Jalyss at Large: Out of the Closet

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Out of the Closet

Dear Faithful Readers,

I'm coming clean and announcing I'm a closet birder. I think when you have 259 pictures of birds, it's time to open the closet door. Unlike real birders, I do not have a life list. I can't spontaneously recognize any except the most common birds. The only bird call I can be absolutely sure of is 'cock a doodle doo'. I don't subscribe to Birds & Blooms or any other birding publication. Nor do I have an Audubon Society card. So, with my lackadaisical attitude, I'd be drummed out of official birder gatherings.

All those birder trappings don't matter to me. I now have my heart's desire. Three bird feeders, each one uniquely designed to attract some of the birds which hang out in this arid furnace.

It took this Bendire's Thrasher a little bit of time and acrobatics before he could steal hummingbird nectar. However, he's much easier to spot and photograph than the hummers are who are actually quite shy. The hummers appear sporadically usually morning and evening, but this thrasher named for the man who first recorded spotting him is huge and not shy at all. When I first saw him trying to figure out how to get the nectar, I couldn't imagine he'd succeed, but as you can see, he did.

We have two really common birds in our 'back yard'. One of these is the mourning dove. For the past four years, a pair has mated, built a nest and laid eggs in our orange tree. Excitingly, this year the female chose a perch which is eye level, and in front of an opening in the leaves of the orange tree. By looking out our picture window, we can see her quite clearly. Here she is feeding her two chicks. I think they are about two days old in this picture. You could actually see her throat moving up and down as she regurgitated partially digested food into them.

I was happily photographing these two chicks as they grew, when mother nature got involved. Unknown to me, one of these chicks fell out of the nest and was almost immediately killed and eaten by the other birds - especially the thrashers with their long needle like beaks. I could not bear to take a photo of the dead chick with it's guts hanging out. The closest chick in the picture below was starting to 'flap' its wings, and I think it just tumbled out.

By the next morning, the chick's body was completely gone - thanks to my animal garbage patrol (aka the coyotes). Now, there's just one chick in the nest. Speaking of which, if I'd known about the fall, I could have restored the chick to the nest. It's not true a bird mother will reject a chick who has been handled by humans. Here's our one remaining chick.

I swear this chick is having a hard time. On Saturday the tree trimmers attacked all our trees. Drake rushed out to get them to leave the orange tree alone, but, of course, as soon as he went back inside, they went for the orange tree. The mom flew off, and we are hoping she's going to return. Fingers crossed. Yea! After two hours gone, she just returned, and the chick is still in the nest.

We hung a cylindrical feeder for the other common bird in our back yard: the house finch. This is a wild bird who's real name should be the

Western Finch except it's not, anymore. It was originally only found in the Western United States. In 1940 trappers illegally sold Western House Finches to pet stores in New York. As the sellers began to be prosecuted, pet dealers released their illegal finches who immediately found Long Island to their liking. Now, 77 years later, the eastern cousins have almost rejoined their western relatives as they've spread westward. They are now one of the most common birds in the United States. It's illegal to trap and sell United States native, wild birds. Here's a male house finch at our new feeder. Unfortunately, the trade in exotic birds is very widespread in the rest of the world, and there's quite a bit of abuse.

These little finches are very entertaining. The females aren't brightly marked. They look more like sparrows, but they don't back down. I've seen the males face down birds three times their size. Everyone is fighting over the cylindrical feeder. Not just finches, but two other kinds of birds I can't identify, are trying to chow down.. Here's one

Some birds are ingenious at getting both a meal and a drink. Here's a Bendire's Thrasher again; this time he's drilled a fallen naval orange. He's eating the pulp and drinking the juice. He attacked this orange for a good ten minutes.

Our back common area was already really popular, and now we've added easy to get food. Here's our third feeder which Drake designed and built based on my sketchy idea. We were trying to give the bigger birds a place for them to feed. This feeder has now survived 35 mile per hour winds, so we feel it's here to stay. Drake also had the great idea of hanging the feeders with bungee cords. We can move the feeders back and forth in front of the pictures windows.

We are fortunate to have grass surrounding our house. The grass is much cooler during the summer. Small rocks make it 10 to 15 degrees hotter around your house. We irrigate our grass, and that means water for the birds. This robin (and the other birds) have learned this metal box set into the grass holds water after the sprinklers run. I've watched other birds get a drink from this 1/2" of standing water.

In our travels, I've been entertained enormously by seagulls, stellar jays, gray jays, a whole variety of ocean birds, and even ducks on ponds. I've seen a great blue heron, an avocet, pelicans, grebes, cormorants, and my all time favorite: the magpie.

I wasn't kidding when I said I have trouble identifying birds. So, here's the reader's challenge: What is the name of this bird? I swear the coloring and eye color are faithful to what I see out the window.