Birds Galore!

The Uncommon Common Grackle

I think the Common Grackle is an underrated and underappreciated bird. With that unmistakable iridescence and curved black beak, it’s simply an interesting creature. I know, they will eat you out of house and home, scare off the pretty birds, and where you find one you will find four or five, but what the hell, a Grackle has to eat too, right?

Okay, I’m kind of lying to myself. The Grackles will drive me crazy by the third time I catch them at the feeder and I’ll be cursing them eating my pretty bird feed. As of right this moment I’m having an absence makes the heart grow fonder moment. I haven’t seem Grackles in Highland Park in quite some time; as a matter of fact, I could sweat it was late spring/early summer of 2009. Before that they were quite common and were a nuisance at the feeder. Suddenly, there were no Grackles to be seen. I attributed the lack of Grack to the fact I made some changes to my feeders that discourage bigger birds. The odd thing was I didn’t see any around at all. This is a subject for further investigation.

With spring lurking around the corner, so show the Grackle. Let me enjoy this little window of time before I curse the day I ever laid eyes on one of those birds.

This Might As Well Be Called A Quarterly

It's been too long in-between my posts here, so long in fact, I should change the name to the Princeton Avenue Quarterly Birdwatcher. Anyway, I'm back with a winter report on some of the great birds I have spotted so far.

The best spot this winter on Princeton Avenue has been the Yellow-rumped Warbler. Now, I'm an novice birder to say the least, and I'm not sure how common this bird is in this area during the winter months, but this was a heck of a discovery to me. The first sighting was around the second week of February in my octagon feeder. There was a female House Finch having a nice breakfast when I noticed the bird beside it was a little awkward. At first I wrote it off as another Finch, but when you have been birding for a while a flash explodes across your mind and tells you to take another peek. Sure enough, it wasn't a another female House Finch, but what what was it? As you might expect, the camera was in the car and I couldn't reach it with out scaring the bird away. As i touched the doorknob to step outside the bird was gone in an instant. Experience told me the bird would be back soon and patience would get me my picture.

It was no more than thirty minutes before the bird returned and this time I was ready. I got nearly twenty good pictures of the bird and I was thrilled. This was the first mysterious bird at the feeder since the Rose-breasted Grosbeak dropped in last summer. Now, time to get all CSI on the photos and figure out what kind of bird we had on our hands.

After a half day of scouring through that multiple bird guides it finally figured it out. It was a first year Yellow-rumped Warbler. I haven't been this excited in months. The little birdie has been hanging around for over a week now, and I hope he stays near throughout the winter. Here is a cool pic of my little pal.