Today we have a potpourri of photos of urban wildlife, starting with five from Diana MacPherson. Every contributor’s notes are indented. Don’t neglect the animals in your backyard—especially the ducks!
Here are some pictures I took from March through June.
Baby English House Sparrows (Passer domesticus) snoozing together waiting for their parents to feed them.
Brown thrasher (Toxostoma rufum) wandering through the yard in May.
Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus) contemplates the day in May.
Close up of Eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) eating seeds from bird feeder. You can see the damage he did in the ripped-up hole in the picture. That feeder was totally trashed.
Full image of Eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) eating seeds from bird feeder.
Here are two photos from Garry VanGelderen:
Blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata) in my feeder.
Chipping sparrow (Spizella passerina) on the ground.
From Joe Dickinson:
Here is a squirrel photo with a moral: don’t leave food unattended in your campsite. It was taken this morning [May 8] at New Brighton State Beach near Santa Cruz, CA . It is a neighboring campsite, not ours. The subject is on top of a cabinet inside of which is meant to be secure food storage. Clearly, the top doesn’t work so well.
Sub
Reblogged this on The Logical Place.
Aaaah, Ms Diana ! =
= Sweeeet Aves et Mammalia !
Blue
Thanks Blue!
Great pictures! The shot of the bluejay with a peanut brings back a lot of memories of the days when I was able to have a feeder.
Good stuff! Years ago we were camping, and had stored our food in a large and well-built plastic tub. It did not matter. When we returned after sight-seeing we found the sqrrls had chewed a hole thru the container, and were busily raiding the contents.
Reblogged this on chrismakan.
We used to have bird feeders and squirrel feeders…the squirrels tended to go for the bird feeders. Go figure…as Diana’s photos reveal, I think those suckers just wanted a challenge, or maybe they wanted to destroy something to get at the food!
Looks like that campground squirrel has had experience with “secure” camp cabinets.
I don’t know if a squirrel could open a properly latched food safe, but I have direct experience that a raccoon can.
Yeah, raccoons are crafty critters.
I was scrolling through, and as soon as I saw it had squirrels, I guessed it was Diana. Very nice pix, Diana!
Thanks doc!
I like brown thrashers. Very busy and determined looking, and they have a complex and playful song.
Lovely captures, Diana and Joe. I love that brown thrasher!
Oh, and thanks to Garry too!
I hadn’t seen one that I remember when I took that photo. I don’t often see them around my place.
I don’t believe I’ve ever had them at my house.
Oh, we were on the third floor balcony over the weekend and spotted a huge bird headed our way. I was guessing “Great Blue Heron?” but soon saw it was a huge hawk carrying an orange fish in its talons. It was sooo exhilarating to see such a thing up close. We probably wouldn’t have noticed had we been down at street level.
Funny enough I was driving along the river Sunday & saw a bid with a big fish in its talons. I was so fixated on the fish that I didn’t notice what kind of bird it was.
If I saw that around here (Idaho) I’d say it was either an eagle or an osprey. The eagle is much larger and has a white head and tail (as a mature bird) and the osprey is very lanky and has quit a bit of white along the underside.
The bird I saw looked about Red Tail hawk sized so it may have been that.
They don’t go for fish, as far as I know, but, it certainly could have been. Red tailed hawks normally go for mice and gofers, etc, but a dead fish floating might get them interested.
Nah this fish was fresh.
Then all bets are off. 😎
A genuine MacPherson Chipmunk®!
A genuine MacPherson Chipmunk®!