A lesson in the "birds and...well more birds"

There are many birds in the area for Donna and I to try identifying. Seeing that this is our first spring I am hoping for much more sightings than what will be in this blog.

Colville is known as the "Wild Turkey Capital" of the western states. We have seen "gangs" of turkey's all winter and this group 25 or more, is the norm...

The wild turkey is said to have been Ben Franklins first choice for "national Bird" but lost out to the Bald Eagle..really? Ben thought the bald eagle was a scavenger not worthy of the title but pushed for the rattle snake in it's place.

Here, an immature bald eagle, takes off from the valley floor near our house after I surprised it. While not the greatest of photos, it was the talons, inches long and sharp as a knife, that surprised me.

Our Northern Flicker is taking up residence in one of my badly built birdhouse. They have a very distinctive voice and if that's not enough the "musical" note from the beak pounding on a hollow log further identifies the bird.

This Red-naped Sapsucker at the end of our property is another log pounder that sounds very much like the Flicker. 

One of the two types of swallows we have seen so far is this Violet-purple Swallow. They dive and turn better than a computer  driven F-22 Raptor. 

The Tree Swallow is slightly different in pattern and color to the violet-green swallow but both are great at catching bugs while flying. The more mosquitoes caught the better as far as I am concerned.

One of my favorites ( I have a lot) is the quail, especially the California Quail. It's soft cooing sound and silent movement makes their presence a welcome sighting. 

Just in the last two weeks we have started seeing a lot of Evening Grosbeaks. Here a male and female capitalize on the oil sunflower seeds I put out.

Here is another member of the finch family. This female American Goldfinch appropriately sat at attention near our flag.

The male version of the Goldfinch looks to be wearing a black fedora? 

I thought the Canadian Geese go north in spring but then upon research I find that they are year round residents in Washington.

We have had Dark-eyed Junco's all winter but only this spring did I see them eating seeds.

Mountain Chickadee's are another tiny year round critter. In the winter they scamper over the snow in the garden looking for fall seeds. 

The American Robin showed up about a month ago scouring the lawn for worms. It's not only fun to watch them but they also have a beautiful song.

Hummingbirds are so much fun to watch. A male will stake out a food source and defend it vigorously against all other males. He will allow all females to feed regardless of species. A Calliope has this feeder all but locked up and he has no problem allowing this female Rufous get a belly full.

The male Calliope is getting his fill at the Zwart House Buffet. He will sit on the fence three feet away and chase all males away by dive bombing and squeals! We have seen many more species since being here but I have failed to photograph many of them.

My favorite bird of all (English term) is Moonbeam at Trout Lake.

That's all for now....later.