Breeding Birds

Wow, summer is going fast! The first part of summer I spent a lot of time looking at birds--it's especially easy when they are making a lot of noise looking for mates and then flying to and from their nests. Some birds are still nesting, but overall they're a bit quieter now. Nevertheless, I feel like I need a post about the wonderful breeding birds as a tribute to them. (You can also see my post about birds in the yard; sometimes it's nice not to have to go far to see amazing birds!)

Above is a Say's Phoebe nest, fairly similar to that of a barn swallow, but not quite as tight construction. Say's Phoebes like to build their nests on buildings. We had quite a kick watching the mom feed the birds.

As I was doing breeding bird surveys, I found that there was usually one dominant species that sang so much that I had to work hard to block out its song (or rather their song, as usually several were singing at the same time) to hear the other birds in the area. Bird surveys usually require more identification by ear than by seeing the bird. To learn and refresh bird songs, the Great Basin Bird Observatory has a super little free program for birds of the Great Basin. 

Here's the dominant bird for upper sagebrush areas. Do you know it?

Brewer's Sparrow

The bird I heard most in riparian areas was the Warbling Vireo. When I came across one in a nest, I understood why, it didn't move at all even though I walked right underneath. It just kept singing its song.

The big mama turkey was easy to spot, but it took me a bit longer to see the grass moving behind her as her little babies followed her around. They couldn't have been able to see much, as the grass was much taller than they were. If turkeys were only native here, I could like them a lot better.

This MacGillivray's Warbler sang his little heart out, and not far from me. These birds like riparian areas.

The song of this bird threw me a few times. Fortunately it's a bird that likes to perch at the top of trees, so I could spot it and get a definitive i.d.  Sometimes I wish a lot more birds would like to perch high!

Lazuli Bunting--one of the most beautiful birds around!

One day I came across this Red-naped Sapsucker on an aspen tree. I watched to see what it would do.

All of a sudden it disappeared into a hole in the tree!

Are you still seeing any breeding birds?

I am still enjoying the birds around me, but have to admit that I've been introduced to the world of butterflies and have now been enthralled photographing and identifying them. Time to get another post ready!

Bird Nests in the Yard

Well, in my last post I noted that we had skunks and worried about the chickens. For good reason. The skunks burrowed under our run and killed all our chickens! We are very sad. I never thought it would be so hard to raise chickens. There sure are a lot of things that like to eat chickens, and they can be fairly ingenious about getting to them. I also never expected to get so attached to the chickens. They are quite a fun pet. (We are in the process of getting rid of the skunks, but it is taking some time.) Sometime in the unknown future, we will try again.

One silver lining is that instead of sitting in a lawn chair and watching the chickens peck around our driveway, this evening I sat out on the front lawn. I noticed a cacophony in one Lombardy poplar and took a closer look. I was hearing American kestrels, and I suddenly realized it wasn't just one or two kestrels, but three little ones, with two adults nearby!

 The baby kestrels tried out their wings and took short little flights from branch to branch. Wow, I had never seen baby kestrels before!

In the catalpa tree above me, I heard quite a bit of noise from Western Kingbirds. I knew they had a nest there, but I didn't realize that the eggs had hatched. The parents took turns flying out to get insects to feed to the young. They were always very careful to have one parent close to the nest (a rather flimsy looking thing) at all times.

While I was looking at baby birds, I saw the cliff swallows flying in and out from their nest by our door. I timed one in and out of the nest, and it was only eight seconds. Some were even faster, while some were longer. Both parents flew out to get insects, sometimes with both hunting at the same time.

Another noisy bird like the western kingbird, but a bit brighter, made an appearance in a Lombardy poplar tree to the west (meaning this was the fourth nest, each in one direction, with me in the middle!). In a moment I saw the nest, a loose, hanging affair. Do you see it below?

This is a Bullock's oriole, a very pretty bird. The orioles had a very different parenting style than the kingbirds, leaving the nest all alone for a long period of times. When a parent came back, I could hear the babies chirping for food!

What a blessing to see so much diversity all around me.

I will miss the chickens, but I will also try to make the most of what is in my life, including the amazing natural beauty and beginning of new life I was able to witness tonight.

