In addition to getting poison ivy this past week, I saw some good birds. Unfortunately I haven’t had time to go on a purposed birding trip to see the spring migrants come through, so all my birding has been passive birding while working.

Gray Catbird

Chipping Sparrow

Chipping Sparrow

Then there was this Northern Cardinal that thought the competition was a little too hot. Every morning when I left the hotel to get to work he was out there checking out his reflection and pecking at the mirror.

This last bird threw me off at first. But with the help of my friend Jay it has been identified as a black-billed cuckoo with a case of somatic pattern leucism in the wings.

When I sent Jay the picture he wrote back with:

“The white in the wing is leucism – where the pigment cells in one localized area are defective. This manifests itself in all sorts of cool ways in birds. Sometimes it’s irregular, sometimes in a very specific pattern, sometimes substantial (the entire bird is white) and other times just a few or even a single feather. Take a look at these photos (a chipping sparrow and a common grackle) from Wikipedia for some cool examples.”

I did make one special trip out in search of Northern Goshawks last weekend, but no luck.

And lastly, not a bird, but a gorgeous water fall near one of our field sites.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS