H.J. Ruiz – Avian101 – Page 786 – "My Backyard Visitors" – All about birds

Tangled!

A few days ago I photographed a bird with pieces of a nylon net tangled around his neck! The bird is a male Common Grackle. I feel so sad for his safety, so far he looks fine physically but I’m afraid that he might get hooked to a branch and strangle himself. I wonder how he could have gotten into this serious situation? Looking closely it doesn’t look like a fishing line, I believe it’s more like a net.

Click to enlarge

After the day I shot the pictures I haven’t seen him again. I just wish that he will manage to free himself somehow of the snag. He’s a fine and healthy looking bird!

Click to enlarge

Text and photographs © H.J. Ruiz – Avian 101

Tags: birds, Common Grackle, Interesting information, nature, photography, photos of birds

Miscellaneous

Brown-headed Cowbird – Molothrus ater

© H.J. Ruiz – Avian 101

Tags: birds, Brown-Headed Cowbird, nature, photography, photos of birds

Family

The following photo sequence was shot during my last trip to Peru. One day I wandered around a swampy area and muddy marshes. I knew that these areas give refuge and are preferred habitats for not only local birds but migratory also.

Of course I saw all kinds of species, but in this case I will tell you about a little Black-necked Stilt the I found at the edge of a drying marsh.

Marshes usually begin to dry out at the beginning of Summer in the Peruvian coast.

The region of the Pacific Coast of Peru, from the tip to the bottom of the geographical territory is mostly deserts. Thousands of square miles with absolutely no water, some deserts haven’t had rain in over a century.

Lost chick Black-necked Stilt

Well, this little bird looked lost and kept calling and calling and walking with no intended direction. I followed him for a while. The call of the Black-necked Stilt sounds like a puppy dog’s barking. After a while I heard more barking at the other side of the marsh! There I saw three other barking birds, not long after that the lost bird was reunited with his family. It was a great moment, I remember it because I could see this little bird poignant effort to run across and meet his family.

Text and photographs © H.J. Ruiz – Avian 101

Tags: birds, Black-necked Stilt, coast of peru, Interesting information, nature, photography, photos of birds

What a Storm we Had!

Our city area was hit by a heavy duty storm last Thursday night. We had plenty of lightening, thunders, strong winds and torrential rain_ fortunately, didn’t cause any damage to property. We experienced some electric power failures but was restored immediately in all cases. The worse of the storm was over in about 2 hours when the sky from being dark as night suddenly turned almost gold in color, the sun was setting and created this fantastic light in contrast with the remaining clouds. I did not take any pictures of it but I couldn’t resist going out and looking all around!

Next morning I checked my backyard, there was no damage at all, everything was soaked but in one piece. I saw a bunch of birds waiting for me to refill the feeders which only had water and not one seed. poor things!

I refilled them with fresh seeds and added a bit more because I figured the birds must be hungry… they were! They were fighting to be first to eat!

Then I said, why not shoot some pictures now even when is early and the sunlight is not so favorable at the moment?

I did shoot some photos which I’m posting now. You be the judge if they are nice or not!