There have been some stellar performances in our garden this day.  There are always Steller performances by jays with that moniker.  But today we had two very different stars.

First came the young Downy Woodpecker, freshly fledged.  And he knows an easy job when he sees one.  The suet feeder.  And feed he does.  Sometimes defying gravity.  Working the high ropes.  Clinging in precarious positions.  Precocious?  No, well-adapted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can claim I intended to get this great shot of the stiff feathers on the woodpecker’s tail.  Used as a third “leg” when propped against a tree trunk as the bird climbs in upright position.

Working the rope like a veteran circus performer.

Note the toes, two on either side of the rope which is a clothesline about a sixteenth of an inch thick.

This is what the platform feeder usually looks like when there are no jays about:

 

 

 

 

 

But this afternoon, that all changed.

The BeeTee Sextet.

I saw this group flapping over our garden yesterday and land in the treetops across the street in Lithia Park.  Today they decided to stop for a late lunch.  There were at least six but they couldn’t tolerate that much crowding so one was always up in the cedar or fluttering off somewhere.  They have a low, soft growl they make when facing off over feeder space.  Chests puffed out they face one another and growl a pigeon threat.  No violence, just a bit of verbal posturing it seems.  The youngsters lack the white neck band, so they are this year’s young.  But they are already full-sized, and like most kids they can’t stop eating.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note the bird in front of the picture on the right does NOT have a neck band, one of the juveniles.

 

 

 

 

My sister-in-law Nancy and her husband, Mike, came for a visit.  They brought the only gift a bird-mad gardener could possibly want.  Another bird feeder.  This is a stainless steel thistle seed feeder to replace all the nylon ones destroyed by the neighborhood bear.  The Lesser Goldfinches took a couple hours to accept it, now they are on it all day, off and on.  I will attempt a picture but they are flighty.

ANOTHER CALIFORNIAN INVADES OREGON

My wife and I are certainly not going to be the last Californians to move to Oregon.  Just today I saw one of our smaller southern brethren.  And this is what he looked like, an earlier photo taken up near Howard Prairie, but if you’ve seen one California Sister…

California Sister, Adelpha bredowii.  Their larvae eat some oaks. The adults eat all manner of material from nectar to scat to carrion to winery ullage.  They should be plenty happy around here.  We’ve got it all.