Two new birds in two days

There are a lot of birders out there in the universe that maintain a life list and zip from place to place to get a glimpse of a bird they’ve never seen before to add to their list.  I’m not one of those kinds of birders.  I simply enjoy watching birds and learning about them, and would not drive miles and miles to possibly get a quick look at a bird that was new to me.  That being said, I absolutely enjoy seeing new birds that happen my way.

When I first came to Imperial NWR, I learned that cinnamon teal are common and breed here.  That was exciting since I’d never seen one before.  I thought that meant that I’d be seeing a lot of them.  Silly me.  Finally yesterday as I was leading the bird tour, I found six of these teal on one of the management ponds.  I let out a whoop as I spotted them.  There was no chance for a photo of them as I helped the folks on the tour get their binoculars on them.  I grabbed this pic from the web.  I’m hoping I’ll see more of them in the four weeks I have left.

A storm front moved through yesterday afternoon resulting in light rain most of the night and throughout the day today.  When it finally moved off north, Emma and I sat outside for a while just before sunset.  What a surprise to see a hooded oriole hop onto the hummer feeder.  (note the drop of hummer sauce clinging to the bottom of the feeder on the lower right)

This oriole is uncommon on the refuge, and is another new bird for me.  He hung around long enough for me to truly get a feeling for this bird.  The resident male Anna’s hummingbird that guards the feeders tried to get him to leave, but this oriole just screeched at him and chased him off.  Made me chuckle. 

This guy was pretty ingenious.  Not sure if he couldn’t get any nectar out of the hummer holes in the top, but his weight made some of it spill over and cling to the bottom of the feeder.  He then went upside down to soak up those drops.  This is the way I like to watch birds… learning something about them rather than just ticking them off on a list.

I’m thinking maybe I’d better put out my oriole feeder with larger ports tomorrow.  In Minnesota, I also put out grape jelly for the orioles.  Don’t have any right now, but I wonder if he’d go for some strawberry jam?

                                                                                THE END!!

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

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