There are a lot of neat birds in Alaska, many of them unique to this part of the world. But the tree swallow, common to most of the continent, is probably the most useful. I put up 3 birdhouses last month, in hopes of drawing at least one pair of tree swallows to take up residence. The tree swallow spends more of its life on the wing than any other songbird, and to do that they need to consume as many as 2,000 mosquitoes per day, while catching another 6,000 per day for their chicks. A breeding pair can eliminate 300,000 mosquitoes within a quarter mile radius around their home during the nesting season. I really like these birds.
I've been watching the bird houses, and saw several camp robbers considering setting up a home in the bird boxes (or looking for eggs to steal), but finally today we had a pair of swallows fly in and try out all three houses. They seemed to like this one the best, right above Dino's doghouse - you can see the female checking out the view from her front door in the above picture, while Dino sleeps. A pair of swallows can try out hundreds of different potential homes before starting a nest, and they didn't stay long before continuing on to look at other homes, but I'm hoping they come back to make an offer on this one.
Can you find the Ruffed Grouse in the above picture? (Hint: look right in the middle)
Zoomed in on the center, he's up on a log - a male in gray phase getting ready to 'drum' for a female. I've heard him drumming most days on the walk I take along the bluff, but finally caught a glimpse of him when the sun was just right yesterday. Now I'll know what log he uses (they like to use the same log each year to call for a mate, sometimes never venturing farther than a hundred yards from that log their whole life). He's been drumming for about 3 weeks now, and I guess had no luck so far. Must be tough to have to sit and wait for a female to happen by your way.
This is a Sandhill Crane. I grew up seeing these cranes out in our fields during the Fall and Winter in Texas. What I didn't know back then, is that these same Sandhill Cranes come to Canada and Alaska to breed each Summer. The Sandhill Crane in this picture might have wintered over right across the road from our farm in Texas (it's possible, at least).
The woods are noisy this time of year. Even when the birds' chirping is quiet, these woodpeckers are working furiously on the trees. I wonder if this might be the one that flew into our window a couple weeks back. He looks no worse for the wear.
This is a strange white birch I pass each day on the walk through the woods. It's off the trail a little ways, so it wouldn't have been grafted by anyone. Not 100% sure why the bark looks like this, as if the middle section was a graft from another tree. My guess is someone stripped the bark off years ago for kindling, and this is how it healed, unless someone has a better explanation.
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