Had a wood delivery that took me along the coast yesterday. Two nesting platforms recently erected and I noticed both were occupied. Not sure of the species, but I watched for a minute when I took the pics. Its not a bald eagle even though it looks like one in the first pic.
Found a nest that fell down in the last day or so. It's heavily built. 1/4+ of mud on the inside. Probably fell from 60-70 ft and this is how it looks. Anyone got an idea on what bird might've made it?
I'm thinking you're right or on the right track. The bank swallows nest I watch the babies in, is coated in mud and soft moss. Woven about the same too.
Some swallows will also build nests in / next to tree cavities. Magpies and purple martins (which is a swallow) also use mud in their nests. It looks small to be either one of those.
Her 4yo grand daughter and I were down by the river near us when we spotted this blue heron hunting. We watched it for several minutes. Fuzzy zoomed pic from my flip phone. Ive seen mallards in there too. I opened the back door this morning and found this dead finch. Must've hit the glass.
I've had a couple of Boreal Chickadees hanging out at my place the last few days. I don't believe I've seen them before, or didn't recognize them, or may not have had my binoculars to be able to see them well enough to identify them. I also had a strange woodpecker appear yesterday. Looked like a hairy woodpecker, with the red dot at the very back of its head, but with a ladderback and striping across its sides. it also had a shorter tail like a Downy, but was larger. It was doing shorts chips under the bark of the crabapple tree, so looking for bugs and not doing sap drilling (even if it were a juvenal sapsucker, it would still not look like pictures I've been perusing). Maybe it is a freak Downy or Hairy - I do have both that visit on occasion.
Just a guess on my part. Years back i recall seeing bluejays that were molting. Their head feathers and tuft were missing and had just started to regrow. Looked like a blue vulture. It was ugly!
No documentation but have a good story to share. Mowed some grass last night. Left a couple of places alone because it's not really growing so I finished a little early. Decided to nibnose around the river lot inspecting the bank and trying to plan improvements to it. As I was plotting I notice a male Cardinal nearby calling. The spring Cardinal call is one of the bird sounds I can mimick very well (sparrow noises too), so I let off a couple whistles. Oh boy...this got him excited. He came nearer I'm sure expecting to see a rival. He's chittering and making different war cries, so I copy him. Now he's doing dances on different branches jumping to and fro. Soon, I hear another start to sound off across the lot. Then another down by the sandbar. Then another from the other side of the river. I had created a little Cardinal sing off inadvertently. There may have been five of them going, it was hard to hear them all individually. It was a surreal moment that made me smile and laugh. I sauntered back to the buggy, chuckling to myself at the 'chaos' I had created.
I did that a few years back with the laptop. Had one male flying back and forth over the deck. I often will whistle bird calls outside. My turkey call at dusk has gotten replies. They occasionally roost near us.
Sounded like this.................ring....................ring................................" Hello, you have reached the Butterball Hotline, how can I help you today?"
