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Many Native American cultures see the hummingbird as a symbol of good luck.Seeing a hummingbird just before undertaking a new activity was understood as a sign that one would be successful.
In that spirit, we would like to offer you this image of a Rufous Hummingbird in hope that seeing it will bring you good luck in all your activities throughout 2009.
Happy new year from all of us at Wingscapes.
Connie from Loveland, Colorado, has been gracing the Team Wingscapes e-mail box with some great images she has been recording of the birds visiting her backyard feeders.
"I have many Northern Flickers and the [BirdCam] is helping me discover just how may are intergrades. Here are a couple of shots of one male intergrade that visits regularly." (An intergrade flicker is a cross between a Red-shafted Northern Flicker and a Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker.)
Connie also writes a great blog named Birds O' the Morning where she posts many of her Wingscapes BirdCam photos. Thanks Connie!
A commonly asked question of the Wingscapes team when we display and demonstrate the Wingscapes BirdCam is “How does it do in the cold weather?” In answer to this question, we can now offer not only our verbal assurances but photographic ones as well.
Here in the Pacific Northwest, we’ve been locked in the deep freeze for well over a week. The BirdCams in our yard, just like everything else, have been buried in snow and ice. Despite this, they’ve continued to produce great pictures, like this one of a Northern Flicker, throughout the storm.
While there’s little disagreement that squirrels cane be a bane to practitioners of backyard bird feeding, it is sometimes (I said “sometimes”) quite difficult to put aside how charming they can be.
As the snow was falling steadily all day here in northwest Oregon, I took to throwing handfuls of seed on the ground for the thrushes, juncos, doves, and yes, the local population of Douglas’ Squirrels. The reward was not only some fine winter portraits of the local birds but a few Christmas card image quality squirrel pictures as well.
As the temperatures in northwest Oregon dipped down into the teens (and even below), the chance of the Varied Thrushes making their winter migration down to the foothills was at its peak. Sure enough, at 2:37 PM, the first Varied Thrush of the season for our property was recorded by the Wingscapes BirdCam.
Regular readers will please excuse my erroneous previous prediction that the season’s first thrush would appear in a slightly different location on the property. The important thing is that they are now here and we are very excited indeed.
Any day now, I will check the images from the BirdCam I have aimed at this exact space on our property and there will be seen in at least one of them the most beautiful of winter’s familiar birds – the Varied Thrush.
Each December they come down into the lowlands when the snows blanket the ground at the upper elevations and the soft-bodied insects on which they dine become difficult to locate. Be assured that as soon as this happens, you will see an image of the discovery posted here. Stay tuned.
Back in August, the Wingscapes BirdCam behind our home in the hills above Scappoose recorded a family of California Quail. It came as quite a surprise to us all as quail had not been previously seen on our property. The covey remained in the area for about a week then was not seen again for months.
Then at the end of October, the covey made a brief appearance in their adult plumage. Sadly, I had the BirdCams in other locations and had to grab a quick shot with a conventional camera.
Quite frankly, I like the BirdCam image better.
