The activity around here has been increasing the past couple of days. After encountering the Yellow-rumps singing at the south end of the park on Saturday morning I now have them singing in the campground (as well as other areas in the north end). On Sunday morning a hike to Mossy Cave yielded some Cliff Swallows and, though I never saw the bird, a singing Plumbeous Vireo. I would probably still be scratching my head over the vireo had it not been for the fact I was carrying the park bird list (narrowed the choices) and my Palm with Handheld Birds - that software is really turning out to be a big plus. This morning while out roaming the Rim Trail and chatting with visitors I was confounded by another bird that I heard singing and I kept looking up high in the pines for a warbler. Turned out th damn bird was practically at eye level in a juniper just off the trail - a Green-tailed Towhee. I saw another towhee in the campground tonight along with another singing Plumbeous Vireo (still haven't seen it, though); add the Western Scrub-jay I saw on a trip to town late this afternoon and that makes 39 species since I arrived here. Tomorrow I am bound and determined to photograph something.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 10:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Life around here consists of "work" and exploration. Other than a Robin and a Pygmy Nuthatch I have yet to really get much bird photography done. Hopefully soon.

Utah Prairie Dogs are another matter however - this one doing a great job of playing cat and mouse with me on Thursday. It was in a dog town in the Dixie National Forest that I'd discovered last week (I've since located a couple more) where a few of the burrows actually have entries in the middle of the forest service road. Obviously not used to big white trucks, it would pop up to have a look and then dive back down at the sound of the shutter. Damn camera is noisy. Anyway, though I didn't see any tattoos, this prairie dog was sporting the latest in ear fashions . . .

As I may have mentioned in a previous entry, my workdays so far have involved time at the Visitor Center and time roaming the park and hiking the trails. The past couple of days have been less strenuous hikes than I'd been doing and, because I have been asked about possibly leading some bird walks in the future, I have been doing a bit of birding. Friday I walked along the Rim Trail near the lodge and totaled 16 species, not a great total compared to what I might get in a similar time frame in Florida, but good for here considering the avian population in the park is still pretty much limited to the permanent residents (or so I'm told). At one point I stopped to chat with one of the park's visitors (sporting my "National Park Service Volunteer shirt and hat, people ask me questions) who was wearing a bright red sweater which, during the course of our conversation, attracted a brief look from a passing Black-chinned Hummingbird. Other birds I saw along the rim were American Robin, Clark's Nutcracker, Common raven, Cooper's Hawk, Dark-eyed Junco, Mountain Chickadee, Pygmy Nuthatch, Say's Phoebe, Steller's Jay, Townsend's Solitaire, Turkey Vulture, Violet-green Swallow, Western Bluebird, White-breasted Nuthatch, and White-throated Swift.

Today I went down to visit the extreme southern end of the park - this image is from the Rainbow Point overlook. From the overlook there is a 1-mile loop trail that leads to a Bristlecone Pine Forest. The pines in the park are relative youngsters - even though the oldest are about 1,600 years old, some in the Sierra Nevada are over 3,000.

The trail there wasn't as productive for birds as the Rim Trail with a total of only 9 species in a couple of hours (it would be more but I can't say for certain if those woodpeckers were Downy or Hairy). Clark's Nutcracker, Common Raven, Dark-eyed Junco, Mountain Chickadee, White-breasted Nuthatch, and White-throated Swift were carryovers from yesterday. Northern Flicker wasn't on yesterday's walk but I have a pair hanging around the campground. The new species were Red-breasted Nuthatch and Yellow-rumped (Audubon's) Warbler (at least 3 singing males).

Today's walk included a somewhat humorous moment involving Red-breasted Nuthatches. I had encountered the first one shortly after starting the hike and got great looks at that bird from very close range. Near the end of the hike I was passing through a pretty dense stand of fir trees and heard what I thought was a nuthatch calling but wasn't sure which nuthatch. I reached for my Palm and opened up my handy-dandy copy of Handheld Birds and after looking up the nuthatches began playing back their calls. One complaint I have about the software is the audio volume isn't the best but I can hear it fine of I have the unit within a foot or so of my ear. I first played the Pygmy then the White-breasted and neither were a match. But when I played the Red-breasted - which was difficult for me to hear - I got responses from all directions. There was no doubt which species had been calling after that!

