The Beginning of Summer 2012

Memorial Weekend 2012...

Here it is Memorial Weekend again, and 2012! Another long winter behind us, another anticipated summer in front of us! It is this time of year I especially enjoy the nature around me. Some excitement here recently, I wish I had some pictures to go along with, but sometimes I just decide to enjoy the moment, instead of missing much of it, because I am trying to get my camera and a picture snapped off before it ends. One of those moments happened yesterday morning, when my husband woke me up at 6 a.m. to tell me there was a moose swimming in the bay. Even I would get up for that exciting news. So cool to watch the young moose swim across the middle of the bay, headed out into the vast lake. It was right out in front of our cabin when it started, and we stood there and watched how quickly it swam out to the middle of the lake. Wondering where it thought it was headed? There was no land in the direction it was going! A neat early morning experience we have shared more than once before. We figured this was at least the 3rd moose we've seen swimming in our bay. Then there is also the moose rescued by my husband, and other moose sightings I can remember. The moose love to hang here in Moose Bay.

June 2012 - Frequent visitors

Today, when I was cleaning out the "storage" corner of our patio, a dear sweet hummingbird hit the large picture window where I was working and landed on the step. I went to see if it was okay, and it fluttered into the shrubs when I approached. I still wanted to check to see if it was okay, so I went around the other side of the bush, and the poor thing was hanging by a foot upsidedown. I reached in to see if I could free it's foot, and it got loose and flew off. I was happy it was able to flee, yet just a little disappointed I didn't get to see it a little better. It all happened so quick.  These little birds are so courageous, and not afraid of much.  In the past, I have been able to get some video footage of the hummers as they dine on my feeder hung on my "birding balcony".  So I will share that with you today...

A few days after the hummingbird incident, I had another little birdie hit our window. This time I was inside with the slider door open, and the birdie flew into the house and hit the window beside me. I got up out of my chair to see if I could find it, and it flew and landed on my husband's chair. It was a sweet little baby Red-Breasted Nuthatch! So darling! A family of six red's have been feeding at my suet lately. Four babies and the parents often visit for feedings. So cute to watch the babies flutter their wings for their share of the food. Sometimes the babies will stay up the tree a ways and the parents have to run back and forth from the suet to the baby. Other times, the baby will follow the parent to the suet but still wait for mamma or daddy to feed them. Then sometimes, eventually, they will start picking at the suet themselves.

1/2 of the family of Red-Breasted Nuthatches

I love it when families come to the feeders.  Here is a pair of Downy Woodpeckers coming to the feeder.  I know it was a male and female, but not sure if it was a mating pair, or possibly a parent with a baby.  You have to watch them for awhile to tell, and usually the babies act like babies.  Shivering, fluffing up, begging for food, etc.

A pair of Downy Woodpeckers

Another family of birds I've been watching is the Tree Swallows.  They arrive every year as soon as the ice melts off the lake.  This year, I am happy that a pair has chosen my balcony bird house for nesting.  It's been vacant for the last couple of years, when the swallows have taken up residency in my wooden bird houses, or the many other neighborhood bird houses, and any nook and cranny they can find!  When they nest in the balcony bird  house, it's perfect for picture taking when the baby birds emerge!  One of my best baby bird shots was from this bird house.  I even got the photo published in the Birds & Blooms magazine!  Here is a more recent photo of one of the parent Tree Swallows watching me and waiting to go into the balcony bird house.

Tree Swallow (the one nesting in my balcony bird house)

Also frequent visitors my bird tree are the Black-headed Grosbeaks.  This pair look nothing like each other.  The male looks like a Black-headed Grosbeak, but the female has very muted coloring and blends well into the background so she can hide and protect the baby Grosbeaks when she's on the nest.

A pair of Black-headed Grosbeaks

This song sparrow has the sweetest melody he chirps from the branch of my bird tree.  You can tell it is a song sparrow by the brown 'spot' on the chest.  You can many times hear them first, because their song is so sweet!  Next time you hear a lovely melody being chirped from the trees... look around, you may be able to spot one!

Song Sparrow

And one last visitor that I never get tired of seeing, the majestic Great Blue Heron.  No longer do we have a fish pen in the bay for the heron to hang out daily, but they still visit the bay frequently.  The wingspan on these birds is incredible!  I caught this guy, just as he was taking off from the neighbor's dock.  Since his wings are just out of the shot, you can't quite see the impressive spread.  But I love flying heron pics!

Great Blue Heron

So there is my blog update for now.  I'll try to be better at grabbing my camera to get some more wonderful bird adventures to share with you!

- Sherrie (Bird Lady)

Back to Blogging

I'm a little behind on my blogging, huh?  No posts for over a year! 

