Blue Sky and Chickadee

Couldn't wait for another Skywatch Friday to post this photo of a chickadee in the budding maple tree in front of our house today. I had startled it away from its lunch at our feeders when I drove up (I was home to eat lunch myself). The blue sky, the bare branches and the bird (affectionately known as dee-dees around our house: chickadee-dee-dee) came together well, I thought.

Pearly Skies

This was the western sky a few nights ago as we took an early evening walk around a local pond, here in southeastern Minnesota.



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Grackle Trying to Be a Feeder Bird

I was startled a couple of days ago to look out of my birdfeeder-watching window and see a common grackle -- those large, irridescent blackbirds usually seen on lawns -- having a go at my caged feeder, the one designed to keep larger birds out and let the little guys have an undisturbed place to feed. You can see, in the photo above, the feeder tipping under the bird's weight. The next moment it was flying away (below).

Sandpipers en Masse

Large groups of animals moving rapidly in unison are amazing to watch, whether they are bats, fish, or birds. How do they coordinate their movements so well? Perhaps all it takes is each creature being aware of the two or three immediately around it, but the overall effect of synchronized motion can be breathtaking. These photos capture a large flock of sandpipers, quite possibly including western sandpipers and slightly larger dunlins, on the Pacific coast near Arcata, CA, in February. The photo above shows them on the beach, where they made us laugh by running back and forth as the waves moved in and out.

The photos below show the flock in flight over the waves. Click on the photos for better detail.

Shorebirds like these winter along the coasts and in the far southern U.S. and Mexico, breed in far northern Canada and Alaska, and can be seen in migration through the Midwest (though only a few types in southeastern Minnesota).

My Driveway Robin

This bright-eyed, boldly colored little fellow has been hanging around the court in front of my house lately. It may be he who has been singing so consistently from the oak tree by the side of the house, marking his breeding territory with the easy-to-recognize "cheerily, cheer up, cheer up, cheerily, cheer up." I assume it is a "he" due to the intensity of the brick-colored breast; females are very similar but not quite so strongly colored. I recognize this bird in particular because he seems a little on the scrawny side. Sometimes the scrappy little guys get the girl because they just try harder.