Sometimes the expected will do the unexpected. Maybe it was our wonderfully cool morning weather? Maybe it’s the Ides of July? Birds I expect to see were seen, doing things I didn’t expect. Mid-summer and a male towhee was forty feet up in a tree, calling repeatedly at Deepwood Garden. Does he and his mate have a second clutch underway? Why so vociferous? A Red-breasted Nuthatch up on a power line in bright sun–what was being found? Spiders? Not to be out-shown, a White-breated Nuthatch feeding on the BOTTOM of a hanging tray feeder–small insects under there feeding on bits of sunflower seed? Spiders? Insect eggs? Questions, no clear answers.
THE USUAL DOING THE UNSUAL
The unexpected wasn’t done–the dog and I heard a Yellow-breasted Chat calling at Deepwood next to Pringle Creek. There is no previous record for that species at Deepwood so eBird is gonna ping me.
And yet again the expected and unexpected converged. The scrub-jay with the parallel white tail feathers is one of three that invariably show up when I put peanuts onto our driveway. An adult bird that was here last summer. Unexpected was what I saw when I went through a series of photos I got of JJ (junco-jay) this week. Photo #2 shows clearly that the barbs are all white but the hollow shaft (calamus to anatomists) is dark!
Other garden birds:
Towheeblog 
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