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I am seeing Cardinal activity in the Arborvitae, Mt Laurel and Hydrangea outside my window, with males and females zipping one after the other into the thick cover of the Arborvitae now and then - from what I read, they mate first in March in this area so this activity may be the sights of Cardinal amour.
I got spicy suet cakes to deter the squirrels. Now I have crows trying to eat them. I can't afford to feed crows.
In spite of ample supplies of crows in my area, and in spite of ample supplies of bird feed at my bird feeders, somehow I have managed to get really lucky and have never seen a single crow at my feeders.
We're having yet another cold snap this weekend after warm weather, and I hope the Blue Morpho that shows up every year will be here soon. Maybe next week? We always get one only for some reasons. It's probably the descendants now, of the one I saw 3 years ago during my first spring here.
It's been really fun to live in a completely different area and see birds and butterflies I never got to see until now.
It is March so we have Sandhill Cranes migrating north from the Rio Grande Valley and Bosque Apache. I live about 15 miles north of Albuquerque and they seem to fly over at about 10-11 AM on days when it is good flying. You can hear them but seldom see them as they are so high that they are almost invisible in the bright sky. You might see them circling in sort of a chaotic sky dance as they wait for stragglers to catch up.
We are having a condensed winter right now with cold weather and an increased amount of snow and some cold rain. Desert nights are still pretty cold. Many cranes have flown north already during our warmer days of a week or so ago, but some are still waiting for the right day when they start north. They can fly 300 miles in a day so they might start off and then hunker down someplace if the weather turns really bad. If our guys are heading to Nebraska, they will have to cross the front range at some point probably in Colorado or north of Santa Fe in NM. Some might be going all the way to Siberia. They seem to be vocalizing the entire time they are flying over, and it is hard to pinpoint their location from the sounds.
Crows have been congregating here in the middle Rio Grande Valley but now seem to be a little more dispersed. We had our usual influx of seagulls in January but not for long and the crows, who are usually scarce when the seagulls come through, seemed not to notice them this year. They both are drawn to the landfills. My three resident crows will probably make themselves known in the coming weeks as the others disperse.
We were lucky enough while hiking yesterday to witness the quick mating of two beautiful Red Tailed Hawks. We'd seen them earlier in the hike dipping and diving way up high and then saw them in the trees way up ahead of us but near the trail we were on. Each was on a low branch (25 feet or so from the ground) of two separate trees, squawking at each other to beat the band. (YouTube has some good clips of mating calls for this breed) Having been invited over oh so eloquently, he hopped to her branch and quickly sealed the deal. They then flew off in different directions, perhaps bc they noticed us and wanted to divert us from their nest. Or perhaps not.
On the same hike, we had to cross a small river (a river runs through the hike ;-) At two different places, we observed (being careful to not cast a shadow) a good sized brook trout, seemingly just treading water and feeding right in the thick of the current. We don't often get to see good sized trout around here so that was special.
Awesome! I miss the days when I took my son trout fishing at the Kern River.
When it's sunny and warm outside, like last week, there were several pairs of small birds doing the mating dance. Really fun to watch. A few days ago it was freezing overnight for several days. Tomorrow it will be 80 degrees. Hopefully some more birds will do a mating dance. But dang, that red tail hawk dance you saw was really special.
Awesome! I miss the days when I took my son trout fishing at the Kern River.
When it's sunny and warm outside, like last week, there were several pairs of small birds doing the mating dance. Really fun to watch. A few days ago it was freezing overnight for several days. Tomorrow it will be 80 degrees. Hopefully some more birds will do a mating dance. But dang, that red tail hawk dance you saw was really special.
Yes, thanks. We've seen hawks sky dancing other times also.. the last time they were not as high and were much more acrobatic. Very cool. That year, we also located their nest and watched (listened), over a period of a week or longer, as they fledged their chick. They seem to do well around here.
But I gotta say, that fish was for some reason so strikingly beautiful that DH said even though he'd had it in mind to start fishing again now that we are in better proximity to decent fishing, he just doesn't want to. Although he did add that maybe he will go hook-less fishing if such a thing exists.. just for the pleasure of standing on a rock, casting into the flow and listening to/watching all the action.
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Hopefully some more birds will do a mating dance. But dang, that red tail hawk dance you saw was really special.