[EBB Sightings] eagle-schmeagle, dickey birds are cool, too!

  There are some advantages to birding alone, one of which is the advantage of keeping a relatively low profile (as in shaddup, siddown and open your eyes and ears). 

Yesterday at Huckleberry Preserve, I was walking along the overgrown upper trail when I heard a hummer buzz above my head. I paused, and it (a female Anna's) dropped to stare me in the face. I stared back. It then flew a short distance and perched, still looking at me, but without alarm. I continued to stand quietly, my no doubt attractive to hummers new red hat perched upon my head. 

Finally, it buzzed up to continue to sip from the huckleberry flowers arching overhead. That must've been the avian all-clear, because just as I decided to move on, several birds burst from the left side of the brush along the trail and moved to my right, among them a curious wrentit and a streak of green yellow Wilson's Warbler. The Wilson's was on a territorial mission, singing duels with a rival, but the wrentit fed and hopped and glanced at me, again without alarm. Gosh, that sort of thing really makes me feel like an accepted part of the Huckleberry community! Or at least, noticed and dismissed as no threat.

I suspect that some of this bold behavior is due to the hormonal surges of spring, or gosh, maybe they just LIKE me? Nah...that can't be it.

Debbie Viess