Birds at Work (part 2)

There are still a lot of birds around Novell campus waiting to get their pictures taken. To start off this post, I have some unfinished business to take care of. Here is a male Brewer's Blackbird--one of the really black ones.

Some Barn Swallows were industriously building their nests on some nearby buildings. They must make hundreds of trips to the nearby stream for mouthfuls of mud.

 We heard a pretty song and after trying for a while to get a shot of the source, this little House Finch came out of his tree for a drink.

Strutting across a nearby restaurant was what I at first thought was a crow, but am now sure is a Great-tailed Grackle. I was tipped off by a brown female with the same shape in the grass nearby.

Later in the day I went for another walk and got one clear shot of a little yellow bird. I couldn't decide for a while if it was a female American Goldfinch or Lesser Goldfinch, but finally decided it must be the former because of it's light leg color.

I want a better picture of one of these, and a picture of a male. There is also still some kind of sandpiper I've seen around that I need to get a good shot of. I'll have to keep taking my wife's camera to work until I do.

Birds at Work

During lunch at work I like to go for walks around the area. It's a nice campus with a stream and lots of birds, especially ducks. Now I've been able to photograph and identify some of them. There are others that I still can't identify and some that weren't present today.

The easiest to find and and photograph are the mallards. They are everywhere and are more likely to run towards you for food than to run away. 

Some of these ducks limp. I read that eating too much bread can leave ducks less hungry for nutritious foods and weaken their bodies and bones, so think twice before feeding them.

Brewer's Blackbirds are common and some of them have started acting very aggressive whenever humans pass by. I noticed that I didn't get any pictures of the really black ones, so I'll have to try again later.

The nearby overpass makes a perfect home for Cliff Swallows. I hope I can get some shots of the babies when they are ready to start peeking out.

Another Walk Around the Neighborhood (Evening)

We've gone for two evening walks to see if different birds would be out or in a mood to be photographed. There was no sign of the swallows and we mostly just saw more of the regulars. The first two we got were robins in interesting places.

Another male quail was very willing to pose on the grass, but he was later outdone by one who was showing off on a telephone line.

A new addition to my collection is a common starling. They are very hard to miss.

I think that I've identified these little ones as House Sparrows. There are a lot of different kinds of sparrows that could appear in the area and many look similar to me, but I think after getting a picture of the male I can be pretty sure of their identities. However, I could be wrong about what I think is the female, because I also read that different kinds of sparrows can move in mixed flocks. It's hard to get a good shot with how much they move and how timid they are.

We can hear Mourning Doves crying every time we go for a walk, and now we have their pictures in the collection, too. Cheer up, little guys!