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 11:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Uh-oh, I missed posting this week's quiz by a day . . .

The little bird from last week was a Pygmy Nuthatch from just a few feet from my trailer here at Bryce. This week's quiz bird is one you might be seeing about now in the Southeastern portion of the U.S. as they are making the journey north. Extra credit for gender . . .

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 08:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This morning I spent some time in the Dixie National Forest west of Bryce Canyon scouting for birds. In one of the locations I stopped to look around I came upon some paw prints that caught my attention. It was a fairly large print and I knew right away it wasn't from a Black Bear because they have something of a human-like shape. Of course I didn't have a tape measure or ruler handy but decided that, if nothing else, I could use a business card for reference and, as it turned out, the print was almost identical in width to the card - 3-1/2 inches. I've considered just about every possibility in my mammal field guide and can only come up with one answer: Mountain Lion. I am not absolutely certain and plan to show the picture to some other folks in hopes of finding out for sure . . .

(It was not a fresh track; my guess is that it was probably made yesterday when the ground was mushy after Monday's snow had melted.)

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 10:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Sorry to bore you with another picture of my truck in snow but, what can I say. Three inches was the "official" total for last night, most of that had melted off by noon - but it is snowing again tonight. It should start tapering off later with the front moving by Tuesday morning; from Wednesday on there should be lots of sun. Maybe I'll be able to find a bird or two to photograph then if I'm lucky.

At lunch I popped over to Inspiration Point to grab this shot looking east. Bryce Point is toward the upper right corner; left of center about 1/4 of the way down from the top is a long formation called The Alligator. I guess it has a similar profile if you use your imagination, tail to the left and head to the right.

I was thinking last night that International Migratory Bird Day is coming up on May 12 and wondered if the park had anything planned for that day. Turns out they don't (I think it is something that is celebrated more at wildlife refuges) so I proposed doing a "Ranger Talk" with my program "Wings on the Wind" - and they like the idea! That will be fun. Now if only some of the migrants would actually show up here before then and pose (not that I would blame them for staying away with the weather we've been having - I learned over the weekend that last Thursday Bryce was the coldest spot in the nation).

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Every few years I like to just sit down and watch Cosmos, the PBS series from the early 80's by Carl Sagan. I am in one of those periods now and tonight I watched 2 episodes one of which was titled Heaven and Hell. I want to share with you something from that episode, a 27 year old warning from Dr. Sagan:

. . . at the same time we are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide increasing the greenhouse effect. The Earth need not resemble Venus very closely for it to become barren and lifeless. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate, to convert this heaven - our only home in the Cosmos - into a kind of hell.

Of course if you have seen Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth you would know that scientists had these concerns more than a decade before Cosmos appeared. And yet we continue on, a huge chunk of the population of this country blindly listening to a corrupt administration concerned not with the welfare of the people but with the short term profits of their corporate enablers.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 01:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I was outside with Roxie early this morning there were Western Bluebirds and Slate-colored Juncos foraging just a few feet away from me while a Northern Flicker pounded on the utility pole in the campground. Another called from somewhere in the Ponderosa Pines nearby. Nuthatches, robins, and a Say's Phoebe were vocalizing, too. A nice way to start any day, I'm lucky that, at least for the next several months, I get to live in a place where human impact is kept at a minimum.

But even if you live in a metropolis, there are small pockets of sanity that will be alive with birds too. Go out and enjoy them and have a Happy Earth Day!

