The Wonders of Winter
The red waxy tips, on their inner wing feathers, inspired the last name of the Cedar Waxwings.
A female American Robin is a surprisingly beautiful bird. Her head and back are similar in color to a Waxwing, the white and dark streaks on her throat and the broken white eye-rings create wonderful contrasting highlights. Best of all her breast is a subtle shade of russet-orange that may be the most beautiful hue on a color wheel.
The glowing display of the last lingering leaves is another wonderful aspect of winter beauty.
By the way, in my previous post, there is a new update regarding Varied Thrush. My friend Etta kindly reminded me that Varied Thrush do not breed in urban areas. This is also documented in BirdWeb our local, free, online birding application from Seattle Audubon.
Last week, this tiny Hermit Thrush attracted my attention, as it searched for food on this moss-covered support for the Wilcox walking bridge, in the Arboretum.
When it flew, it landed nearby in this leafless tree. The Hermit Thrush was clearly focusing its attention on the little pink spheres.
Its feeding strategy, i.e. fluttering up, and seizing the food while hovering in mid-air, seemed somewhat extravagant. I wondered, What was attracting this exceptional attention?
When I looked more closely, my confusion increased. I wondered, What is this? Is it a fruit, flower, or seed? Are the outer pink parts edible? How much of this do the birds eat?
After repeated trips, I documented one of the larger and calmer Varied Thrush as it sat and pulled out the inner reddish-orange part. Plus, as I looked closer, I realized that the empty pink "husks" were being left hanging on the tree.
Online, I found websites like this one, that solved the mystery. The pink unit as a whole is the fruit of the Spindle tree. The pink parts open up to reveal its orange seeds. On a cautionary note, this tree and its fruit are poisonous to humans, but it does not seem to bother our local Thrush.
The other mystery about this tree is how it got its name. It is called a Spindle tree because historically its durable wood was carved into spindles for spinning wool into yarn.
Mallards are another common bird whose beauty can be easily overlooked. In early Winter, the males are adorned in a fresh set of feathers. Its beautiful new breeding plumage will hopefully attract a mate. The blue speculum, at some angles, looks purple, and it is often hidden by the bird's outer wing feathers.
We also tend to overlook female Hooded Mergansers, partly, because of the way their subtle coloring blends with the world around them.
But also, because the more extravagant males, with their contrasting colors and flashy mating behaviors, easily attract our attention.
The male Wood Duck has a beauty we see year-round, however with such a variety of colors, we tend to overlook the blue highlights on its back. I believe these are from the secondary feathers in its folded wings.
Another beautiful duck, that we usually see only during the colder months, is the Northern Pintail.
Year-round we can find Red-winged Blackbirds. Early in their lives, the males wear basic brown like the females. However, there is a window of time in their first year when the tips of their mature black feathers still retain beautiful youthful highlights of beige and brown.
This time of year, male Northern Shovelers tend to have dark green heads while still having a few dark crescents from their non-breeding plumage on their chests. Their rich chestnut sides do an excellent job of offsetting the bright green of their speculums.
Monty and Marsha, our local Montlake Cut Bald Eagles, have bright yellow bills that blend perfectly with the Fall leaves in their favorite cottonwood tree.
Just to the north, mated pairs of the elegant Trumpeter Swans, calmly dip and feed on the aquatic vegetation below Union Bay. We are lucky to live near a bay that is shallow enough to have vegetation and yet deep enough, and south enough, to not freeze in Winter.
However, for me, one of the most heart-warming sights this week was repeatedly seeing this Wilson's Snipe and watching it bobbing its body up and down, while totally confident in its awesome camouflage.
Have a great day on Union Bay...where nature lives in the city and Black Birders are welcome!
No comments:
Post a Comment