Arthur and Anne. And Rebecca.

A good friend, and lapsed blogger at The Complaint Department, gave me this print in honor of my love of crows (and a convenient birthday). I loved it from the moment I saw it. It now hangs in my dining room so I can see it every time I eat at the dinner table. Which is most nights of the week. The artist is Colette Davis. Thanks again Anne!

I named the crow Arthur, and of course the lady is Anne. She asked if I thought the lady in the painting looks a little like my daughter. I think she does!

Again with the crows.

There are a lot of nice books about crows. I've read some, but not all, of these. Doug got this whole crow thing started by reading Gifts of the Crows -- we think I brought a copy home from the library. That led to us paying more attention to our own local flock, and to reading more about crows. As Margaret pointed out in a comment to the previous crow post, crows are said to recognize faces, bring gifts, and generally interact with humans in a way unlike other birds. 

My lovely crows.

Look closely and you'll see six kitty ears pointed toward four crow friends. We've been feeding the crows a little, almost every day, for months. We really like having them around. They're talkative in a pleasing way. We only give them a couple of slices of bread each day, usually in the late morning. I think they are quite pretty. In fact, I'm smitten with them.

pictures obviously taken before the January snow storm

We visited the Montrose Crossing shopping center at Randolph Road and Rockville Pike late one Sunday afternoon in December. Thousand and thousands of crows arrived just after sundown. They came in waves. Many stopped on the buildings around us. It was amazing to watch. I took this little video, which may or may not be viewable. During the winter for 80 years at least crows have been coming to this exact spot, even though the area has become heavily developed. Doug and I remember the crows congregating back in the 70s/80s. One writer (Lisa Courturier) wonders if this particular piece of real estate has been home to crows for a very long time, even longer than the 80 years she can vouch for. If they were coming here 80 years ago, why not 280 or 580? We can build all the parking lots and grocery stores we want but they are coming home to roost. There are just enough tall trees scattered here and there, not to mention tall buildings, that thousands obviously find it acceptable for staying overnight for months, year after year.

All in a row. Clarence, Georgette, and Lucy. Watching birds.

And putting nose prints all over the windows.

Hummingbird says hello. Or go away. Not sure what she's saying but she's not afraid of me.

Look at all those ornamental grasses providing wonderful homes for ticks just waiting for me to walk by. Yes, I think I do have tick PTSD, as my wise young friend from the PNW suggested in a recent comment. And speaking of ticks and their buddies the deer, look who was lounging around in the FENCED-IN back yard yesterday morning. I shooed her out through the very small little break between two sections of my "secure" fencing, a space so small that I never dreamed she or one of her dozens of pals would find. But she did, of course. She's relaxing after a big breakfast of hostas.

 

 

 

Anyone know what kind of bird this is?

Our pileated woodpecker visited yesterday.

They will soon be gone.

The hummingbirds have been very active this summer, especially in late summer. I wonder if that's because they are passing through in great numbers as the summer wanes?

I found this somewhere on the big old Internet. Amazing little things.
Ruby-throat Hummingbirds, for example, may travel as many as 2,000 miles between Canada and Panama. The trip includes a non-stop, 500-mile flight over the Gulf of Mexico.

Hummingbirds by nature are tropical creatures. They have been programmed to move north in the spring to exploit the renewed food sources and nesting sites, while escaping the intense competition for the same in the tropics. It is believed that this process began with the end of the last ice age.

[I wish this were a better picture. Kitt has some beautiful pictures of her hummingbirds.]

A hawk on the front porch! I wonder if that's a bad omen?

Or if it's just because I left a bag of garbage on the front porch?

The Great White Heron in the pond next door. Look at that long skinny neck.

I'd like to say that I deliberately made these shots fuzzy. I didn't.

Pileated woodpecker.

On an old stump just outside my deer fencing.

Over the river and through the woods to Aunt Elaine's house we went. And along the way we passed these sweet emus, who probably aren't all that sweet.

And I learned, from Erin who is sweet, about ostriches and emus. And that led me to learn about the word "Gondwana." I knew about the landmass but not the name. Gondwana. It rolls nicely off the tongue.
From USAToday online:
"... ostriches and emus ... apparently share a common ancestor who lived long ago on the gigantic landmass, Gondwana. When Gondwana broke up about 75 to 85 million years ago, Africa split off, and then Australia/Antarctica sailed slowly away.... With a widening ocean between them, the ostriches and emus were forced to evolve separately thereafter. At least, this is the best current theory."

I'm posting this picture (from last winter) for Michelle in Massachusetts.

Her birds of prey post is well worth a visit. This hawk, a red-shouldered I think, enjoyed the fresh suet on my deck last winter. Usually, when I put out the kind of suet you buy at the grocery store--processed slab-like hunks of fat--I attract lots of creatures: mostly woodpeckers and chickadees and nuthatches, and of course squirrels. But when I offer up fresh suet from the local Amish market, even the crows and hawks and vultures stop by. Those processed blocks don't pass the smell test is my guess. Hawks know when there's really fresh meat to be had.

I don't know WHAT to make of this. (9/3: Black walnut seed. Squirreled away by a squirrel maybe?)

It's a nest in a big evergreen shrub in my yard, about eye-level. In the nest is a big green "egg." I call it an egg b/c that's what it looks like but it's huge. Looks more like a smooth oversized black walnut. But there are no black walnuts nearby--that I know of. I don't want to touch the green thing in case it's actually an egg. Somehow I doubt it. To be continued.

The goldfinches have been very active in the last 2 weeks.

I don't know if they migrate away for the winter or just turn a dull green so I don't notice them. Must find out.

They aren't so ugly up close. I like his beak.

The hawk was back today! And some day I'll get a good picture of him.

There's a big hunk of suet at the top of that ratty-looking feeder. That's what pulled him in. And I think he's a red-shouldered hawk, not a red-tailed. His tail had distinct white bands. Bottom picture is from: www.dpughphoto.com

This hawk (huge, BTW) was perched on a hunk of suet on my back deck.

He was being mobbed by the local crows. I got this quick shot of him sulking in the trees behind the suet. Possibly a redtail, common around here.