19 December 2022
Good Morning!
The fluffy snow is still here – thankfully the sun is going to try and come out today and it has stopped falling. The garden is beautiful – still a wonderland.
Dyson (bottom photo) has been stocking up on Black Oil seed while two of the three babies are going after the peanuts.
Dyson is so clever!!!!!! She sits on that perfect branch and eats for hours!!!!!! Her own automatic vending machine for seed. The sparrows will never bother her.
The Starlings arrive every day around 1330. They will sit on the top branches and if it is sunny you can see them turn their little bodies around warming every side.
Mr Crow has been in a bit of a mood. The wee squirrels are taking ‘HIS’ peanuts!
Of course, the House Sparrows are always around. The way the light was falling made this one look blue in spots. He is quite a handsome male with that little white collar and blue-black bib.
It is now official. The Rufous Hornero has beaten the Gallic Rooster in penalty kicks! What a close pair these two were. Who would have thought?
Note the curve of the beak, the dark eye, and the white throat. The female is much the same as the male while the juvenile’s have lighter plumage.
“Rufous Hornero (Furnarius rufus), nesting pair” by Allan Hopkins is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
“Rufous Hornero (Furnarius rufus)” by berniedup is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Wikipedia gives this description, “The rufous hornero is a medium-sized ovenbird in the family Furnariidae. It occurs in eastern South America, and is the national bird of Argentina. Also known as the red ovenbird, it is common in savannas, second-growth scrub, pastures and agricultural land and is synanthropic.”
It not only lives in the countryside. It can be found in urban areas too. It is a rusty red above with buff plumage underneath, a white throat and a tiny little eyebrow. Note the dark rust coloured tail feathers. This bird builds its nest out of mud on trees as well as buildings and any other human structure it can find that is suitable.
It was a pretty quiet Sunday in Bird World – thankfully. We can still use some of these days to recuperate and prepare for all the eagle eggs and hatches that will be coming soon enough.
I was delighted to see Thunder and Akecheta on the West End nest. Checking often with little results or seeing the pair in the distance on those two big outcrops but…today came up gold!
It was a beautiful sunrise on the Northeast Florida nest of Gabby.
It wasn’t even 0700 and there was a suitor waiting to see if he had any chance with our Gabby.
Gabby flew off at one point seemingly tired of the youngsters appearing. She even kicked some off the nest! Some worry that Gabby will leave – this is her nest. She just needs a good mate.
Well, Gabby did return and she is telling this one on the branch to ‘get going’! It is pretty clear she is NOT happy! The looks get more and more stern.
He is not leaving!!!!!!! Notice that they are sitting pretty close together. When Gabby and Samson became a bonded pair, Samson was 4 years old. They had Romey and Jules the following year. Will Gabby pick a younger male? Remember. We have no idea how old Gabby is. Nothing is known about her. She could be nearly as old as Harriet for all we know! This ale is being called V4. Apparently, V5 was a female. Gabby booted her. She hasn’t booted this one, yet. Now if he would bring her a good sized fish.
He is not too young. Looks like a 4 year old like Harry at the MN-DNR nest. There have been other 3 and 4 year old Bald Eagles breed successfully, too.
The Stand Off with some vocals about a minute in:
Oh, dear. It seems Carole’s singing ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer’ scared V4 off. Or did he chase an intruder? Will he come back? Will Gabby stay the night? We wait.
Yes! Gabby is roosting and can be seen on cam 1. V4 can be seen on cam 2.
It was the 1.5 year old juvenile that has caused me wonderment. How many times did we look into your eyes, Legacy. I am pretty certain it is you! No one else. You gorgeous girl.
It was this side that gave it away that this visitor is not a suitor but Legacy.
At the nest of Ma and Pa Berry, Pa Berry wound up having to defend the nest and eggs against an intruder!
Otherwise, life in Bird World is very, very quiet.
Elain provided another of her good videos of the Orange scrape as a summary for yesterday. Thank you Elain! Indigo is still home!!!!!!!!
At the Port Lincoln Osprey barge, Zoe was over on the ropes. She made a couple of flights over to the shore. She certainly looks ‘wet’ in the image below like she might have been fishing but, what you should be noticing is that amazing necklace!
No worries. Ervie is still at Port Lincoln. He has been fishing at a place called Greyhound Road, according to Port Lincoln Ospreys.
In the mail, the book Slow Birding. The Art and Science of Enjoying the Birds in Your Own Backyard has arrived! It is going to be my project today – a cup of tea, a nice wool blanket, and this book. Hope to report back tomorrow.
Thank you for being with me today. Take care everyone. See you soon!
Thank you to the following for their posts, videos, and streaming cams that make up my screen captures: NEFL-AEF, Explore.org and IWS, Port Lincoln Ospreys, Berry College, Elain and Charles Sturt Falcon Cam and Cilla Kinross, and OpenVerse.
oh brilliant, you caught Gabby’s “death stare”. I saw it live and automatically moved a little farther away from my monitor – that is one brave young eagle, to stay put!
Yes, she can be very intimidating when she wants to be!
Thank you Mary Ann for the beautiful photos and Dyson and the birds in the snow. It’s so beautiful! Congratulations to the Rufous Hornero birds. They are very new to me. I think I have heat or read the name before. Very pretty colors.
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