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 09:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As I noted a couple of posts back, my trailer is parked about 1/2 mile away from one of the prairie dog towns (or colonies) here at Bryce Canyon. The 3 Utah Prairie Dog photos included with this entry are all from that area and maybe next week I will get around to visiting the really big one here at the park (estimated to be about 150 of them). In addition to the 3 towns of which I am aware that are inside the park, I stumbled upon a couple of others in the Dixie National Forest adjacent to Bryce. By the time I wrap things up here I should have more shots of Utah Prairie Dogs than I will know what to do with.

These first 2 images are the same animal; in the first it had been doing some digging at the opening of the burrow when it stuck its head up to have a look around. Must have been satisfied that all was well and went back to digging. A few minutes later it stood up at the edge of the burrow and, for the most part, just stood there looking off to the west. I shot this image while it was responding to the barks of another one that had been vocalizing on the other side of the road. (The posture kind of looks like it either had an upset stomach or had been kicked in the groin).

This was a "dog" on a mission. When it first caught my eye it was standing with a few blades of grass and I decided it must be eating. But the longer I watched, the more grass it kept stuffing into its mouth until it couldn't stuff any more in and then ran off to duck into a burrow. I showed the image to some of the ranger's and it was decided that it was probably a female gathering material for the nursery. They also noted the critter's "pear" shape - an indication that it is probably expecting . . .

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 11:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Last week's bird was a Northern Flicker (red-shafted or Western race); for this week we have a little bird that seems to run in packs and none of them stay in one place for long. Have fun!

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 05:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's almost hard to believe . . .

But this is the truck and trailer in Bryce's Sunset Campground surrounded by Ponderosa Pines, wildlife, and great scenery. The campground won't open until the first of May so it is only me and the campground hosts (who have already arrived), but we are also separated from the main part of the campground.

As part of my training I spent some time at Inspiration Point yesterday afternoon listening in on a "Ranger Talk" about the geology of Bryce. I had spent the morning working in the Visitor Center before spending the afternoon first at the talk and, then, visiting several overlooks to get familiarized with the park. Though I think Sunset Point is probably a little bit closer to the campground, this incredible view is less than a mile from "home".

Less than 1/2 mile away is the nearest colony of Utah Prairie Dogs. They are just beginning to stir after a long winter tucked away in their burrows, in a few weeks this year's young should start showing themselves, too (this one looks awfully plump - a pregnant female maybe?).

Now if it would only start to act like Spring (though today would actually be chilly but pleasant if it weren't for the 30 mile/hour wind).

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 04:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Roxie and I made the move into Bryce Canyon this morning, the trailer is parked at Sunset Campground, the satellite internet system is up and running (you can see me on a map here - I'm #4607 - and with GoogleEarth you can see where we are located in a satellite image), and tomorrow I begin training as a Volunteer Interpretive Ranger.

I ventured into the canyon for the first time ever this afternoon with a hike down Queen's Garden Trail from Sunrise Point. Getting there was easy; getting back up was a different story altogether. There was a lot of huffing and puffing going on. I really need to spend less time with this computer and more time walking at this altitude (the hasty lunch of crackers and cheese probably didn't do much for my stamina, either). I'm glad I didn't take my full photo backpack and tripod along.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 11:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just for fun I've decided to keep a list of the wildlife I see during my stay at Bryce Canyon National Park. I will update this entry as I see new stuff and occasionally include a link to it in another entry. This entry has also been given its own category so that you may check it by clinking on the "Wild Bryce" link in the Category list on the left side of the page. In addition, as I make images of these animals in the park I will post a link to it in my master image catalog. We'll see how many I can get in the next 5 1/2 to 6 months.

