Birds

Thu - January 10, 2008

Magnusen Park, 10 Jan 08

Waxwing hunt

A bird list has reported a Bohemian Waxwing in Magnusen Park for the last week or so. So instead of my normal walk with Tikka today, I went on my second ever "birding" outing. (I almost said first there, but then remembered going to a specific place in Iceland to try to see Puffins.) Tikka and I got very muddy and wet. The walk around the park reminded me of my long rambling walks in the forest next to our family home while I was growing up. Lots of little paths through grass, mixed woods, blackberry brambles, and LOTS of bogs. We saw very few birds on our walk, with a few solitary robin, several crows, a couple of chickadees, a small flock of Bushtits, some gulls and cormorants in the distance on Lake Washington. However, after getting in my car and driving around some more, we found a small tree that had about 10 birds in it. I stopped and lo-and-behold, over half of them were Cedar Waxwings, the rest were robins and redwinged blackbirds. I never did see the Bohemian, who has been seen in the company of these birds, but I was happy to see the Cedars. It was a very grey day, but I got a few photos of the birds. We gave up when it started to rain. Am I a birder now? I sure felt a little silly out there with my camera and binocs while everyone else I saw was just walking. It is sort of like any other pursuit, you feel a little "geeky" being too enthusiastic about it. Mostly my birding has centered around having my binocs available to look at birds in the field or on hikes for other purposes, I think it will probably stay that way.

At first, all I got were shots of their cabooses (as Nina might say). But they do show off the nice red on the wings and yellow tail this way.

I liked the colors of the dead leaves and how they match the bird a little in this one.

Posted at 12:41 PM

Wed - October 10, 2007

Seattle bird feeders

I put out black oil sunflower, niger thistle, and a suet feeder about a week ago. The chickadees found the sunflower almost immediately, and explored every feeder and feeder hanger in the yard thoroughly. They were the first to use the suet, and are the most regular. In a couple of days the house finches found the sunflower too, but they have yet to explore the thistle. The sparrows (european house sparrows only so far) came with the finches. The flickers have been interested in the sunflower, but have a hard time with the feeder. One of them figured out the upside down suet feeder, but the one who seems to think that this yard is his territory has not yet managed to figure out upside-down feeding, even after watching the other flickers doing it. Today we got lesser goldfinches at the thistle feeder and a female downy woodpecker at the suet. The juncos also arrived today, but are limiting their presence to the ground below the sunflower feeder.

Unfortunately for the birds, the feeder has also attracted a very friendly, fluffy, grey kitty. I’d love for Nina to get to see the kitty, but I sent Tikka out to chase it away for the birds’ sake.

Bird list for this house: Robin Steller’s Jay Northern Flicker Chickadee Lesser Goldfinch House Finch European House Sparrow Downy Woodpecker Dark eyed Junco Crow Anna’s Hummingbird Oregon (Dark eyed) Junco Spotted Towhee two types of Wren, one very small (verdin sized) and grey, the other slightly larger and dark brown all over except for throat patch and eyebrows.

Posted at 10:25 AM

Mon - June 13, 2005

Summer Palace, Beijing, China, 23 May 2005

More Chinese birds.

A sleek water bird, possibly an Australasian Grebe. The reddish coppery patch on the neck is certainly visible in the second, somewhat out of focus, picture below.

Some Herons and small wading birds. I think it is a Black Crowned Night-Heron. The little birds weren't really close enough for a good identification.

Posted at 01:07 PM

Wed - May 18, 2005

Birds in China

Did Mao kill birds?

China has amazing air pollution, and also a strange lack of birds. When I was in the parks last week, I saw the 4 birds pictured plus ravens of unknown type, but outside of the parks there were none. Additionally, even in parks outside the city, where there seems to be appropriate cover and habitat, there are very few birds. I really realized this today when I went to the Great Wall in a section that goes across a pass to the northeast of Beijing. I was surrounded on all sides by forests, but I only occasionally heard some birds. I never did see any, even near food places to pick up the crumbs. Why would this be? Well, the hills are pretty deforested. There are some young trees on the hills (all in nice little straight rows), but no old ones. Perhaps with the deforestation and destruction of habitat a great number of birds were lost. Mao ZeDong is also said to have had a policy against birds in general. I was told that Mao hated birds, told people to kill them, and asked that parks be grass free. I did find a reference to a general anti-pest policy on the overpopulation.com page, that references a book [1].

[1] Becker, Joseph. Hungry ghosts: Mao’s secret famine. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1996.

Posted at 09:24 AM

Sun - May 15, 2005

China bird identification

Arne and I researched my pictures and think we identified my Chinese birds.

The black headed, blue and grey bird is an Azure-Winged Magpie or Cyanopica cyana

The really cool bird with black and white wings and a crest is a Eurasian Hoopoe or Upupa epops. Listen to the bird call, it is very distinctive. Here is another great picture.

My sparrow is probably a Eurasian Tree Sparrow or Passer montanus