FYI birds that appear well outside their normal range are called “vagrants” This Eastern Phoebe was around for about two weeks and then disappeared. Love its song.
Many of the flycatchers in the genus Empidonax are difficult to identify as they all look very similar. It’s one telltale move that helps to identify it is that it habitually dips its tail downward rather than the upward tail-flicking of some of its fellow Empidonax.
I went to a birding festival in Cortez for a couple of days and when I came home one nyjer, one jelly, one hummingbird feeder and five seed and two suet feeders were taken down. I had been leaving them out all spring since there hadn’t been any bear signs in my area….so I took a chance and didn’t bring the feeders in when I left. Now I only have out one suet, one seed and one hummingbird feeder and bring them in at night. When the seed and suet runs out that will be it for the summer.
The image with the bent black pole shows four feeders, three on the ground including one black nyjer feeder in the lower right. The other image shows five feeders on the ground.
I am a bit embarrassed by the poor quality of the cell phone images.
I think that I counted 54 Willets. I was alone out at a reservoir…in the pouring rain… on Saturday at the end of “the big day” where we were trying to get as many different species in the county as possible. There were a number of birders involved and we ended up getting a total of 151 different species. Exhausting day.
Every year a male and female Mallard pair show up to swim and feed in my very small wastewater lagoon (one photo shows how small it really is). The water goes from the house into a septic system and then flows into this small open-air lagoon.
For many years these two Mallards have shown up every Spring. They swim around and obvious feed. They don’t stay overnight, but fly off to someplace to spend the night and arrive again early the next morning…..They do not make a nest or raise young there. It is certainly curious why they have chosen this place to come to every year…..They are not habituated at all and fly off if I walk around on that side of the house.. Occasionally, last year, the male would come and feed on the birdseed under Grandmother Tree, but it would waddle off or fly away if I appeared too close at a window.
Adventures, Animals and Images 