Wild Fidalgo

Chestnut-backed Chickadee ( Poecile rufescens ) on Dogwood Reconsidering the NWF My yard is a Certified Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation.  Their banner, currently in the upper right corner here, has been proudly displayed.  Thanks to information from Kelly Brenner ( @MetroFieldGuide , Google+ ) and Carol Sevilla Brown ( @CB4wildlife , Google+ ) , I have learned that the NWF has apparently entered into a partnership with Scotts Miracle-Gro®.  This is the familiar garden fertilizer and pesticide company and a division of the Big-Ag chemical company ICL.  A firestorm has erupted over this news.  To those of us seeking to create natural, sustainable habitats in our yards, the very idea of this partnership is bewildering, to say the least. While this gets sorted out, those of us in Washington State have an alternative.  The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife also has a Backyard Wildlife Sanctuary Program .  I am apply...

You get a lot of junk photos with a BirdCam .  You often end up discarding 80%, and sometimes an entire day's collection of shots is completely useless.  These include blanks, blurs, butt shots and birds you have captured 1,000 times already.  How many House Finch photos can anyone use?  This might even go on for several days.  Maybe it's time to change the lure. Then, once in a while, something special happens that makes it all worthwhile.  The photo above was my first glimpse of a Western Tanager ( Piranga ludoviciana ) at the BirdCam.  In fact, it was the first time I had ever seen one.  Does an automatic photo count as a sighting?  Do you know the feeling of the thrill that will run down the middle of you when something exciting is happening? The first photo is of a male, and this is the female.  It is interesting that I got several shots of this pair on May 14th, then they never appeared again.  Apparently they were just...

Pileated Woodpecker ( Dryocopus pileatus ) I know, I know, it's a terrible photo.  But for me, it's a very important photo.  Last summer, the suet feeder in my front patio was visited by a Pileated Woodpecker ( Dryocopus pileatus ).  It was both startling and thrilling to see such a large, impressive bird coming to the feeders.  I watched him through the blinds, and regretted not being able to get a photo.  If he had spotted me, he would have been gone in a flash.  This bird's visit was the inspiration for installing a Wingscapes BirdCam 2.0 . I now have two BirdCams set up in the yard.  One is in the front yard which is a meadow-like habitat.  The second is in the backyard which approximates a forest edge habitat.  While there is some overlap, I am seeing different species at the two locations.  This is not just explained by which lure is in place.  I believe the surrounding habitat also plays a role in which birds will be ...