Bird watching goes both ways

I've gotten to the point where I can tell the Anna from the Allen and have named the most bold and curious one Rufus. His ladyfriend being Chaka Khan.

Their mating dance is incredibly impressive- flys wayyyy up high above the ridge and then dive bombs strait to they ground and swoops up right before getting crushed. He does loud showy chirps at the top too to call attention to his aeronautical wonderbird prowess.

Doug Tallamy's Bringing Nature Home makes a convincing case for the importance of native plants to healthy ecosystems. (Hint: it's the insects.)

Seattle is apparently known for its crows, and of course I’ve had plenty around. They’re very attentive to my dog walks and have shown a mutual respect because I always instruct pup not to chase them like she would other birbs.

I’ve also had a few visits by their corvid cousins, Steller’s Jays. One of whom perched under my roof, looked over my curtains and took a somewhat unnerving interest in me having a bit of private time.

This morning I was escorted by maybe 50 robins to the store, rooting around on the ground ahead of me then flocking together a few yards at a time as I caught up.

I’ve been visited by 1-10s of hummingbirds most days, and they hang out much longer if my attention is on them than on anything else.

A couple northern flickers have come to hop around and seemed to love posing for a camera. But I had a falcon come perch on my neighbor’s fence about 10ft from me, who stayed comfortably there as I turned to gawk until I tried to get a photo. That’s a lot more common: almost all the birds I see bail the moment I look like I’m pointing a lens (and I’d imagine they’d react the same if I’d pointed anything).

Lots of other birbs come by, and I’m sad I don’t know what the heck they all are. But they almost always have at least a cautious awareness of me, flying or flocking around if they see even a tiny motion on my end.

Less interactive, but I also see a regular flock of seagulls in the morning a couple blocks downhill, and twice in the last couple weeks seen a bald eagle fly by, once directly over my house.

I’m not gonna get to stay here much longer because there’s problems with the house and the owners plan to develop the property. But I’m gonna have this year of bird life to hold onto by memory forever and it’s really special.

My toddler noticed a Northern Flicker the other day and it’s the first time I’ve seen one. We have at least 4 species of wood peckers that also stop by. There’s also a pair of red tail hawks that live close by. The female is huge.

How do you get crows to come close? They visit my woods but the trees are very high and they never come down.