Showing posts with label birds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birds. Show all posts

Gloria's Birds: Identified my first Barrow's Goldeneye the other day on Lake Washington (which, for this photog, counts as a banner day:)

Sunday, March 12, 2023

Photo copyright Gloria Z. Nagler

These two are a female and male taking off. 

Photo copyright Gloria Z. Nagler

Startling here is how the couple synchronizes their wing positions!

Photo copyright Gloria Z. Nagler

ID stuff: He has more white markings, and an all-black beak. Hers is orange!



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New eagle nest at Ronald Bog

Friday, March 10, 2023

Eagles are nesting at Ronald Bog
Photo by Martin DeGrazia

A new eagle nest is being built at Ronald Bog Park in the large cottonwood on the north side of the water
 
This is the first year for this site. There have always been eagles around the Bog but this is the first nest.

Eagle pair at Ronald Bog
Photo by Martin DeGrazia

They are establishing their hunting territory. Ronald Bog is not known for its fish, nor is it stocked, as Echo Lake is.
 
Shoreline resident Mark Tomboulian says, "But there are are plenty of invasive non-native rabbits to feed on, and I saw one being taken up to the nest today.'  

Further, he warns, "Any outside small pet without supervision is a prey candidate, so good time for a warning about how outside cats and small dogs are at risk."

Ronald Bog is between I-5 and Meridian Ave N, with the north boundary at N 175th in Shoreline.
 

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For the Birds: Cold Is Here - Will You Help Our Birds?

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Black-capped Chickadee keeping warm by
creating an insulating air barrier. Photo by Craig Kerns
By Christine Southwick

Cold and snow are hard on birds, especially since much of their native dense habitats have been destroyed by development, making it hard for them to find shelter, food, and water.

Trees, especially tall evergreens, give them places to hunker down during cold and windy weather. 

Trees are usually the first to feel the cut of progress, followed by diversion of water.

Over three billion birds have vanished in North America, mostly due to habitat loss. 

Habitat can mean the difference between life and death.

If you see a bird all fluffed up, it is trying to stay warm by creating warm air pockets around its body with its feathers.

We need to help birds (and other pollinators and wildlife) by providing food, shelter, and usable water, especially during cold weather.

Varied Thrush getting fast energy from suet.
Photo by Christine Southwick
Suet provides the fastest calories for needed warmth.

Suet and good quality seeds can provide that margin between survival and death.

Feeders offer quick, certain sources of calories, allowing birds to conserve their calories for warmth, not expending energy searching for their next meal.

Watch your feeders for clumping of seeds during damp weather.

If seeds clump, throw the seed out and wash the feeders with 10% bleach, rinse well, and dry before filling (a second feeder would be helpful); during times of fog and heavy moisture only filling feeders half full will help keep the seeds from molding. 

Yes, it’s more work, but the birds are worth it.

Spotted Towhee and Song Sparrow eating seed
below feeder. Photo by Christine Southwick
If you feed hummingbirds, winter is an important time to feed them. 

Anna’s Hummingbirds eat more bugs than any other North American hummingbird, but freezing temperatures kill the bugs, so nectar is very important. 

They need lots of quick energy early in the morning, and late into the evening. 

A feeder heater or an incandescent light near a feeder will allow them to come whenever they want to, especially for a much-needed early visit.

Fox Sparrow using much needed liquid water
maintained by bird bath heater.
 Photo by Christine Southwick
Water is hard to find since so many creeks and rivulets have been buried or diverted into drainpipes.

For liquid water, invest in a birdbath warmer.

Give our birds a fighting chance. 

Create shelter, with evergreen shrubs and trees, and safe places for them to nestle down (Don’t poison their habitat with pesticides).

Provide liquid water and food especially during the winter, and they will reward you with bubbly songs and bug elimination the rest of the year.

Bonus article: A simple 7 ways to help birds www.3billionbirds.org 


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Gloria's Birds: If Cate Blanchett can pull it off,

Saturday, March 4, 2023

 
Photo copyright Gloria Z. Nagler

so can I! thought Wendy Wigeon as she conducted the American Wigeon Orchestra of Lake Washington...

--Gloria Z. Nagler



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Backyard Birds: Bald eagles don't care

Tuesday, February 21, 2023

 
Photo by Jan Hansen

This bald eagle, flying over west Shoreline, not only didn't care about 35-50mph winds on Monday, he seemed to be reveling in it.



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Gloria's Birds: Sometimes only a bite will do,

Monday, February 20, 2023

Photo copyright Gloria Z. Nagler

thought Ted the Trumpeter Swan as he expressed his irritation at Sid for getting too close...
 
Photo copyright Gloria Z. Nagler

(No swans were hurt, and Sid moved on. At Lake Washington the other day.)

--Gloria Z. Nagler


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Gloria Nagler photo featured in The Seattle Times

Thursday, February 16, 2023

Stealth seagull. Photo copyright Gloria Z. Nagler

Not for the first time, a photo by Gloria Nagler has been selected for publication in The Seattle Times Pacific Magazine. 

Readers will know that Gloria's photos of birds and insects and her charming captions appear several times a week on our pages.





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Small hovercraft spotted in Shoreline

Monday, February 13, 2023

 
Photo by Jan Hansen

Wheeeee!!



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Eagle at Ronald Bog: Excuuuuuuuse me!

