Also saw a courting pair of Brown-headed cowbirds, which was notable because I personally almost never see a pair. But these were tight, never straying more than a few feet from each other. The female is notoriously one of the most non-descript little brown bird in NA, as well as probably the most maligned:
Courting male - I think they’re kinda handsome birds:
I’ll spare you the pictures I also took that day of a turkey vulture chowing down on a road-killed raccoon .
That’s over the bridge and down the road a short walk from our house. The people who live on that side of the river own that meadow, with their houses across the road (to the right, out of the frame in the photo). They have an incredible view, and I’m lucky that the road is not private, and I can walk the Little Dog there in the evenings.
Yesterday evening, driving up the dirt road towards my house, I saw a whole flock of turkeys booking across the cow pasture. They were big ones too! There were a couple of sandhill cranes watching them go, and they were all, “Do we know you?”
I couldn’t get a good picture because someone was coming up the road behind me, but that’s cranes on the left, turkeys on the right.
I was watching the birds at my suet feeders today. There were the normal nuthatches, chickadees, and juncos (the woodpeckers have been away). Then suddenly this tropical- looking bird lands on a suet cage, however briefly. A Western Tanager.
I barely knew it existed - I’d heard of the Scarlet Tanager - but now I’ve got to figure out how to find him again and get a photo. They’re not normally found at birdfeeders.
From Friday, on the lake in Sheffield Park, a coot does it’s Jesus bird impression.
Ahem. Google photos has excelled itself and completely cropped the coot out of the shot. Click through for the full photo.
As an aside, notice that one of the floats of waterlillies has exclusively red flowers, and the other has exclusively white. I’m not sure if that’s down to nature or the gardeners.
This is my yard baby. I see it several times a day now! I’m scared that one day I won’t see it anymore, but also it’s making me happy to see it right now.
Thanks!
We got a flash flood warning on the phone and could see dark clouds on the horizon, but it took 3 hours of driving to finally get to the rain. The storm pictured above was a small squall after the main storm, which produced torrential rain for maybe 15 miles.
.
