Pileateds are just about my fave bird. I can remember the first one I saw - sitting very prominently and screaming. Then I learned more about them, and realized they were all over this place in MI.
This a.m. I noticed a little yellow on the male goldfinches on our front feeder - which was cool. Haven’t heard the cardinals singing yet.
Cardinals and goldfinches are 2 of our fave birds and 2 of the most common at our feeders. We recently moved some furniture around such that we had walls that could use art. So we bought a couple of high-quality Audubon prints of those 2, and have them being framed. Will be a neat main point in our living room!
Fabulous. I would see them when I was a child at our family’s cabin, but as the older trees died and were taken down, they have moved on. I haven’t seen one in years. To be fair, the family cabin became my youngest brother’s home and he is not one for trees. But I’m sure plunging populations play a part.
Saw a huge bald eagle and even larger golden eagle sharing brunch (what remained of a deer or antelope… it was not recognizable enough to say which). About a half-mile from that, I saw another large bald eagle perched in a tree along the road I was on.
People in my neighborhood have sited bald eagles here. Every time I leave the house I keep an eye out, but no luck so far - hawks and vultures are as good as it gets.
Back to that muddy field twenty-odd miles south of London (Post 1136)
Today we went for a walk with friends, and as a sort-of prank I took them past that field. OK, so if there had been nothing there, it would just be a walk, but obviously I was hoping for it to be a walk with rare cattle egrets - a chance to show off my find. But it’s been very wet and extremely windy (red weather warning yesterday) so I didn’t really know what to expect.
Fifteen egrets. FIFTEEN. And you know what? I STILL got trumped. For nearly a week our friends had a bald ibis hanging around in their garden - it disappeared just a couple of days ago.
I mean, Christ, that’s rare even in zoos. But I saw the photos. Amazing. Maybe it went back home to its owner. Hope so.
Last week - Thurs I think, we saw the first daffodil leaves poking up. The brick house at the south end of our block always has the earliest diffs an crocuses. That afternoon they got about 6" of snow dumped on them. Spring in Chicago!
Walking in the woods, my gf pointed out coyote tracks. I mentioned that they could be dog tracks, but she countered with the “big picture”. The coyote tracks went in a very efficient straight line. Our dog’s tracks went all over. Also the coyote pads were more oval, dog pads were round.
Neat. I’ve read books on tracking, and enjoy seeing them in nature. But with a couple of obvious exceptions like deer/rabbit, my wife’s and my analysis is generally of the, “Whaddya think made those?” variety.
Tracks can be difficult to interpret. I had pictures of weird tracks in the snow in our yard that didn’t make sense. Because they were near our bird feeders, I posted the picture on Reddit “what’s this bird?.
Unanimous agreement among birders that the tracks were from a raptor dragging its kill.
I remember one time I took a Cub Scout den on a winter hike w/ another parent who was a hunter. It was amazing what stories he could tell from a few marks in the snow. Mice tunneling under the snow, tracked by a fox. A hawk killing a rabbit…
A ground dove (or so I’m told) decided to nest in a planter on my front porch. I almost didn’t see her, and it’s possible she’s been there for a few days. She has one egg right now. And she seems rather peaceful
I didn’t know squirrels were terratorial but today I saw a squirrel run up a tree and soon there were tussling and chattering noises and it came back down followed by another squirrel that seemed upset at it.
This morning, I found two baby chics in the nest along with the parent Dove. (I understand that the parents take turns, so I’m not sure which one is there right now.) The incubation period is supposed to be 2 weeks, and I only saw one egg on Tuesday. I just looked at the picture of the egg I took then, and maybe there was already a chic in the nest.
I was finally able to ID that warbler I’d been seeing on and off. It’s a pine warbler. It eats at the mealworm and suet feeders and flies off to the stand of tall pines across the street.
