birding, photography and living with pet birds
Jan 13th, 2012 by Elizabeth
We saw a lot of flycatchers in Arizona, but I really enjoyed seeing the Ash-throated Flycatcher.
It might be in part because he let us take a lot of pictures. He was in this really desolate looking area.
I don’t know why they call them ash throated since the whole front is ash colored.
One of the identifiers is his rust colored tail. I was very happy to have a bird guide for this identification.
Jan 10th, 2012 by Elizabeth
I try to supply a wide variety of toys for Trevor and Conner. Conner doesn’t like them as much as he used to, but sometimes he chews the popsicle sticks. Trevor prefers more variety.
This toy is awesome because it has a box wrapped in tissue with shreddable material inside. Unfortunately, Trevor doesn’t like to forage. But if your bird does, I recommend it. Trevor just likes to pull the confetti string.
If you’re looking for toys for your cockatiels, first make sure that you’re getting a small size. Cockatiels are not going to be able to break down things like wood blocks. Instead, they can break popsicle sticks and things of a similar size. My guys like also like paper and really thin woven strips. Here is a rare glance of Conner playing with a toy.
I recommend using toys that you know they’ll enjoy and keeping a tester toy around. Sometimes the cockatiels will ignore a toy for months and will then destroy it in a day. You should also make sure that the toys don’t cause over crowding. You don’t want to prevent the birds from moving around in their cages. I prevent this by putting most of the toys on top of the cage. I also have four cockatiel cages connected, though, which is a luxury for a lot of people. I’m lucky that the cages fit nicely along the sloping wall so it isn’t even taking up space because a human couldn’t stand upright in that area. As a result, the cockatiels have a pretty sweet setup.
Georgia is a beautiful state. Especially right now when Salt Lake City is covered in the polluted inversion air, it’s nice to be reminded of bright cloud-filled skies.
It’s nice to see healthy looking cows along the road.
One other thing that we need more of in Utah is the Tufted Titmouse. Every year I’m excited to go back to the east coast to see these cute friends.
Is it just me or does he have giant feet? The one on the left looks particularly thick. Have I mentioned how much I want the fancy 500mm Nikkor lens that would have taken this picture at a faster shutter speed and not caused the blurriness?
A lot of people take titmice for granted because they’re so common. It reminds me of Birdchick’s recent post about how excited people in Israel were to see a House Sparrow. I’m excited about seeing titmice and one of the few nice things about global warming is that it’s causing their range to expand.
So soon enough I might see one nearby.
Jan 6th, 2012 by Elizabeth
Even though it’s been almost a year since my trip to Arizona, I still have birds to talk about. This next one is called the Gila Woodpecker.
She was trying to drink from the sugar water for feeding hummingbirds. This woodpecker is female because male Gila Woodpeckers have a red cap on their heads.
Here’s a blurry picture of a male for comparison.
You wouldn’t think that the feeder was designed well enough for the woodpecker to drink, but it was good enough that there was a fight between the woodpecker and a female Bullock’s Oriole over the feeder.
Jan 1st, 2012 by Elizabeth
One of the first things that we did after moving to Utah was visit Antelope Island. This year Jon and I are starting an annual tradition of returning to Antelope Island for New Year’s Eve.
The weather has been unseasonably warm lately so it was a balmy 32 degrees on the island yesterday. We had a picnic on Buffalo Point and then hiked up to the top. The views from the picnic area were amazing.
You could also see six buffalo down below. At first I thought they had tufts of fur sticking up but then I saw the tufts fly off. Blackbirds!
We also took a trip to the buffalo corral where the owls nest and two were there. The Great-horned Owl on the left is napping while the one on the right is keeping watch.
So happy New Year everyone. In a lot of ways 2011 was a very hard year because of all the losses, and not a day goes by that I don’t still think about Audrey. But it was a great year in other ways and 2012 will be amazing. There are so many great things coming up that I can’t wait to experience. Everyone stay healthy…please?
Dec 31st, 2011 by Elizabeth
Farmington Bay has a lot of White-faced Ibises.
When you come too close to them, they fly away honking. It sounds like hrongk, hrongk.
On Christmas, my father, step-mother and aunt were visiting. We were going to visit to Antelope Island but they were closed so we went to Farmington Bay. And found White-Faced Ibis!
I didn’t know that they stayed for the winter, and there was one poking around in the ice. I had trouble recognizing him because he was in his non-breeding plumage and it was so unexpected. We saw several others flying, though, so then I knew.
If you look on the range map, they aren’t even supposed to be here. Southern California is supposed to be their highest range.
Conner is doing a lot better. We can leave the room and he doesn’t go crazy.
We do spend a lot more time with him at night, though, which helps. They’re really happy when we’re in the room. It means that the flock is complete and the birds can relax.
Both birds are becoming more comfortable with Jon. Conner likes to sit on Jon’s stomach at night and Trevor prefers his knee.
Conner cocks his head and flirts a little, although he doesn’t seem to be bursting with joy the way he used to. But he is happy and someday he’ll be ecstatic again.
Christmas is very hard for me this year. My grandfather died in October 2010, my grandmother died three months later and Audrey died last month. I have a very small family so it feel like everyone I love is leaving. To compensate, I’ve been throwing myself into hosting Christmas and trying to make everything nice and happy, like it was when we visited my grandmother for Christmas. We didn’t get a giant tree because it’s a pain to have to drive it to the house, the needles bother Jon’s allergies and you also have to dispose of the tree. But the grocery store had little tabletop trees, which works out because I don’t have enough ornaments for a large tree anyways.
What, you don’t have a penguin at the top of your tree?
Even the guest bedroom looks festive.
Tiffany sent me the best gifts ever for the birds, she made Conner and Trevor little stockings!!!
I was really obsessed with getting the right stocking stuffers for the humans and now I’ll have to find gifts for the birds. Thank you Tiffany!
Dec 18th, 2011 by Elizabeth
South Carolina has a great birding location at Lake Conestee, which is about 10 miles away from the airport. A series of streams lead into the lake so it’s fantastic for birding because there is water everywhere.
It’s absolutely amazing how nicely the parks are maintained on the east coast. California had no maintenance of the paths, frequently no bathrooms and you always had to pay to park. Utah is nice in that they only charge you for some of the places and the trails are nicely maintained. South Carolina is so awesome that they even built walkways.
And the area is so lush! Every time I leave the plane from Utah I feel like I’m walking into water.
While we were walking along the river, there was a crazy commotion in the bushes and a Carolina Wren jumped out. I’ve seen the wrens everywhere but checkout this picture!
I heard a Marsh Wren in Utah in November, but I couldn’t get him riled up enough to make an appearance. So it was nice to see wrens everywhere on the east coast. Even in wheel wells.
Dec 16th, 2011 by Elizabeth
Sometimes I’ll be watching a television show that takes place in San Francisco and I remember the day we went to the Presidio and watched the pelicans dive. We don’t have Brown Pelicans here, but the White Pelicans are nice to watch.
The gray heads that you see above are part of an eclipse plumage, which is the drab non-breeding plumage that a bird has before molting into fancy breeding plumage. These pictures were taken back in May and the pelicans had a mix of non-breeding plumage and other signs of breeding. Specifically, some of the males already grew horns on their beaks.
That horn is so huge!
I’m hoping that someday I can get close enough to the White Pelicans to get pictures of their eyes.