birding, photography and living with pet birds
Posted in sparrow on Nov 8th, 2011
Thank you for all the comments. Audrey was greatly loved. Conner is having a hard time dealing with the loss but he’s slowly getting better. Trevor knows that we’re all sad and is trying to comfort Conner. But I don’t want to go into details now. I want to talk about something happier. Onto Lake [...]
Posted in sparrow on Sep 7th, 2011
The air in Utah is very dry. During the winter we run a humidifier every day so that my skin isn’t constantly itchy and the birds’ feathers stay nice and sleek. The air is so dry that instead of air conditioners some people have swamp coolers. Swamp coolers cool the air by releasing water vapor. [...]
Sorry I didn’t post over the weekend. I was deathly ill. I can’t even remember the last time I was this sick. So sick I couldn’t work let alone do something fun like write a blog post. Instead I stayed in bed shivering and coughing. . But a few weeks ago I made it to [...]
Posted in sparrow on Feb 27th, 2011
White-crowned Sparrows are very common in Utah in the winter. I usually hear them before I see them. Cornell’s bird page has an audio clip and the last three seconds are consistent with the noise I’m always hearing. In the picture above the bird on the left is a juvenile. The juveniles don’t have white [...]
Posted in sparrow on Jan 22nd, 2011
Sparrows can be really hard to identify. I’m working on one ID right now that is impossible. I can’t find a sparrow with the same pattern of gray and brown stripes on his head. But the American Tree Sparrow is very easy to identify: Just ignore the shell casing next to the birds. Farmington Bay [...]
Salt Lake City has several prime areas for skiing. One of them is Big Cottonwood Canyons, which is a gorgeous area in the mountains. There are several lakes in Big Cottonwood Canyon that you can hike; one is Silver Lake. It’s very pretty! Unfortunately, everyone else knows how pretty it is. Salt Lake City has [...]
Posted in sparrow on Aug 28th, 2010
I added a new sparrow to my life list a few weeks ago! This little sparrow poked his head in and out of little mounds of grass. Oh hello there, can I help you? I took picture after picture, hoping that I could get a good shot. And then, as if sensing my frustration, the [...]
I got my BirdCam and I’ve been testing it out. So far it’s only captured pictures of House Sparrows. They’re cute and all, but I’d be more excited by getting a crossbill in the night! I specifically bought a camera with flash in the hopes that the exotic birds come out at night. But sparrows [...]
Last weekend I visited the Red Butte Gardens. It’s only 3.5 miles from the house and has a variety of flowers. The views are not terribly lush, but that’s to be expected since the gardens are in the driest part of town. The gardens, however, are full of birds and bunnies! Very hungry looking bunnies. [...]
If you weren’t already convinced of the importance of cleaning your gutters, I have some news. If you let leaves build up, they will plug the gutters, water will stay in the gutters, AND BIRDS WILL BATHE IN YOUR GUTTERS