Month: May 2008

The Fluffy Twins (Part 9 of Many)

I was just sitting here watching the TapOut show on Vs and decided to go ahead and make another blog entry.  If nothing else, it will bring a little balance to my karma since I have managed to sit through two UFC shows, a WEC show before the TapOut show… okay okay, I’m a MMA junkie, but having spent a number of years on the mats and striking the bags, it tends to stick with you.  So what better way to compensate than to add an entry on my fluffy friend(s) the Downy Woodpecker.

There are two twins (one male and one female) that have been visiting my feeders from the first day I put them up.  Actually, I have had the privilege of watching them slowly mature and they feel like an adopted part of the family.  Here is a baby picture of the male:

Downy Woodpecker

Both of them are very laid back and have never been aggressive to other birds or care if there are other birds feeding at the same time.  They did struggle a little bit at first because they couldn’t figure out how to actually get at the seeds on the big feeder.  They would latch onto the side and keep pecking at the side.  The female was the first to understand how to use the openings and then eventually the male figured it out.  Here is the female as a baby really submerging herself in the feeding process:

Continue reading The Fluffy Twins (Part 9 of Many)

What The Peck Is This (Part 8 of Many)

Okay, I think it is time to hit the bookstore and find a better field guide for birds.  I keep running across birds that do not show up in my guide at all, but in this particular case, I can’t even find it using a number of field guides on the web.  Oh, and by the way, I especially liked the online guide I found today that basically made me pick the name of the bird from a drop down list in order to see what it looks like… if I knew that… nevermind.   I do have a lot of successes using the Google image search, but struck out on this latest bird.  Unfortunately, I was rushing around trying to find the camera and make it back before this bird decided to fly off.  As a result, all you get is some fuzzy pictures, but you should be able to get a good feel for what it looked like.  It has NEVER shown up again and quite frankly glad I even got one picture of it.

So now you are probably asking yourself…  “When is he going to show me the bird?”.  Well, here you go.  I’ll start with a side shot that gives a good view of the side markings.

Unknown Pecker

It is clearly clinging to the side of the tree similar to a woodpecker, but I looked through all the typical woodpeckers and nothing came close to resembling this bird.  I thought the distinctive white bars on the wing and the solid brown/tan head would be a clear giveaway… but no luck.  Here is another side view which gives a very good view of the beak shape and a little crisper on the coloring.

Continue reading What The Peck Is This (Part 8 of Many)

King Pecker (Part 7 of Many)

It’s bird time again.  Today I bring you probably my favorite bird captured in my lens so far.  I According to my little guide, it is a Red-Bellied Woodpecker.  In case you are confused, he is the larger guy on the right.

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

He is the largest bird that visits my feeders and although this picture appears to contradict this statement, when he is around, most other birds stay away.  I am guessing the chickadees didn’t see him because they are a little jittery anyway and he apparently scares most of the other species.  This is an assumption, but I have never seen him be aggressive to any other bird and generally stays in his own little world.  That massive weapon of beak he has definitely commands some respect.

In case you are unsure if it is a male or female, the following shot makes it pretty clear.

Continue reading King Pecker (Part 7 of Many)

Book Recollection: Guitar Man: A Six String Odyssey

It’s been a week, so now time for my traditional review of the book I recently completed reading.  This particular piece of literature/documentary was given to me as a gift from my brother Ron due to the similarities of the  author’s late endeavor to learn the guitar and my own efforts to master the instrument.   The premise of this book is the chronicling of Will Hodgkinson’s commitment to performing a gig.  The catch is the author does not know how to play the guitar, but set the date of the live audience event around 6 months out.   Having lived (actually still living) through the hardships of understanding the fundamentals of the guitar, this particular book really hit home and if nothing else provided some badly needed therapy to know someone else out there has struggled as much as I have.   I must admit, I was impressed with his commitment to immerse himself not only into the efforts to learn enough about the guitar to perform at his gig, but also to go underneath the technique and travel throughout the music world to meet with pioneers in the guitar field – including a tour through the deep south of the US to get closer to the birthplace of the blues.  I am not sure if this book would appeal to an individual that couldn’t relate to the hardships of learning the guitar, but I found it a very entertaining and actually looking forward to reading his sequel (Song Man) also given to me by my brother. 

 Now on to those items that stuck with me after finally putting the book down:

Continue reading Book Recollection: Guitar Man: A Six String Odyssey

Still Seeing Red (Part 6 of Many)

Guess what?…. yep another bird post.  This one actually came out of a discussion with my brother Ron regarding the previous post (Part 4) on a red colored bird I had come upon previously.  Originally I had classified that bird as a Purple Finch, but upon further investigation we decided it was actually a Pine Grosbeak (at least we think).  While trying to determine that type of bird, I came upon some pictures I had taken that match much better to the description of the Purple Finch.

Purple Finch

In agreement with the guide description, this guy’s beak is a more tannish tone and he is sporting a pretty trendy crest.  To be honest, I really do not know much about this bird.  I snapped a few pictures when I had the chance, but I really have not been able to observe any of its interactions with other birds or feeding habits.

Continue reading Still Seeing Red (Part 6 of Many)

Crimson Pride (Part 5 of Many)

Yes, another bird post.  Trust me, I have a lot more to go.  Today’s focus is the Cardinal.

