Spring Migration Super-Mega-Double-Issue

Holy moly, it's been almost a month and a half!  Apologies for the delay.  Can't you tell that I've been busy?  Thankfully, much has happened since late March.  So here we go...


Black-headed Grosbeaks are here!


A male Wood Duck sits cautiously at the far end of the driveway on an early April evening.


A juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk hunts small passerines on an overcast April afternoon.

One major theme that has encompassed our recent visitors would be "large birds."  Outside of actually getting a Sharp-shinned Hawk to pose for a photo (thanks, Kate), the main "big bird" story has been our ability to attract ducks to the point that they've become "regulars."  This has been the case since dumping millet on the edge of our driveway back in late March to try to attract migratory sparrows.  (If only I had known earlier!)  I didn't think much of it after getting a couple sporadic visits from a female Mallard, but what really got me thinking about actively attracting ducks was a few instances of two-a-day (early morning/late evening) visits from a pair of skittish Wood Ducks.  I have difficulty finding these guys in their native pond habitat, much less in my own backyard!  I wouldn't have guessed that they'd ever choose to feed in a densely-populated, outdoor-cat-infested city neighborhood.  But apparently I was wrong.  The Wood Ducks only stuck around for about a week (too many cats, perhaps?), but I was determined to at least TRY to get a Wood Duck or Mallard to return.  I did a little bit of asking around and discovered that cracked corn was a favorite as well.  So, I dumped a large pile of millet and cracked corn on the edge of the driveway near the rhododendron bush and waited.  I was quickly rewarded with a PAIR of Mallards (we call them Quackers and Mildred) that began to show up in the early mornings and late evenings, just like the Wood Ducks.  If that wasn't exciting enough, another male (apparently without a mate... I call him Bubba) decided to show up and the situation blew up into a full soap-opera-like drama.  Quackers and Bubba began to loudly quack at each other around sunrise, with the confrontation sometimes escalating into a full-blown duck smackdown fight.  The fisticuffs often begin on our roof ("thud, thud, thud!") and spill onto the lawn.  Since ducks to not have claws, they lock bills and beat the snot out of each other with their wings.  It's quite entertaining.  And they leave lots of neat souvenir feathers.  We do not know if Bubba is trying to defend what he perceives as HIS food source or if he had a failed nest and is looking for a new mate.  Perhaps things are not going well with his current mate (we'll call her Hillary... hypothetically, of course).  Whatever the reason, the battles wage to this day (lots of squaking at 6:30 this morning).  It's more entertaining and intelligent than television... and since they fight with feathers, nobody gets hurt.  And all of the early-morning racket ensures that we don't over-sleep.


Bubba: Keep your daughters away.


A Steller's Jay stuffing his mouth with peanuts like a piggy.

Some of the other "large bird" visits include two seasonal favorites of mine.  The first is the Steller's Jay.  Steller's Jays are majestic and kind of funny-looking at the same time.  I've always pictured them as a Blue Jay in the role of Wiley Coyote... and accidentally (but predictably) coming a little too close to that stick of ACME dynamite.  Anyway, they're really neat-looking birds... so much so that I often don't notice that their "Blaah, blaah, blaah!" call falls somewhere in between Vietnamese and nails-on-a-chalkboard on the aesthetics scale.  For some strange reason, they don't winter in my neck of the valley (despite the snow and lower temperatures up in the hills) and I usually only see them in March/April (sometimes sporadically into June) and October.  They showed up in early April this year, raiding my peanut feeder and drawing the ire of the Scrub Jays.  The second is the Black-headed Grosbeak (pictured earlier), a resident from May until about September.  I had visits from a female last May and either a female or juvenile male last August, but had never seen a male.  Until this weekend, when I had visits from at least four different males and a female.  They like my sunflower tube feeder (one even ate off of the perch) and the suet basket.  I'm hoping that they stick around all summer this year.


A Golden-crowned Sparrow eating seed off of a rain-soaked driveway.


Lincoln's Sparrow eating millet.


A White-crowned Sparrow singing on a rare sunny day in April.

Our other major treat this Spring was migrating sparrows (yes, the millet trick worked for them as well).  After visiting us for a while last April, they were back again last month.  They stuck around for a little longer this time.  New to us were the Lincoln's and Golden-crowned Sparrow.  The former has moved on, but I found a Golden-crowned foraging under the feeder on our deck late this afternoon.  While they're only around sporadically, sparrows are always a treat.


Yellow-rumped "Myrtle" Warbler - on their way out.


Yellow-rumped "Audubon's" Warbler - still present in large numbers.

While not especially "large" in size, I've seen up to a dozen Yellow-rumped Warblers at a time over the past couple of weeks.  This is indicative of a migratory movement, with the Myrtle subspecies (white throats) moving into the mountainous regions to breed and the Audubon's (yellow throats) moving back into the valley to breed.  Both races have combined to go through a few suet cakes a week.


An Orange-crowned Warbler snacking on flowers.

The first migratory Warbler of the year, the Orange-crowned, showed up to our yard about a month ago.  After the initial migratory movement, their numbers have dwindled somewhat.  However, I was lucky enough to spy a Hutton's Vireo up in our pine trees this morning.  It wasa pleasant surprise, as I had never seen this kinglet/warbler-like bird before.  Unfortunately, it was too far away and moving around too quickly for a photo.

In terms of the regular and not-so-regular winter birds, there are still a few Pine Siskins around and I was seeing Purple Finches up until a couple of weeks ago.  I imagine that the latter are gone until Fall now and that the former will be departing by the end of the month.  The Varied Thrushes departed in early April and the last Townsend's Warbler left about a week and a half later.


A female or second-year-male Purple Finch.


Pine Siskins: Still a few left.


American Goldfinches in full alternate (breeding) plumage.

Oh, and I almost forgot:  For those of you (all two of you) wondering how my ducks and other ground-feeding birds have been dealing with the neighbor's cat, you can rest assured.  The ridiculously-uncooperative owner was officially threatened with eviction a few months ago.  I stopped seeing the cat about a week or two after that.  Funny how that works...

Alright, that's enough for now.  I'll hopefully have enough new photos and stories in a month or so.  But if not, then definitely by early July.  I'll leave you with a photo of a Spotted Towhee, a ground-dweller who is very happy that the Cat From Hell no longer freely roams outside...


"I'm livin' large now!"

• Posted at Sunday, May 4, 2008 11:09 PM
• In General Category | Permalink