Stupid Bird Tricks, Mating Season version!

[thedeadlyhook]

Sightem of the morning: in the park, a small, brown, finchlike bird (I'm getting better at telling the different breeds of water birds apart, but it'll be awhile before I can ID all of the various hoppers and tweeters and peepers clogging the bushes around here), flew up to a car, perched on the edge of a door by a rearview mirror, and started bonking its little beak against the glass, repeatedly. Considering that I also saw geese going cuckoo at each other around the lake in a very not-normal way, I'm guessing this is mating-related - aggressive, get the hell out of here, you, you, other male, you!, or possibly an attempt to pitch woo, let me kees you - ow! - let me kees you - ow! - let me --.... you get the idea.

Birds are FUN.

Also, the cormorant I keep seeing around the lake seems to have a favorite perching log, and the wigeon population favors one specific bush to hide under. I'm getting better at this watching thing.

Comments

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

Hey there! (waves back) I only just realized I hadn't answered this yet - sorry, I suck.

Falconcam! Damn, that is awesome. It just blows my mind how they lay their eggs right out in the open like that, but I guess their nests are usually so high that not too many other predators can access them anyway.

[deborahc.livejournal.com]

Oh, they're not nesting out in the open, and it's only 3.5 floors above street level - lower than most peregrines nest. It isn't a very good picture at the end of this link, but it does show the row of light colored chimney or pillar looking things that front the building. Well, you wouldn't know it to look at those structures, but they're hollow inside. About a foot or so in there's a grating covered with gravel. That's where they nest. Above those pillars is the low eve of the library roof, below which runs a convenient crossbeam - convenient for the parents to perch on. So,their chosen nesting site offers concealment from above and below, protection from the wind, rain &/or snow (like today - yuk!), and plenty of drainage. Not at all a bad choice. Plus, when the chicks (or eyasses) get too big for that small space and start venturing out onto the ledge, they have an adjacent window box about five or six feet below their pillar to fall/drop/flutter (as the case may be) into, so they're not taking a tumble onto the pavement before their ready to fledge. (Not that urban peregrines don't often find end up on the ground when they do try their first flight.) This location has worked out pretty well for the library peregrines, and those of us who watch them aren't complaining either, especially with the seventh floor windows in the building across the street that offer a view down into the nest. Watching the nest from those windows has its drawbacks though; they're in the recessed, center of the building. One's field of fiew is very narrow because the building on either side of the windows juts out so far that only the street directly below and the sky directly above the nest location is visible. You can't keep an eye on the parents when they're in the area but not on or in the nest pillar. You can hear them all right, but you can't see them. Still, can't have everything. We've got it pretty easy, for peregrine watching.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v480/scubiedeb/EPL%20Falconcam%202007/eplphoto2.jpg