Sunday, June 23, 2013

Birding Grassy Hollow Visitors Center

White-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch

Pygmy Nuthatch
Pygmy Nuthatch

Stellar's Jay
Stellar's Jay

Red Crossbill
Red Crossbill
Red Crossbill

Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon form)
Dark-eyed Junco

Violet-green swallow
Violet-green swallow

Mountain Chickadee
Mountain Chickadee

Brown-headed Cowbird
Brown-headed Cowbird


Chipmunk
Chipmunk


We took a trip with friends to Grassy Hollow Visitor's Center. In addition to two life birds, we saw lots of other "mountain birds" including a few that we hadn't seen in California before. The east coast variants of junco, cowbird, chickadee, and white-breast nuthatch would frequent our New Jersey yard. It was good to see their west coast relatives.

Green-tailed Towhee

We went to the Grassy Hollow Visitor's Center near Wrightwood, CA in hopes of seeing a Green-tailed towhee. We saw 3-4 mostly on the ground but also this one on the top of a dead tree.

White-headed Woodpecker


White-headed Woodpecker by Mike's Birds

White-headed Woodpecker
White-headed Woodpecker

The white-headed woodpecker was a new bird for us.   Grassy Hollow has quite a bit of bird activity visible from the visitor center.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Female Hooded Oriole taking a bath

We added a pedestal dripper to keep the bird bath full and attract more birds. We were so excited that our first customer was the female hooded oriole! There is at least one pair of hooded orioles in the yard, but we hadn't seen them drink or bathe before this time. That little device was worth every penny! Not having so much luck with another bath and a solar fountain, but Chris loves to tinker with projects so maybe that one will work out well too.

Spotted Towhees

Spotted Towhee taking a bath by Mike's Birds

Spotted Towhee Taking a bath

Spotted Towhee singing
Spotted Towhee singing

Juvenile Spotted Towhee
Juvenile Spotted Towhee

We spent weeks listening to a male spotted towhee singing in the trees trying to attract a mate. At first we loved the songs. After a while, we considered taking out a personal ad for him since it didn't seem like he was having any luck. Eventually we saw two spotted towhees around at the same time, but it was very difficult for us to tell if one was female. The female looks identical except the head is more grey. We really never could distinguish between the two even when we saw them together. We sort of gave up hope, but lo and behold, there appeared a nice looking juvenile spotted towhee amongst our regular crowd. We're so proud - well, I guess the spotted towhee couple is and we just love watching them.