I took a week off. And did not spend much time in my back yard. But that doesn`t mean no more birds for my back yard bird list.
I do have a couple to add to the list. One is a purple finch, which was one of the birds I was expecting to see fairly early in this process. Up until I started keeping an actual list, I kept seeing them all the time. But when you start keeping track, suddenly they were nowhere to be found. But they did finally show up. Or they were there all along and I finally showed up.
And of course there are hummingbirds. I was a bit concerned at first because I put my feeder out and wasn`t seeing any hummingbirds. The liquid in the feeder seemed to be dropping, but where was it going? Did I have a leak? I figured it out. They were showing up. I just wasn’t around at the time. When I finally figured it out, I discovered there are many hummingbirds around. Although, to be fair, it’s really just a guess. I know for sure I have at least one male and one female. Other than that, the speed of the things makes me unsure how many are around at any one time.
But I did spend a bit of time at the lake, which managed to get me up close with an old favourite… the common loon. I like loons. The sound of the loon has always been one of those things that makes me feel good. But it was a run in with a loon a few years back that really brought them to my attention.
I was out one day in the canoe, minding my own business, paddling along and communing with nature. You know how it goes. Suddenly, there was a noise on a nearby bank and something came charging at me. Seems there must have been a nest close by and the loon took exception to the fact I was a bit too close.
That was the day I realized how big they were. It really didn’t seem a whole lot smaller then the canoe I was in at the time. It was only about half the size of the canoe, but it didn’t seem that way.
Needless to say, I got out of there. And didn’t go back until I was sure it was safe. But the fact that these fairly large birds prefer to fly in water rather than air has always impressed me.
A few years later, I sat and watched a run in between a loon and an eagle. The loon had a young one. The eagle missed. The eagle then regretted the whole situation. A wet, hungry eagle is a very sorry looking creature.
But neither loons nor eagles hang out in my back yard. So they don’t go on the list. But it was still fun to hang with them for a while.
