MAR. 26/05 - HOMEBOUND

There seems to have been a lull in bird sightings in the past week. Brant numbers continued to increase in the Parksville region, and all over the Island, reports of swallows (mostly Violet-green & Tree), Yellow-rumped Warblers, Turkey Vultures and Rufous Hummingbirds have become commonplace. With the price of gas up to a record high, it was a good time to stay home and let the birds come to me. In my backyard I have at least 4 female and 2 male Rufous Hummingbirds visiting my 2 feeders. While I was photographing the hummers, it was also a good opportunity to photograph a few of my regular backyard buddies including the newcomer, an exquisite Slate-coloured Dark-eyed Junco.

By the way, I tried to upgrade the disk space on my website from 75 MB to 2 GB but my ISP (which is a computer) thinks I've already used up 2 GB. They're only wrong by 1,925 MB. Anyway, I'm still negotiating with my ISP so I had to delete the "gallery" file to make room for this journal.

BACKYARD BUDDIES

BACKYARD BEGGARS - Last year the Chestnut-backed Chickadees had me trained to carry peanuts in my pocket. It got so bad that they would sit on my camera while I was taking pictures.

SPRING VISITORS - The Pine Siskins seem to ignore my feeders until springtime. Now there's about 7 or 8 hanging around.

YEAR-ROUND BANDIT - The Red-breasted Nuthatches dart into the feeders like little bandits grabbing their booty and flitting off to hide it in their favorite tree.

THE REGULARS - Like everybody else, the most common birds at my feeders are the Dark-eyed Juncos.

THE EASTER NEWCOMER - I've been looking for a Slate-coloured Dark-eyed Junco for over a year. What a surprise to look out my window today and see one sitting next to my hummingbird feeder. *correction - Thanks to a viewer for pointing out that this is actually an Oregon - Slate-coloured intergrade.

HARRY THE HUMMER - Harry thinks he is the dominant male in my backyard, but he can't be everywhere at once.

RUBY RUFOUS - Ruby is one of 4 females. Her gorget is in the shape of the letter "R".

RANDOM SHOTS

Male Redwing Blackbird at Dolphin Lake.

Juvenile Bald Eagle at Oyster Bay.

Female green-winged Teal at Courtenay Airpark. My last photo of the female Green-winged Teal showed a violet-colored speculum. This time its blue. It all depends on the angle of the light.

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