To refresh your memory, here is the photo from July’s Bird Quiz. It was taken in western Washington during the month of September. Don’t read any further if you want one last chance to identify this bird.
Category: Vertebrates
July’s Bird Quiz
Can you identify this bird? The photo was taken in Washington during September.
But What About Bambi?
It’s hard to imagine 14,280 acres of burned forest, or 509 houses totally destroyed. While the human toll is devastating, I started wondering what happened to the wild animals that also called Black Forest home. Maybe that’s because I still have that scene from Bambi in my mind—the one where all the animals are fleeing the forest fire. Is it accurate? What do animals do in a fire? Do they survive? And if so, how?
My Garden Miracle
Our forced evacuation dragged on and on. Glued to the news, we prayed for the firefighters, for those losing homes, for protection for our own home. So far, the closest the flames had come was about three blocks. Thank you God!
On Thursday we called the Humane Society to ask if there was any way to rescue my chickens. I realized they were lower priority than horses, dogs, and other pets and livestock, but maybe if someone was in the area anyway? I was sure they had used up their food and water by now.
The Garden and the Fire
I had planned to write an interesting and informative post about woodpeckers for today, but life was interrupted this past week. I’m sure you’ve heard about the massive fire in Black Forest, Colorado. Well, guess where we live… yup, Black Forest, Colorado. We were evacuated within hours of the fire’s start, and have been unable to get back into our house until now. We are grateful that we still have a house to get back into!
You can read more about our personal experience on my other blog, www.compost-blog.com. Today I’d like to share about what I am calling the miracle garden.
June Quiz: Answer
To refresh your memory, here is the photo from June’s Bird Quiz. It was taken on South Padre Island, Texas, during the month of December. Don’t read any further if you want one last chance to identify this bird.
June’s Bird Quiz
Goodness, I haven’t posted a bird quiz since March. In case you’ve been missing the fun, here is one for June. Can you identify this duck? The photo was taken at the end of December on South Padre Island in southern Texas. My answer will appear next Monday.
The Early Birder…
… catches the bird. While it’s not wise to be an early worm, being an early birder pays off. You’ll see more birds than those who sleep in and, if you’re a bird photographer, you’ll have better light to capture them by.
I was once again reminded of this during a couple of back-to-back visits to the Alamosa National Wildlife Refuge, in south-central Colorado.
Bird Nerd Heaven
Birding and Nature Festivals are springing up all over the country. Start in January at the Wings Over Willcox Birding & Nature Festival in Arizona, or the Morro Bay Bird Festival in California, and continue to the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival and New Mexico’s Festival of the Cranes in November—if you have the airfare and the time, you can spend an entire year flitting from festival to festival, returning home just in time for the Christmas Bird Count.
Birds Have Rights
A pair of Great Horned Owls recently decided to nest in a tree at a major intersection here in town. Not smart. Still, their choice of nest spots provided their growing family with an ever increasing number of fans… and tons of harassment. It’s unbelievable what some people will do. You can read the whole horrendous story* in our local paper. It makes one wonder about the intelligence level of our population.
The caution sign was largely ignored—people were much too close. Some idiots were poking the twiggy structure with sticks, trying to make the parents fly. Others were climbing the tree. In fact, families sent their small children up the tree for a peek into the nest! Don’t they know that the owls are dangerous?
Mountain Plover 