or is he my boss?

Something different this week. The following three minute recording was made outside our front door. In the trees the crows were going insane. This was not the normal shouting we hear, something was clearly upsetting them. The recording starts almost ten minutes after the commotion began. If you listen carefully you can hear the sound of a second bird, possibly an owl, hawk or eagle? Any suggestions would be very welcome! Click the link below to hear the recording.

What are the crows attacking?

Bus, ferry, bus, Skytrain, plane… And so my day started. At the crack of sparrow’s chirp. If everything went according to plan, I would be on a flight to Toronto before I’ve normally finished my first cup of coffee.

Leaving the house, I was greeted by a massive crowd. Imagine waking up and finding yourself in the middle of a big city at the busiest time of the day:

Commuters commuting, tourists touring, children being children.
Buses thrumming, trucks hissing, horns sounding.

Or, rounding a street corner and finding yourself amidst the excitement and joyous celebration after a victorious hockey game.

This is the first thing that came into my sleepy mind when I stepped outside my front door this morning. However, I live on a small island, in a forest. Beside a stream. But, the noise level was deafening! The birds were awake!

Robins greeting, warblers singing, crows just being crows.
Calling, tweeting, buzzing, squawking, shouting.

It really sounded like I had walked into a bird metropolis. A community of twitterers tweeting more energetically, more urgently, more frequently than millions of connected humans on a lazy Friday afternoon in the office before a long weekend.

It was simply wonderful.

The second thing that came to mind was my Dad. He loved the mornings. The early mornings. He used to joke it was a lot more peaceful with no-one around! What I realize of course is that was a lie. Be it a white one. There was plenty going on. There were birds, yes; also rabbits, foxes, deer, sheep and cows – to name but a few. Many of those creatures were as busy as any late overpaid executive rushing to a meeting.

Dad would enjoy the ‘silence’ as he drove the country lanes that eventually took him to market in the big city. Today, I too would end up in the big city. But long before that I enjoyed a cacophony of birdsong in the fresh air and twilight as I waited for the first bus.

It was an inspiring moment. It felt good to connect with the world around me. It felt good to connect with Dad.

The Parrots of San Francisco!! Starring cherry-headed conure … Guest Starring blue-crowned conure …Tonights Episode … I had no idea!

Had I known there were wild parrots living in San Francisco I would have made more of an effort to seek them out during a recent visit to the city. As it was they found me! Difficult to pick out in the trees they were not difficult to hear! What a wonderful noise!

First reports suggest a couple of quarantined birds escaped in the late 1980s and took up residence on Telegraph Hill in the city. By the mid 1990s the numbers were approaching 50 and today number over 300. Judging by the noise I can believe it! We overheard a taxi driver telling a fellow tourist that the residents of the adjacent tower block wanted the parrots all shot but I can find no reference to this online.

Judging by the signs under the trees it is clear that people used to feed the parrots (one lady was still attempting to do so). Signs indicated that it is some kind of Federal, City or park misdemeanor to feed the birds. Doubtless if you get caught you will be shipped to Guantanamo Bay or something (where I suspect there may be even more parrots!). Seriously though you can hear what it sounds like in the video below, although spotting an actual parrot is not so easy!

If I ever live in San Francisco I think I will investigate moving to the same condo block! In the meantime there is a Documentary film called The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill which I have added to my watch list.

I just realized two things. 1. I hadn’t blogged here for a while and 2. I had not blogged a couple of little chickadee videos I put up on flickr.

The first of these came about when I read Dena’s blog post about becoming a ‘proper’ birder. I’m not sure I want to set a numerical target for 2011 in terms of the number of species I see but I am now going to keep a list.

The second of these is just a memory lapse. I did put the videos up on flickr and twitter but didn’t actually put them up as a blog post. These are the first of a series of little videos I will be putting up once I find a few more moments to do the editing!

the birds were thrilled today, as we had one of those rare winter days where the murk and gloom disappeared and the sun came out to accompany a bright, cyan sky. it was lovely to hear their chirps, tweets and twitterings of bird-y happiness and the chickadees were particularly tuneful. may have heard a varied thrush today, the first time here. saw a white-crowned sparrow on next door’s roof, again first time. loads of sparrows and juncos, plus jays and crows bouncing around all day and the house finches are still here.

Anna’s hummingbird got really p*ssed off with a fly that kept hanging around the nectar feeder. it kept coming back to grumble at the fly, and flew off swearing and muttering in a way that only hummingbirds can. take a peep at this photo!

buzz off, will ya!

ttfn!

Some people disagree that feeding birds is a good idea. As temperatures drop and natural food supplies dwindle, I feel it’s important to feed the birds – I’d feed them all year round if I could. We only had our seed feeder (back) up for one month since moving here. Almost two weeks have gone by since our landlords made us take it down. Apparently their cats were enjoying too many hot snacks.

The absolute worst was the first few days after the seed feeder came down. The birds would come and look for their food and stare at us through the window as if to ask, ‘where? why?’ We know birds are very adaptable and get their foods from various places but still feel like we’ve let them down. One of the few things that helped this place feel like more than just a repository for our belongings; has now been taken away.

I spoke to our next-door neighbour this week and found out that he’s throwing down the same kind of seed in his backyard, so do get to see a few lbj’s hopping about. He throws the seed down early in the morning to ensure that it’s pretty much gone by evening. Uneaten seed can attract the wrong kind of visitors to your backyard.

It’s highly likely the cats will go next door anyway and nab a few more unsuspecting lbjs from there, so it made little sense for us to be forced to remove our feeder. The other neighbours (on the far side of this house) also have both seed and hummingbird feeders, so the cats may go there for a hot snack.

According to Wild Birds Unlimited, this is one of the best areas of Vancouver for backyard bird variety – there may have been even more species to see here in the coming months, which we will probably not get to see now. Who knows, the Brambling may have even returned on the way back through in spring…this sucks.

Thankfully the hummingbird feeder is still up. As I opened the blind this morning, an Anna’s came over right away to glare at me through the window, probably thinking I was a threat to ‘his’ feeder. He came right up to the glass as if he were going to tap it with his beak. He glared at me for another moment or two, then settled down to feed. Soon, another Anna’s came over; they had a grumble at each other and flew away. At the last house, Anna’s hummingbirds often came right up to the window and one actually did tap on the glass.

An hour or so ago, I saw about 5 European starlings hopping around on the ground nearby (there’s been many more of them hanging around in the past week or so). Suddenly, around 50 more took off from the lawn; they’d been hidden from view until then. Plenty of Juncos and various Sparrows hopping around on the ground today…they are finishing up seeds from spent flowers.

This past week or two, we’ve heard a Chickadee call that is new to us. It actually sounds like a small snippet from their more familiar call. Maybe it’s a youngster learning the ropes, or a warning signal that we’ve not heard before… Time of year, sex of caller, predator nearby – there are many factors to consider when trying to identify bird calls.

All in all, it’s a busy bird day today. No photos this week, so I’ll leave you with RightAntler’s Brushes painting he did on his iPad. Love it!