Cardinal

This bird has a special place in my heart for two reasons.. 1) it is my state bird (and what I didn’t know, it was apparently selected by Illinois school children back in 1928 and then made official in 1929 by the General Assembly) and 2) I accidently shot a cardinal with a BB gun (my brothers’ single cock muzzle loading Daisy) when I was a little kid.  Yes… it was an accident – I was shooting at a hedge apple when I either had my sites off or the dumb bird decided to land in the fire zone.  Whatever the reason, the bird literally locked his talons onto the branch, rolled forward until it was hanging upside down and proceeded to shoot blood out its neck right at me.   The fact that I can still remember the exact spot I was standing and every detail of the scene gives an indication of the traumatic impact that had on me as a little kid.  A beautiful (and protected) bird struck down in his prime because I wasn’t careful.  I have never set my gun sights on any form of bird to this date.  This is another reason I try to save little birds (see Part 4)- so far 1 adult accidently killed and 3 little birds saved

From an observation perspective the cardinal is pretty cautious…

Continue reading Crimson Pride (Part 5 of Many)

Slacker Retribution

I feel like I’ve been slacking a little bit on my regular posts.  I do have a number of additional bird entries to make, but figured I would step back and summarize some observations that I have made over the last week or so.  Hopefully, this will hold you over until I get through the pending feathered posts. 

 For starters, I was the recipient of outstanding service at a downtown establishment last week.  Around 9:00am, a coworker and I had a serious craving for some dark chocolate.  Typically this is a result of a need to relieve some work stress – nothing like taking a stroll downtown to clear the head and come up with a new approach to a vexing problem.  Our destination was a tiny little confectionary shop called the Nut House nestled in between the towering skyscrapers of Peoria IL (okay, if you are familiar with Peoria, you just laughed).  So off we went to ruin our teeth.  Disappointment soon took over as the shop did not open until 9:30 – Denied!  Like kids we were gawking in the window at the chocolate we desired.   A lady’s voice startled us from behind and asked if we were looking for something.  I recognized her immediately (guilty of chocolate addiction) as the store owner.  We mentioned we just came down for some candy, but noticed we were early.  Having sat out on Black Fridays before, I’ve been conditioned to be at the mercy of posted hours so I was totally shocked with her response.

Continue reading Slacker Retribution

To Live Another Day (Part 4 of Many)

UPDATE: 5/17/08 – My brother did an investigation on this little guy and we now believe that this bird really doesn’t match up with the purple finch.  For one thing the beak is different – the purple finch has a brown/tan beak that tapers to a point, where the pictures below appear to show a bent beak at the end and clearly a darker tone – it also was a fairly stocky bird which didn’t fit well with finches.  I had originally dismissed the Pine Grosbeak due to my guide’s maps which showed it really was not an Illinois bird, but my brother found some web links which matched up pretty will with the bird images and his book indicated that at times the Grosbeak can come down south a little farther.  So until someone produces alternative reasoning, we are changing the original assessment to the Pine Grosbeak  – now back to your regularly scheduled programming

Today’s bird has a special memory for me.  A month or so back, I was taking my dog out and noticed he was pretty interested in something out in the yard.  I called him off and put him back in the house to go and investigate the cause.  As it turns out, there was a small bird just laying in the grass.  It appeared to be a young bird that had either fallen out of a nest or overestimated its mastery of flying.  In any case, it seemed distraught and clearly concerned about the predicament it was in… not to mention being hovered over by a curious human.  Fortunately, for this little guy (I guess), I’m a softie for animals in distress (no, I dislike PETA if you are wondering – any organization that puts concern for a donkey higher than a human life is no organization I want to be associated with).   I first decided to snap a few pictures since I had not seen this type of bird (especially this close).

Not sure, maybe Purple Finch

Now that I am looking at the pictures up closer, he looks a little pissed.  He didn’t have any problems with me snapping a few photographs and was pretty much content to just sit there – likely pretty scared.  Here is another shot from a little sharper angle in order to get a better feel for the beak angle and reddish crown.

Continue reading To Live Another Day (Part 4 of Many)

I Bet He Gets Some Ribbing in Bird School (Part 3 of Many)

Continuing the tribute to the winged ones, today’s focus is on the titmouse.  Probably one of the stranger names for a bird since it doesn’t really resemble anything of the things that come to mind when I see that name.  I might have to track down the origin of that name out of sheer curiosity.  Based on the images in the field guide, I appear to have Tufted Titmouses (or is that Titmice?) which again is common to the region I live in.  This first picture is a tad fuzzy and dark, but I thought it was interesting because it looked a tad fat.  Due to the poor lighting I am unable to tell if it is browner than gray and thus might be a female.

Titmouse

Based on observation, the titmouse has to be the most skittish of all of the birds that use my feeders.  They are very timid and always land on a nearby branch first and survey the situation before eventually diving down into the larger birdfeeder (with songbird mix).

Continue reading I Bet He Gets Some Ribbing in Bird School (Part 3 of Many)

Nuts, Another The Head Rush (Part 2 of Many)

The bird posting continues.  Today’s bird topic is the nuthatch.  Based on the field guide, my guess is I have the White Breasted variety which coincides well with its popular regions.   Although a slightly fuzzy picture, here is one sitting in my old feeder.

Nuthatch

It is always easy to distinguish the nuthatch because for some reason it prefers to face downward – my guess is he enjoys the feeling of a head rush or he is just showing off because the other birds that have visited the tree rarely take this position.  It is a little startling the first time you witness it, but the nuthatch literally runs “down” the tree.   Often times he can been seen in the following pose…

Continue reading Nuts, Another The Head Rush (Part 2 of Many)