Monday, March 8, 2021

Random wildlife photos

We have so much wildlife around here that photos are oozing out my camera. So here, take a peek out our windows.

Magpies. These will bear watching when we get chickens. They are inveterate egg thieves.

Red-shafted flicker. These birds can be dramatically destructive to houses. Back at our old place, they tore holes in the side of the house that eventually forced us to replace the entire side of the house.

I caught a glimpse of what seemed like some courtship behavior of these guys out in a field.

Hairy woodpecker. I like these birds much better. They don't eat eggs or destroy houses.

Elk, elk, and more elk. Obviously we're right in this herd's territory, and we see them regularly.


 Deer. Are. Everywhere.

This little lady was bedded down right across the driveway one chilly morning. She was so close to the house that at first I thought she might be injured. But no, she was fine. I guess it was just a convenient spot for a nap.

We saw some mysterious footprints in the snow. What could they be?


The mystery was solved a night or two later when we caught this culprit up a tree in our yard.

In the 17 years we lived in our old place, we literally never saw a single raccoon. Apparently they're common here another reason to make our future chicken coop nuclear.

Turkeys turkeys turkeys. We see them constantly.

A junco by itself on a snowy branch.

Pheasant. It's devilishly hard to photograph these skittish birds. I took this photo through porch rails, hence the large black band in the upper left corner.

Here I've cropped out the porch slats.

When we had heavy snow on the ground a couple weeks ago, we picked up some wild bird seed to help the poor critters struggling in the cold. It also gives me a chance to see what kind of winter birds we have around here.

Oregon junco.

Hoary redpoll.

Ash-throated flycatcher.

I'm thinking this is a song sparrow because of the bib on its chest. No white on its tail, so it's not a vesper sparrow. (This is the kind of bird my ornithology professor used to call LBJ: Little Brown Jobbie. They're challenging to identify under field conditions. Much more helpful to have a photo.)

Bonus photo: A little bit of dawn color.

More bonus photos: Full moon setting behind some clouds at dawn.



The snow is melting and we're starting to hear more birdsong outdoors. The robins are even starting to return. I can't wait to see what kind of wildlife spring brings us.

11 comments:

  1. That is SO fun! When you do put up your chicken coop, I'm sure that I won't be the only one here anxiously watching to see how you do it. Will you please share with us? We've lost dozens of chickens to racoons and even a couple to snakes. I refuse to get any more chicks until we have a fortress built!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks beautiful Patrice. The elk are lovely - so jealous.

    I had no idea pheasants were that far north. And yes, Flickers are of the Devil.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There is good pheasant hunting near Canada...

      Delete
  3. You do take nice photos! Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love the elk photos...They are wonderful...and all the beautiful birds...Thanks for sharing your nature with us.
    Love from NC,
    Sandy

    ReplyDelete
  5. Came to search for some old blogs. Was telling a friend about your writing contests and couldn't remember the name of the site. It was like WriMo or WeMo or something.

    Where's your search bar on here so folks can search for keywords? (It wasn't listed under "writing" in the left sidebar tags either.)

    Hi from down south! All is well...so far!

    Ron
    The Orange Jeep Dad

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I believe you're thinking of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Their website is:
      https://nanowrimo.org/

      (waving) Hi back!

      - Patrice

      Delete
  6. Had no idea about the flickers. Beautiful pics.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Your Hoary Redpoll is actually a Male Cassin's Finch. Love your blog, look forward to every Post!

    ReplyDelete
  8. The LBJ is actually a juvenile Pine Siskin (Spinus pinus). Note the slight yellowish-green on wings and tail and highly conical bill. Was going to add that the "Hoary Redpoll" was actually a Cassin's Finch, but the last commenter obviously beat me to it! Great photos!

    ReplyDelete