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The two photos above were taken at night.
Last night about 12 am as I was going to bed I heard a noise outside on our deck. The bird feeders are on the deck. When I turned on the light and looked out, guess what I saw? A little black and white visitor eating bird seed. I decided to carefully open the sliding glass door to get a picture. The skunk looked up and then continued to eat bird seed. He or she didn’t seem to be bothered by the light or me looking at him or her. When I closed the door the noise frightened the skunk and he turned around with his tail facing the door. I guess I wasn’t perceived as a threat because the skunk went back to eating. One of his front paws is injured and he limps.
These two pictures were taken this afternoon. The skunk was photo shy and went under our deck.
This afternoon I looked out and there was the sknuk eating bird seed during the day. I was very surprised because I’ve only seen him after dark. Much to my extreme surprise there was a racoon in the backyard digging in the grass. I’m beginning to feel like we have a nature preserve. We’ve had deer in our front yard eating our shrubery. I’ve tried to photograph the racoon before, but the pictures taken at night did not turn out very clearly and the eyes were shining.
This morning I looked out my front door at the nest and the last young Mourning Dove was in the nest. Actually the bird is sitting on a beam under the roof where the nest was built. Later today the bird was gone.
Two Almost Grown Mourning Doves in Nest
Two Doves in Nest with Adult Bird
Only one baby dove is visible. The adult bird has the long tail. The other baby is in the background.
One Almost Grown Dove Still in the Nest
Other baby dove flew out of the nest today!
The two baby doves have doubled their size over the past few days. I was worried because the two babies were alone in the nest most of the day for two days. I hadn’t seen the adult bird in the nest until today. The babies were growing and appeared healthy so I knew they had to be getting food from somewhere. The adult bird must have been bringing food when I wasn’t looking. The nest is by our front door and I look out several times a day to see how they are doing.
Today, I was out planting in my front yard and I heard a noise near the doves. One of the almost grown doves had left the nest and flown into the side of the house, then up to the roof. I guess the bird wasn’t injured because I didn’t see it again. The other almost grown dove remains in the nest. Today, an adult dove brought food to the dove in the nest.
Give this photo a caption. Wonder what the Junco is thinking.
Is this a standoff between a male Junco and a male House Finch at the little hanging backyard feeder or are they sharing? You can see a little bit of color on the head of the House Finch to show that it is a male bird.
All the birds like this little feeder that’s about 6 inches in diameter.
The eggs hatched! Two Mourning Dove baby heads peared out of the nest a few days ago. The color of their feathers blends with the nest materials making them difficult to see. Their size and coloring have changed over the past few days.
The mother bird leaves the nest now, presumably for food and water. The two babies wait quietly in the nest for her return.
I would sure like to know what the Jays are saying to each other. Here in northern California we see Western Scrub Jays and Stellar’s Jays every day. You can recognize both by their bright blue feathers. Stellar’s Jays have a crest while Western Scrub Jays do not. All I have to do is put out a few handfulls of peanuts in the shell and they desend on our backyard screeching and squawking. They have excellent eyesight.
Jays screech, whistle, whisper, croak, rattle, and make rasping sounds like kwesh kwesh kwesh. They pose, peck, quiver, raise and lower their crests, flash meaningful looks at each other, and stand guard. Scrub Jays also make a rasping zhreek zhreek. Stellar’s Jays tilt their head to one side and then to the other side. Stellar’s Jays also mimic other sounds like the cry of the Red-tailed Hawk, the Golden Eagle, and chattering squirrels. They have been known to mimic other animal sounds as well.
They’re communicating, all right, but I can only guess at what they mean. Still, sometimes I can catch the drift.
Today ornithologists are studying the communication of birds. They’re trying to learn each species’ vocabulary of gesture and sound. For example, we now know that jays announce a cat with a different call from the one they make when a hawk comes around. And based on the kind of call the jays make, other birds respond differently for each kind of threat.
Science has barely scratched the surface of communication between birds. But we can all listen to the sounds that birds make right in our own back yards. Simply noticing the sounds that birds make is the first step toward understanding them.
Black-Headed Grosbeaks and Spotted Rufous-Sided Towhees are both members of the Family Emberizidae.
Black-Headed Grosbeaks are finch-like birds, stocky and larger than sparrows, with thick, strong triangular bills adapted for seed-cracking. Their favorite feeder foods are striped and black-oiled sunflower seeds. They will eat seeds from the ground and above ground feeders.
The picture above is of male grosbeak. The female is brown with sparrow-like streaks above and a head patterned with light strips and a dark ear patch. The breast is ochre-brown.
We’ve had two male grosbeaks and one female grosbeak (that I know of) at our backyard feeders. It was difficult to get a photo of these birds. They are awkward and cautious and fly away with any movement.
The Spotted Rufous-Sided Towhee is smaller and more slender than a Robin. You’ll see it rummaging noisily among the dead leaves. These birds have a hop-and-scratch foraging style. Jumping forward, head and tail up, a towhee kicks its long legs backward, propelling leaf litter behind it. The towhee feeds on small invertebrates and seeds that it turns up. They also eat seeds of weeds and grasses, grains, fruits, and broken acorns. These relatively large but shy birds rush for cover at the smallest disturbance. They are ground feeders and their favorite feeder foods are mixed seed and millet.
It is recognized by its rufous sides. The male has a black head and chest, orange-red sides, white belly, and black back heavily spotted with white. It flashes large white patches in the tail corners. The eye is fiery red. If you look closely you can see the eye in this photo. The female is similar to the male but dusky brown where the male is black. The bill is dark and not as thick and strong as that of the grosbeak.
At first glance you might mistake one species for the other or think they are the same bird because of the similarity of color and design. However, at closer inspection, the Spotted Towhee is slender while the Black-Headed Grosbeak is stocky. The bill of the towhee is dark while the bill of the grosbeak is lighter.
The Mourning Dove is an often seen bird here in northern California. Their cooing calls suggest sadness, thus the name “Mourning Dove.”
Male and female birds look similar. Their favorite feeder foods are mixed seed, cracked corn, millet, black-oiled and hulled sunflower seed. In the wild they eat waste grain in the fields, grass and other small seeds, fruits, and insects.
Mourning Doves are adapted for hot weather. In one minute, a dove can suck up more than three times its daily water requirement. Most other bird species must take one drink of water and tilt the head back to swallow.
This Mourning Dove is nesting near our front door. I peak out everyday to see if there are any baby heads sticking out of the nest.
A Mourning Dove with her two babies. These doves were hatched last year in a nest near this year’s nest. The baby doves were this size before I saw them peak out at the world.
