Sunday, May 01, 2016

A DigiStellascope of Pale Male's Mate Octavia and an Eyass, Plus The Stealthy Bunny

Stella Hamilton and her Stellascope at the Hawk Bench in Central Park come through again!  Octavia stands on the Fifth Avenue Nest with a little white eyass head in front of  her  left (to us) foot! 

Bunny or as we have decided she is a female, technically the Doe Cottontail Rabbit has been scarce the last two days which have been decidedly rainy and cold.  Temperatures were in the mid 30's yesterday and mid 40's today.  Therefore she is likely spending more time in the den keeping the probable "kittens" or "kits" for short, warm.

I find it interesting that rabbits don't have specific to species names for the male and female,  the male and female are the same as deer, and the young are the same as cats.

Today has not been spectacular for photographically nabbing the most interesting birds at the feeders.

While making my way through the laundry/parrot room without my camera, I saw two male Rose-breasted Grosbeaks with several white albinistic feathers where there completely black area feathers should be.  I headed back to the next room to get the camera but by the time I got back all I saw were tail feathers as they hot winged it over the fence and through the pine tree never to be seen again...at least by me today.

 Chipmunk was using an interesting technique to fill his pouches today in the rain saturated feeding area beneath the birds feeders.  He jammed his nose down into the sediment.
 And then vigorously chewed his way down filling his cheek pouches as he went.
 White-crowned Sparrow hopped his way down the less mucky bricks past the spontaneously appearing orange fungi.  Sorry about the blur.  Not only are we dealing with that 1850's wavy glass, the glass was wet besides.
 One of the Nuthatches was availing himself of the nut feeder.  He was peaking away to retrieve a piece large enough to hatch into some bark, or the house, or the fence.  When he managed it he took off to hatch it into a favorite spot.
 Three Grackles showed up and strutted around the area for awhile.  They always remind me of some kind of avian Storm Troopers.
 Then one of the male Downy Woodpeckers arrive.  They tend to grip the bottom edge and then brace themselves with their amazingly stiff tall feathers which tends to start the feeder swinging.
 See his feathers blowing.
 And there goes the feeder like a spinning pendulum.
                   And round he spins again!

Lets hope the weather clears up tomorrow so the raptor nests can be seen clearly enough for some updates.

Donegal Browne

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