Thursday, February 9, 2023

Photo by Martin De Grazia

Whatever or whoever you are - this is MY tree and you can take your sorry self elsewhere!



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Gloria's Birds: Millard the Mallard thought his audition as hood ornament model went well...

Saturday, February 4, 2023

Photo copyright Gloria Z. Nagler
 
I agree. He's splendid!

--Gloria Z. Nagler


Previous photos by Gloria Z. Nagler HERE


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For the Birds: A Winter Warbler, if you plant for them

Yellow-rumped Warbler in winter plumage.
Photo by Peggy Bartleson
By Christine Southwick

Hearing an unfamiliar “chip” from several birds, I stopped what I was doing and looked around. 

Imagine my surprise and delight to spot several Yellow-rumped Warblers flying out for bugs and using my suet feeders. 

Hocking for bugs, these little somewhat winter-drab warblers were moving around from tree branch to bush branch, and back, occasionally catching a bug on the wing. 

What a show, after I finally focused my binoculars on a couple. 

I also used the Merlin app to ID their chipping calls to confirm my identification.

Our area has two forms of the Yellow-rumped Warbler: the mostly year-round Audubon Yellow-rumped Warbler, and the mostly passing-through in the winter-time Myrtle Yellow-rumped Warbler. 

Photo by Yukari Yoshioka at Grace Cole Park
in Lake Forest Park
The Audubon form has a yellow throat, and the Myrtle form has a white throat (easiest distinguisher)

Warblers have two distinct plumages, called “alternate plumage”. 

This adaptation provides them with bright breeding plumage in the spring, and a duller easier-to-hide winter plumage when there is less foliage in which to conceal their yellow markings.

In the spring these brownish warblers with their colored throats and some white on their wings (Audubons usually have more than Myrtles), turn into smart-looking black, charcoal gray with white patches, and bright yellow rumps (which are often hard to see in the winter plumage).

Photo by Yukari Yoshioka at Grace Cole Park
 in Lake Forest Park
Because of their ability to feast on a wide variety of food, these yellow-rumped seem to be holding their own, population-wise, if we humans don’t poison all the bugs they eat.

They eat spruce budworm, bark beetles, weevils, aphids, caterpillars and other larvae. 

In the winter they eat bugs, fruits and berries like juniper and dogwood berries, including being the only birds that can digest wax myrtle berries. 

This is one of the reasons these warblers can stay so much farther north than most other warblers.

Bird baths during the summer
Photo by Chris Southwick
During winter times they also eat weed seeds, and come to feeders that have sunflower seeds, small fruits like raisins and blueberries, peanut butter, and suet.

Pesticides and herbicides are bad for the earth, our own breathing, and for all the birds and amphibians that rely on bugs to survive. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s eBird Trends has found a sharp decline in American Robins, which rely on ground bugs and worms.
 
Plant native shrubs for the birds, especially warblers like these yellow-rumped, and put out suet and seeds. Add some liquid water, and your yard will be a welcome oasis year round.



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Gloria's Birds: Hocus pocus -- First there is a bill, then there is none!

Thursday, February 2, 2023

Now you see it
Photo by Gloria Z. Nagler

Now you don't!
Photo by Gloria Z. Nagler
And what a bill! Longer than the bird itself. I'm often moved by how hard birds like this Wilson's Snipe work for their daily sustenance.

--Gloria Z. Nagler


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Gloria's Birds: O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! I saw a Virginia Rail today!

Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Photo copyright Gloria Z. Nagler

I had never seen one before. These Rails are shy birds, they hang out in marshes and wetlands, and are just 9-1/2 inches long. Saw it only because a young bird watcher pointed it out to me. He even moved over so I could get a clear shot:)

--Gloria Z. Nagler



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Backyard Birds: The Tweet

Saturday, January 21, 2023

 
Photo by Jan Hansen

You don't need an app for this Tweet!






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Gloria's Birds: Corvid Liftoff on Lake Washington..

Wednesday, January 18, 2023

 
Photo copyright Gloria Z. Nagler

Up, up, and away!



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Do I have your attention yet?

Tuesday, January 17, 2023

 
Photo by Jan Hansen

I wonder if birds have politicians?




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Gloria's Birds: The three pals showed up eagerly for ballet auditions...

Friday, January 13, 2023

Photo copyright Gloria Z. Nagler
 
Swan Lake would be opening soon!

(Well, maybe Ring-billed Gull Lake, eh?)

--Gloria Z. Nagler



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Like water off a duck's back

Wednesday, January 11, 2023

Photo by Jan Hansen

What's it like to see water run off of a duck's back? It would be hard to find a picture in the other Washington.

--Jan Hansen



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Gloria's Birds: Hey gang, git over here!

Thursday, January 5, 2023

 
Photo copyright Gloria Z. Nagler

Photog's doin' complimentary portraits for any boid wid a crest!
(Sally the Steller's Jay, putting on her version of a Chicago accent to please photog, a native thereof:)

--Gloria Z. Nagler



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Gloria's Birds: Cora and Clyde decided to go together to the Annual Corvid New Year's shindig

Monday, January 2, 2023

Photo copyright Gloria Z. Nagler

 (On Lake Washington the other day. Cora, Clyde, and I wish you all a Happy New Year!)

--Gloria Z. Nagler



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