Time: 12:00-1:00pm
Weather: Full Sun
Temperature: 75 degrees (approx)
It was a great day for bird watching! I had a lot of really great bird moments today, starting with when I was walking over here on the Burke. I was close to the IMA and I saw these two fighting hummingbirds! I think they were both Anna's Hummingbird males, and they were all out fighting- they were buzzing like crazy and running into each other, and they almost ran into me in their fury. They tussled in the air over the Burke and down the hill, then when out of sight. It all happened in like three seconds! It was quite a scene! I've never seen birds be so aggressive.
At the UBNA, I observed a few birds in depth- female and male Redwing Blackbirds, and a Great Blue Heron.
I saw these birds on Lake Union near the Black Cottonwood copse, where all the cattails are. The female Redwing was hopping around the logs in the swamp looking for insects, dipping her beak into the water, turning up Yellow Pond Lily pads, then flying back to the cattails. She had a swervy, low flight, and only left her routine of pecking in the water and sitting in the cattails once, when she flew high out of sight. Here are a few gesture drawings I made of the female Redwing- while flying, standing on a log, pecking at the water and perched on a cattail:
Some field notes I made: She has light brown tips of her wings and darker tail feathers; a big tail and a small body. She has a spotted, lighter chest then the rest of her body. When she's hopping on lily pads, she catches some kind of bug from the water, and flying back up to the cattails, to sit on top of a cattail with her tail feathers wide, in a diamond shape.
Song notes: She clicks while she moves around, a click that sounds more high pitch and plucky then the male red wing. She calls this while she forages and also while she perches in the cattails.
As I was observing the female redwing, I also noticed that dominant male of this territory- a very aggressive one. He was making rounds between the cattails and a high branch on a Cottonwood. When a Great Blue Heron swooped into the swamp, the Redwing was very territorial towards this Heron (which surprised me). He perched on a cattail closest to the heron and puffed up his feathers. The Heron stood very still for a couple of minutes, and after a minute or so, the Redwing swooped and brushed the back of the heron. I'm guessing he was trying to chase the heron out of his site, but it wasn't really working because the heron just stood there, completely still for about five minutes. The Redwing swooped onto its back on more time and then the heron moved out a few feet and started fishing. The Redwing after that point left it alone. I don't know who got their way, but now the heron had its own territorial concerns. As I watched the heron stalk fish in the lake, another heron flew over and the heron crouched with all its feathers ruffled, and then silently disappeared (I had only looked away for a moment and it was gone). Here are some sketches I made of the heron:
Some other field notes:
The monarchs are out, and are flying alongside the swallows above the swamp. Two American Goldfinches (I think- a couple) fly over my pond site. At my site, all the Yellow Irises are flowering and the cattails are taller than me, about 6 ft tall. I made a sketch of a group of cattails on the pond, there are two patches of cattails amidst the yellow pond lily, each patch about 20 cattails. The pond is now mostly a marsh, and the ducks don't seem to be coming to this puddle anymore. I saw the Northern Flicker making its rounds again, flying over my site again to travel between the Cottonwood copse and the large solo Cottonwood in the grassland. Here's a sketch of the cattails (looking North towards the solo Cottonwood):
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