Lauren's Life Book

This is my life book- a place to collect a list in pictures of the different forms of life I have seen. I have tried to include the date/time/location of each subject. This list might be heavy on the birds because they are my current interest, but there will be other things featured as well. Some of the pictures are great, and some not so great- I never know when I'll come across something interesting and sometimes all I have is my camera phone on hand to capture an image.

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Uinta Ground Squirrel (Urocitellus armatus)

Uinta ground squirrel (Urocitellus armatus)

This ground squirrel was seen hanging out on a boulder with some lichens on the Cub Lake Trail in the Rocky Mountain National Park on the afternoon of June 11th. This squirrel was crawling around where the yellow-bellied marmot and the Cassin's finch were located. You can read more about these ground squirrels here.

Least Chipmunk (Neotamias minimus)

This chipmunk was seen at Cub Lake in the Rocky Mountain National Park, on the afternoon of June 11th. While I was enjoying a lunch of homemade sunflower nut butter and some bread, this chipmunk came right up to me. I didn't notice it until it crawled under my legs and touched my ankle before it proceeded to eat some of my sunflower nut butter off the lid of the container. You can read more about these chipmunks here.

Yellow-bellied Marmot (Marmota flaviventris)

This marmot was seen on the Cub Lake Trail in the Rocky Mountain National Park on the afternoon of June 11th. I was really excited to see this ground squirrel because I have been trying to see once since I moved to Colorado. Even though they are considered a ground squirrel, don't let it fool you- they can get up to 11 pounds. This one was seen engaging in conspicuous behavior, staring me down as seen in the pictures. This is because there were babies also under the boulder. I didn't see them, but my hiking buddy Randi did. She is lucky, I would have loved to have seen them. These marmots are usually only found over 6500 feet, and they also hibernate over the winter. You can read more about them here, and more about hibernation here.

Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis canadensis)

These sheep were seen in the Rocky Mountain National Park in the afternoon of June 11th. There was a herd of these sheep near a lake somewhere in the park. The pictures aren't that great, but neither is the zoom on an iPhone. I've never seen bighorn sheep in the wild- check another one off the list of ungulates only found in the Rocky Mountains (this subspecies anyway). This sheep is the state animal of Colorado, and you can read more about them here.

Rocky Mountain Elk (Cervus canadensis nelsoni)

A herd of elk was spotted in the Rocky Mountain National Park on the afternoon of June 11th. There were several elk in the area, but this is the only picture that turned out decent enough to put on here. Elk in the rocky mountains are interesting because of their issues with chronic wasting disease- a transmissible prion disease. You can read more about elk here, and more about prion diseases here, and more about chronic wasting disease here.

Black-billed Magpie (Pica hudsonia)

This magpie was seen crossing the road in the Rocky Mountain National Park. I love these birds because they are blueish and have really long tails, so they are fun to look at. These birds are only found it the west, and according to wiki, they are only one of four songbirds in North America who's tail makes up half or more of its body length. They construct really large nests, which you can see here. You can also read more about this bird here.

Cassin's Finch (Carpodacus cassinii)

I saw this Cassin's finch in the Rocky Mountain National Park on the weekend of June 11th, sometime in the afternoon. We were hiking the Cub Lake Trail when I heard this bird before it was seen. We had to narrow down where exactly the bird was based off of sound, and that was pretty cool to do. The bird's song was like a house finch's, but modded, and this was what tipped me off to the fact that it was a finch of some sort, I just wasn't sure which one until I found the bird. Even then, I had to whip out the trusty Sibley's Guide to ID this bird because I have never seen a Cassin's finch before. There were several other birds and creatures seen on this hike, so look for more posts. For now, you can listen to the Cassin's finch here, see a short video of Cub lake here, and read more about the near threatened conservation status of this bird here.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Snow Goose (Chen caerulescens)

These 2 snow geese were spotted on a beach at Lincoln Park in Seattle, Washington on the afternoon of June 5th, 2011. Snow geese mate for life, and usually they migrate in really large numbers. The snow goose typically breeds from May-August in the extreme north parts of North America. Seattle is on one of the snow goose's migratory paths, so it was not unusual to see these birds there, it was just unusual to see them there at this time of year. Perhaps they are stragglers from last winter's migration. Since there was no other geese in sight, I am assuming that this pair was not where they were supposed to be. There is another explanation that is possible. The female snow goose returns to where they were hatched to breed and nest. Maybe one of these geese is a female, and it is possible she was hatched in the Seattle area. This is more likely given that both of these birds are missing feathers on their wings, and migration is not conducive to this. Also, the female lines her nest with down, so perhaps she took these feathers for the nesting area (even though they aren't down feathers). Either way, it was a nice surprise to see these geese on the beach. You can read more about philopatry, the returning to the hatching area to nest, here, and more learn more about the snow goose here. You can also read more about feathers here. Thanks to Collin Moore for taking awesome pictures.

Pictures with Birds: Me + Snow Goose (Chen caerulescens)

Seattle, Washington, June 5th, 2011.

