Date: 5/8/26 1:38 pm From: Ann Kramer via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Unusual Backyard Migrant: Red-Winged Blackbird
Just like us humans, isn't it?
On Fri, May 1, 2026 at 1:45 PM Chuq Von Rospach via Tweeters <
<tweeters...> wrote:
> On May 1, 2026 at 12:40:59, Jim Betz via Tweeters <
> <tweeters...> wrote:
>
>> so
>> if a
>> particular individual (such as the well-known Short-eared Owl at the
>> East 90)
>> allows me close, long views ... I tend to expect that same behavior from
>> other SEOWs and even from some random Red-tailed Hawk sitting on a
>> pole along the road I'm driving. But that's a "fallacy" because some
>> individual birds have "non-standard behaviors".
>>
>>
> Agreed completely. Back in California there was one place where a family
> of rock wrens moved in, and got very comfortable with having people around
> — it was not unusual for one to wander in and run under my chair looking
> for bugs. But most Rock wrens are not that amiable and friendly (“hey, can
> you back up? I can’t focus that close!” — rarely a bird photography problem)
>
> We can understand humans generally act given ways when looked at as a
> region, or society — but within that, individuals vary widely, and so do
> birds. That’s part of the fun of figuring them out.
>
> Where I live, I’m surrounded by a few acres of mostly undeveloped mostly
> pine and alder forest. Downhill a ways is a stream, so there’s water, but
> somewhere between here and there is some kind of regular water source,
> because in my ongoing Merlin monitoring, I’ve gotten hits on things like
> Great Blue Heron and Wood Duck. I’ve tried exploring a bit but have never
> found exactly where those sounds are coming from, but I know they’re too
> close to be the downhill stream. (I’ve also gotten flyover hits like
> Ring-Necked ducks headed somewhere).
>
> We are terrible habitat for Red-Winged blackbird, but a few times a year,
> I get Merlin hits. It’s most common in the spring, and it’s rarely more
> than a day in a row, but it seems to me it’s a bird moving from an old
> location to a new one. My guess would be a young male, not yet breeding
> time, shifting territories, and I’d guess the one that we’re talking about
> might be the same kind of thing, and which happened to find a place it
> liked to hang out a few days.
>
> One of the most amusing “this is not what you’re supposed to be doing”
> behaviors I’ve run into is a single American Robin (we have plenty, need
> some?) that for three years running because a daily feeder bird. Robins,
> you will exclaim, do not visit bird feeders (unless maybe if you feed
> mealworms) but here is this one that’s settled in with the finches and the
> mourning doves eating the peanut and sunflower chips in the ground feeder.
> Why? It won’t tell me, but I guess it decided really easy calories was
> their jam.
>
> It’s notable only because it’s an individual behavior that’s way out of
> norm for the species — but that’s what also makes it fun to notice, and a
> great reminder to be on the lookout for these fun and weird oddities.
>
>
>> Just enjoy what you get to experience and let the "general behaviors"
>> guide you to be more likely get the situations you'd like? And then
>> pay attention and get the experiences you want!
>>
>
> Amen
>
> chuq
>
>
> ---------------------------------------
>
> Chuq Von Rospach (http://www.chuq.me)
> Silverdale, Washington
> Birder, Nature and Wildlife Photographer
>
> Email me at: <chuqvr...>
> Mastodon: @<chuqvr...>
>
> Stay Updated with what I'm doing: https://www.chuq.me/6fps/ > My latest e-book: https://www.chuq.me/ebooks >
> I have opinions
>
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