linzyl's Journal

Sheltering-in-place has made us stay home and hang out on the rooftop more. Over time, I have gotten quite familiar with our neighborhood corvids, pigeons, and gulls - their sizes, habits, and calls. Although I still sometimes mix up crows and ravens, following their sudden defense caws have led to many bird actions in the neighborhood. Recently, I noticed that the pigeons and gulls are starting to get involved in chasing threats away too.

Still, there's a Red-shouldered Hawk (or maybe several) that would challenge the neighborhood gang from time to time. Sometimes, I can't see it, but hearing its call makes me feel that it is somewhere near and that would drive me to locate it.

For a long time, I've watched the neighborhood crows gather on the same cypress tree (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/61228632). After each meeting, they fly far out into the Presidio and various parts of the city.

Recently, I start to notice them on our neighbors' rooftops:
1) when it was very foggy (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/61754040) and
2) an hour before the rain (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/65133231)

I wonder if they are checking on each other whenever there is a change of weather or sharing the locations of their food cache?

Never thought we would hear a Great Horned Owl on our roof!

Not sure if this has any relation to the full moon, but the bright moonlight was definitely helpful to us in spotting the owl in the dark. I do wonder if it has found its way here as our neighborhood has been quite popular with hawks (see references) - many times, I have seen them swoop down to a prize catch.

Interesting how the owl has returned again night after night.

I wouldn't have noticed the differences in juvenile plumage if we hadn't started feeding the birds last year.

New Dark-eyed Junco fledglings arrived last month and I started reading about differentiating plumage by Hatch-Year/Second-Year. I began to wonder if the ones that look "more adult" are the same fledglings that came by our (shoe) birdfeeders last year and if they share the same parents.

So much to learn!

We were surprised to find a little green caterpillar (on daikon) survive after being in the fridge for three days. Afraid that the birds might eat it, we created a little habitat.

Interestingly, we discovered a cocoon the following day, thinking that the green caterpillar had turned white. Another day after, we realised there were actually two caterpillars in the habitat! The latter turned into a Diamondback Moth several days later and we set it free.

The little green caterpillar remains in the habitat and has become longer with a purplish red line in the middle.

Over time, it was interesting (and surprising) to watch other feathered friends arrive - House Finch, White-crowned Sparrow, California Towhee, California Scrub-Jay and even the American Crow.

However, over the rainy season, I discovered and learnt more about the "poop-shrooms" - Phycomyces. The shoe-birdfeeders turned pretty soggy and dirty very quickly, to a point I had to get rid of them. Still, the experiment was great while it lasted.

Curious about the birds living around us, we recycled four converse shoes into birdfeeders in July. The first that appeared was a Dark-eyed Junco couple with four juveniles. It was fascinating to observe the change in their plumage over the weeks.