14 April 10
Mallards in the Rain
It rained hard on Monday, managed to get these two by the puddle.
9 April 10
8 April 10
House Wren
We don’t have a brush pile this year, and I fear the house wrens will be nesting somewhere else, but I managed to catch this one on the pole for a brief few seconds…
7 April 10
Mallards in the Puddle
Heavy rain on Sunday. It has cleared up but the lingering puddles are attracting all kinds of birds.
Yesterday afternoon a pair of mallards flew in and started digging around the base of the grasses and other plants with their bills.
After the root fest, preening began. Ducks have many more feathers than passerines to keep them waterproof and warm, and that takes a lot of maintenance…
6 April 10
Barn Swallow
The barn swallows are back, and right away colonized an old nest (theirs?) in the car port. The rain on Sunday has left mud everywhere for them and the cliff swallows to make nests if they need to.
2 April 10
Yellow-billed Magpie in the Rain
There are chips to be had.
31 March 10
30 March 10
Busy Kites
The kite pair that seems to have set up a nest in the large pine just above our lab at work has been engaging in a great deal of courtship activity: calling, display flights, copulation. Yesterday the female landed in the walnut tree with a pocket gopher, eating it over half an hour; the male came in and joined her. Today, another series of flights, another rodent — this time I was able to sketch it quickly. They are beautiful birds and I hope their nest doesn’t get predated by crows…
29 March 10
Red-tailed Hawk, Hit By Train (?)
One of my coworkers came in saying there was a hawk by the tracks that looked as though it had been hit by a train. They went out to look to see if it was fresh enough for a necropsy. Alas no, but they offered it to me anyway for a quick sketch…
28 March 10
Common Eider
Back from Maine. We went out to Pemaquid to sketch; here’s my eider…