Check out the half-open nictating membrane on this Allen's Hummingbirds. If this bird doesn't know how to sell a second pair of eyelids, then I don't know who can.
It's all been leading up to this birders. How do you feel about it? Are you happy with your station in life? Do you get to bird enough? Are you making a positive impact on....anything? Strange questions linger in the air on this summer Monday.
Monday is the traditional day for mournful contemplation of your personal status quo. I know. I understand. I've been there. So on this day of regression, I thought I'd go back to some California birds for a change...they are, as they say, my roots. All photos are from the Ventura area, except for the tern, which graced Morro Bay.
If you're reading this at work, no doubt you're deep into the time-honored tradition of attempting to do whatever you can do to avoid working. I applaud this move. We are not little worker bees, despite what our employers would have us believe...no. We are meant to be as free as birds! But, lord knows it's not easy to do that.
Get some Bushtit, get some.
"Sand crabs" are a popular item on the shorebird menu in California...makes me wonder what they taste like. Willet.
Elegant Tern, one of California's "specialty" birds. Have you ever thought about how strange it is to refer to birds as specialities?
I'm rambling, and being vague. Not enough coffee...that is surely my problem.
The sexy and very competent interns here at the BB&B compound have been working night and day for the BB&B third anniversary, which is coming next up in July. I flogged them for missing BB&B's 300th blog post, so they are working extra hard this time around. Expect lots of rad features and shocking exposes on the scandalous birding community, including another installment in the Human Birdwatcher Project's interview series.
Right. I'll leave you to it to soldier through the rest of your Monday, however you see fit. But if you need another diversion, check out this article on pelagic Gyrfalcons. Pretty gnarly.
Red-shouldered Hawk. Always a popular bird.
Traditionally a forest bird, Band-tailed Pigeons have made the transition to suburbanites in many parts of California, where they wage war with invasive Eurasian Collared-Doves.
One of the Western Scrub-Jays that has come to trust the Tucker family over the years (I used to let them into the kitchen as a kid). The key to their hearts is peanuts. As a reward they'll let you hear their bizarre, completely unjaylike whisper song.
oh, how sweet re: jays when you feed them. reminds me of the gentle up sweeping peeping chickens do when going to sleep. SO sweet.
ReplyDeletek. that first photograph is INSANE. I assume it's yours and HOW DID YOU GET THAT?!?
I've actually been thinking about the umpteen breaks I have to take while working. I now know it's 'cause of my ADD wiring, but also, that's the price THEY (employers) pay for the genius that then shoots out of my typing fingers/reading eyeballs/neuron-connecting brain in intense pulses. =) I think I'm coming to terms with it. Yes, it looks like I'm petting my cat, but I'm really halting data input and idling my conscious thought so bitchin' neuronal connections can then be made.
QUESTION FOR YOU THE BIRD GURU: Went to Cornell today to find bird call (on my post today) and while there played Pacific slope fly catcher expecting the hailing-the-taxi call & did not hear that. Am I remembering this wrong? I AM a crap birder, as previously confessed. Can you help? It's now bugging me and I actually cannot spend all day at Cornell.whatever. AND I heard the taxi-cab call this very morning.
Enjoyable post. Thanks.
My mom would cut me if I let a Blue Jay in the kitchen. That gyrfalcon article is crazy... Thanks for sharing that. And I agree with the above comment on the hummer photo. How the hell did you get that???
ReplyDeleteMan. Breaks. I'm really good at taking them. In the office anyways. I totally feel ya on the ADD. Pacific-slopes generally do a 2 note call (the taxi hail, in my head, is 3 notes), and upslurred "tsu-wheet!". When they do bust out the 3-note song, its more like a "Seet....tsu-wheet!", with a longish pause after the first note. I am a nerd.
ReplyDeleteThe hummingbird. It lives in my parent's yard in Ventura. It really likes me.
When we lived in the Bay Area, we trained a Scrub-Jay to come into the kitchen for peanuts. Then he trained us to get out of bed and go downstairs and open the kitchen door. He flew around the house looking in the windows. Hey! Get up! Give me a peanut! Hshreik!
ReplyDeleteokay. wrote, deleted. Could you pretty please e-mail me at biobabbler at g mail dot com (can't find your e-mail address) so I can ask my tedious follow up questions and not make your readers suicidal? Thanks. =)
ReplyDelete