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Friday, September 07, 2012

Lifer


The little grey bird a few posts below was a lifer for me....a blue-headed vireo. Thanks to Cathy for identifying it. It also brought me up to 54 birds this spring and summer.



I was so excited. What with not going anywhere or doing much of anything but farm, house and book work, I don't see a lot of new birds any more. (I need to take a trip to Florida or something). Thus the last new one I saw was the yellow-bellied sap sucker a couple of summers ago. (I know, I know, they are common as heck, but I just never saw one before that. Sad to think, when our apple trees right beside the house show the lines of bore holes they leave behind. Hiding in plain sight I guess.)




I am still watching closely trying to collect up a couple of more species for the warm seasons before I start anew for fall and winter. So far among the missing are the pileated woodpecker, common around here, bald eagle, ditto, savanna sparrow, sometimes seen, even had a fledgling on the porch a few years back, and a couple others I have missed this year. With any luck I might see one or two of these or something interesting migrating through. Lots of fall warblers out there, but they are sooooooooo hard.

The weather is interesting...

Yesterday afternoon the cumulonimbus started piling up to the west and the air was crackling with electricity so the boss didn't start any field-work related activities. Weirdly enough, half an hour later the sky was clear with just a few hazy clouds. Rare to hear thunder like that and not get a drop of rain or much more than a light wind. I got a real neat photo for this week's Sunday Stills though...can't wait to post it.

Have a good one!




7 comments:

Terry and Linda said...

Yipeee no rain! We had rain last night, but it dried enough we could start combining again this afternoon!


Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com

Cathy said...

I rarely rarely see sapsuckers. You're lucky just knowing they've been nearby.

I'm so tickled that I helped you get a lifer.

Incredibly . . . about 10 minutes ago . . Keith looked up and saw a bird flitting in the shrubs . . asked what it was . . . Voila!!! A solitary vireo. Pretty amazing :)

threecollie said...

Linda, I am so enjoying your posts on your harvest. So different from here.

Cathy, I was so happy! Wish I had someone like you...who knows more birds than I do...to count some of what I am sure is out in my yard. And that is really cool that you folks saw the same little bird as we did. As FC calls her, Miss Sara N Dippity.

Jacqueline Donnelly said...

Hang in there. Hurricane season often blows odd birds our way, so maybe you'll yet see more lifers before summer's over for good.

threecollie said...

WW, I am hoping! It is so different now. I am up before the birds and if I go out on the porch to watch I get impatient waiting for the sun to come up. lol

Cathy said...

PS. Just noticed I reverted to the name that I learned when I first began birding. I do prefer the poetic names to the more descriptive ones.

Yep. Blue-headed vireo.

threecollie said...

Cathy, I was bragging on him yesterday to our favorite vet, who is also a birder. Still makes me smile.