My Friendly Bird

It's right in the middle of summer, the best season of the year in Oregon without much humidity.  It's like living in the high country.  The little bug thinks so, too, enjoying the sweet juice on the huge sunflower.

Red-breasted Nuthatches returned after a few weeks' absence.  Every time he flies in, I can hear his tin horn sounding loud.  This time he just landed on the suet right next me.

"Hi, there.  I am hungry for the suet. Be it in winter or summer, I like this food."

"Me  again.  I let you know I also like the sunflower seeds."

How to Get Along

At the feeder next to the nature preserve office, the territorial dispute was going on.

Anna's Hummingbird:  "Slurp, slurp... busy at the moment."

Rufous Hummingbird:  "No more slurping at my place, kiddo."

 "Will you stop slurping my juice!?"

Anna's:  "You may sit down at your end to enjoy.  No need to fight."

Nature Preserve #2

In fall and winter, one or two Song Sparrows live near my backyard.  In summer, they go to the woods to avoid the heat in town.

"I just wanted to show you the bug I've caught."

In the middle of summer, huge rosehips, several times bigger than the average kind,  were ripen ready to be eaten by hungry birds or animals.

Maybe a wild rabbit will munch on these rosehips.

"They have to be sweet for me to eat."

Nature Preserve

The other day we stopped over at a nearby nature preserve.  Many wild flowers are in bloom.  Goldfinches love to eat those seeds.

American Goldfinch:  "This is my favorite, yum, yum."

Lesser Goldfinch:  "I do, too."

At Wetland #2

During the walk at the wetland, we saw many young Barn Swallows.

"Nice and warm in the morning sun."

"I am supposed to wait for my mom."

A Big Carp

After a long while, we made a trip to the nearby wetland this week.  Due to the hot weather, one half of the reservoir is mostly dry and filled with long reeds and weeds.    There must be many birds nesting amongst the reeds.   We saw some geese and ducks.  And what was most interesting was an Osprey circling over the reservoir for sometime with on and off hovering over the water.  I saw him/her once dived into the water, but could not tell whether it caught any fish or not.

"I am grabbing a fish anytime."

As I walked around the reservoir, I took photos of the bird here and there.  About halfway around the reservoir, all of a sudden, I heard a big thump behind me as if someone threw a rock at me.   Then  I discovered a 10-inch big carp just dumped from the sky right behind me.  Probably to warn me that I should not be following the young bird.  It turned out  that two of them were around.

A dead fish 

Soon the Osprey was relieved to see us leave.

"Just leave us alone.  We are just busy catching the meals."

Brothers and/or Sisters

A dragonfly sometimes flies in and, for a long time,  stays perched on a wooden pole on the veggie patch here.

Then I saw a family of Scrub-jays with the mom busily feeding the three young ones.

In a few weeks the little ones learned to hunt for bugs and visit the seed feeders themselves.   Can you tell where the three jays are?

They act like grown ups, but I can tell by the yellowish edge of their beak.

"I am grown up like my mom, so I can scare away all the little birds with my shriek."