Daily Piccies Vol. 462

I will be going down memory lane a little bit.

As a family we started birding in 2011. At that time we could identify a few birds, knew they lived in nests and in boxes, they ate seeds and sometimes dive-bombed you. Oh! I think that is why I didn't care about birds for a long time, I was dive-bombed by who knows what when I was young... I was scared of birds for a long time after that.

Besides identifying a few species, we also learned interesting things like newly fledged birds are about the same size as their parents. I doubt I could find the post I made in June 2011 on an old Daily Bird Picture thread and I remember going back to edit it because of the embarrassment I felt when corrected by Resin. I found the picture of my "baby Brown Thrasher", so will post it again. It was so cute, had the long tail of a Thrasher and the streaky breast. No doubt what it was...

It's a Song Sparrow.

Well, the end of last month I was walking through the yard when I just happened to glance at this shrub. YAY!!! A true baby Brown Thrasher. He? then made his way to a parent, who found a worm. Instead of cramming it into the young mouth, the parent ran off with it! Baby just sat there before walking aimlessly about. The last I saw of him that evening, he was perched on a short platform feeder. And notice the tail... it's short when the young first leave the nest. It will be a little bit before it is as long as an adult's.

Funny & thank you for the photo.

Here are a few of the Bluebirds and the new nestlings - hatched June 15.

Looks like the blues are aware of the camera.

I think this turkey was sitting on a clutch of little ones this morn. At first when I saw her, I thought it was a raccoon with its head in a hole, then I tooted my horn (I was on the county road), and there was no reaction. Then finally I used my camera like binoculars and I saw it was a turkey hen. When I drove by later, she was gone.

Brenda - I like the sitting turkey. It would be interesting to see if that was an actual clutch of eggs.

I have bee going out on my deck each day and resting (surgery recovery) and they don't seem to mind. They look back whenever I move or raise the camera. The flash goes off sometimes and they just sit there.

David

Italics would be good for botanical names. I had been typing them elsewhere and pasting them in.

Scaled Quail, sometimes called cotton-top quail or blue quail, and chicks. Excuse my dirty window and camera lens.

Adorable quail, love the little topnotches. How nice to be able to watch them just outside your window.

RE Turkey: if it was early and cool, she could have been warming up her hatched chicks. That spot is a little exposed to be picked as a nest spot for eggs.

Yes, I think she had chicks instead of the clutch of eggs. Right - on the exposure.

To do italics
use the < with an i and then > before the word or phrase, then
put < with an/ and an i then > after the phrase.
Hard to show how to do.
this also works for bold print
and strike through

rose breasted grosbeak was back. Probably nesting nearby. I hope so.

The pair of red bellied woodpeckers hanging around the tube feeder today. We should keep it stocked.

Both male & female red bellied woodpeckers visited the tube feeder. glad to see them.

I've been watching a killdeer with a nest in the middle of our country lane road. Heck of a place for the nest as there has been a lot of traffic up and down the lane. Hope the eggs soon hatch as she gets so upset when a vehicle travels the lane.

On another note, my guineas were all upset a couple hours ago and I couldn't figure what the problem was until I saw the Cooper's Hawk fly from one tree to the other.

Resin - Help me out here. Late at night I hear this screech like noise and I'm pretty sure it is an owl. I went online and listened to owl sounds and it sounds just like the great horned (youngster). If it is a great horned youngster - would it be old enough to fly and still be making that noise?

I knew you would be the person t ask - thanks for any feedback.

As I worked in my flower garden this eve, this little sparrow fussed and fussed at me. Not sure what his/her problem was? Not sure what kind of sparrow it is.

Olympic National Park Rainforest, late afternoon. Without my zoom on autofocus, autoeverything I couldn't have got this:

Great owl pictures.

Dark eyes - Barred Owl?

Hmmm, I think pollengarden may be right.
I am a very casual bird watcher. I had with me on the hike two pocket laminated guides-
"Olympic National Park Wildlife" which showed the Short-eared Owl, Great Horned Owl, and Western Screech-Owl.
"Washington State Birds" also showed Burrowing Owl, Barn Owl. Of these, once I had magnified the photos on the screen, it seemed closest to the Barn Owl, but much less white. I thought maybe it was a young one. It was big like a Barn Owl. I also looked up the infamous Spotted Owl, but it seemed too small, and face not white enough.
When I look in my Audubon Field Guide to North American Birds, they don't even list the Barred Owl (Strix varia)!!! On line photos do look like it. I see it extended it's range into Washington in the 1960s, and it is eating or out competing the poor Spotted Owls.

Excitement in this house today. DH spotted a pilliated woodpecker working over a tree. It was a double trunk pine & one side came down a couple years ago so it now shows the inner wood. I would guess a place for plenty of insects so big guy has found great places to eat.