BIRDS

Canada Goose*
Mallard*
Cinnamon Teal*
Green-winged Teal*
Ring-necked Duck*
Redhead*
Lesser Scaup*
Ruddy Duck*
Common Merganser*
Ruddy Duck*
Wild Turkey
Common Loon*
Pied-billed grebe
Eared Grebe*
Western Grebe*
Great-blue Heron
Snowy Egret*
White-faced Ibis*
Osprey*
Northern Harrier*
Cooper's Hawk
Northern Goshawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Golden Eagle*
American Kestrel*
Prairie Falcon*
Peregrine Falcon
Turkey Vulture
American Coot*
American Avocet*
Killdeer*
Spotted Sandpiper*
Wilson's Phalarope*
Eurasian Collared-dove*
Mourning Dove
Great-horned Owl
Burrowing Owl*
White-throated Swift
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Rufous Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher*
Williamson's Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Say's Phoebe
Hammond's Flycatcher
Gray Flycatcher
Western Kingbird*
Plumbeous Vireo
Steller's Jay
Pinyon Jay*
Western Scrub-jay
Clark's Nutcracker
Black-billed Magpie*
Common Raven
Tree Swallow*
Violet-green Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow*
Black-capped Chickadee
Mountain Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Pygmy Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
House Wren
Rock Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Western Bluebird
Mountain Bluebird
Townsend's Solitaire
Hermit Thrush
American Robin
Virginia's Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's)
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Grace's Warbler
Townsend's Warbler
Western Tanager
Black-headed Grosbeak
Green-tailed Towhee
Spotted Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Western Meadowlark*
Yellow-headed Blackbird*
Brewer's Blackbird*
Brown-headed Cowbird
Cassin's Finch
Red Crossbill
House Sparrow

MAMMALS

Pronghorn
Mule Deer
Utah Prairie Dog
Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel
Uinta Chipmunk
Long-tailed Weasel

An asterisk (*) denotes species I have seen just outside the park boundaries (within ~5 miles)

(updated 7/29)

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 11:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today we'll be getting settled in at the campground in Bryce Canyon, home for the next several months. On Sunday morning I started the day with a trip to Tropic Reservoir to see what sort of ducks (or other water birds) I might find. It is a short drive from the park and may be a place to visit from time to time as the summer passes. Mallards were the most abundant species; Cinnamon Teal were also present along with Canada Geese, a raft of 23 Eared Grebes, and 10 Lesser Scaup. While the scaup were a bit of a surprise, even more so was the lone female Red-breasted Merganser (at one point swimming with the grebes) and 3 Common Loons. In the case of the loons the Handheld Birds software for my PDA said they shouldn't be here (but Yellow-billed Loon was okay???) so I shot a picture of one of them (from very far away) that is at least good enough for documentation purposes.

Most of the rest of the day was spent out of the wind and waiting for either rain (or snow) to appear. There was a break in the clouds shortly before sunset which prompted me to drive into the park to see if it would light up the hoodoos. That never happened though I did encounter some relatively tame Pronghorn close to the road and got the shot above in the day's fading light.

In the strange behavior department there were 3 bucks hanging out together and a pair of does came walking toward them. The buck's first reaction was to take off and I was thinking maybe they weren't too sure about what was coming in their direction (do Pronghorn have bad eyes?). As the does drew closer the bucks seemed to settle down and they began to mingle. Then, all of a sudden, one of bucks starts to chase one of the does and it looked more like it was out anger than wooing. He chased her all over the meadow for the longest time before it came to an end and the does wandered away while the 3 bucks went back to grazing.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 09:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have been a little slack on the blog entries this week but it has been kind of a strange week. Travel Monday, travel Tuesday - then snow, wind, and cold interrupted by occasional sun the rest of the week. The image to the left is from the northern portion of Capitol Reef National Park in an area called Cathedral Valley. The Temple of the Sun (and companion Temple of the Moon) were the first encountered along the route I took, Caineville Wash Road, a "high clearance 2-wheel drive" road through some pretty rugged country. We never made it the the main portion of the valley given that it was 18 miles back to the highway and I could see the storm clouds approaching (most of the afternoon was spent inside the trailer watching white stuff fall from the sky). Maybe I'm just a big chicken but there are constant warnings about flash floods in this part of the country, snow was unlikely where we were, I hadn't seen another vehicle the entire time we were out there, we'd crossed several washes on a road with "wash" as part of its name, and there was no cell signal. So I bailed.