I realize that probably in other years there were many nests around the yard, but I never took the time to really look at birds in detail in the yard. Thanks to Desert Survivor's Backyard Bird Challenge, I've paid a lot more attention this year (and need to update our list in the sidebar!).

If you're doing the backyard bird challenge, how is it going? And if you're not, it's never too late. Simply keep track of what birds you see in your yard!

Baby Birds

Our yard has felt like a wildlife bonanza recently. Two afternoons ago I was sitting outside, keeping an eye on our quickly-growing chickens, when all of a sudden I noticed a quick movement in the air. I looked up and saw an American Kestrel dive bomb a collared dove, taking out a big chunk of feathers that soon rained down near us. The kestrel wasn't successful, though, and soon a western kingbird chased it back.

Two nights ago, while Desert Boy was putting the chickens into the coop, he ran into the house telling us excitedly that he had seen a skunk. We ran out, worried, but the chickens were fine. For the moment. Under a nearby building we discovered that we had not one skunk, but a mom and several young. Oh my.

Another wildlife sighting came last night, when I was walking in the driveway and heard the birds making a lot of noise. I looked up and saw a Great Horned Owl fly away with a kingbird perched on its back. Wild!

Perhaps not as crazy, but definitely exciting for the kids, was the discovery of a baby robin in the grass. This is the second baby robin we've found this spring.

Desert Girl decided it was hungry and got some worms and tried to feed the bird worms.

The bird opened its mouth, but wouldn't actually swallow any of them. However, it started hopping about and looked better than we thought at first. We eventually lost track of it and hope that it found its parents. It seemed to have a better chance than the dead magpie chick we found nearby.

It's nice when you don't have to go far to see so much!
Desert Girl's insect pets (which change from day-to-day) also have us appreciating the tiny creatures around us. More on that later!

Behind the Visitor Center: Birds and Solar Observing

 I got a tip the other day that some birds were nesting behind the Lehman Caves Visitor Center at Great Basin National Park. I went and took a look, and sure enough, there was a nest with two little mouths visible. We looked around and found the mama bird:

A Say's phoebe. Both males and females Say's phoebes look very similar, with gray backs, blush-colored abdomens, and black tails that they wag a lot. Say's phoebes are flycatchers that don't mind being around people, and they usually nest on buildings.

We also noticed another nest close by:

 This one was occupied by a barn swallow, with another barn swallow flying in frequently.

I took the kids up after work to check out the birds, and they thought they were pretty cool. 

They were also happy to participate in another activity behind the visitor center:

 Solar observing! We could see solar prominences around the sun, as well as a couple sun spots.

For their efforts, the kids received solar observer certificates, and we took a photo with the park volunteer, Tom.

After some browsing in the book store and cafe and gift shop, we went back out to watch the birds. The kids were much more patient than I expected, and it was pretty cool seeing what mama bird was bringing back to her babies. It looked like she was catching a lot of moths, but also grasshoppers and flies.

I knew the kids were having a good time when they asked me to be their mama bird and feed them. I hope they aren't picky eaters!

Hiking Wheeler Peak in Great Basin National Park in Early Summer

 Yesterday my husband and I hit the trail for a training hike. We're celebrating our tenth anniversary this year, and we decided we should do something big for it. We decided to take that "big" literally and are going to climb Mt. Rainier in September (it was either that or the beaches of Mexico, something we may reconsider as we get further along in training!).

Our first training hike was Crystal Peak. For our second training hike, we decided on an early summer summit of Wheeler Peak so we could simulate more of the snowy conditions of Rainier. We're fortunate to have Wheeler Peak, at 13,063 ft, so close to us. We started off with ideal weather conditions for the 8-mile round trip, with a 3,000 foot elevation gain.

I kept stopping to take photos of flowers. I figured that should be part of the acclimatization plan! As we ascended, I kept track of the birds: mountain chickadees, common ravens, ruby-crowned kinglets, dark-eyed juncos. Then a flock of birds went by, and I got excited. Could it be? Why, yes, red crossbills! Crossbills are easy to identify if you can see their bills, because the bills overlap, the better to get seeds out of pinecones. They live in much of the West year round, and one really cool thing about them is that they breed year round, not just in the summer like most birds.

As we approached tree line, we saw more snow patches, but overall there was a lot less snow for June 1 than I was anticipating. We are a bit below normal for snow pack this year.

