Of Birds and Politics

I have spent the majority of the time on my "vacation" doing physical therapy and home exercises for my shoulder, which has been time consuming but neither exciting nor interesting; watching my backyard birds; and keeping track of the media reports--both social and old media.

First the therapy: mainly it's offset my plans for most birdwatching. I'd hoped to get out to some of the local bird haunts that are not subject to the Federal Government shutdown, like Lake Fairfax, and Riverbend Park.  Great Falls and Dyke Marsh unfortunately were affected by the shutdown. But not being able to hold binoculars to my face for very long raises the priority of the PT!

Onto the birds I have seen.  My "first of season" arrivals in the yard have started.  I've seen a White-throated Sparrow and heard the "tseeep" calls of at least one other. I've seen my first flock of Canada Geese--yes an extremely common bird, but they generally don't fly over my yard, except in the fall. And I saw a Ruby-crowned Kinglet.  I did catch a glimpse of a possible thrush with an eyering in my stand of pokeberries. Unfortunately, when I turned to grab my binoculars, it flew away.  Interestingly either a late-staying Gray Catbird has shown up, or one has stopped over from farther north. Finally, a Northern Mockingbird has started staking his claim--from both the top of my Chimney and the big Virginia Pine in front of our house.  American Crows--which form wintertime murders of thousands of birds and roost nearby have just barely started to form up in family groups. I saw 8 fly over last night.

I also had an unknown hawk come to visit. I neither saw nor heard him.  The explosion of probably Tufted Titmouse feathers near my feeding table was the tell tale sign.  The circle of life gets very sad when you've watched the prey grow up from a new fledgling.

On to politics!  Given the self-inflicted drubbing the Republicans are getting in the polls, I expect to be back in the office on Monday. According to a Wallstreet Journal/NBC poll (even Tea-baggers can't claim that this is liberal media bias) the GOP is (rightfully so, I say) receiving the blame for the shutdown. And furthermore, it is in grave danger of having opened a schism within its ranks that will take a long-time in healing.  The wrinkle here is whether or not Senate Republicans' being fed up with their lower house colleagues' shenanigans and coming up with a competing budget plan will further slow this process or speed it up.

Either way, I will endeavor to keep my blog resurrected!

The New Birdwatching Year

Just as New Year's is a chance to change bad habits or take care of things that we've procrastinated doing in the past, it is also a chance to start anew on our yearly bird list. I use it to track changes in my backyard visitors, but also to renew my enthusiasm for seeing some of our more common visitors. This year started off with a bang.

This morning, before heading out on a casual bird walk, we peaked out at the feeders and saw a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers (1)visiting our suet station. They are amazing looking creatures! We headed off to lunch at the Old Brogue Pub in Great Falls before hopping over to the C&O canal. Today we decided to hike the eastern portion of the Billy Goat Trail from Carderock to the point where it rejoins the trail. It was a very quiet day on the river--for the birds anyway. The clouds seemed to lend a hush over them. With the time of day, we heard the typical calls of the Chickadees (2) and Cardinals(3). Among the birds we did see were the Belted Kingfisher (4), Turkey Vulture(5), Red-bellied Woodpeckers(6), a number of Canada Geese (7)(of course) and several pairs of Mallards (8). We also saw a group Golden-crowned Kinglets (9) with at least one White-breasted Nuthatch (10) and a Brown Creeper (11). I hadn't seen a Brown Creeper since the one(?) who used to visit my suet feeder stopped coming after the lovely Town of Vienna allowed the near-clear-cutting of three acres of woods to build houses on several years ago. Apparently the Brown Creeper needed those woods more than the real estate market needed the houses...but I digress.

I bagged one new species for my North America List: the Common Raven (12)--I've seen this guy in Ireland and the United Kingdom, but never identified him at home. Moreover, I think I saw a pair of American Wigeons: a pair of ducks in flight that did not look like Mallards, one had some green on his head and both had white patches on the wings. If the male is in breeding colors now, like the Mallard, it might be the bird, but I didn't get a good enough look to be confident enough to add him to my life list.

Other birds of the new year--and also for my backyard, include English House Sparrow(13)--of which I have scads (sigh)--American Crow (14), House Finch(15), Dark-eyed Juncos(16) and Mourning Dove(17). ( I saw 40 on December 30th in my bird feeding areas!)