Late August 2020 - Mark Moeller's Blog

I goofed again. I intended to do only one more August blog, but I have over six hundred and fifty pictures to sort through and so I decided to get a blog done with what is in the can. Things just sorta got away from me.One of the things I hoped to accomplish was to document the bald bluejays. This involved camping the bird feeders and bird baths, but the bluejays were largely uncooperative. However there were plenty of other things to take pictures of. No one asked for videos of our cooking so I thought maybe I would include links to the recipes we are trying. If Mark can make it, most everyone else should be able to as well.

Bluejays

I think we got a good snapshot of the balding process in bluejays. This was new to me, so I thought it would be fun to document.

Turkeys

Tammy disappeared for awhile and we suspected the worst. But eventually she showed up again. Tammy is the bearded female turkey.

The beard is the feathers hanging from the chest. Bearded females account for less than ten percent of the population and some estimates are as low as two percent. Females are slightly smaller than males and have brown feathers on the chest instead of black tips. This means the males tend to be perceived as darker. Tammy is the first bearded female I have encountered.

We still have a flock that roosts in the ash tree. Here are two of the hens getting a drink.

Turkey Hens Drinking

Cardinals

The cardinals are doing well in our yard.

Egrets and Herons, Oh My!

This time of year we often see Great White Egrets pass through Great Bay. They are not full summer residents to my knowledge.

We saw nine Herons and Egrets on the point at the same time. You can see the difference in size here. The great white egret is slightly smaller than the great blue heron.

English Starlings Flocking

They make quite a cacawphony when they flock.

Pourquoi

We had difficulty understanding this dude because he was so chill. We thought we heard the name but couldn’t tell if it was Pourquoi or Porque? In any event he did a good job of emulating a honey badger.

This was the first time we have seen a live porcupine in the yard. We have not seen him since. I guess he didn’t appreciate the attention. But he really didn’t seem to care about us.