PIED BLUE-TAIL EVERY DAY

Posted by: atowhee | January 14, 2021

PIED BLUE-TAIL EVERY DAY

One of the six scrub-jays that dominate our garden is a “pied blue-tail.” The bird is a mildly leucistic jay with junco-like tail stripes of pure white. When I first noticed the bird last fall it was probably immature and was often driven off by more self-assured jays in the gang. Now blue-tail comes quickly when there are peanuts and positions his/herself on the fringe of the peanut cluster, safer. Today’s pick and run:

Even though the Coop was seen by me this afternoon, in the morning the small birds seemed to feel safe:

At Clark Creek Park the sun was out, a bit of faux spring:

The fuzzy guy was an adult Bald Eagle. The many-trunked hazelnut is a passel of tassel. Some heedless person laid this sidewalk over a natural seep spring. Many years and many inches of rain later nature has won. Water was gushing out of a crack in the middle of the sidewalk and the little stream flowed rapidly along the pavement toward the creek.

RED-TALES
Two very different stories from Buteo-land this week. There was a take-off, and what could be called a crash landing. The take off was at a private marsh south of the airport–taken from roadside. The other scene came from Fairview which may explain why I have seen no red-tail there since Monday.

Those feathers and the spare foot with three of four talons were once a living red-tail. From the small circle of feathers, and how the bones were picked clean on the spot, I suspect a Great Horned Owl. Almost any other predator I can image there–fox, coyote, otter, bobcat. dog–would have likely hauled the bird into the bushes and spread the parts more widely. This hawk was eaten in a small clearing near the marsh. There is no way in my amateur forensic birding to know if it died or was captured.

THE WET VIEW AT FAIRVIEW

I really enjoyed studying the sequence of Canada Geese landing, their legs extended (landing gear superb), how they shape their wings to slow the fall, then finally splashdown!

Posted in birding, birds, cranes, ducks & geese, eagles, finches, flora, garden feeder, Marion County, migratory birds, natural history, oregon, raptor, Salem, trees, Willamette Valley, winter birds, wren | Tags: American Crow, Bewick's Wren, Black-capped Chickadee, Bushtits, Cackling Geese, California Scrub-Jay, Canada Geese, Fairview Wetlands, Green-winged Teal, hawk remains, Junco, landing sequence, Lesser Goldfinch, Mallards, Northern Shoveler, Red-tailed Hawk, talons

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