We got an early enough start that we could walk right over the top of the snow on the way up. My husband is carrying his grandmother's ice axe. She got married on top of Mount Rainier, to her husband who was a guide.

Although we were quite warm in softshell pants and a lightweight wool shirt, we did find patches of ice that had frozen during the night from the previous day's snow melt. I particularly liked this patch, with a flower stuck in the middle.

The flower below is Ross' avens (Geum rossii), a member of the rose family. Other flowers starting to bloom at and above treeline included cushion phlox (Phlox pulvinata) and Snow cinquefoil (Potentilla nivea) and more. I was surprised by how many flowers were blooming.

Another surprise was this golden-mantled ground squirrel that popped out of the rocks. He was quite cooperative letting me take photos!

We took a little break on the shoulder, a traditional stopping place with wind breaks scattered along the relatively flat spot.

Then it was time to summon energy for the final push to the top.

I was really hoping to see rosy-finches, as they like to eat insects in the snow, but alas, I didn't see any. However, I did see quite a few insects in the snow. I guess they get blown there and stuck.

Ladybug

Moth

Hemiptera (true bug)

Beetle

I saw lots of spiders on the rocks and one in the snow.

We reached the summit in just under three hours. I know people who have made it much faster and much slower. A seventy-two year old gentleman who shared the top with us had hiked slightly faster than us--nice job. We were just glad to make it! We were rewarded with spectacular views. 

To the northwest, with the Schell Creek Range in the distance.

To the West, across Spring Valley and the pivot irrigation to the chainings in the pinyon/juniper on the lower slopes of the Schell Creeks, and then to the Egan Range, and hazy Currant Range.

To the north, with Stella, Teresa, and Brown Lakes in the middle, Bald and Buck mountains behind the Scenic Drive, and the North Snake Range in the distance.

Here I am checking the view to the south. It was amazingly calm at the top, and we didn't even need to put on extra layers.

We checked the summit log out of the mailbox. The part I found most interesting was that someone had climbed the peak November 8, 2013. The next entry wasn't until January, and after that until April. Those folks had to work hard for their summit, as the Scenic Drive was closed and they had to start their hike much lower (about 8,000 ft).

The benchmark at the top:

I couldn't go to the top without a look down at the Wheeler Cirque Rock Glacier. So I went to the edge of the ridge and found a good spot.

Jeff Davis Peak was also looking impressive.

It took less than two hours to hike down, although we were moving at a fairly good clip (and I didn't take hardly any photos). 

Looking south from Wheeler Peak at the North Fork of Baker cirque, Baker Peak, Pyramid Peak, Mt. Washington, and the rest of the South Snake Range

Here are photos and a description of a trip up the peak in August, when it has many different flowers.

And for more history and information about climbing Wheeler Peak, check out my book, Great Basin National Park: A Guide to the Park and Surrounding Area.

Thanks!

Spring Birds

 I've been having a dilemma: when I go for a run, I get distracted by the birds and want to stop and look at them. Exercise or bird watching? Argh, I don't know!

So I've been doing some of both. The birds are singing all the time (starting about 4:30 a.m., although the owls may hoot before then). Sometimes it can be overwhelming trying to sort out all the songs! Above is a house finch, one of the noisiest songsters of them all!

A distinctive song is that of the red-winged blackbird, which also happens to be quite easy to identify and remember its name.

Another house finch!

The western kingbirds look like they live a good life. They're either chasing insects around with their mates or relaxing on a perch.

We have a lot of robins around here, but I still love watching them.

While I was looking at birds a couple weeks ago, I noticed a bird dart out from the end of a clothesline pole. I took a closer look this week and saw a little blue egg in it.

House sparrows were seen in the nearby trees, but this doesn't look like a house sparrow egg. I didn't get a good enough look at the other nearby birds to figure out what kind of egg this is.

I continue to find bird photography very challenging. The lens I use only goes up to 200 mm, and I generally don't have a tripod with me. So I delete many more photos than I use. Nevertheless, I can't help but try! I learn the birds better when I examine the photos.

Some of the really colorful ones I've seen lately are lazuli buntings, evening grosbeaks, and yellow warblers. What cool birds are you seeing?