Birder PapaRrazi
An Amateur Birdwatcher's tally
a fresh approach to my monthly blogging reportThis month, I decided to present my blog as a report by video. Hope you enjoy it. You may have a few questions after looking at it. Here are the answers to what I thought up.
How can I find out about these 2 parks? Check out their websites! https://www.parks.wa.gov/578/Saltwater https://www.parks.wa.gov/504/Flaming-Geyser How can I find out about some of these cool birds? Cornell offers a ton of information about birds. Check out eBird - Discover a new world of birding... Or check our local King County website, Birds in King County - King County Want to see some wonderful bird pictures? Check out my birding gallery at Birding Gallery - Yarn Cats Birds & More (weebly.com) . I try to post new pictures every month to reflect my current bird watching interests.
0 Comments
December 2021There is nothing like a good snow especially if you are a birdwatcher. Yes, you worry about the little guys. At least I do. But then I stand in awe after filling the feeders and watch as they happily dance on the snow. White branches shake with their enthusiasm. Their little footprints lead up to the ground feeders. It is a delight to watch. In less than 5 minutes I note crows, starlings, robins, white crowned sparrows, juncos, goldfinches, a western scrub jay and a black capped chickadee. This was backyard birding at it is best. Over the years I have expanded and then reduced the number of feeders in my small city back yard. Too many feeders are a nuisance to keep filled and maintained. Too many bird species at a time can cause troubles. I do have several different feeders for several types of birds. A pretty “house” design holds standard seeds for a range of songbirds. A thistle sack supplies the chickadees, sparrows, pine siskins, and gold finches. A suet rack takes care of the starlings. A hummingbird feeder is a requirement – I only get a couple of hummers but I try to keep them coming back! My scrub jays use several of the feeders. The rare but occasional flicker likes the suet. This means there are usually 5 feeders to keep track of. Luckily, I hang most of them near each other as their feeders do not mind. For the snow, I put out two extra plates – just to ensure everyone got enough. Of course, we have squirrel visitors who are cute though annoying at times. Recently I have learned hot pepper keeps them at bay and so I have been able to protect my box where I keep the food and supplies. Some of the suet that I put out does not have hot pepper and I intend that for them. Winter magic – snow, pure and beautiful, stilling the world followed by the songs of happy birds. It was a good combination. But it was too cold for me to stand around for long! I went in and peered from the windows with my cat. She likes birdwatching too! And squirrels… Since she is indoors only, I tell her thoughts are free. She has the right to enjoy her winter entertainment too! While it snowed, I was forced to stay inside. Ice is not my friend and it built up under the snow which made me cautious about stepping outside except to put out bird food. Those little creatures do not know what I went through to take care of them! I reviewed my birding experiences in early December before travel restrictions. Gulls and swans and ducks in the fields. Raptor birds in the trees. With the leaves off the branches hawks and eagles are easy to spot and photograph. The rivers run high in this area, but ducks and herons still enjoy the water. I went through this year’s bird pictures sitting in the warm house. On my birding gallery I posted a few photos every month this year. I counted 23 bird pictures in 2021. But 5 of them were blue herons! On my jaunts I seek out birds I know to be in the area. Herons like King County, WA because of the weather – wet and rainy. They haunt swampy marshes, sopping wet fields, lakes, rivers, and even the Puget Sound! Blue herons are solitary, and they do not mate for life. Yet I see them frequently in pairs or hanging out with other water birds. Because they are big birds, they’re easy to photograph. They are also slow, meandering, and not fluttering all over the place. Yes, I like blue herons. I look forward to February, when they mate and nest in batches to raise their young safely. Herons seem very passive, making them easy targets for raptors. Three of the photos from 2021 were of sparrows. Those little brown birds are such characters. I look for the white crowns, golden crowns, red hues that indicate house sparrows, and little round bodies of song sparrows. They love my yard. A flock of them live in some overgrown bushes, and feed daily from my feeders. They’ve grown a little easier to identify over the years. After their size and shape I always look first at the head, then the breast if I can see it. Sparrows are an affirmation that practice is what makes perfect in identifying. Three more of the pictures are of finches – gold and house finches. I look for rosy finches but do not get to see them every year. Finches are also brown birds with flair. Juncos and chickadees hang out with them and enjoy getting pictures of them as well but did not include any on my board this year. There are plenty of them from the past though! My rarest bird this year was the Lazuli bunting. I got it in my head that these were “lapis lazuli” which is because of the blue jewels that are lapis. I just check to make sure I named this correctly this time! The buntings are beautiful, and I delighted to see them and capture their likeness this year. A new bird that I met this year was the western wood pee. I would probably never have found these darling little birds without the help of Merlin, a birding application I started using this year. Merlin has options to help identify birds by photo or by song. Once it showed me a picture of what I was looking for I could see them! It’s still new, and not perfect. If the WI-FI connections aren’t good neither is that part of the program. It will have you hunting for birds that have never been in your area. But when it works, it works great. That’s true of most technology, right? The year 2012 is done. My gallery for the year is complete. I have tons of other pictures that I have shared with Facebook and Twitter. My count for the year? 49 bird species. Canada geese crows dove eagles finches house herons juncos. kestrels killdeer king fishers mallards mergansers pigeons robins scrub jays seagulls song sparrows starlings stellar jays Swans thrush towees western scrub jays blue herons cedar waxwings chickadees eagles finches gold golden crown sparrows goldfinches hawks house sparrows humming birds juncos kestrels kinglets mergansers red tail hawk red wing blackbirds ring neck ducks robins seagulls sharp shin hawk starlings swallows western wood pee wees white crown sparrows wrens To any I forgot, may I try to catch you this year of 2022! |
AuthorI love birdwatching. It's relaxing and fun. Even though I've been birding for over 10 years I classify myself as an amateur birder. I plan to write a blog each month about my experiences. Hope you enjoy them! Categories |
Proudly powered by Weebly