Towheeblog

It was a cool dawn.  Bright sun but the tingle of cold night air was felt if you were in the shade.  The local scrub-jays were sun worshipping.  At one point I could turn in a full circle and see five on roof or tree tops within view.  Each faced east, warming its pale breast with solar heat.  A couple came down to feeder in the sunlight—suet and sunflower seeds.  Later one jay would share the station with a flicker.

Most mornings the first sound of the day comes from passing crows.  Shortly afterwards there was the sharp call of a lone flicker, perhaps the one that later came to the feeders.  Then, from a few houses away the noise of a larger bird, a hen in a pen.  They always celebrate vocally after laying an egg.  I remember that cacophony during my childhood when we had twenty or more layers sharing a row of laying boxes which were often busy, sometimes claimed by a single hen setting on a clutch. In this city neighborhood there are at least two hen flocks that we have discovered so far. The local feed store tells us that covid has greatly increased the number of city-bound poultry farmers.

Mid-day two Downys came into conflict over suet feeder.  A Steller’s Jay announced his arrival to be greeted by several disagreeing scrubbers.  The chickadee pair came and went.

SOME FLICKER ACTION

So does this pass for a red shafted flicker? If you have normal sight lemme know, I’m colorblind:

954 Ratcliff Drive SE, Marion, Oregon, US
Aug 29, 2020
11 species

Eurasian Collared-Dove  X
Anna’s Hummingbird  1
Downy Woodpecker  2
Northern Flicker  1
Steller’s Jay  1
California Scrub-Jay  5
American Crow  X
Black-capped Chickadee  2
Bushtit  20
Bewick’s Wren  1
Lesser Goldfinch  1