Friday morning we took a ride an Utah 12 over Boulder Mountain primarily to see what was in store for us (me, really) towing the trailer today. It really wasn't that bad, 10% grades in a few spots, though nobody told about what lay beyond: a section known as "The Hogback" between Boulder and Escalante with winding 14% grades (downhill for those of us traveling westward) and vertical drops on either side of the highway. Getting back to Capitol Reef, I spent Friday afternoon back there where The Castle is a feature near the park's visitor center.

I find petroglyphs (and pictographs) to be fascinating and these are easily accessible along Utah 24, the highway which passes through the park. The rock art at Capitol Reef is from a group known as the Fremont Culture (or Fremont People) who lived in the area between 1300 and 700 C.E. (or A.D.). Like their contemporaries the Anasazi, they just seemed to disappear around 1300 with no trace.




The visitor center and campground at Capitol Reef are in the historic settlement of Fruita and, while many of the buildings have been demolished, a few remain along with the fruit orchards which gave the town its name (settled in the 1870's, the town was originally known as Junction). One of the buildings which remains is the one-room schoolhouse at the base of a sheer cliff. Built in 1896, it also served as a community center, church, and dance hall.

We are now just outside Bryce and will be moving into the campground at the park in a couple of days. Things aren't quite ready there for us since the snow and cold are running a little long into Spring. As I was setting up our site the welcoming committee included Mountain Chickadees and White-breasted Nuthatches, and I've seen Mountain Bluebirds, Western Scrub-jays, and a few others. Bryce is remote, a fact I knew coming in, and this afternoon I experienced the 80-mile drive to Cedar City to purchase provisions. You just have to be certain the shopping list is complete. Still, I am looking forward to a great summer here; no matter which direction you travel, the scenery is spectacular and there is no shortage of wildlife.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 11:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Between attending the wedding and watching the snow fall, it has been a quiet week for me. I have done little in the way of photography other than some landscape images around Capitol Reef National Park. I have been doing some bird watching and this week's bird is one that I have been seeing in the area.

The answer to last week's quiz is White-throated Sparrow (who I saw hanging out with White-crowned Sparrows) last week near Bosque del Apache.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 10:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The little side trip to the Denver area is now behind us. It was great getting a chance to get together with family, some of whom I have not seen for a long time. There were 4 generations present this past weekend with a 5th "in the oven".

My 4-legged friend have I escaped the snow (maybe only temporary, however) and are now in Utah where the plan is to spend the next several days at Capitol Reef National Park. After that we'll be planting ourselves at Bryce Canyon National Park where I will be volunteering 4 days each week (and shooting the rest, naturally) until the end of September. Surrounded by incredible scenery and several different types of habitat, the opportunities here should be boundless. I'm pretty excited about the prospects with over 75 bird species I've never seen and over 200 total. Not to mention the mammals, reptiles, insects, and wildflowers. And with less time spent on the road, we can work on some other important projects (well, in truth, Roxie either watches or sleeps while I do all the work).

Speaking of birds, on Interstate 70 just west of the CO/UT border is a warning sign (yellow diamond) that says "EAGLES ON ROAD". I noticed it when I was through here last October and just assumed that it referred to Golden Eagles since I wouldn't normally look for Bald Eagles out in the desert. At least not before today anyway. We had spent the night in Grand Junction, Colorado and about 20 miles into Utah spotted a Bald Eagle soaring just north of the highway. Cannot imagine what it was looking for in that location (high desert), but then it wasn't terribly far from where the Colorado River turns south toward Arizona and it may be certainly possible that it fishes there (though I suppose rabbits or other furry creatures of the desert might also be in the diet).

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 12:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Roxie and I are currently in Denver for my niece's son's wedding and right now I am looking at the snow falling at a ridiculous rate. Rox doesn't look too happy about the weather either, as you can see.I have seen a few birds around but I expect the Robins and Red-winged Blackbirds are probably wishing they hadn't arrived quite so early. House Sparrows and House Finches have been visiting some feeders that are up here at the park; a pair of Common Ravens were even observed picking at the "waste" that had fallen at the base of the feeders. This weather was supposed to move out this morning and I would be on my way to Utah tomorrow but now I am not so certain . . .

