Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
sightings, cowbird and flicker
big day for new bird sightings:
off of the main umd mall, i spotted a red-shafted flicker (colaptes auratus) hanging in one of the large trees lining the main strip. he was getting harassed by one of the northern mockingbirds (mimus polyglottos) that has staked out the department as its terrority. that was kind of exciting, but my companions didn't share my excitement.
later on, while having dinner outside, a brown-headed cowbird (molothrus ater) came and joined the typical group of house sparrows (passer domesticus) that gather around outside diners in the city. it was difficult to identify, and i was tempted to assume it was just a larger type of sparrow with atypical markings. it has a very sparrow-like bill, heavy and short, and was only slightly larger. the thing that set it apart was its gait, which was a series of long strides rather than the staccato hopping motion of the sparrow. it was a molting juvenile, and by late summer molting immature males can have fairly erratic black and tan marking. it wasn't really brown-headed all that much as a result, and this made it difficult to identify. thank you peterson's!
off of the main umd mall, i spotted a red-shafted flicker (colaptes auratus) hanging in one of the large trees lining the main strip. he was getting harassed by one of the northern mockingbirds (mimus polyglottos) that has staked out the department as its terrority. that was kind of exciting, but my companions didn't share my excitement.
later on, while having dinner outside, a brown-headed cowbird (molothrus ater) came and joined the typical group of house sparrows (passer domesticus) that gather around outside diners in the city. it was difficult to identify, and i was tempted to assume it was just a larger type of sparrow with atypical markings. it has a very sparrow-like bill, heavy and short, and was only slightly larger. the thing that set it apart was its gait, which was a series of long strides rather than the staccato hopping motion of the sparrow. it was a molting juvenile, and by late summer molting immature males can have fairly erratic black and tan marking. it wasn't really brown-headed all that much as a result, and this made it difficult to identify. thank you peterson's!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
no birds
no birds today! i will buy a bird feeder and fix this situation. already i am anxious about squirrels.
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