Feederwatching
Time for another around of feederwatching images. The seasons are definitely moving towards fall, and nesting season for the birds is over. Some of the species have already left, including the Western Tanagers (and their kids), and we’re seeing very little of the Grosbeaks. Both species are migratory and so I’m not surprised. The Pileated Woodpeckers are still around but rarely visiting the feeders now that the chicks (at least two, likely three) have been sent off on their own. The Swainson’s Thrush’s have stopped singing and I think they’re gone.
In return, we’re starting to see some new species wander in: we’re now hearing Barred Owl hooting in the early morning, to go along with the Great Horned Owls we’ve been hearing (and occasionally seeing — I finally got a picture). We have both a Hairy and a Downy woodpecker visiting the feeders fairly reliably, both seem to be hatch year birds that have adopted this as their new territory.
No sign of the bears for a few weeks, but we have seen coyote a couple of times for the first time in months, and we have a new first time visitor:
That’s a yearling black-tailed deer, one of three we’ve seen in the last week. It’s currently eating some weeds I haven’t gotten around to pulling, but they are both pretty and problematic to your yard plantings although at least for now, pretty and “oh that’s cute” is winning.
I’ve been using the Merlin app from Cornell on and off to survey what bird calls we can hear from the property, and there is definitely some body of water nearby, because recent finds have included Wood Duck, Great Blue Heron, and Green Heron. Wherever the water is, it’s hidden by the trees in Google Earth, but I’m going to try to explore a bit and try to see if I can figure this one out.
We have one other new species we can report here on the homestead: the Townsend’s Chipmunk, which I’ve now seen three times but which is quite uninterested in being seen by a human (unlike the squirrels, who don’t really care). We also continue to see, on and off, three racoons; two are younger adults and sometimes show up together and sometimes separately, and the third is a fairly elderly raccoon who’s seen some things, because his walk is grumpy and he’s somehow lost his tail completely, with his rump looking like it’s got a lot of scar tissue — not sure what happened, but it’s pretty clearly it wasn’t fun. Still, he survived, and once a week or so he comes by at night and washes up in the bird bath, and I expect he’s waiting for the tomatoes to ripen in the garden…
(speaking of gardens, it’s been a weird year; the cool spring meant little set on the fruit trees, and the tomatoes are way late. We’ve also been watering manually since we found some of the irrigation areas needed work, and that work is scheduled to commence in right after labor day and has turned into a Major Project, but one I’m happy to be getting done since it’ll mean most of the property will be turnkey and hopefully not needing any work for a while…)
I, for one, and ready for fall…
