Ubiquitous Birds Post-Windpocalypse

American robin on tree branch. (3/10/17)

It has been months since taking my camera (and not the picture taking function of my cell phone) out for a walk but conditions being what they have been the past 48 hour this morning seemed a good time to do so. Following upstate New York's Wind Storm 2017, we and 100,000 of our neighbors find ourselves without power and I find myself with two days off from school. There are only so many hours one can listen to local politicians pat themselves on the back for being such amazing public servants during a catastrophe, so the silence of the trail provided a welcome break.

Emptied pond on Erie Canal. (3/10/17)

A short drive up the road from the Comfort Inn we have relocated to for the (sadly) foreseeable future, the Lock 32 Canal Park is part of a path I am very familiar with both walking and running with my wife and children. I did not really anticipate seeing too much of great interest beyond the traditional barren terrain of the emptied canal bed, but was pleasantly (okay, really) glad to come across some common park birds. It was like seeing old friends after a long absence. Amongst the creaking trees and polar winds, it was heart-warming to come across a few wood peckers, robins and crows on my short trip down the canal trail...

American robin on the ground. (3/10/17)

American robin keeping watch. (3/10/17)

Erie Canal in Winter-time. (3/10/17)

Pileated woodpecker doing his thing. (3/10/17)

Pileated woodpecker. (3/10/17)

American crow. (3/10/17)

Crows. (3/10/17)

Downy woodpecker. (3/10/17)

Duped water birds in winter. (3/10/17)

Backyard Birding

Male Blue Jay keeping an eye on American Tree Sparrow. (7/30/15)

I spend many hours a day during the summer watching the aviary (and rabbit) activity in our backyard from either the large windows in the kitchen or from our recently reconstructed open back porch. My wife, who is much more observant (and knowledgeable of bird-types), will often call me to the window if I am elsewhere in the house to tell me that "there is a Gold Finch on the feeder!" or "the rabbits are playing in the backyard!" Contrary to popular misinformation, despite living in a city, there is quite a bit of beauty to observe in the natural world daily. You do, however, need to look for it.

Blue Jays and squirrel vie for position. (7/30/15)

Over the course of the past week or so, I am happy to report a slight uptick in activity around our backyard bird feeders, of which we have three: one cylindrical feeder with traditional variety mix of seed, a second smaller cylinder with Nyjer seed and a third suet feeder. While a personal goal is to lure the more "exotic" (i.e. colorful) birds into range of my shaky lens, it is quite relaxing to observe any birds (yes, even the Sparrow mobs) stop by to interact with one another and the environment.

Female Northern Cardinal glides past squirrel on way to feeder. (7/22/15)

The uppity recreational backyard birder in me would LOVE to see more Woodpeckers and Gold Finches, but the truth is that all birds "gotta eat." As much as I love seeing rabbits in the yard (and they are often within the field of vision of the frames shared here), it would be unfair for me to begrudge the squirrels their due too. This of course, doesn't deter me from attempting to minimize their gorging by using peppered feed and suet (which works better than you'd expect).

Tree Sparrow rests amid conifer branches. (7/23/15)

Downy Woodpecker makes an appearance! (7/31/15)

Downy Woodpecker observes... (7/31/15)

... a mob of gorging Tree Sparrows, which chase him 
from the feeder! (7/31/15)

Male (upper) and Female (lower) Northern Cardinals assess the situation 
from electrical wires. (7/22/15)

Common Male Grackle stops by for a set. (7/17/15)

Female Northern Cardinal, striking in a subdued, earthy way. (7/22/15)

From coloring to call, nothing subtle about the Male Northern Cardinal.(7/22/15)

Gray Catbird--the angler minimizes the generally longer , 
narrow beak.(7/25/15)

The ubiquitous but sharp American Robin. (7/22/15)

Omnipresent visitors: Tree Sparrows and squirrels. (7/22/15)

In a few short weeks, I will return to coaching and school, and with the change of scenery will come a shift in lens. Rather than staring out into our backyard, I will have the parks the girls team and I train at, as well as the courtyard my second-floor classroom window looks out into. There I will attempt to sneak peaks into the trees during the day. Whether at home or t school I look very forward to catching a glimpse of an uncommonly, beautiful bird or the beautiful in the common bird.

Birds Doing Bird Things

Athena Courtyard Cardinal. (5/20/14)

MY recent lack of posting is not due to a lack of avian activity in either the school courtyard or home backyard (though that has diminished slightly), but the product of a very busy end-of-school year schedule. Last Tuesday as the end of class, one of my students inquired as to whether or not I'd seen any "inetersting" birds in the courtyard recently. To that point in the day, I had not, but as fate would have it, at the end of the day as I went to close the blinds for the evening, I spotted both the Northern Cardinal above and the bathing American Robin below.

Thankful the grass had not been cut for the week just yet. (5/20/14)

American Robin takes a dip in the "cement pond." (5/20/14)

A brief break between splashes. (5/20/14)

A quick air-dry before flitting away. (5/20/14)

Catching Up in the Courtyard

Not quite the Garden of Earthly Delights, but a worthy natural distraction during a busy school day. (5/9/13)

Any number of times during the course of the school day I'll peek out the classroom window to see what aviary activity may be taking place. Any number of slight environmental factors (whether the lawn is cut, the state of the small artificial pond, if students are out there taking the course I affectionately call "Raking Class") can impact what may be gliding in for a rest. As the name would suggest, our school courtyard is an enclosed area that is somehow populated with any number of types of birds who find their way over the three story square building and onto this small patch of green.


Given the greenery of the courtyard, even the muted red of the Northern Cardinal stands out. (5/9/13)

Last week while teaching class I couldn't help but notice a small, brightly colored male Northern Cardinal briefly flitting around the courtyard at school. The bird captured in both images is the same one, though it's sharp color was much clearly captured in the one above. I am quick to notice colorful birds such as this one as they are not as common here as the more ubiquitous American Robin or the occasional .

Slightly different angle and lens results in more brightly captured red coat. (5/9/13)

In these pictures, the lawn is rather long (it was freshly cut a few days later) and and industrious American Robin can be seen in the images below collecting grass for nest building. I haven't had the opportunity to get down to ground zero to search for its location, but I suspect he is building for the summer. Robins are extremely common regionally, and this type of behavior in my backyard usually means a nest is going up in a nearby bush or soffet.

Just left of center, Robin looks for suitable building material (5/9/13)

The following day, (presumably) the same bird could be seen in roughly the same location scratching and pulling at dead grass and leaves. It occurs to me that any nest that is under construction may be taken down by school maintenance staff, or Raking Class, especially if any nest location is exposed. Reckon it's time to escape the "ivory tower" environs of my second story classroom and look around the courtyard for myself.

Robin certainly is enamored of that shadowy area just beneath the shrub's branches. (5/9/13)