’ve picked up this year I present Lifer N° 2 for 2021…the Warbling Vireo.
I confess I would have missed this bird had I not been out with a local birding group. The leader for that day’s outing recognized its song, and I started peering into the foliage and spotted something flitting around. Hoping for it come out in the open for peek I waited, and waited. Finally a brief look!!
Then just as quickly it flew to another bush behind a branch and began singing its morning song.
These are the only decent images I was able to get of it, but I’m happy to have them!
They have a large range in the United States, but breed here in the Summer months.
Since this little one is singing in the last image I thought I’d try to add a sound file so you can hear one of its songs. Nuts! The link didn’t embed the sound file.
Clicking the link will open a new window with the recording of the Western Warbling Vireo
https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/110999
Fun Facts: Gleaned from allaboutbirds.org
- Warbling Vireos have a good name—the males sing a fast, up-and-down, rollicking song that suits the word “warbling.” The early twentieth century ornithologist William Dawson described the song this way: “fresh as apples and as sweet as apple blossoms comes that dear, homely song from the willows.” The highly variable song usually ends on a high note, leading the birder Pete Dunne to describe it as sounding “like a happy drunk making a conversational point at a party.”
- Across their wide range, Warbling Vireos differ from one population to another in several characteristics, including overall size, bill shape, plumage coloring, molt patterns, wintering areas, and vocalizations. The differences are significant enough to lead ornithologists to recognize six separate subspecies of Warbling Vireo, and at one time divided them into two species.
- Brown-headed Cowbirds frequently deposit their own eggs in the nests of Warbling Vireos. In some instances, the vireo pair incubates the alien egg and raises the young cowbird until it fledges. Female vireos in some eastern populations, however, tend to puncture and eject interlopers’ eggs.
- Researchers speculate that Warbling Vireo song is at least partially learned rather than hard-wired. They base this supposition in part on observations of one individual whose song more closely resembled that of a Red-eyed Vireo than that of its parents. The garbled song, they concluded, probably resulted from a flawed learning process during the bird’s development.
- The longest-lived Warbling Vireo on record—a male that was originally banded in July 1966—was at least 13 years, 1 month old when it was recaptured and rereleased during banding operations in California.
I hope you enjoyed seeing these Warbling Vireo images today, and I hope your Friday is going well, and you have a lovely week-end and I wish an early Happy Father’s Day to all the Dad’s in the US!
Fuji X-T3| Fuji 100-400mm| PS CC 22.4.2
more to come…
Friday’s Feathered Friends- American Dippers
Copyright ©2021 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
I’ve been rather slow at telling you about several new to me birds that I’ve seen this year. There have been 5 so far this year.
The first one I saw was back in February. Yeah, I know. I love making the images, going out hiking, birding, etc., but processing the images and writing…not so much.
So, this bird I saw in February really made me do my happy dance… jumping for joy happy dance because I tried to find this bird several times over a couple of years while I lived in San Jose sans success. Just less than two years after moving to Nevada I found not one but a pair!! Here without further ado is the American Dipper.
They were gathering nesting material under an overpass and flying into a hole under it. Lighting conditions weren’t great. They were in the shadow of the bridge making it hard to get a good image of them. I opened up the shadows in post editing.
This next image shows the white eyelid they have that you only see when they blink.
Finally, I got lucky and one flew out into the sunlight!
Fun Facts: Gleaned from allaboutbirds.org
- The American Dipper chooses a nest site, invariably along a stream, that provides security from floods and predators. Availability of suitable nest sites appears to limit its populations.
- To be able to survive in cold waters during the winter, the American Dipper has a low metabolic rate, extra oxygen-carrying capacity in its blood, and a thick coat of feathers.
- Unlike most other songbirds, but similarly to ducks, the American Dipper molts its wing and tail feathers all at once in the late summer. The bird is flightless during this time.
- The oldest American Dipper was over 8 years old, when it was recaptured and rereleased during a banding operation in South Dakota.
The American Dipper is North America’s only truly aquatic songbird. I’m so happy I finally saw them!
I hope you all have a great week-end!
Fuji X-T3| Fujinon 100-400mm| PS CC 22.4.1
more to come…
Wordless Wednesday-Profile of an American Robin
Copyright ©2021 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Fuji X-T3| Fujinon 100-400mm @400mm| PS CC 22.4.1
more to come…
Circadianreflections Blog 
You must be logged in to post a comment.