Talking to the birds

I'm waiting for a mockingbird to talk back to me. I'm singing Mozart and Verdi and really being listened yto, but so far there's only silence and stares.

As for the gentle hawk I whisper sweet thank yous for showing up and letting me look at such beauty. I know the hawk was watching out for lunch, but while I was there it was a posing, staring, looking gorgeous.

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Bluejay "goiter"

Having watched the grackle and the acorn I wasn't too surprised to see bluejays hunting acorns, but my reaction was still, "How are they going to swallow that hunk?"

The jays were so busy hunting that they didn't even mind my being in their space. It was a hunting extravaganza. So I watched and chuckled thinking all the while that a bird would choke.

Wrong!!!!!!! They were hunting as fast as they could, acorn competition, and not swallowing the acorns. They were stashing them in a throat pouch, one acorn in the bill, next acorn in the pouch, bluejay "goiter", absolutely astonishing. When they had their load off they flew to stash same in their hidey-hole. Then back they came to hunt again. Flying chipmunks?

I know this is a lot of pictures, but I may never see this again. Ever.

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Eat, drink and be merry (take a bath)

I went out early this morning to try and find the owl that's been seen in the park. Bluejays screaming would be a good guide.

First stop- Tanner Spring just for fun. Nothing. A couple of sparrows, but nothing special.

Next stop- over the road to the bushes with berries. Oh nice, a flock of cedar waxwings gorging. It's not easy to get close to them. They fly off, but this time they flew towards Tanner Spring. Could it be? No. Impossible?

Totally possible. To my surprise and glee and whole flock came to drink and bath, a communal frenzy, first with caution and then en masse . They poured into the water. They stared at me. I tried to be invisible. After bathing they flew right at the lens and my head. A waxwing joke. Another birder came along and could enjoy this scene. It was intense for about ten minutes and then they all flew off. This was a flock of easily 100 birds, adult and immature. I never knew they'd do this, but why not. Tanner Spring changed from blah to exciting and frenzied in a split second.

During the bathing sparrows had nothing to do with the waxwings. A junco was allowed to come into the middle of the scene, but nothing else. When the waxwings left it was to resume berry gorging.

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Cold Sunday

It was colder today than it's been for a while. There was some sort of race (marathon?) going on with hundreds of runners seemingly running on air. The first stop for me was Tanner's Spring, but all was quiet. For half an hour there were no birds, but then, as is usually the case, something shows up. For today it was the sparrows first, then a purple finch (not purple), and a junco (not shy). It was really cold, but that didn't stop the birds from bathing. The park colors are beautiful. Soon enough the trees will be bare and the colors will be grey and brown for a while.

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Delicious berries

Down the hatch, up the hatch, any which way. I heard the sounds first, - peep peep. There in the tree was a flock of cedar waxwings. First thing- move away. It's not wise to stand under a flock of gorging birds, any birds. There were big berries which didn't go down so easily and smaller berries to eat as fast as seen. It was late afternoon, so this was a fun surprise. Cedar waxwings are so neat to look at and intense in what they want to do. Strolling back I watched autumn colors reflecting on the lake surface. Magic.

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Osage orange

As a child I remember being told to not touch the big green "seed pods", - alert, -"You'll get sick. They're poison". I wouldn't like to be bopped on the bean when one of these heavy things falls to the ground, but they must be delicious and not poisonous, because more than once I've seen squirrels gorge on the osage orange. They rip into it, frantic to get to the delicious fruit, eat up the whole thing. It's fun to watch, a messy feast. After the osage orange fun I met up with pretty cardinals, more smiles.

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Little gems

It is such fun to meet bird friends, winged and human. I met a very knowledgeable birder on Sunday and together we talked about photo equipment, digital tools and birds and we had the good luck to see winged treasures- several sweet hermit thrushes, a gorgeous fox sparrow and a surprise warbler for November, the Northern parula. It gets cold at this time of year, but seeing the birds keeps us warm at heart.

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