{"id":205,"date":"2009-06-10T22:54:54","date_gmt":"2009-06-11T06:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/onelife\/?p=205"},"modified":"2009-06-10T22:54:54","modified_gmt":"2009-06-11T06:54:54","slug":"birdlife-bliss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/?p=205","title":{"rendered":"Birdlife bliss; list of species observed at our Bowen Island feeder"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I am always happy to wake to birdsong! Blessed.<\/p>\n

I am much amused lately by the hummingbird feeder and the Rufous Hummingbirds. I have avoided hummingbird feeders in the past probably because they are usually quite garish but the other day while buying seed at Wild Birds Unlimited I found one that is like a box. They have the loveliest things in that store, it\u2019s hazardous to my wallet to shop there. Anyway, this feeder is simple, sublime and pretty, really like a Jewel Box as it is called. Of course it requires more assembly than I thought so I just filled the *box* with sugar water-nectar, found a spot on the deck railing where the dogs couldn\u2019t knock it over or interfere with the birds and waited. It only took a day before the Rufous hummingbirds I had seen going after some vine blossoms in the woods started coming around. The males have an iridescent band of russet red around their neck and I love that distinctive sound they make, can hear it from a mile away. I get to watch them sup up the sugar water, amazed that they hover then stop those rapidly beating wings to feed. We humans. We intervene so blithely. I have begun to notice that each time I hear the hummingbird approach the feeder, another bird, probably a songbird whose song I haven\u2019t identified, calls out and I think it\u2019s calling out and defending its territory. I suspect there is a nest in our eaves and it flies by so fast, I can\u2019t even see it but it\u2019s trying to bombard the hummingbird, scare it off. The hummingbird stands his ground though, keeps coming back and staying longer each time, the last time nearly two full minutes, a long time in hummingbird time. They are tough little birds, have me captivated, obviously. Better than YouTube.<\/p>\n

Birds I have spotted on our property:<\/p>\n

Bald headed Eagle
\nMallard duck
\nAmerican Kestrel
\nChestnut-backed Chickadee
\nDark-eyed Junko
\nRed-Winged Blackbird
\nCommon Raven
\nStellar\u2019s Jay
\nBand-tailed Pigeon
\nSpotted Towhee
\nFox Sparrow
\nRufous Hummingbird
\nEvening Grosbeak
\nHouse Sparrow
\nBrown-headed Cowbird
\nPurple Finch
\nAmerican Robin
\nVaried Thrush
\nYellow Warbler
\nPileated Woodpecker
\nTurkey Vulture
\nOwls heard more than seen but I suspect they are Western Screech Owls. I saw one at the last place we lived on the island. There are probably more species but these are the ones I’ve been able to identify.<\/p>\n

A gaggle of Evening Grosbeaks appeared only yesterday. They\u2019re noisy, can\u2019t miss them and their plumage is so bright, they remind me of parrots. Beaks are distinctive too and an odd olive clolour. Still chasing the pigeons off, they eat too much, too big, too many of them. Ravens have been coming around the feeder the first time, which I find intriguing. Found a robin egg on the ground the other day, entertained fantasies of it hatching. They are such a unique shade of blue!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am always happy to wake to birdsong! Blessed. I am much amused lately by the hummingbird feeder and the Rufous Hummingbirds. I have avoided hummingbird feeders in the past probably because they are usually quite garish but the other day while buying seed at Wild Birds Unlimited I found one that is like a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[54],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}