Quote of the day...er...week...umm...hey, look, a quote!!

"...besides love, independence of thought is the greatest gift an adult can give a child." - Bryce Courtenay, The Power of One

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Sunday, November 16, 2008

Name That Bird (with Bonus Round)

No, not the one I lovingly refer to as "the Evil Genius".

The one in our trees.

There's something about our Leland Cyprus trees that attracts weirdos (that should be a species - the blue crested weirdo, that's me).

Last year, it was the owl (or possibly giant squirrel)(but really, it was an owl).

Sunday, it was this feller:

What, you can't see it? The whitish blob sort of in the middle of the green? Yeah, well...I do the best I can with my beloved Kodak EasyShare, but its super-mega-ultra zoom can only do so much, especially through the living room window.

I went outside and tried again:

Slightly better - you can see the blue and the dark collar, necklace around its throat (if you look really hard, or squint, or use your imagination). I really need to learn to levitate.

One more, because two blurry photographs are never enough:

So - want to play "Name That Bird"? We think it may either be a freak Belted Kingfisher (not very likely) or the biggest dang bluebird ever. No kidding - can you see it in the photos? Those were taken at a distance of fifty feet or so with a little PAS camera with not much zoom to it. It's freakin' huge, that bird.

Honestly, before I got the binoculars out and had a better look, I thought maybe we had a parrot or something out there - maybe a rare, flying blue chicken.

Probably, though, it's a blue jay - with a glandular problem that it's very self-conscious about, thank you very much.

Time for the bonus round: here's another little weirdo for you - although this one hasn't been in the Cyprus trees. Nope. It has been fluttering and hovering outside the living room windows, occasionally clinging to the screen, all the while pipping and chirruping at us like it's asking to come in. Funny little fellow:


Yep, I have a future in birdwatching...or in blurry, blobular photography.

3 comments:

Suzy said...

The little red-headed fellow might be hungry or thirsty.Try some raisins and a birdbath. We had mockingbirds who clunked their beaks on our windows for raisins.

Kit said...

OK, I'm guessing purple finch for your persistent window visitor.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Purple_Finch_dtl.html

Kyddryn said...

Suzy, I filled the bird feeder, but the little feller is still visiting - I wonder if he's just teasing the cats or if he's maybe saying "Thanks for the seeds, but can we get some suet or some Jim Beam out here?? It's getting cold!"

Kit, I don't think it's a finch or the woodpecker we discussed - I am going to cave and ask Dad or Stepmum if they can help (they can identify just about anything that flaps).