Oranges

When I first started putting the oranges out, we had several pairs of Bullock's Orioles coming in to them. We've since had several pairs of Western Tanagers on them. I'm not sure if the Orioles have migrated somewhere else, or if the Tanagers have taken over. But they sure love the oranges. I thought it was interesting, because they scarf just about every last bit down! There isn't any pulp left when they're done! Here's our pictures:



Kinda cool!

Exploring

We are now up to two Hummingbirds here at our house. We busted several Calliope Hummingbirds here at our feeder. They and the Broad-tailed Hummers buzz each other all of the time. We love watching them!


We've also had a Downy Woodpecker hanging around the last couple of days.



We spent this evening exploring the opposite side of Alpine, where we hadn't been before. We were going down a muddy road, and came across several Killdeer. Normally, they aren't something we usually stop for. But this was a special occasion. This little gal had four little chicks! Oh my goodness, I wish I had had the camera! SO cute! As we got closer, she called to them, and they all huddled up under her. I'm not sure where they all got found the room! They weren't brand new, just little mini-hers. So here is a Googled image to give you a visual.


The big score of the evening was the Common Loon. We heard it at first and knew what it was. So we turned toward the water in search of him. We found him, and another. We've seen several of these guys all around (Yellowstone, Horseshoe Lake, even the Snake River in down town Idaho Falls), but they don't get old, that's for sure!


An interesting thing I thought would be cool to share is that while we were looking at the Loon through the binoculars, you could see our house just across the river, in the same view. I LOVE living here!

Another Exciting Day!

We have had another eventful couple of days! I think the reason we are seeing more than we saw in Idaho Falls is because we actually live where we used to drive half hour to get to! So here is what we've seen in the last 36 hours.

Several Lazuli Buntings hanging around our neighbor's worms. They are so pretty! I love just watching them!


Western Tanagers have started arriving! These are not that rare around here. In fact last year, I think their migration was delayed because of the constant June rain. Everyone in our neighborhood kept asking us what these yellow and orange birds were. And they're here now!


On a drive up into the Bridger National Forest last night, we came across several Townsend's Solitaires.

Jake also spotted an American Dipper on the other side of the river. I don't know how he saw it, but it stopped and paused for us so we could get a great view of him!


We have seen all of these several times before. But in the last 24 hours, we've seen three new birds!


The Veery was hopping along the road, just across the street from the house. Pretty sure we've heard them before, just never seen them. What a cute little guy!


On our drive last night, Jake spotted the Ruffed Grouse sitting on the side of the dirt road. I've never actually seen this guy, but we've heard/felt it. That's what I think is the coolest things about these guys. You can feel it before you see it. Pretty cool!


This morning I was looking out the window and saw a flash of yellow. I called to Jake to come and bring his binoculars. I couldn't see it anymore, and I don't think he believed me that I saw something. We had to stand on the couch and open the blinds all of the way. But we saw the Bobolink! Four of them in fact. Whenever we see a bird we don't know what it is, we always say it's a Bobolink (in a melodic warble). I have mixed feelings about finally seeing it, because now what are we going to say?

We're going to go for a drive in a few minutes to see what else we can see! Yay for birds!

Sora

I'm in Jackson again today, at the Visitor's Center I've mentioned earlier. Earlier this morning, I saw some suspicious movement out of the corner of my eye, but was not quick enough to see what it was. During lunch, I took Jake back and we wandered around for a few minutes before we heard this call (Sorry, I tried to link it up, but this is the page its on).


We have only seen the Sora two other times. Once at Camas WR in Hamer, ID, and once at Bear River in Utah. We had never heard the call, and sort of felt like something was screaming at us! Well, we hung out searching the reeds for movement of any kind. We finally got lucky as we saw him pass from clump to clump. We saw him several other times in the same minute. I've got to tell you, he was FAST! Unless there was four or five in there timing there movements to throw us off. I wouldn't be surprised.

We always joke that the magpie or robin is rare and elusive, mostly because, they really aren't. Not even a little bit. These guys are our elusive guys. Next for us is a Rail. We've never seen one! I'm slightly jealous of all the wonderful birders out there who know exactly where to go for that one specific bird. We are learning though!

A BUSY Morning!

Already this morning, we have seen lots of birds in our yard!

A pair of Yellow-rumped Warblers paused for about a minute. I was lucky to catch a picture of them. Not good enough to post here, but good enough to show Jake when he gets home!



A pair of Western Bluebirds has been in and out all morning. The female is much more yellow than I expected. This is a new bird for us!



I caught a glimpse of a chipping sparrow. He bumped the window, and paused in the tree for a moment. I wouldn't have seen him if he hadn't stopped for a minute.


A White-crowned Sparrow stopped in for a minute. He'll be back.



A Black-headed Grosbeak tried out our feeders but didn't find them to his liking so he went to the neighbor's. I think he has worms. For the birds that is.



We also have many Broad-tailed Hummingbirds coming around. We can hear them before we see them. Sometimes they get close, and you duck out of instinct because you think you're going to get buzzed! This is also a new bird for us!



Along with all of these we have our usual ten American Goldfinches, Pine Siskins out the wazoo, Cassin's Finches, House Finches, Brewer's Blackbirds, Robins, Bullock's Orioles and a couple Red-winged Blackbirds! What a busy morning!

Bullock's Oriole and Window hit

We had four Bullock's Orioles show up this morning before church. One of them tried to get at our hummingbird feeder and another tried our seeds. A quick reference to our book said they like sugar water and fruit. I didn't have any fruit I thought they would like (they like oranges, right?), so I put out a jar of hummingbird nectar, hoping they would return. When we came home from church, the hummingbird feeder was significantly lower, but the jar wasn't. Can they get into them?

On a side note, what can you do for a bird that has hit the window? We have a House Finch that's been sitting on the porch for a while. We think she hit the window, but we're not sure. How do you keep your birds from hitting the windows?

Western Meadowlark

It is definitely spring in Wyoming! Our last patch of snow finally melted about a week ago. The water on the reservoir is very high, and lots of birds are starting to arrive.
We've had an influx of Meadowlarks in our neighborhood this week. There is nothing more lovely than waking up to a singing Meadowlark!


When we were in Utah several weeks ago, we stopped at Bear River Wildlife Refuge. We came across a couple Meadowlarks whose calls were very different than what we had heard. After consulting our maps, we decided that they were probably still Westerns. They were too far to get a really good look at. We did a little research and learned that their calls are learned when they are very young, as most birds probably are. Sometimes when the two's ranges coincide, they often learn a hybrid call. Which, I think, is what we were hearing.

Weekend Drive

We took a nice Sunday drive yesterday out into the Caribou National Forest. We passed some wetlands on the way out, noting to stop on the way home. We drove about ten miles and came to McCoy Creek, which was very high, and more like a river! On our way, we did see a moose, which is always cool. When we got to the creek we saw saw about a dozen Western Grebes

and a Double-Crested Cormorant.

It was a fairly windy, cold day, so we didn't get out and hike or anything. We stopped on our way home at the bird refuge/lookout. There were tons and tons of water fowl. Among them were several Wigeons,

lots of Pelicans,

and at least six Great-blue Herons.
We also saw many, many Canada Geese, Mallards, American Coots, a couple Canvasbacks and our first Glossy-faced Ibis of the year. We didn't see anything new, but it was a good trip!