The Birders Report

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House Wren With Insect Ready To Feed Young photo by Larry Jordan

Early in the morning at Lassen Volcanic National Park, I was able to capture some photographs of a pair of House Wrens going in and out of their nest cavity, feeding their young.

More on my trip to Lassen Park soon, but in the meantime, go check out more great sky photos at Skywatch Friday!

American Dipper At Mill Creek Falls all photos by Larry Jordan

I spent this weekend at Lassen Volcanic National Park with the Audubon Society.  I will be posting on this trip soon but I wanted to show you the photos of this American Dipper I captured at Mill Creek Falls.  This is the closest I have ever been to an American Dipper.

At the southern entrance to the park, they have just opened the new visitor center.  The trailhead to Mill Creek Falls is there.  After a couple of days of great birding, I wanted to see the new visitor center.  Since I had never been there, I stopped on my way out and decided to take the 1.8 mile hike to the falls.

The trail took me right to the top of the falls and as I was taking pictures of the waterfall, I noticed this little dipper, standing on the rocks at the main inlet.  The bird quickly flew back upstream away from me (no surprise there), but no matter, I had my 80-105mm lens on and couldn’t get a decent shot of it anyway.

I quickly changes lenses and waited.  To my surprise, along came the dipper with an insect in its beak!

American Dipper With Insect

It flew right past me to an unknown destination to feed its young.  I snapped this photo as it came back upstream.

If you don’t know about the American Dipper, they are an amazing bird.  They nest under bridges over fast flowing streams or behind waterfalls.  I waited a while longer to try to follow its path to its nest, assuming it was behind the waterfall, but no luck.  I had to get going.

Check out this interesting video from National Geographic on this exceptional little bird also known as the Water Ouzel.

Then go see the other great bird photos at Bird Photography Weekly!

Osprey Adult With 3 Chicks all photos by Larry Jordan

I went back to Anderson River Park yesterday to see how the Osprey chicks were doing and got more than I bargained for.  The adult (right) had just flown into the nest, apparently empty handed.  They all began screeching, I imagined for the other adult to bring food.

I was hoping to get some shots of the adults bringing in fish to feed the chicks but I saw no feeding activity whatsoever.  Instead, the adult Osprey flew off again, not to be seen by the young ones for another three hours!

In the meantime, the chicks began flapping their wings and “catching air.”

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Nuttall’s Woodpecker Juvenile all photos by Larry Jordan

I was out photographing my Ash-throated Flycatchers a couple of weeks ago as they were feeding their young still in the nest box, when I heard a Nuttall’s Woodpecker drumming behind me!  (You can hear the sounds of the Nuttall’s Woodpecker here).

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Lesser Goldfinch Chicks Waiting For Breakfast all photos by Larry Jordan

OK, these Lesser Goldfinch chicks are now about 9 days old.  They are beginning to get their colors but you can see they still have some down sticking out of their heads (is that cute or what?).

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Bullock’s Oriole Male all photos by Larry Jordan

Last weekend I returned to the site of our Audubon Chapter picnic at Whiskeytown National Recreation Area’s Tower House, where we had seen a Bullock’s Oriole nest with the parents making trips to an fro.  I thought it would make an appropriate Father’s Day post.  Here is Dad, apparently attempting to coax the youngster out of the nest.

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Red-tailed Hawk Chicks all photos by Larry Jordan

These Red-tailed Hawk chicks known as eyasses (pronounced eye-ess-ess) are now about six weeks old.  They should begin short training flights very soon.  You can see by this photo that they are fully feathered, with the youngest one having some down still on its head.

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Juvenile Bald Eagle photo by Larry Jordan

How would you like to win a “Journey to Peru’s Tambopata National Reserve?”  Well, that is just one prize in the Audubon Magazine Photography Awards: Birds In Focus!

New York, NY - Audubon magazine is launching the 2009 Audubon Magazine Photography Awards: Birds in Focus, created to celebrate the beauty and diversity of birdlife through the art of photography, and to honor the exceptional work of talented professional, amateur and youth photographers from all over the U.S.

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Lesser Goldfinch Female Feeding Chicks In The Nest photos by Larry Jordan

I found this Lesser Goldfinch female building her nest about three weeks ago while checking one of my bluebird nest boxes.  She was busily building this beautiful and sturdy nest of  grass, twigs and plant fiber.  This nest held up (as did she) through two raging thunderstorms and downpours over the last two weeks.  An amazing feat of engineering.

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House Sparrow Male all photos by Larry Jordan

I decided to take a walk around Mary Lake after work the other day because I had gotten word of a Phainopepla, Virginia Rail and Belted Kingfisher seen there recently as well as Hooded Oriole, Nuttall’s Woodpecker and Western Tanager, among other species.  I did get a good look at a Nuttall’s Woodpecker as well as twenty other species in an hour walk around the lake.

I began my walk seeing one of our non-native birds, the House Sparrow.  Being the Shasta County Coordinator for the California Bluebird Recovery Program, I don’t care for House Sparrows, this bird being a non-native bird that displaces bluebirds by taking over their nesting sites (see my post on The Insidious Invaders).  But the walk got better as soon as I turned the corner and saw this Green Heron standing on a stump.  He wasn’t close enough to get a good picture but I managed a decent shot of him “fluffing up” after Preening.

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