wordsfromanneli

Thoughts, ideas, photos, and stories.

Category Archives: Birds


by 26 Comments

Red-winged Blackbird

 

Such a simple and obvious name! Why couldn’t I have a more exotic name … maybe like “red slasher” or “the marsh king”?

Oh well. I show them how smart I am whenever a trout fisherman comes to my lake.  I hide in the cat tails and tell them what gear to use. For example, I think it would be a great idea to use a purple leader at the end of the flyline to blend in better with the water. So I call to them, “PurpleLEEEEEEADer. PurpleLEEEEEEADer.”

Nobody seems to listen though, so I just carry on with my own business of picking at the grass seeds. Mostly, I like plants, especially their seeds, but I do like a bit of meat with my granola. I’m not a picky eater. I like dragonflies, damselflies, butterflies, moths, spiders, snails, worms, frogs, eggs, and mollusks. Told you I wasn’t fussy.

So if you ever think I would be tasty in that proverbial pie, with three and twenty of my other blackbird friends, just remember what I’ve been eating and I’m sure you’ll have another think about it.

BTW, it was Sonia who took my picture at the Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary.

 

This print is on Anneli’s wall because she loves me so much. Too bad she doesn’t know how to take a photos without all those reflections. But it’s the thought that counts.


by 16 Comments

Shoveler

Northern shovelers (Spatula clypeata), named for their shovel-shaped bills, like to find food in the shallow waters and soft, muddy bottoms of marshes.  Swishing their wide shovel-like bills back and forth, these ducks slurp up seeds, crustaceans, and aquatic invertebrates, and then sieve their food through the comb-like edges of their bill. If you can enlarge the second photo, you can see some of the 110 fine projections called lamellae that help to sift out the food as if straining it through a colander.

In this first photo, you can see flashy Mr. Shoveler with his drab Missus. She is smart not to be so flashy as she is the one who has to keep their eggs warm at nesting time. It’s best to stay camouflaged while guarding a nest.

I read an interesting anecdote on the site by the Cornell Lab about Mrs. Shoveler’s outlandish behaviour. When she is forced off her nest by a predator, she does her best to make the eggs in her nest unpalatable for the predator by pooping on them before she flees. I was skeptical about this and want to add that possibly, the researcher who came to this conclusion failed to recognize that possibly the mother bird was so scared by the predator that nature simply took its course  as she fled the nest. Something to think about … or perhaps rather not.

Can’t you just see Mr. Shoveler chuckling about that in the photo below?

“Excuse me while I scratch my itchy chin.”

So that’s the “scoop” from the shovelers.

Again, photo credits to my friend Sonia.


by 24 Comments

Sandhill Cranes

“If you will look in the direction I am pointing,” says Dr.  Crane, “you will see that there is a birdfeeder hanging  in a shrub. That is meant for the tiny hummingbirds; not for us big galoots. So please try to leave it alone.”

“I see that. It’s just past my head to the right.”

“It’s not for us,” says Sandy. “I’m going to keep preening my feathers so I won’t be tempted.”

“Maybe I’ll check it out later,” mutters Junior, “when Ma and Pa aren’t looking.”

“What a silly family,” the lovebirds say. “Don’t they know it’s just full of sugar water. We don’t eat that!”

The above three photos were taken by Sonia at the Reifel  Migratory Bird Sanctuary.

The sandhill cranes below, could very well be cousins of the ones above.

I saw these flying over Montana in the fall a few years ago, on their way south to warmer fields for feeding on grains and plant matter, and possibly snatching up the odd frog or other small animals.

They have to beware of ravens, crows, coyotes, and owls, but sometimes these would-be predators run the risk of being kicked by the cranes’ long legs or speared by their tough, sharp beaks. Even a coyote is not safe from having its skull speared if he is unlucky.

One flock is easier to see, but beyond that one are many more flocks looking like specks of dust in the distance.

Please turn the volume way up loud to hear the sound of sandhill cranes migrating. Unfortunately the first part of the video is not in focus, until I “got it together.” These sandhills were migrating over Montana when I noticed flock after flock after flock flying over. This video is mainly for the sound of the sandhills flying over.