Birds at work...
Mar. 30th, 2006 02:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
senoritafishI was leaving the office to get some lunch the other day, when I noticed a bird sitting on a pole in lawn. I stopped to look and had to blink because I thought I saw that the upper part of its chest was red, and its shoulders and head appeared to be blue. I'm sure the fisherman coming up the walk to get permits wondered what the hell I was staring at. It, or I should say he, I suppose, swooped at a few insects in the same manner as the black phoebes who also hang around here, and then flew up into the sycamore next the path, where he was backlit by the sky and I could no longer be sure what color he was. There were a number of warblers flitting about the same tree - I can never tell what kind because they don't hold still long enough - and a couple of male Anna's hummingbirds chased each other over the ivy and out into the parking lot. A large flock of whimbrels has been hanging out in the strawberry fields adjacent to us, and when they're disturbed by the field workers a large number of them circle overhead for a good ten minutes or so, as if they can't decide where to go next, and discussing it in strange, vibrating whistles. So many different birds in just a few minutes!
I mentioned the bird to KP and sure enough, she had been noticing it for the last couple of weeks. It's a male Western bluebird, which I've never seen around here before. Around my house, I usually only see English sparrows, house finches and mockingbirds, although there are hummers for interest, and the occasional migrating white crowned sparrow. Sometimes there are flocks of cedar waxwings migrating through, although those are more heard than seen; they stay in the very tops of the tallest trees and their piping whistles drift down to the ground, so it's difficult to tell where the sound is coming from. They're beautiful birds, but skittish and don't stay in the neighborhood more than a few days. So I often wish I didn't live in the city and more interesting birds would come to my feeder.
The office is in a more open area with a large lawn, a golf course on either side, and strawberry fields behind it on the Los Alamitos Air Base, so it seems to attract different kinds of birds. It's always a treat to see them, and my bird field guide now lives on my desk at work instead of at home. I just wish I could spend more time doing it.
I mentioned the bird to KP and sure enough, she had been noticing it for the last couple of weeks. It's a male Western bluebird, which I've never seen around here before. Around my house, I usually only see English sparrows, house finches and mockingbirds, although there are hummers for interest, and the occasional migrating white crowned sparrow. Sometimes there are flocks of cedar waxwings migrating through, although those are more heard than seen; they stay in the very tops of the tallest trees and their piping whistles drift down to the ground, so it's difficult to tell where the sound is coming from. They're beautiful birds, but skittish and don't stay in the neighborhood more than a few days. So I often wish I didn't live in the city and more interesting birds would come to my feeder.
The office is in a more open area with a large lawn, a golf course on either side, and strawberry fields behind it on the Los Alamitos Air Base, so it seems to attract different kinds of birds. It's always a treat to see them, and my bird field guide now lives on my desk at work instead of at home. I just wish I could spend more time doing it.
