Observations of the passing seasons |
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rob@whiterabbits.com
2004
- February 2003
- October - August - July - May - April - March - February - January - Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge visit, March 2001 
- Insiders' Guide to the Olympic Peninsula - Creeping with Utah Nature Study Society - Tidepool - Association for the Study of Literature and Environment RSS feed 
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Early spring showers and intermittent sunbreaks were the order of the day around Tacoma today, offering the perfect opportunity for a rainy walk around the trail at the Adriana Hess Audubon Center in University Place. While I tried to keep the camera and binocular lens dry, a gathering of 10 Mallards bobbed on the dank waters of the marsh while a handful of Red-winged Blackbirds sang from on top of the cattails and Steller's Jays scolded anything that dared listen as they flew from one tree to another. One of the Steller's Jays taught me a new lesson today. I was walking back toward the pickup to drive home and get back to work when I heard what sounded like the raspy, grinding sound of a frog croaking in the bushes near the Audubon Center office. I stood there in the rain and tried to find the frog using my binoculars when I noticed a branch on one bush move. I refocused on the new spot and was surprised to find a jay sitting where I thought I was hearing the frog sounds. And then the jay opened its beak and made a croaking call of its own, leaving me to wonder if the jay was hunting for the frog and imitating its call in order to reveal where its lunch was hiding. The other possibility is that it was the jay making the croaking call all along. I wasn't aware of this kind of vocalization from a Steller's Jay, but it is possible that jays, like European Starling, could mimic the sounds of creatures around them. In this case, the mimicry could result in fresh frog legs... 
As I was leaving the house tonight to pick up Natalie from her work downtown I stepped onto the front porch to find a dramatic pink-and-white sunset, with the sun peeking through between clouds as they blew across the sky. The sunset was a nice capping touch to a day that offered a couple of birding highlights in our yard. Today was the last day of this year's Great Backyard Bird Count, and so when I came home from taking Natalie to work this morning I spent some time identifying the birds along the waterfront on Ruston Way and then when I got home I started watching and listening to the birds in the yard while I started my workday. One of the first birds I heard was a Bewick's Wren calling first from the neighbor's yard and then from our yard, where I caught a glimpse of it through the binoculars as it sat in the ash tree in the back yard. Then later in the day I was working at the kitchen table when I looked up to see a small Sharp-shinned Hawk sitting in the same ash tree, looking in the window at me and then alternately checking the bushes and the bird feeders for any bait birds that might make an unwise move into the open. This time I didn't have my binoculars or the camera at hand, so I sat and watched the hawk from a distance of about 20 feet away until it flew to a birch tree across the street. By the time I made it into the living room and grabbed my binoculars for a closer look, a pair of American Crows spotted the hawk and scared it out of the neighborhood... |
