Today the sun was shining and it had warmed up to mid-40s. Yes funny how just getting out of freezing temperatures gave us all spring fever. This includes the birds in the hood. All along my walk to and from Fauntleroy Park I could hear them shouting out their happiness. Whole lot of singing love was in the air. They are not wasting time finding a mate or re-engaging with their long time honey.
On the subject of bird pairs, I was graced by seeing a Pileated Woodpecker pair on a dead douglas fir tree. This must be the same pair I had filmed on the west side of the cedar grove. The tree they are on was on the southeast corner of the cedars. Basically another gully over. They gave themselves away by their knocking and thunking which echoed across the forest. Once I located them I took some photos of one of them to share. However I at first did not realize that lower down was his mate.
Enjoy this little clip – I swear he would stop and say to the grubs in the tree – “Come out Come out!”
I was really quite away from the tree they were on. Notice how the video wobbled a bit? That is because of the zoom I was using without a tripod. This next pic shows you how far away they are and if you look carefully you can see the male up toward the top and the female hanging out lower on the tree trunk.
How about another episode from my walk? I found this place up in the brush above the Cambridge street entrance that someone put three stakes in the hill-side and three boards across. I came back to it today and sat down to enjoy the birds, sunshine and forest ambiance.
Here is a set of bushes that a song sparrow and wren were chirping away and even showed themselves a couple of times. Sorry no bird photo. I was inhaling their excitement over some warmth instead of fussing with my camera.
While I was sitting there a little Anna Hummingbird came flying up between the limbs of an alder tree directly in front of me. Maybe less than 6 feet away. He(she) stopped stared at me and then decided I wasn’t too bad. He then went over to a piece of hanging moss and poked it. Could be he is doing a little sip of moss dew or perhaps seeing if it would work in a nest. Then he just flew over my head up the hill behind me and was gone. Later I saw him flying around the area doing his hummy click click sound.
It was a special place just like the hummy was trying to tell me. Check out the moss that was glowing from the sun behind it. It had some lovely shades of pale green.
During my walk to and from the park I kept notes on where I saw crow families. Not surprising they were in the places I tracked 2011.
On an even happier note, I saw my gimpy crow that hangs out at 39th & 106th. I had not seen her(him) for many months and feared her time had run out. The first time I saw her was in November of 2012 which would make her at least 6 years old. She is living proof that crows are tough birds with a lot of plunk and determination. If you want to see more on her here is a link to a post just about her. Gimpy Crow of 39th
Back to documenting where they are hanging out. Here is a little map I marked with my crow sightings today.
I wondered if the three crows seen on 106th in two places might be the same. It is possible but the second place in the alley between 41st & 42nd I did not see Gimpy. My prior research had them as two separate clans. Today’s alley group range further to the west towards MVD and the 39th clan are more along 107th and into the Arroyos.
Hope you enjoyed my adventure. Never know what you will see if you look up.