Friday, June 3, 2011

Bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus)

This bird was seen at Green Lake in Seattle, Washington on the afternoon of May 31st, 2011. These birds are not found in the eastern part of the United States. You can read more about them here.

Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor)

Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) and Western Gull (Larus occidentalis)

These swallows were seen at Green Lake in Seattle, Washington on May 31st, 2011. I think that Washington is the land of the swallow- they are seemingly everywhere (like the bald eagle). It is hard to get a picture of these birds since they fly around so quickly. You can read more about these birds and see their brilliant coloring here. Tree swallows exhibit counter shading, which you can read more about here.

Pictures with Birds: Me + Canada Goose (Branta canadensis)

Seattle, Washington, June 2nd, 2011.

Pictures with Birds: Me + American Short-billed Mew Gull (Larus canus brachyrhynchus)

White Rock, British Columbia, May 25th, 2011.

Mew Gull (Larus canus brachyrhynchus)

Mew Gull (Larus canus brachyrhynchus) - Short-Billed American juvenile.

This mew gull was seen on the docks at White Rock, British Columbia on the afternoon of May 25th, 2011. This is a juvenile in it's first summer. There are 3 different kinds of mew gulls, this one being the American Short-billed version. These gulls are found almost exclusively on the west coast of North America. You can read more about these gulls here.

Western Gull (Larus occidentalis)

Western Gull (Larus occidentalis) - here with some swallows

Western Gull (Larus occidentalis)

The western gull is another one of those Pacific coast gulls- seen up and down the west coast of the United States and Mexico. This is the gull that will hybridize with the glaucous-winged gull. I saw this gull on the afternoon of May 31st in Green Lake in Seattle, Washington. The gull was standing on a man-made swallow nest while the swallows came and went. There was also a northwestern crow in the area that was dive-bombing the gull, so it was a hotbed of bird activity at that PVC pipe. You can read more about the western gull here.

Glaucous-winged Gull (Larus glaucescens)

Glaucous-winged Gull (Larus glaucescens) - Adult

Glaucous-winged Gull (Larus glaucescens) - Juvenile

These gulls were seen at the Ballard Locks in Seattle, Washington on the afternoon of May 21st, 2011. This gull is a Pacific Coast one, found year round in the Seattle to northern Alaska coastlines. I find the identification of gulls to be a challenge- without close up views of feet/bills/tail feather markings, I find it close to impossible to distinguish one from the other. Add to that the confounding factor that there are hybrids of gulls out there (for the glaucous-winged here in Washington they hybridize with the western gull), and I am left with a stack of pictures just waiting to be posted contingent upon proper identification. You can read more about this gull here, and more about the Ballard Locks here.

California Quail (Callipepla californica)

This quail, along with another one, was seen at Peat Bog Pond in Bothell, Washington in the morning sometime at the end of May, 2011. These quail were seen while walking the nearby wetlands boardwalk with the dog, so all that was on hand was my iPhone camera that doesn't have the best zoom. This was another one of the Washington State first sightings for me. One interesting thing about the California quail is that it partakes in dust bathing- a process that helps control parasitism. You can read more about that here, and more about the California quail here.

Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna)

This hummingbird was seen all around the Seattle area, sitting on whatever was handy. Here, this bird sits on top a branch of a tree located on the Foster Island Trail on May 30th, 2011 in the afternoon. It is a shame that the light isn't right to see the beautiful colors of this bird, like it was for the broad-tailed hummingbird. You can see this bird's plumage here, and more about the structural colors that form the hummingbird's appearance here.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Wood Duck (Aix sponsa)

Wood Duck (Aix sponsa) - Male and Female

The wood duck is a fairly common duck that can be found in a large portion of the United States, and it is for that reason I have made it my focus the past few months. I have only been seriously birding for the past couple of years so I have taken to adding common birds to my "list" and then crossing them off as I find them- and usually I can find them by just looking hard enough in the right places. I have not had any trouble with this method until the elusive wood duck. It has been 6 months since I started looking for one until, finally, I saw this pair of wood ducks in Green Lake in Seattle, Washington, on the afternoon of May 31st, 2011. I spent hours scouring the lake for any ducks, and it was slim pickings- there were several bald eagles hunting over the lake, and any ducks that were around were spotted generally hiding and not in open water. Once I came across this pair I had to track them for about 30 minutes in order to get good pictures, and I was lucky that they were close enough that no binoculars were needed to get a good look.

Wood Duck (Aix sponsa) - Male

Besides the males being absolutely gorgeous- these ducks are cool because they have sharp claws on their feet that enable them to climb and perch in trees. You can see him using them in these pictures to scratch his chin. You can read more about this duck here, and more about sexual dimorphism here.

Rock Pigeon (Columba livia)

This is a sampling of the rock pigeons found on the docks and rocks in White Rock, British Columbia on the afternoon of Wednesday, May 25th, 2011. It was nice to see them out of cities and actually on rocks. This was also the first time I have seen an all white one, so that was cool. You can learn more about these birds here, and read more about one of their distinguishing characteristics, the cere, here.