Posts Tagged ‘bird watching’
at the bird feeder #7 – Pine Siskin
After our heavy snow last week, the birds were all looking for perches and easy feeding. A few Chickadees and Pine Siskins were at the feeders early. Pine Siskins (Carduelis pinus) are fidgety little birds, staying at the feeder to get their fill, but ever vigilant and looking over their shoulders. They are heavily striped, sometimes with yellow bars on their wing feathers. They also have sharp beaks.
Because the Pine Siskins are striped, I confused them at first with female Purple Finches. The female Purple Finch is also striped, but is a slightly bigger, chunkier bird. Its beak is large and wedge-shaped, and it has no yellow coloration.
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Pine Siskin at the feeder
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female Purple Finch - wedge-shaped beak and stripes around eye (a male Purple Finch at left)
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two Pine Siskins at feeder - sharp beaks and yellow wing bars
© Jane Tims 2012
Zoë, watching
Our feeding of the birds has given our cat, Zoë, a new form of entertainment. She sits in the chair in front of the glass of the door leading to the deck and watches. Her head swivels as each new arrival lands and selects its seed. All evening, the pupils in her eyes are as black as those of the little Flying Squirrels she sees outside the window.
The birds and squirrels know they are being watched but have decided the sphinx behind the window glass cannot harm them. For her part, Zoe knows she can only observe the antics around the feeder. She contents herself with the pantomime of predation.
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strategic hyphenation
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patience nestles into space
between edge-wise foliage
strategic paw-placement where
no dry-leaf crackle, dry-twig snap
disturbs the nothingness downwind
of furred-or-feathered prey
no tattling breeze
can carry scent-anticipation
nostril-expectation
to be pounced-upon
all muscle-twitch contained
in nervous, horizontal
flick-of-tail
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© Jane Tims 2012
at the bird feeder #4 – Woodpeckers
The bird feeder had a new visitor last Thursday, a woodpecker. My husband saw it at the feeder, but by the time he had the camera ready, it was gone. Undaunted, he went outside and chased the little lady through the woods until he had several photos.
We identified the bird from the photos. There were two possibilities, a Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) and a Hairy Woodpecker (Picoides villosus). Both have a white stripe on the back. The males of both species have a red patch on the back of the head (the one at our feeder was a female). The differences between the two are body size (the Hairy Woodpecker is the larger of the two) and the size of the beak (the Hairy Woodpecker has a much longer beak, about 3/4 of the depth of the head).
We are reasonably certain our bird was a Hairy Woodpecker. Its beak is noticeably long. Also, the round cut branch on the tree in the photo (in front of the bird’s feet) is at least an inch in diameter, making the length of this bird about nine and a half inches.
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hand-crafted
Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens)
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daft little bird
propped, pubescent, plump
bang your silly
head against the tree
eat a bug
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your sculptor used
deft fingers
to point your beak
solidify your tail
paint feathers
foam on black water
snow on dark woods
night sky with planets
berry-stain
your downy crown
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© Jane Tims 2012
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