Well it is has been a reasonably decent spring. Still looking for a few things, but a lot of nice days out.
A couple of Brown-headed Cowbirds in a bowing contest. Very male-driven displays. They tone it down with the females as they prefer more modest displays. But two males go all out. I like the grim expression of the male on right - he’s not intimidated!
A migrant Wilson’s Warbler fledgling:
Wilson’s Warbler, proud dad:
A resident Spotted Towhee fledgling. I like that big beak - like a puppy with huge paws:
Proud parent Spotted Towhee:
Bit of convergent coloration. A quite unrelated migrant male Black-headed Grosbeak. Completely different habits - towhees in the underbrush on the ground, grosbeaks high in trees, but same partial-shade adapted camouflage:
Speaking of color, a migrant male Tree Swallow broke my printer logic. It usually does a good job for a non-photo-specialized printer. But I got this guy on a bright day, but shaded by a shrub so the normal high gloss iridescence was toned down and you can see just how blue they are. My printer, which did just fine with a Western Bluebird, shrieked at the deep swallow blue and completely botched the color balance. Resident Western Bluebird for comparison:
Tree Swallow:
A migrant Ash-throated Flycatcher with a Goldenrod Spider snack:
Another migrant the Western Flycatcher (previously the Pacific-slope Flycatcher), the only “easy” Empid flycatcher to identify (humorous chart):
A migrant Warbling Vireo on the prowl:
A resident Hutton’s Vireo on the prowl (my favorite picture, because of the illuminated eye) and with lunch (another bird-watchers bane, often mistaken for Ruby-crowned Kinglets):
Finally, the cutest babies of them all. A Koch’s Wolf Spider with babies on board:
Those are magnificent images! Meanwhile, in Europe, we have bird baby season. The ducks have five chicks:
The crane only one, but what a nice one!
Here the proud parent stands about three feet tall, almost out of the frame:
This is 30 km South of Berlin, Germany. It is our Erlenbruchwald about which I have posted a lot in this thread started by Treppenwitz:
There is a lot to scroll, many pictures and anecdotes / stories. Feel free to ask if you have a question.
ETA:
Well, you can see the ducks, they are quite confident around humans. The crane and the other animals? No chance. Only the motion activated camera gets them. That is why the shots are all of the same spot, that was the place I put the device this week. Good spot! Many animals.
I just walked down the stairs and a large black bear was on our back deck, which is one floor up from the ground. Just staring in the door. My wife and I started yelling and it did not seem to care. I was worried it was going to try and break in our flimsy sliding doors but it finally sauntered over to the side and shimmied down a deck post, climbed over the neighbor’s fence and disappeared into their yard. I fear this bear is likely doomed because it has so little fear.
In the years since I last had elephant ears I had forgotten that each new leaf comes out of the back of the petiole of the previous leaf, facing the opposite direction. Here’s my new plant yesterday and today (and 4 days after the previous post I made)
Today I walked by a nearby pond and saw a Grey Heron, a Canadian Goose and some ducks hanging out in close proximity. A few feet away I saw a mother duck with 9 babies!
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