Category Archives: Birds

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pigeon guillemots

These are called sea pigeons locally.

We were trying to figure out who lives in the sand cliff holes on Marrowstone Island.

We see something fly out but weren’t quite sure who it is.

And then, aha! We see an owner.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pigeon_Guillemot/id

They look like ducks except the beak is not duck like. From the Cornell All About Birds Site: “Ornithologists recognize five subspecies that differ mostly in size: eureka in Oregon and California; adianta from Washington to the central Aleutians; kaiurka in the west-central Aleutians and the Commander Islands; columba from the Bering Strait to the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia. The subspecies of Pigeon Guillemot that inhabits the Kuril Islands of Japan, snowi, has little to no white in the upperwing, unlike other subspecies.” They are in the family with auks and murres and puffins, rather than ducks. How aukward, heh, heh. I am informed that they “are not good eating”. Too fishy.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: float. They are very good at floating and diving, and make a whirring sound as they fly. They have a high piping song.

The range map is cool: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pigeon_Guillemot/maps-range.

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early wren

I recorded this in Wisconsin, with my phone. You may need to turn it up to hear it.

Recording of me exchanging songs with a wren.

I adore wrens. If I hear one and sing to it, it will sing back. Wrens change their songs all over the place. This one is very very patient with me, even though I am a terrible wren. At least I am trying, and this graceful musician is kind and encouraging, even though she is a professional.

I don’t think I ever saw the wren. I started chirping and trying to imitate the song when I heard it. Then I started recording. I don’t know how long we practiced together.

I am not good at wren songs. I am very good at chickadee, fairly good at eagle, and had a great blue heron back track and land in a tree when I tried that “BRAACCCKKKKK!” noise. Great Blue Herons sound like I imagine a pteradactyl sounded. There is an even more odd sounding bird, though. My daughter and I are walking around a small lake here and hear a monstrous sound. We stop and listen. We can’t identify it. We decide that it is not a cougar or a bear, and quietly walk forward, with caution.

It is a group of cormorants. It is twilight and there is a log sticking up out of the water. They are jockeying for position on the log. We think they are trying to roost for the night. As each one clambers up the water end, someone else is jostled and someone falls in the water. They are arguing in deep hoarse voices.

My daughter and I watch for a while. I don’t try to imitate the cormorants because I am afraid I will spook them. They are getting ready for bed. It is nearly dark so we walk on the the car and home.

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For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: noises.

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of the air and water

Great blue herons never look like they are of the earth to me. They look like they are of the air and of the water. Unearthly. I keep wondering if they are angels.

Eagles do not look earthly either. They do land on the beach occasionally but I see them in the air or in the trees most of the time.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: unearthly.

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sand pattern

I took this photograph yesterday on East Beach in glorious sun.

I left the house to hike at 5:30 am. I didn’t hear about Roe v Wade being overturned until later in the day. I am grieving and will fight for women’s right to determine their own health. Each sperm is alive and each egg too. Don’t tell me they should all be saved, because then we would all starve. Life doesn’t start at conception. I think that some men wanting to control women starts with conception. They certainly don’t want their sperm controlled.

In the photograph are great blue heron tracks. I saw at least three great blue herons. At least four eagles, sitting in the tops of trees along the cliffs enjoying the sun.

The beach changes daily. We go to North Beach and one day it is long stretches of sand and the next it is covered with rocks of all sizes. We have been hiking so regularly that it is really clear that the beach changes as much as human moods! Every tide is different.

Here are chalcedony nodules found yesterday. We still call them agates, but since we are getting fussier and want the clear ones, they are more correctly called chalcedony nodules.

The beach changes like US politics. The water rushes in like a new administration, removes small and large boulders and rushes out again. A new Supreme Court Judge, a new person in this appointed position or that, change, change, change, a new pattern. I am grieving about Roe v Wade, but contributing to the fight for women’s rights and for women’s health. I wish that as a country we were less dramatic and nicer and did not need to have an enemy to shout at all the time.

Maybe that change is coming, but slowly. We might learn from social media and from all sorts of lessons. I have some hope.

Meanwhile I’d rather be with the great blue herons and the eagles.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: patterns.