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Mothers’ Day Birds Part Three

Well, my mother probably would not have enjoyed watching Turkey Vultures. But I do. They are a social bird that roosts in groups and scavenges for food together. With a wing span of over 70 inches and weighing more than four pounds, they can lift off easily in warm air, seemingly effortlessly. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, “Turkey Vultures lack the vocal organs to make proper songs. Most of their vocalizations come down to a form of low, guttural hiss made when they are irritated or vying for a better spot on a carcass. They also may give a low, nasal whine while in flight.”

I have never seen a Turkey Vulture nest. There are lots of vultures around here and I wonder, are they all part of a non-breeding gang of teenager vultures?

A couple days ago, I noticed several vultures in the draw below our driveway. Looking closer later in the day, Ken discovered a dead deer. It probably had been hit by a car on the highway and managed to get this far before it died. The number of vultures increases each day and I don’t expect the carcass to last much longer.

 

 

Mothers’ Day Birds Part Two

Speaking of motherhood, and fatherhood, a pair of Mountain Bluebirds has chosen one of our nest boxes to set up housekeeping. This is very exciting! Normally both Mountain and Western Bluebirds nest reasonably far away from our house so we see them only on our walks or at the bird bath. The box they’ve chosen is attached to the bottom of our deck and easily seen from inside the house and from the porch so we get to see them often. The Violet-green Swallows who have traditionally used this box are not happy.

Violet-green Swallow
female Mountain Bluebird
male Mountain Bluebirds

Mothers’ Day Birds Part 1

Yesterday was a perfect day for bird watching. Many hummers visited the feeder including Calliope and Rufus Hummingbirds. A House Wren sat on the deck railing chattering continually. An American Goldfinch glowed yellow under the warm sun. I saw a male Calliope Hummingbird on my walk. Also on my walk I watched a Lewis’ Woodpecker confront a European Starling over a potential nest hole in a dead tree. And a Spotted Towhee called from a high perch.

Ken’s mother used to sit and watch the hummingbirds for hours. My mother would have enjoyed them too.

female Rufus Hummingbird
female Calliope Hummingbird
male Rufus Hummingbird
House Wren
American Goldfinch
male Calliope Hummingbird
European Starling and Lewis’s Woodpecker
Spotted Towhee

Black-chinned Hummingbird

There are up to four species of hummingbirds in our region and I think the Black-chinned is my favorite. It is more slender than other hummers making it appear ‘tall’ but really, it’s no bigger than the other hummingbirds around here with an average weight of .12 ounce. Twelve one hundredths of an ounce! Imagine. The wing span is 4.3 inches.

We are near the most northern part of their range. Can you imagine such a small animal making the long migration from central Mexico? While the chin is black, as you might expect, when the sun hits it just right, there is a vibrant strip of purple on the males. I photographed this one at the feeder last week.

Wildflowers and a Walk

The girls and I drove a few miles out of Winthrop in hopes of finding the Lewisia tweedyi wildflowers. They have a narrow habitat and bloom early and I usually miss seeing them in this generally busy time of year. But since I am not as busy as normal, I made sure to get out and see them. According to my wildflower guide, Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest, ‘they grow in rocky slopes or cliffs at low and mid elevations only in the Wenatchee mountains in Washington and adjacent British Columbia. This rare plant is named for its discoverer, Frank Tweedy, a government railway surveyor working on the Wenatchee Range near Mount Stuart in 1882.’ These are not the Wenatchee mountains so perhaps, in the next revision of the book, that can be expanded to include the North Cascades.

After getting my fill of the flowers we skirted the Forest Service trailhead (all USFS facilities are closed but trails are open, if that makes any sense at all) and walked about 7 miles, round trip, through an old burned area with a nice creek and plenty of opportunities for the dogs to get a drink and cool off. There were more wildflowers along the trail including my first of the year fairy slipper orchids. It was a beautiful day.

Lewisia
maple
Sky leads the way
Luna is doing pretty well for 13 and a half!
cedar
fairy slipper orchid
arnica
paintbrush
beaver pond