Well today, a friend from high school messaged me on Facebook to tell me her 9-year old son, Cameron, loved my bird blog!  He is fascinated with the birds here at Loon Lake, and likes looking them up in his bird book.  So this has inspired me to get to my blogging!  I have started a couple of posts this spring, but not finished them because I needed to process the pictures.  But no more waiting...

Mother's Day 2012...

My sweet children, Jillian, 20 and Beau, 16 gave me a great Mother's Day card and gift.  They know me well.  Both the card and the gift were owls!  One of my favorite birds!  Check out this sweet lil' fella...

I also picked up another cute lil' guy for my flower pots...

And this sweet chick...

My garden is not complete without some friendly birdies!

Thanks Cameron for following my blog!

- Bird Lady (Sherrie)





Bring on Spring!

Spring has for sure arrived finally. I have been busy with our new chihuahua puppy Jack, planting my flower garden and pots, and enjoying time spent outdoors on my patio watching and listening to all the bird activity. I've also been attempting to get some practice in on my 'new' camera and have finally deciphered how to shoot in manual and set my own aperature and shutter speed. I am also trying to master my tri-pod. One would think it would be a simple device to operate, but it can be tricky with all of its knobs. So even though I have not taken any spectacular shots lately, I have been getting in a bit of practice for when that perfect shot opportunity arises! Here is the relaxing view from my patio this last weekend.

This afternoon I heard some commotion outside and went to check. It was two male Mallard ducks 'discussing' some business. I thought it might be a fun picture, so grabbed my camera. By the time I got back, the discussion was over, but there were now three male Mallards, and another unidentified duck. They were far enough away that I knew the pictures wouldn't be the greatest, but took a few snaps anyways. The unidentified duck turned out to be either a female or young male Common Goldeneye. I'm gonna assume it was a female given the behavior of the three male Mallards!

Every time I leave my house or come home, I drive by a particular Red-necked Grebe's 2nd annual nest atop of a floating orange life jacket. It's nothing fancy, but seems to provide these pair of grebes a suitable nest each year. I was excited to get pictures this year since I have a better zoom camera now. I parked my car behind the cabin that the nest is by, and used the cabin as a blind while I adjusted all my settings. Zoomed right in on this pretty lady duck, as she sits on her nest. Her mate is never too far away. The nest is only about 25 or 30 feet from the shore. I'll be looking forward to seeing the baby chick. Only thing is, once the chick hatches, they are off to explore the lake and will no longer hang around the nest. My main chance to get pictures of a baby grebe riding on it's parents back will be in my bay with the resident grebes nest there each year. They defend the bay as their own most of the summer. I think I saw a grebe possibly nesting on the island when I looked through the binoculars the other day. The bay pair I was just talking about was over by the island squabbling and raising a rucus. As I looked through the binoculars, I saw a grebe (I think) ON the island. Maybe I can confirm that at a later time.

We are gearing up for the big Memorial Day weekend here at the lake. The official beginning of summer. Actually, it is just the beginning of the busy season, when all the summer neighbors show up. After the long winter, it is good to see everyone. By the summer's end, it's good to see them go and have the place to ourselves again! The weather is not supposed to be great this weekend, of course. When is it ever great on a holiday summer weekend? So we are in for 60'ish and 40% chance of showers. Enjoy your Memorial weekend!

I ♥ Faces Photo Challenge | Happy Easter!

Look what the Easter Bunny brought! Meet Jack E. Cheez, our new chihuahua puppy. Jack is feeling right at home, and we are so enjoying this lil' guy. When I saw that I ♥ Faces was doing a pet photo challenge this week, I knew I had to enter this photo! This is my first entry at I ♥ Faces, but I am a frequent visitor and admirer.

Happy Bird Day!

Yesterday was the best bird day! Yep, that's what I mean when I say "Happy Bird Day", nobody's birthday or anything. After enjoying the snack fest between Bruchi's the Heron and the otter yesterday, I continued to have some great bird moments throughout the day. I had been wondering how long it would take the Osprey to catch on to the un-netted fishpen, and take a dive into the pen. Not long at all! As I stepped out onto my balcony to get a better look at a loon (my first of the season), I heard the giant splash, and as I look over to the fishpen, the Osprey emerges from the water and flies off. It didn't look to me like it had a fish. But hey, it was the first try. I'm sure there will be more attempts. Also, new to the bay yesterday was a swarm of American Coot. I love these tiny funny ducks. They always hang in a huge crowd. They duck, and splash, and play around in the water and are a joy to just watch. Here's a bit of video for you to appreciate the experience. Much better than just a photo. Of course, the highlight to my day was the Heron and the Otter snacking on fish together. (See yesterday's blog for video) I also got a video of just the otter eating a fish. It is such a treat to have this guy visiting our bay again. Never, in my life on this lake have I seen an otter before this one came last fall. Probably won't be the last time we'll see him. I have a feeling he'll stick around as long as the fish pen is here. They usually release the fish in May sometime. So until then, I will enjoy my little friend the otter and watch him gorge himself on free fish!

