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Any birders? Share your photos!

Christy

Angel Diva
Missy's photo of her feeder in front of her desk inspired this. You probably have to look closely but it is purple and hanging from the fence post, and there is a hummingbird on it. I hung a second hummingbird feeder, partly because I hated to see one bird run another off from my first feeder, and partly because this is right in front of my improvised work station in my dining room. Now that I'm sitting there much of the day I am getting a front row seat to the hummingbird action. There is so much variety among the Anna's! Some have markings that I can't find in any of the ID guides online, but these birds don't look like other types of hummingbirds either, so they must be Anna's.

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altagirl

Moderator
Staff member
That's awesome, love it! Anna's are the hardy oddballs that stay in the PNW in winter while most hummingbirds are way farther south. They are quite rare here - so cool to see!
 

Jenny

Angel Diva
I watched this documentary on hummingbirds on Prime last night and it was fascinating. My poor husband was trying to play guitar in another room and I kept calling him to come out and watch such and such part. I peppered him with newly learned hummingbird facts all night.

https://www.amazon.com/Hummingbirds-Paul-Reddish/dp/B0754NWHTF
Watched it tonight - they're pretty amazing birds. Photography was awesome, naturally, and David Attenborough narrates.
 

yogiskier

Angel Diva
Beautiful photos! I've always liked birds, but have only gotten into birding since quarantine and asked for my first pair of binoculars for Christmas. Remarkably, there's a tree outside of our living room window that is frequently visited by woodpeckers, but I've only noticed them this year (this is our second year here). I had no idea woodpeckers were so common, but we've seen downy woodpeckers, red-bellied woodpeckers (saw one this morning), and once a flicker.
I recently found out that Snowy Owls can be found overwintering on the MA coast and 2 weeks ago went to Plum Island and luck was on our side - there was a female sitting on a post in the water as calm and breathtaking as can be. Sadly, my phone is not good enough to capture her, only one of the marshy landscape behind us.
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altagirl

Moderator
Staff member
That's great to hear!! It is a great quarantine activity. And that's such great luck finding an item on your first outing! We don't get Snowy's here so I'm jealous!
 

Christy

Angel Diva
Seattle had a celebrity Snowy Owl take up residence on a woman's roof this winter. People went nuts over it. We don't usually get them. Then there was a big uproar when people noticed how many neighborhood businesses set out rat poison, because the Snowy Owl was eating all of these urban rats. Hopefully it was an educational opportunity about poison. In this segment they also talk with a local author who just published a photography book about Snowy Owls in the arctic, and they show some beautiful images.

 

altagirl

Moderator
Staff member
Seattle had a celebrity Snowy Owl take up residence on a woman's roof this winter. People went nuts over it. We don't usually get them. Then there was a big uproar when people noticed how many neighborhood businesses set out rat poison, because the Snowy Owl was eating all of these urban rats. Hopefully it was an educational opportunity about poison. In this segment they also talk with a local author who just published a photography book about Snowy Owls in the arctic, and they show some beautiful images.


We definitely have issues with that here too with our "regular" owls being poisoned or killed by eating poisoned rodents. It's such a bummer and it's good to get the word out when suddenly one of these lovely out of range raptors show up and grab public attention! I'm sure most people aren't being malicious with poison (or glue traps)... they just see them at the store and don't realize the unintended consequences.
 

yogiskier

Angel Diva
We definitely have issues with that here too with our "regular" owls being poisoned or killed by eating poisoned rodents. It's such a bummer and it's good to get the word out when suddenly one of these lovely out of range raptors show up and grab public attention! I'm sure most people aren't being malicious with poison (or glue traps)... they just see them at the store and don't realize the unintended consequences.

The town I used to live in, Arlington, MA, has an amazing Animal Control Officer, Diane Welch, and citizens would call her not just for lost/found cats and dogs, but injured wildlife as well. I just googled her to get her name right and it turns out that she is a longtime falconer - no wonder she is so good with injured raptors. Anyway, she's done a lot of community education on the dangers of rat poison on wild rodents and further up the food chain. A little education goes a long way! The article is the opposite of beautiful photos of birds, but in case you're interested: https://arlington.wickedlocal.com/news/20181122/is-rat-poison-killing-our-towns-wildlife At the very least, you can just click on the link to see the photo at the top of the ACO holding her hawk named Autumn :smile:
 

newboots

Angel Diva
@Christy ! Thank you!

I hope everyone clicks on the video and watches it on YouTube. It's a very sweet news story, but the owl is amazing. Seeing it preen and - yes - yawn! was fantastic. And then those amazing photographs from that photographer's book! What a treat!
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
I had to stick toe warmers to the underside of my hummingbird feeders last night, since it got down to 30 (cold for us). It seemed to keep them thawed.

I’m jealous you still have them, do they stay all year round where you are?? (We may have had this conversation before haha, but I’m in awe) I miss mine so much, loved having them all summer this year with the feeder right outside of my office window.
 

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