Just two of them. Quickly sharing my favorite set of photos from last Wednesday. Ironically, not of the eagles or geese I went to view. Rather this lucky collection of two swans arriving for the water landing as my camera clicked.
Not Calling Birds
And closer to home, we’ve had this odd little visitor. At first, I thought my white-crowned sparrow returned to visit. However, upon closer inspection and a bit of Internet research, I’ve determined it’s something called a leucistic house sparrow. Basically, a not quite albino variation of my house sparrows.
(note: these photos were through the back door as my current birds like to take off the minute I attempt to ease the door open).
My guess is he’s related to my other sparrow who sports a white tail feather. Still not a common site in our backyard and an interesting looking bird.
By the way, I looked up calling birds out of curiosity. Thought to be blackbirds or at another time mockingbirds. I could spend way too much time researching the song, so I’m stopping with that thought.
Other Birds Spotted In The Backyard This Week
Not spotted by me but my younger son could hardly wait to tell me of his backyard sighting on Thursday afternoon as I walked in from work. Not one but two hawks in the tree in the backyard! Apparently, after “rescuing” the cat from the deck where she lounged, he did at least think of trying to take the photos. Unfortunately, my bad habit of forgetting to replace the SD card after uploading photos did me in on that one. So no pictures.
I do have a photo of one of my work Secret Santa gifts, not quite the same but I do love the coffee cup (and despite my husband’s objections, I do not believe there is such a thing as too many coffee cups!):
Back to information about the pair of hawks. After listening to the descriptions provided by my son and husband and pulling up birds in my bird books and on-line, we’ve decided most likely it was a pair of red shouldered hawks!
Birds viewed with my own eyeballs this week: cardinals, nuthatches, chickadees, tufted titmice, house finches, Carolina wrens, lots of sparrows including the one shown above, a blue jay, a few robins (on the way to work), a crow, and about 3 gulls flying overhead yesterday (on the way home from work).
What birds did you spot this week?
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Joining in with Bird Depot, hosted by Anni over at I’d Rather B Birdin’.