Category Archives: birds

  Most of our Common Loons spend the winter at the coast and the rest of the year on inland lakes. I generally see my first loon of the year in April, and early this morning, one obliged. This morning’s … Continue reading →

  From a distance, I thought the bush was covered with butterflies. But, they turned out to be Ruby-crowned Kinglets, tiny birds even smaller than chickadees. These frenetic birds were difficult to photograph as they hardly ever stopped moving. Only … Continue reading →

  For those who gain their insights into the natural world from seasonal decorations, Christmas trees are uniformly conical, snow crystals are always stellar, and turkeys display in the fall just in time to be decapitated for the Thanksgiving table. … Continue reading →

  Ospreys have returned. On April 7th, Derek Kite saw two; the next day, I saw this one. At this time of the year, some ospreys are passing through to northern climes, but this one, sizing up a nest, will … Continue reading →

  I was away from the Lake for a few days, but continued to take pictures. While these five bird portraits are from afar, each is of a species I have previously seen and photographed locally, some quite recently. I … Continue reading →

  Tree Swallows are back and competing for both mates and nesting sites.  Tree Swallows don’t build their own nests but make use of cavities previously carved by other birds, often woodpeckers. The cavity in the piling, below, was made … Continue reading →

  Coyote: A bird in the mouth is worth two in the bush.

  Some postings tell a story or develop an theme: sound of orange; halo presages rain; goose raspberry; uncinus; frost flowers bloom…. But, sometimes I merely record a collage. This is one such: a collection of birds seen in the … Continue reading →

  This has been a good winter for the Varied Thrush, and now numbers are increasing through migration.  In silhouette, the Varied Thrush looks like its cousin, the American Robin (also a thrush), but they differ in several ways. While the … Continue reading →