Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia)

One of the reasons I've not become an avid birder before this latest phase is laziness. There seem to be an inordinate number of small brownish birds that resemble each other too much. The implication is that sooner or later a lot of study will be necessary to differentiate them. I also suffer from the peacock syndrome where what I tend to want to look at is large, brightly colored birds with ornately patterned plumage. So all those humble little birds that are always scrabbling around for crumbs outside Starbucks have been a real stumbling block for me. Today's bird, the Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia), is a good example that I am finally taking the bull by the horns since I went out yesterday to the Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary and photographed some larger, more exotic and colorful birds. You'll see them over the next few days.

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I originally identified this bird as a Sooty Fox Sparrow. Commenter Fiona Cohen says it's a Song Sparrow and after checking a few field guides and online sources I tend to agree though, as I mention in the above post, these various small brownish/grayish birds are a little too challenging for me. My thanks to Fiona.

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This is not turning into a bird blog - the focus here is still "life in Victoria" but I've rather neglected Victoria's birds in the past. Also, while the winter has been exceptionally warm, it has also been very cloudy and if I take too many cloudy, gray landscapes I have a tendency to retire to bed with a good book about the West Indies.

Gray Squirrel

The bird seed I put out yesterday attracted this fellow as well as the Dark-eyed Juncos. There appear to be a couple of different kinds of gray squirrels (the Eastern Gray Squirrel and the Western Gray Squirrel). But the "eastern" ones don't stay in the east - in fact a lot of them (or their great-great-great-grandparents) have moved out west and are considered as interlopers. And some of the "gray" squirrels are black so it would seem that it might be time to consider renaming the various types according to characteristics that meaningfully distinguish them.

Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis)

I thought I would try some backyard birding so here's what I was able to attract with a bit of bird seed this morning. This is another member of the sparrow family, called the Dark-eyed Junco or the Oregon Junco. Above is a male - the females are not so brightly colored or distinctive so I can't be quite so sure about the identification of the bird on the right, though she was hanging out with a bunch of male juncos and fits the description of a female of the species.

Rhododendrons

The glorious flowers above are Rhododendrons. There are more than a thousand species of this flowering bush found in many different parts of the world. I suspect these are a local species since they were blooming last Sunday in a native plants garden in Beacon Hill Park. There are a surprising number of other early blooms out now including another favorite of mine, the crocus.

Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis)

Beacon Hill Park's lake is a favored spot for ducks at any time of year so I thought I might find something interesting there. While the vast majority are Mallards or Wigeons, after watching for a while I noticed the duck above. This is one of two related species, the Lesser or the Greater Scaup. The major difference is size and the shape of the head. For those reasons I lean towards identifying this as a Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis). It's called a scaup because it makes a noise like "scaup." The Lesser Scaup is a member of the diving duck (Aythyinae) family. Below are a series of photos showing a dive sequence. Had there been a fourth photo it would only have showed the ripples on the surface since when these ducks dive, they swim around underwater. Dabbling ducks such as Mallards, on the other hand, just tip themselves perpendicularly in the water, leaving their bottoms above the surface.

There were two of these Lesser Scaup mixed in with a large group of Mallards and Wigeons and at first I didn't notice the Scaup because they stayed in the water when the Mallards and Wigeons came up onto the shore to feed for some bird seed someone had scattered, visible in the photo below. I thought that perhaps the scaup were just shy but I have since discovered that Mallards and Wigeons are members of a different family, the dabbling ducks (Anatinae), who feed on or near the surface of the water. The legs of diving ducks such as the Lesser Scaup, in order to provide superior propulsion and steering when diving more deeply beneath the surface, are located further back on their bodies than is the case with dabbling ducks. This means that they don't walk as well or easily as dabbling ducks so they tend to stay in the water, while the Mallards and Wigeons scrabble about quite happily on the shore.