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 09:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last week's bird is the smallest North American and the only desert breeding warbler: Lucy's Warbler, Vermivora luciae (named after the daughter of ornithologist Spencer Baird, not Mrs. Ricardo).

For this week we have a bird that I discovered foraging among a group of very similar birds. The yellow on the forehead was my first clue that it was not the same as the others. The image was made at Bosque Birdwatchers RV park just outside the northern boundary of Bosque del Apache NWR.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 10:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Scott Catskill's blog, lovely dark and deep is the host site for this week's I and the Bird #46 with a very special guest blogger taking us around the world. As usual, IATB is full to the brim with some good reading, so you better get started because somebody's watching . . .

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 07:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have, other than a couple of short sessions, taken the past couple of days off photographically speaking. At least in terms of the actual act of making images - I have had my nose buried in the computer moving over (reluctantly) to some new software for processing images.

One interesting observation yesterday morning was I learned that, like their cousins the Red-bellied Woodpecker, male Gila Woodpeckers like to hear themselves make noise, too. Back at the old home a Red-bellied would sometimes bang on the speed limit sign on the property. At the RV park yesterday the Gila was pounding on the rooftop air conditioner on somebody's trailer. It was pretty early and may have made for a pretty rude awakening.

Hummingbirds tend to be pretty territorial and a male Black-chinned took possession of the feeder I put up here. This afternoon I watched him chasing others away for some time - including a male Rufous, a species with quite a reputation for being feisty and taking on all comers. He did, however, welcome a female by going into his courtship routine where he flies back and forth in a "U" pattern. I don't think she bought in though because later in the day he was chasing her off again.

Of course I have known forever that hummingbirds would come to feeders and for the past several years that orioles would also. Recently I learned that some woodpeckers do, too, but today I was surprised to see a pair of House Finches come to mine (and I learned why I was finding the bee guards on the ground - the finches were doing it).

This female at the feeder represents the first of our "oddities" and all involve House Finches. While it may be a trick of the camera angle, it appears to me that she has a slightly crossed/deformed bill. Here's a tight crop so you can see what I mean.

This feeder is at San Pedro House, visitor center for the San Pedro Riparian Conservation Area and the female at my feeder has nothing on this one. Her bill is seriously malformed, yet she certainly seems to manage the task of eating. The upper mandible, flattened at the end, seems to cross over the lower, which is elongated and somewhat tubular or round in shape.

Finally - and this was also at San Pedro House - I saw this male House Finch with an eye injury or infection.

I have to think it would be quite unusual seeing all these, not only in one day, but all involving the same species and with 2 of the 3 in the same location while the third was only about 10 miles away. . .

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 11:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Over 4 days and 4 opportunities to shoot at The Pond, male Hooded Orioles were observed sharing feeders with the hummingbirds. Extremely shy, they would approach the feeders with caution after first landing in a nearby Mesquite that had not yet "leafed out". Hopping from branch to branch they proved to be a difficult subject to photograph except when they were on the feeders.

As things turned out I ended up staying another night - a long story but, with help from The Pond's owner Bill (thanks again!), I was able to get back on the road Sunday following a bonus shooting session in the morning. Not long after settling in to the blind the first of the males - I had seen as many as three in the area - came in for a drink. Mere moments after he left somebody different made an appearance and while this bird was still wary, made her way to the feeder quickly and stayed for much longer than the males had been.

I saw her 5 times before I had to leave and, until the last time, she would stay until one of the males drove her off (pretty rotten behavior for guys who will probably be wooing her soon). On that last visit she was left alone at the feeder for just short of 20 minutes, sipping up nectar the entire time. In relation to some species Hooded Orioles aren't long distance migrants but my guess is that this female had probably made the flight from Central America and was getting some much needed nourishment following her trip since she was spending so much time there. Had it not been for a little bad luck delaying my "migration", I would have never seen her.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 12:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)