Visitors at the Fishpen Buffet

Last night I happen to look out my window, and saw something on the skidock. It was really dark out, but I immediately thought it could be our friendly otter that we haven't seen since before the ice formed on the lake last winter. Sure enough, it was our fella! I watched him through the binoculars as he preened himself and snuggled down on the dock, looking like he was gonna hold up there for the night and have a nice sleep.

Well, first thing this morning when I got out of bed, and looked out my window like I do every morning. There was a swarm of American Coot, probably 100 of them out in the bay. Bruchi's the Heron was at the fishpen as usual. I was also watching an Osprey flying around the area. The Osprey returned just a week ago or so, to inhabit their nest for the summer, which is just a few trees away from our house. Around and around the Osprey flew, finally choosing to land in a tree right in front me. I suspect that the Osprey will eventually catch on to the fishpen's lack of netting and take a dive into the pen for a snack. If you recall, during a wind storm this winter, the netting blew down and had to be removed. This opened the way for many visitors to sneak in and steal a fish, or two, or three! I wonder how many of the 10,000 fish that were planted will be left when they go to release them in May?

Within a couple of minutes, my Otter friend appears and swims up to the fishpen to visit Bruchi's and share some breakfast. He climbed right up on the pen, just a couple of feet from Bruchi's, dunked down in the water, and imerged with a fish! I sat there and watched the two catch fish after fish and gobble them down together. I snap a couple of photos from my balcony, and take a quick video.

Deciding this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, I decide to quickly dress and get my shoes on and take the tripod and camera down to the beach to take better photos/videos. I sneak around the pucker brush, and behind our neighbors boat house. Realizing that I forgot the mount for the camera for the tripod, I find something to lean on for a steady hand. I see Bruchi's, but not the otter. I take a quick photo. Then the sun came out and lit up the scene just perfectly! I snap a couple more photos before my husband, who is off from work today decides to come down there for a closer look. He just comes waltzing across the beach and kept walking towards the dock after clearing the boat house I was hiding behind. I was like "What are you doing"?!?!?! He slips behind a tree, as the bird flies off... Ah, too late dude, you already scared him off. I was not pleased with hubby at this point. The otter was no where to be found either. Grrrrr.... Here is one of the sunny photos I managed to get before he scared off my damn bird!

Still waiting for Spring

I'm still waiting for Spring to come. Yes, officially Spring has been here for a few days. But I continue to see snow and rain just about every day. As soon as the ground clears, another snow storm will be upon us. The lake is still frozen over. I should be happy that the ice on the ground is clearing and at least I can walk around some places outside, and I can park my car down our steep driveway again. I am anxious, to get out with my camera and enjoy the warm weather and the photo opportunities that it will bring. Flowers and birds, birds and flowers. Blue skies! No coats, or boots, or gloves. Today, it looked sunny outside, but you culd still feel the chill out there. But I could not wait any longer. My friend the Great Blue Heron had been at the fish pen for some time today. So I grabbed my camera, the tripod, and a jacket and ventured outside. I snuck around the neighbor's puckerbrush so as to not alert my subject. Tip-toed behind the boat house and set up shop. I even went high tech and got out my new iPhone with the iBird app and played GBH vocals and calls. He knew I was there, and kept a watchful eye on me. That eye was my focus. I only had a few minutes of battery and had lunch cooking in the microwave, so I decided to try and get a flight shot. I moved up a few feet, and then proceeded to make a fool of myself with awkward vocals and calls of my own. It worked, because off he flew and landed out on the ice. I pretty much missed the action, so I packed up and went back inside for lunch. The rest of the day, I watched from inside, my friend spent the entire afternoon there. Never did see a fish being caught. I really do love how cool his beak looks here. Very appropriate for catching fish.




I decided I really must name my Great Blue Heron friend since he is a daily visitor. The name "Blue Cheese" came to mind. But it is a little too literal, so I decided on "Bruchi's", which is a local restaurant and a play on Blue Cheese. So everyone, meet "Bruchi's".

I also used my new iBird app to identify a new bird that I saw a couple of days ago. Whenever I go to town, there is a certain fence in the Half Moon area that I always watch for birds. So far, I have added three life birds to my list by watching this fence. The first bird was a Say's Phoebe, then a Western Meadowlark, and now a Northern Shrike. A gray bird with a black mask. Simple enough to ID. An interesting fact about the Northern Shrike is that it is also known as the "Butcher Bird" because it stores food for later by impaling it on a thorn or barbed wire. The following is NOT my picture. Just posting so you could see what a Northern Shrike looks like.

My life list is now at 89. My goal is to get to 100! Of course you know I won't stop there. My life list is on the right, be sure to check it out! How many of these birds have YOU seen?