There are a lot of superb owls on the internet, but this is one of my favorites. I don’t know where this was filmed, but it’s a Eurasian Eagle-Owl (captive, as indicated by the jesses on her legs). You can see the family resemblance to our ubiquitous North American Great Horned Owl–both birds are in [...]
Entries Tagged as 'birds'
Become a Human Hummingbird Feeder
July 25th, 2012 · 7 Comments
Yesterday I was writing at the sunny little table on my deck, surrounded by grape vines mixed with crocosmia (working from home is one of the joys and terrors of the writing life–it’s pleasant, but distraction abounds…). An Anna’s hummingbird kept buzzing close to my head, then flying a few feet away to feed from [...]
Tags: birds, urban nature
Backyard Bird Nest Drama: An Update on “The Roofer’s Birdhouse”
June 11th, 2012 · 6 Comments
Remember the Roofer’s Birdhouse? The avian soap opera continues: We meant to borrow a long ladder and take the box down before more House Sparrows could use it this season, but alas, we didn’t quite get to it. So I decided to make the most of the urban wildlife “research opportunity,” and observe the progress [...]
Tags: birds, urban nature
The Urban Winter Wild
January 10th, 2012 · 17 Comments
Winter is considered a time of quiet and hibernation, and often we wait until spring to think about viewing birds and other creatures. But the cold of winter increases the energetic need of wild animals, sending them out to seek food at all hours of the day. It’s one of the best times to watch [...]
Tags: birds, seasons, urban nature
Leave the Leaves (for the Thrushes!)
November 30th, 2011 · 3 Comments
Three years ago, I spotted the first Hermit Thrush I’d ever seen in my backyard. She was standing on our concrete patio, poking her bill beneath the scattered autumn leaves and nibbling the worms and other tasty invertebrates found there. Since then, we stopped sweeping the leaves off of our patio, and we never rake [...]
Tags: birds, urban nature
The Roofer’s Birdhouse
August 14th, 2011 · 26 Comments
A few weeks ago we had a new roof put on (alas–now we are on a serious fiscal austerity program!). Our roof is complicated, and the job took several days to complete. One day while the roofers were here and I was out walking to escape the noise, I discovered a voice message on my [...]
Tags: birds, urban nature
“Crow Divebombing Help” – A crow aggression primer for desperate web searchers
June 8th, 2010 · 9 Comments
My husband Tom, who manages the technical side of this blog, has been watching the search terms that bring traffic to the site. While the random one-off searches can make for interesting reading (today someone found the Tangled Nest by searching for “the world is our tool for love”–I guess that’s good!), certain terms come [...]
Tags: birds, crows, urban nature
Baby Bushtits and Late Spring Birdlife
May 30th, 2010 · 7 Comments
Yesterday my friend Kathryn emailed a few photos of the freshly-fledged Bushtits in her plum tree. That same day, I heard adult Bushtits chirping in our yard, and followed them to the lilac tree and our own little cluster of newly emerged Bushtits. I love how they huddle, all smooshed together in a little group. [...]
Tags: birds, seasons, urban nature
A New Kind of Birdsong
September 16th, 2009 · 5 Comments
We know that attention to the natural world can open our eyes to new ways of seeing. Have a look at this lovely little one minute video. The creator, Brazilian artist Jarbas Agnelli, says, “Reading a newspaper, I saw a picture of birds on the electric wires. I cut out the photo and decided to [...]
Tags: art, birds, urban nature
Mammoth Sunflowers/Homegrown Birdfeeder
September 11th, 2009 · 7 Comments
We planted several Mammoth Sunflowers in our garden this year. Clearly, they don’t call them “mammoth” for nothin’, though this is the only one that grew to truly mutant proporations. It’s gorgeous–I want a whole forest of them. And once again we stand in awe of that perennial gardening miracle: how did such a thing [...]
