Awesome Yard Birds!

Well it's been a while since I have had a new post here at Bird Lady Blog.  I've been a bit pre-occupied with becoming a first-time Grandmother, with baby boy Cyrus due on Thanksgiving Day!  Also, I was having an issue with getting car sick when I would go out birding.  But today, as fall has officially arrived, the birds decided to come to me!  Awesome bird days like these are few and far between...

As I stepped out on my balcony to get a wiff of that cool, crisp fall air, I heard a familiar sound.  It was a Pileated Woodpecker, one of my favorite birds, my 'Spark' bird, the one that got me interested in birding over 27 years ago.  As I scanned the ground where the woodpecker was, I catch a glimpse of another one!  Two Pileated Peckers foraging for ants most likely.  Ants are the main diet of these woodpeckers.  I ran to get my binoculars and camera to try and get some footage of these awesome birds.  When I got back, I noticed there was a third bird a few trees away from the other two.  When I took a break from the binoculars, I saw a fourth woodpecker fly on to the scene!  Likely an entire family!  And to top that off, there was also a Northern Flicker hanging with the gang of Pileated.

I took four different videos I will share.  Pardon the shakiness.  While I was videoing the birds, my son let the darn cat, Stanley Oliver outside.  Immediately he ran over next door and started stalking my lovely woodpecker family!  OMG, I would be devastated if he was to get one.  I did send my son out to get him when he proceeded to get too close to them.

After all the excitement of the four, well five woodpeckers, I went inside to download my videos.  Not long after that, I went back out on the balcony when I heard some birds calling back and forth.  For a quick second, I thought the Pileateds were back, but the sound wasn't quite right.  Then I thought perhaps it could be a Belted Kingfisher, they have an interesting call like what I was hearing.  I scanned the trees, over and over, looking for any movement.  Back and forth the birds were chatting with each other.  It took quite a while for me to finally see one of them when it flew to another tree.  I got the binoculars, but it was difficult to see, and mostly was hanging out behind a bunch of pine needles, so I couldn't see it clearly.  I snapped a couple of photos, thinking I might be able to zoom in on the computer and see better.  The photos weren't clear either, as the pine needles were in the way.  So I get out my trusty iPhone iBird app and do a search based on the criteria I do know.  Came up with three possibilities, an American Kestrel, which I knew it was too big.  A Sharp-shinned Hawk, which I have seen here once before, and a Merlin, which I have never seen.  Not knowing which of the two it was, I listened to the call of both birds.  Sure enough, it was not the Sharp-shinned, but indeed it was the Merlin!  A life bird for me!

A Shy Merlin hiding

So between the four Pileated Woodpeckers, the Northern Flicker, and a pair of Merlins for yard birds today, it makes for an A-W-E-S-O-M-E Bird Day!

Goodbye Osprey, Hello Fall!

I have to say that I am happy to see the Osprey go for the winter!  They showed up on the day the ice melted in the bay last spring, and stayed all summer long to raise two chicks, who stuck around until just the other day.  Finally, their incessant squawking is gone!  Day in and day out of these birds begging their parents for food, or begging each other as they got older and started catching fish for themselves.  It was fun watching the young birds attempt to catch fish when they were first fledglings and leaving the nest!  They weren't real good fishers at first, and the parents would leave them alone during the day, so that they would 'fend for themselves'.  I would watch them as I did my swimming this summer.  They would perch in the trees and complain about their hunger.  As they became better fishers, they would perch on various trees and eat their catch.  Many times, right in front of our patio, they would dine and then then drop their trash on our beach.  Lovely for my chihuahua to get ahold of a stinking fish carcus. As summer goes on, the sounds of the Osprey goes on until one day you realize you haven't heard the Osprey for several days.  I find myself wondering... where do the Osprey go for the winter?  Do they fly to the coast of Washington, where they can continue their fishin mission?  Or perhaps they fly way south to California or even Mexico?  Well, I think I will just have to go research it.  First I will try my iBird app to see if it tells me anything. 

iBird says basically, Osprey are known to live around large bodies of water world-wide, except in Anartica.  As the map above shows, they breed here in the northwest United States and in Canada.  They then migrate across the United States and winter along the coast of California, Texas and the most southern states.  Year-round residents are in Florida and in Mexico.  I'd like to think our summer resident Osprey travel down to the California coast, and enjoy the warmer weather down there, while we stay here in the cold and experience the nasty winter months.  Kind of like our other summer neighbors from California!  But we know that when the warm weather comes back around our way, our Californian neighbors, and the Osprey will be back in the hood, ready for another lovely summer!  For now, we will enjoy our lovely autumn colors as the leaves change with the seasons.