Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Coffee Time #104. Tuesday’s Ramblings.
Good morning on this beautiful Tuesday! Coffee is ready, nice and hot, needful to warm up today. Yes, it is a cold one again, 23F (-5C) and going all the way up to 33F (1C) by this afternoon. Not exactly spring weather, actually the temps are below normal even for us for this time of the year. And it’s cloudy with the possibility of snow flurries again as well. So why is this a beautiful morning? Why not? It’s another day, so it’s beautiful. You’re all here, so it’s beautiful. We should always try to look at the positive aspect of things, that’s what makes it beautiful. There are lots of birds out there this morning, that makes it beautiful.
And I mean there are a lot of birds out there, the ground is crawling with little birds looking for seeds, there has got to be at least 200 and I think even more than that. Even my deck is full of little birds. They are mostly juncos, but also about 2 dozen fox sparrows and at least one tree sparrow. This is my third spring trying to get a picture of a tree sparrow. It isn’t easy it seems. And they are only here for one or two days as they head much further north for breeding. So it doesn’t give much time. I’m hoping he will be here again today so I can try again. He was here yesterday when it was nice and sunny, but whenever I went outside with my camera, he was nowhere to be seen. Amazing really.
Even the shy fox sparrow is more cooperative, though I admit not getting any pics of them yesterday either. And sunny pics are just so much nicer, it really brings out the colors of these birds. A new bird this morning, Ricky, my ring-billed gull showed up this morning, the first time this year. He was here last year too, but only shows up once in a while, definitely not a regular. I figure someone else must feed him and some days though miss so he comes over here instead. He’s quite tame, but I didn’t try for a pic this morning, next time he comes. I also saw something different this morning, a herring gull was sitting on a hydro wire.
That may not seem strange, birds sit on wires all the time. But gulls are different, their feet are different than other birds. They have flat webbed feet, they don’t curl up and around branches or wires like other birds feet. A branch would be easier than a wire though. It was a thicker wire, but still, very odd. So I went out with my camera and he was not there. I came back inside and 15 minutes later he was back, on the same wire. Out I went with my camera. He was not there. Sigh. Must be camera shy or something. But it would make a great picture. Maybe another time. Thank you for reading today, I hope you all have a terrific Tuesday and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve’s Bird Of The Day #57.
Hi everyone! Well, here we are with our bird today, the “American crow”. Crows are often mistaken for ravens, plus the other way around, but crows are much smaller, about half the size. The western crow is smaller than the eastern but it’s still the same species. There is also the fish crow and the northwestern crow, but they are different species with limited range. The American crow can be found over most of the continent from northern Canada to the southern US, though they avoid the southwestern area. In winter they will form huge roosting colonies of many thousands of birds. For most of their range they are year-round residents, even up here we have a lot of crows that spend the winter now, though even 30 years ago they were rare here in winter. They eat just about anything and during nesting season they young are fed a diet of 80% insects and even the adults eat a large portion of the diet in insects, many are harmful. They are easily attracted to feeders, something most people don’t like since they scare other birds. They are highly intelligent birds as well, can work together and solve problems. They will often help one another, nesting crows will help another pair when their nest is in danger. Ravens often get at their nests. Like ravens, crows are terrible nest robbers. They can also be quite noisy which a lot of people don’t like. They are very susceptible to West Nile virus and usually die within a week. Well, I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 