October 13, 2013

• nature notes: birds

  

  Blue Jay from Google

  It's been a good week for bird sightings. Along with the slowly turning leaves, I've seen some welcome species, one for the first time. That was on Saturday(yesterday), when I was just aimlessly looking out the living room window and saw a large hawk fly down the driveway and land on the peaked roof of an upper alcove window on the building across from mine. At first I thought it was a red-tailed hawk, as much of it was that mahogany color, but closer examination revealed a tear stripe by it's eye, similar to peregrines, which red-tails don't have. I was just about to go for the camera across the room, when I saw it tilt it's body forward and take off, where I could see a banded tail, not a faded red one. At that point, I was unsure of the species, but was thrilled just the same, as the sight of an unusual bird always makes me. A short time later, after field guide and online research, I decided it looked most like a juvenile Swainson's Hawk, which National Geographic Guide said was a rare fall migrant in the eastern part of North America, on it's way to winter in Florida.
  That wasn't the only big bird I saw recently, on two different days this week, I saw a turkey vulture circling overhead, which was a surprise this late in the year. They go south for winter and return in mid-March, staying until late September, usually. I really love to watch them soar through the sky, so lovely. I did wonder if their lingering boded well for winter weather, or at least it's onset?
  The third bit of excitement was a bluejay, which is my ultimate favorite bird.I love the varied shades of blue, the crest, the black and white contrasts & their perky intelligent faces. They used to be regular visitors to my neighborhood until about 5 years ago, when they were hard hit by West Nile Virus. Now I only see them occasionally, like this morning, when I was watching a chipmunk scamper around the garbage bin and a moment later, a bluejay landed beside a flower pot a few feet away. He poked around outside and inside the flower container & and flew up onto the roof, where he sipped rainwater from a puddle. Then he bounced around on various limbs all over the locust tree, where I had to contort my head to follow his movements and flew away a few minutes later when a neighbor went out the back door.
  Each of these sightings were all too brief, but still very enjoyable and made my day.

  • 8:32 pm
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