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Jim Williams has been watching birds and writing about their antics since before "Gilligan's Island" went into reruns. Join him for his unique insights, his everyday adventures and an open conversation about the birds in your back yard and beyond.
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We spent Christmas in California, looking for birds along the shorelines near Monterey. This Western Gull was found on one of the wharfs in town. It wanted to eat the starfish. but had two problems: the obvious size issue, and all of the other gulls that wanted a taste. The bird tried hard, when it had the chance, to rip a starfish arm free, but those starfish are made of tough stuff. The gull eventually flew away, taking with it the end of the story.
Adding insult to injury
Posted by: Jim Williams under Bird travels Updated: December 30, 2012 - 7:52 PMThis is about birds in that I was looking for Surfbirds along a Monterey, California, wharf when I heard the pounding noise. In the water to my left was a Sea Otter. It had a plate-sized crab balanced on its stomach. The otter had broken the large claw from the crab and was using it as a hammer to pound open the shell and expose dinner, assault of the crab with its own part adding insult to injury. The otter used a two-handed -- so to speak -- downstroke to batter the clam, large claw clasped between front paws. You can see the claw in the photos here. The otter eventually quit pounding and began eating, gnawing on the claw leg for openers. The crab slowly wagged its remaining legs as the otter ate. I did find a Surf Bird a few minutes later. This was seen during a Christmas visit to California.
The otter is rolling over. The crab claw and its attendant leg is held between the otter's paws.
The otter is gnawing on the leg removed from the claw, which can be seen in the center of the photo.
Here is the Surfbird, a winter visitor to the Pacific Shore from British Columbia to South America.
Eagle attacks child -- not!
Posted by: Jim Williams under Bird identification Updated: December 19, 2012 - 2:23 PM Perhaps you will see on youtube the video of a supposed attack on a small child in a Montreal park by what is identified as a Golden Eagle. It looks like the kind of thing that one birder might pass to another. Don't believe tit. Turns out it was a college assignment (?). A frequent poster to the email list BirdChat, Devorah Bennu, PhD, GrrlScientist, as she signs herself, first brought the video to attention, did some research, and most recently confirmed suspicions that it's faked. The bird has been identified as, most likely, an immature Steppe Eagle. This species is very common, and available to falconers or other bird fanciers. And to college students.
A redpoll winter
Posted by: Jim Williams under Bird feeding, Birding equipment, Birds in the backyard Updated: December 28, 2012 - 9:04 PMCommon Redpolls, one of the northern finch species making major appearance in Minnesota this winter, are being seen throughout the metro area. They've been seen north of us since late fall, but not this far south in the numbers people have been reporting in the past two or three days. They arrived in our yard Monday, and continued to flock to our feeders Tuesday. We probably had two dozen redpolls on and off from dawn to late afternoon. They were eating black oil sunflower seeds, sunflower chips, and niger thistle seed. Keep an eye on your feeders. Redpolls are cool little birds, emphasis on little. They're a bit smaller than American Goldfinches. The redpoll below was perched on our deck railing, waiting its turn at our new feeder.
We've setup a new feeder on our deck, a three-tube squirrel-proof (so they say) rig we bought at Ace Hardware in Maple Plain. Once the animal is in eating position, the squirrel's weight slides feeder ports closed. Stout wire mesh hopefully will prevent gnawing damage. We've not had a squirrel-proof feeder before because, frankly, I didn't want to pay as much as they cost. This one, however, was $19.95, a price that would be very good without the squirrel feature. In fact, it was a ridiculously low price. We bought two, one as a gift. We bought 50 pounds of black oil seed while we were there, also for $19.95, the lowest price we've paid in years. So, we bought two of those as well, one as a gift.
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recent posts
- Our Christmas star
- Adding insult to injury
- Eagle attacks child -- not!
- A redpoll winter
- On becoming a better birder
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- Watch the wind
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Links
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