See my post at In the Pink Texas: Even Coyotes Get the Obamamania
Which is really just a reworking of this post and parts of this one.
by James Brush
Coyote Mercury Posts
Last week’s Great Backyard Bird Count project got me thinking about long-term counts around the neighborhood. What species come and go over the course of a year? Which are the year-round residents in our neighborhood?
I know that the ducks like this lesser scaup only come to the pond in the winter.
But what of the others? On Saturday, while walking along the trail down to the pond and onward to the creek, I decided to try to take a weekly count of birds and other wildlife I happen to see. If I can maintain this for a year, perhaps I’ll really know my local wildlife. Who knows, maybe they’ll start inviting me to their nests for insects and seed.
The two red-shouldered hawks that circled and swooped over the pond were by far the highlight of Saturday’s walk. One of them even came close enough to let me take this fairly decent picture.
Farther down the trail, I heard a faint tapping up in a tree. I saw two ladder-backed woodpeckers, male and female. The male is the one with the red cap. The female’s is black.
Along the way, I heard great symphonies of bird song, but only saw these:
- 1 Lesser scaup
- 2 Red-shouldered hawks
- 4 Blue Jays
- 1 Turkey vulture
- 4 Black vultures
- 2 Ladder-backed woodpeckers
- 1 American crow
- 1 Killdeer
- 2 Bewick’s wrens
- 2 Chipping sparrows
- 4 House sparrows
Other than birds, the only animals I saw were dozens of turtles on the pond including a few that decided to pile up and sun themselves.
Finally, I get a decent shot of a red-tailed hawk in flight. I got that one sitting on a pole back in December, and this might even be that very bird as he was patrolling the same area. Either way, I was glad to have the camera in the car and not much traffic on the road.
They’re pretty common around here; one of the more common birds of prey in North America, actually, but I still love to watch to them. They’re definitely slow-down-and-stare birds.
Though he wasn’t making any noise, the red-tail’s raspy call is the one usually used for all hawks and eagles in movies according to All About Birds.
Yesterday, I decided to count birds at the small lake at the end of the trail that runs through our neighborhood. I ride my bike along there all the time, but I’ve never walked around and really tried to check out the birds.
When I arrived, I was greeted by a chickadee who immediately hopped into a tree that seemed filled with singing birds. I listened for a few minutes and then headed down to the water to see what birds were hanging around. In the summer, it’s mostly egrets and herons, but yesterday it was filled with birds wintering over.
I ate my sandwich at a bench on the lakefront where I was joined by a couple of coots who eyed me suspiciously. What really surprised me were the fishing buoys hanging in all the trees. Careless casters had decorated the trees as for an angler’s Christmas.
After lunch, I walked along the lake, which was filled with ring-billed gulls and more American coots. I easily forget that some gulls like lakes and so I’m always pleasantly surprised to see them floating on an inland lake. A few soared overhead, the sun shining behind their wings in a way that made them glow brilliant against the crisp blue sky. Gulls have always been favorites of mine, despite that incident back in ’90.
Other ducks bobbed along the far shore, but even with binoculars, I couldn’t make out what kind of ducks they were. Probably northern shovelers or mallards, but too far to tell for sure.
I did get a good look at a new bird for my life list, the double-crested cormorant. They bobbed along beyond the gulls, looking down their sharp-looking beaks at the world. The only picture I got was this, very blurry, of one flying by.
After the lake, I walked back up to the woods and wandered among the cedar and oak. In a clearing I found a labyrinth trail and walked through it, winding toward the center and back out again. Along the way, I caught a glimpse of another blue jay.
Before returning to the car, I saw a small flock of chipping sparrows and even got a shot of this guy:
My favorite, though, was this shot of a black-crested titmouse, seed in mouth:
I love watching these little guys hop around in my backyard. I think it’s those huge black eyes or maybe that pointy head, but somehow, the black-crested titmouse has become my favorite backyard bird.
And, speaking of backyards, here are my official numbers for Day 4 of The Great Backyard Bird Count:
- 2 Northern shovelers
- 4 Double-crested cormorants
- 15 American coots
- 19 Ring-billed gulls
- 1 Blue jay
- 1 Carolina Chickadee
- 1 Black-crested titmouse
- 1 Bewick’s wren
- 6 Chipping Sparrows
Yesterday, I decided to do my Great Backyard Bird Count counting along the trail in our neighborhood. I left at 3:15. The weather was early-spring perfect, and a welcome treat after the previous day’s drizzle and rain.
I spotted a few mockingbirds, including this one:
I love listening to them sing; it’s like having all the other birds wrapped up in one. I guess they’re like the ipod of birds, set on permanent shuffle.
Often, I’ll follow a bird’s song only to find a mockingbird, but this time, there was a little chickadee bouncing in the tree. The number of dee’s in their call gives their assessment of any threat. I only rated one dee.
As I walked down the trail, I saw both turkey and black vultures spiraling overhead. I saw two hawks, but even with the binoculars, I couldn’t ID them as they were too far away. I suspect they were red-tails, though, since most of the hawks around here are.
At the bottom of the hill, the trail opens up into a kind of grassy meadow along the creek. A crow sat on the highest tree calling out to anyone who would listen. While studying the trees around the meadow, I saw a great blue heron glide past, slowly flapping its great wings.
Walking back up the hill, I heard a number of other birds chirping in the trees. I caught glimpses of chipping sparrows and even a blue jay, the first one I’ve seen since August.
Up near the trailhead, I ventured into a meadow where a small creek runs narrow and quiet beneath thick undergrowth. Looking up, I noticed a woodpecker clinging to the tree and apparently feeding or depositing something in a hole. He was either a golden-fronted or a red-bellied woodpecker, but he hopped into the hole before I could get close enough (even with binoculars) to figure out what he was.
I did get this shot of his head, as he sat there surveying the woods around him.
It’s not enough to ID him for sure, though.
And, here are my “official” counts for the birds I could ID:
- 2 Northern mockingbirds
- 2 Turkey Vultures
- 1 Carolina chickadee
- 1 American crow
- 1 Great blue heron
- 1 Black-crested titmouse
- 3 Black vultures
- 2 Chipping sparrows
- 1 Blue jay
For Day 2 of The Great Backyard Bird Count, I actually did count birds in my backyard, plus a few in the front.
It was one of those cold gray drizzly days that become a perfect reason for not going anywhere and instead staying in making French onion soup. Over the course of the day from about 7:30 to 4:00, I watched for birds. Here’s what I saw and reported:
- 2 Bewick’s wrens
- 2 Mourning doves
- 6 White-winged doves
- 1 Ladder-backed woodpecker
- 13 House sparrows
- 12 Chipping sparrows
- 1 Carolina chickadee
That’s most of the usual suspects for this time of year, except for the black-crested titmouse who must have had better things to do than eat soggy seed in the rain.
I actually saw more birds, but you’re only supposed to count the greatest number of individuals seen together at one time. If I kept count of every time I saw a house sparrow or a white-winged dove sitting around by himself, the counts would be much higher. And I’d be watching for Hitchcock to show up.
Sometimes Joey has to growl when the others get too close while he’s sleeping, but sometimes, he shares. Phoebe knows what a privilege this is and so she remains very very still.
[saveagrey]
No, that’s not my backyard.
The Audubon Society and The Cornell Lab of Ornithology are sponsoring The Great Backyard Bird Count running from today through Feb 18. Anyone can participate. All you have to do is count birds over a span of at least 15 minutes and record the number of individuals you see. This helps the Audubon Society “create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are across the continent.” You don’t even have to do it in your backyard.
I walked down to the pond by the house and watched birds from 4:05-4:35 pm. Overcast, breezy, mid-60’s. Here’s what I saw:
- 3 American crows
- 3 Northern shovelers
- 1 White-winged dove
- 2 Mourning doves
- 1 Lesser scaup
- 1 Great blue heron
- 4 Black vultures
- 1 Eastern phoebe
The phoebe and the scaup are ones I had not seen before, so I get to add a few to my life list.
Last night I watched the remaining 3 candidates give their victory/denial speeches.
First up was Clinton. She gave the denial speech. That is, denying the drubbing she took in the Potomac Primaries. A ‘congrats Senator Obama’ would have been classy. Still, I have to admire the way she’s soldiering on despite the fact that things aren’t looking quite as rosy as they once did for her. I’m rooting for Obama, but I’ll take no pleasure in seeing her lose. And, truth be told, a part of me would really like to see her give the Republicans the beating they so richly deserve.
Of course, it’s the way that kind of thinking bothers me that makes me lean toward Obama whose speech in Wisconsin was, as usual, inspiring. I could feel the energy coming through the TV, and I wasn’t even watching an HD channel. He was optimistic, classy, funny, and most importantly, acted like a nominee. He began leveling attacks at McCain, but they were of a respectful velvet-fist variety, which is what I think we can expect from Obama.
McCain followed Obama. The starkest contrast was in the visuals. Where Obama spoke before a jubilant crowd of thousands in a basketball arena, McCain spoke before a group of old white folks in what appeared to be the kind of hotel conference room that is usually reserved for high school proms. There doesn’t seem to be much enthusiasm for the Republican party these days, but then I guess that’s what they should expect after driving their brand into the ground. Still, listening to McCain speak, I couldn’t help but feel a bit sad that he had so thoroughly hitched his wagon to Bush’s star (surely a white dwarf). I don’t think I’ll take much pleasure in seeing him lose either, but lose he must.
Speaking of McCain, someone made a clever video along the lines of the Obama video I linked to last week. It’s a nice repudiation of his let’s-stay-in-Iraq-for-1000s-of-years position. Call it the audacity of hopelessness…
I finally got around to reading the final book in Elie Wiesel’s Night trilogy: Day, which was once known as The Accident.
As far as trilogies go, it’s fairly loose, the books being related thematically rather than forming a continuous story. They aren’t even related in terms of genre as the first, Night, is memoir, while the other two Dawn and Day are novels. Night is about Wiesel’s experience in Auschwitz. Dawn fictionalizes Night‘s narrator, the young Holocaust survivor, and places him in post-war Palestine where he has joined a terrorist group to help drive the British out. It’s a fascinating exploration of violence and how the victim can easily become the perpetrator.
Following a parallel path out of Auschwitz, Day finds the young survivor (not quite the same character as the protagonist of Dawn) in New York City in the early ’60s. He and his girlfriend are crossing the street near Times Square to see a movie. He is struck by a cab and wakes in a hospital. The narrator drifts in and out of consciousness, skirting the thin line between life and death, unwilling to commit to either one.
During the weeks of his recovery he is visited by his surgeon, his girlfriend and an artist friend of his. He is also tortured by memories of a past that has deprived him of a desire to live. Believing his experience in Auschwitz has already left him spriritually and emotionally dead, he begins to wonder if he didn’t step in front of the cab on purpose.
Like the other two books in the trilogy, Day is a short and tightly focused examination of one aspect of the Holocaust survivor’s experience. In this case, Wiesel explores the near impossibility of building a life while carrying the weight of memories that never fade, the dark edges of madness, and the ever-present temptation of suicide.