A Ruby-throated Hummingbird has taken up station in the back yard and is fiercely guarding the lone feeder in the garden.
Even got a few shots of him flashing his ruby throat!
[tags]hummingbirds, birdwatching[/tags]
Family Tradition
We’d been hearing the tell-tale chirp of a baby Cardinal around the yard. This signaled the arrival of another successful hatching for Ricky Handsomepants and his mate, Lucy.
Today we spotted Lucy retrieving food from the feeder and flying down to feed the fledgling.
As we watched her fly back and forth a few times we noticed the young bird hop down into the flower bed. As continued to watch we were surprised and delighted to see that there was not one, but TWO baby cardinals.
This was pretty exciting. We’re used to seeing a baby each summer, but seeing two was a bonus.
Wee Irish Birdies
Chaffinch or Bullfinch, not completely sure. They were hanging outside the office window.
Swans
Flocks of wild swans patrol the river and the entrance to the bay. Hundreds of them. The bulk of them hang out near one of the quay walls, drawn to those who throw bread down from on high…
Shrike
As I was getting ready to pull into my driveway I noticed what I thought was a mockingbird standing in the road. He was practically on top something that appeared to be a dead or dying sparrow.
At first I thought it must be that a sparrow had been killed or injured by a passing car or a neighborhood cat and that the mockingbird was just checking it out.
I parked the car and decided to walk down the driveway and see if there was anything to be done and when I got back to the street both birds were gone.
I’d never heard of a Mockingbird carrying off another bird and found the whole thing to be quite strange. Perhaps the sparrow was actually a baby mockingbird that had fallen from it’s nest or maybe it was a sparrow and it wasn’t injured that badly after all and it flew away.
None of that seemed right as that Sparrow looked to be in very rough shape.
I decided to go online and search on the term : Mocking bird kill other bird and was immediately presented with dozens of sites relating to “To Kill a Mockingbird” so I had to refine my search. I went with “Mocking bird kill other bird -“to kill”” and found a site called Bird Watcher’s General Store which had an article about The Shrike aka “The Butcher Bird”
As you can see, it looks a lot like a Mockingbird.
The Shrike is not called “The Butcher Bird” for no reason. Apparently it’s a fierce hunter and it not only kills for food now, it kills and stores it’s prey for later consumtion. It’s a grey-winged killing machine.
After some more research I determined that what I had seen was a Loggerhead Shrike right after making a kill.
I’ll have to keep a closer eye on the bird population and see if I can spot him again.
Pipe Dreams
You call this spring?
Grackle By The Pool
