Early Birds

It was still dark on a recent morning when Don stepped out on the front porch on his way to feed the creatures, as he does early every day.  Even before he glanced up, he could sense something watching him.  On the top of a rock pillar about 12 feet away stood a screech owl, still as a statue, peering down.

Don backed slowly into the house and woke me up to tell me about it.  Suddenly wide awake, I stepped into my slippers and grabbed my camera.  I flashed one shot from the doorway, took a few steps, and flashed another.  As I moved closer, the beleaguered bird granted just one more portrait photo before flying silently into the darkness.

Our visitor a few days earlier had not been so quiet.  The rat-a-tat-tat of a woodpecker had called me to investigate. At close range it sounded like a jackhammer on the front porch.   To my relief, I found a downy woodpecker snatching goodies from a mud dauber's nest that we should have cleaned off after the first frost.

In the summer, mud daubers, a kind of wasp, build nests of mud and lay their eggs, then stuff the chambers with spiders that they have paralyzed.  When the eggs hatch, the larva find their Big Macs already packaged and ready to eat.  This time, however, the woodpecker had beaten them to the take-out window.

Meanwhile, from the stands, 

a normally noisy bluejay watched silently
and was probably wishing he had called in his own order.

Oh well, an acorn would have to do.

Linking with Wild Bird Wednesday

Owl Attack

Carolina chickadees frequent our feeders, and queue up on the branches above it, waiting their turn.

On the window ledge over our kitchen sink is a sweet little figurine of two black-capped chickadees on a branch. A good friend gave it to me some time ago, and it makes me think of her and smile when I see it.

One morning last week, Don was in the kitchen before light. He'd turned on the light over the sink, put on a pot of coffee, and was looking through some notes, when he heard scratching sounds from the direction of the sink. When he went over to see was it was, he was amazed to see a screech owl trying to attack the chickadee figurine.

The owl's eyes were intently focused on the little figurine, and he flew towards it with his claws outstretched, until they hit the window and slid down the glass. The little birds must have looked like an easy mark, and the owl couldn't understand what was going wrong, because he did this repeatedly until Don's movement scared him away.

This was probably an isolated incident, but we've decided not to take any chances. Now those 2 little helpless buddies get put in a safe place at night, and only back on their perch on the ledge after the night crew has gone home.



Textures by Kim Klassen