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| Black-billed Magpie |
I remember the first times I drove through the northern San Joaquin Valley and saw
Yellow-billed Magpie for the first time - I just knew they were magpie, never mind what species. I probably identified it with what is now an old copy of the a
Peterson's Field Guide that I still have. On a work trip to Pullman, Washington a few years ago, after I started birding, I saw
Black-billed Magpie on the Washington State University campus - I had looked them up and saw that the
California Central Valley kind of magpie are distinct to that area, while the black-billed are found in the remainder of their range in North America. I hadn't gotten a good picture of one until this afternoon.
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| Cherry tree along side the ditch |
A couple of weeks ago when we returned home from vacation in California, we found the remnants of cherries all over our patio. A neighbor's cherry tree was loaded with fruit, and the tree was weighted down with
Common Grackle, lots of other birds, and as I could make out,
Black-billed Magpie. I grabbed my camera to try to get some photo's, but the battery was dead - so much for the hunt for a first shot. The common grass way that extends from the back of our yard between a couple of neighbors' houses on both sides leads to the back of our housing development and comes to a T with the
Mail Creek Ditch.
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| Northern Flicker |
The large field further back hasn't been developed, but is posted that time will come soon. There is another large cherry tree beside the ditch, and the ecosystem back there is completely different than the space between our and our next door neighbor's house where we have our bird feeders. The times I have walked back there, all kinds of birds - small and large - are active: smallish sparrows and finches, as well as
American Robin,
European Starling,
Western Meadowlark,
Common Grackle,
Black-billed Magpie, and a new one for my blog list, the
Northern Flicker.
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| Grass hay baled from the open field |
The wildlife seem tamer here, than back up the lane towards our house. They still take flight when I approach, or try to hid out deeper into the cover of the cherry tree, but the open field must give them a lot of comfort knowing they could escape unhindered in that direction. The wild and tame grasses have been
made into hay following swathing, baling, and stacking along side the field, just the other side of the ditch. The haze in the air is not as pronounced today as yesterday. the tooth of
Horse Tooth Mountain is clear to see today, as the sounds of the bird songs or the noise their wings make as they fly away from my camera.
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