Towheeblog

THere was an adult House Finch feeeding a wing-fluttering fledgling in our garden yesterday. That was my first sighting of a newborn songbird this year. Previous 2022 young have included Mallard, Killdeer and Canada Geese. That shows one great advantage to such a species as the finch who doesn’t migrate. Some birds like flycatchers and orioles aren’t even returned yet. House Finches may nest two or more times during warm mionths if the food supply is ample. With all our rain food should be plentiful here in the Willamette Valley, 2022.

Here is one-half of our remnant siskin population…is this a pair intending to nest here? Or simply lazy kids who don’t want to follow their parents back into the forest?

ROBINS IN THE RAIN
The rain shaped the way our robins behaved. First there was the bird making sure its raincoat was smooth and tight:

Warning, this section contains violence worthy of a Hollywood movie or a newes report from Ukraine…but no real damage as fare as I could tell. This morning the surfaced earthworms lured two pairs–definitely not a flock of four–into the worm hunt. Violence ensued, ther two males I suspect (testosterone, you know) locked in combat…while the two non-fighters continued to gobble up earthworms (click on any image for enlarge version):

Later a robin fed peacefully alongside a House Finch, but the latter wanted only seed, not the coveted earthworms, Enmity is in the eye of the beholder, any political observer or Supreme Court reporter could tell you that. Robins just added evidence.

PEACE, ELSEWHERE
Barbara Keeb sends me this shot from her garden in Ashland:

His eastern cousin recently returned to Mike Lund’s garden back in Virginia:

And a Catbird returned north:

Some birds and sightings from Kirk Gooding, now in the Chiricahuas:

The creatures above: cliff face; Curve-billed Thrasher; Spotted Sandpiper; Eastern Meadowlark (LIllian’s sub-species, very pale); Black-bellied Whistling-Duck; Elegant Trogon; ring-tail; fence lizard.

Click here for Chiricahua National Monument website.