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The fern on my front patio has baby birds in it now. I was watering it very slowly before, but now that the eggs have hatched I won't. It is sure to be dead when I get back from a two week trip.
Summer breeding birds are finally showing up. Heard the first robin, golden-crowned sparrow, and junco songs today. Sorry about the marginal photo, but I spotted this interesting fellow again this year. Care to guess what it is?
Summer breeding birds are finally showing up. Heard the first robin, golden-crowned sparrow, and junco songs today. Sorry about the marginal photo, but I spotted this interesting fellow again this year. Care to guess what it is?
But this is not the same one as in my pic above: This one is somewhat bigger, and it has some bald spots on its back. Must have some kind of illness I would think.
This opossum came by again today, around the same time. At least I think it was the same one. It wasn't as bald as it looked yesterday, but the fur on parts of its back did look a bit thin in parts. Also, it looked like it was walking a bit stiff. Might be an old opossum.
Anyway, my kitchen window was open so I started talking to it while it was on my patio. And it wasn't scared of me at all! I couldn't tell if it was just ignoring me, or couldn't hear me. I was literally just a few feet away from it so I doubt it couldn't hear me, unless it was hard of hearing. So I think it was just ignoring me. Pretty tame opossum!
We also had a visit from an opossum two days ago. I was tying to get a photo and went out to the deck. Only heard loud rustling from under the cart that we keep out there to help with grilling. It seems to have left now.
Actually, there are two possibilities: partially leucistic dark-eyed junco or partially leucistic golden-crowned sparrow. Both are locally common at least during summer but I'm leaning toward the junco.
Morphologically (shape and length of tail, primaries, leg color, bill size, shape and color, eye color, etc.) and behaviorally, the two species are similar enough to make exact ID of a bird with such a significant color abnormality difficult.
I've seen this bird or one of its close relatives in past years but I don't tend to see it throughout the season, just once or twice. Possibly before breeding territories of more dominant birds get established. Maybe I'll get a better look someday!
Last edited by Parnassia; 05-13-2023 at 01:23 PM..
We are avoiding going out the front door due to the new baby birds in the fern. Each time we do go out we see fuzzy heads with wide open mouths. But we have not seen mama bird lately. We also figured out that they are House Finches. We are going out of town for two weeks and I am sure the babies will be gone by then. Hopefully we don't come back and find dead baby birds.
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And it wasn't scared of me at all! I couldn't tell if it was just ignoring me, or couldn't hear me. I was literally just a few feet away from it so I doubt it couldn't hear me, unless it was hard of hearing. So I think it was just ignoring me. Pretty tame opossum!