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| Bohemian Waxwing at Sunset. photo taken Jan.16th 2011 I couldn't lead out with the photo below... So I used a pretty one from last year I never published. |
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| Waxwing Today? you can hardly tell from this photo... I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this Waxwing in my garden briefly about 10am.. I took this record shot and then my camera's battery promptly died. I put out apples but I never saw it return to eat them. Still I'm very happy to see one and to add it to the Fair Isle year list of birds. Note: Last Spring I wired red plastic beads to the branches I use to feed apples to the birds. Idea being they would look like berries and attract birds to the apple. Even though the Starlings & Blackbirds ate all the apple I put out 2 days ago, the Waxwing paused long enough investigating the beads. Hey, I got to see the bird... Proof that it works! not just another crazy idea of mine. |
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| Ice Ice Baby! We found another dead Iceland Gull... |
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| Iceland Gulls - left: Adult (3 Winter?) - Right: 2nd Winter? I did see 3 live Iceland gulls today driving Henry to school this morning. |
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| Pond Tick! My pond from my bedroom window with 2 visiting Greylags? that's a first! |
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| One of the Greylag Geese - Doesn't look very healthy? I put out some Chicken feed on the side of the pond but it would rather eat the plants around the edge of the pond. The other goose flies in an out every time I enter the garden while this one stays. |
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| Auld Haa House gets Goosed! |
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| My son had a mega sighting of his own today? photo by Henry |
A. There are no indigenous or endemic gull species that nest in the Hawaiian Islands, although recent fossil evidence suggests that a gull species may have inhabited the Islands once. The position of the Islands means that there is very little "edge" to the island landmass, with the narrow strip of coastal reef and rock quickly falling away into the deep ocean and ocean trenches. Gulls are generally continental species which inhabit the shallow waters along the edges of the continental shelf of mainland areas, and as such their food preferences are reflected in the areas they usually inhabit. It is very difficult for gulls in Hawai'i to find the right type of foods to satisfy their dietary requirements. However, several gull species do visit the Islands each year, mainly during the winter months and mainly in juvenile plumages, although a gull might be observed at any time of the year. The most frequently occurring species are Ring-billed Gull (above) and Laughing Gull, but Franklin's Gull, Bonaparte's Gull, Herring Gull and Glaucous-winged Gull are also recorded in small numbers annually. Most gulls that arrive in Hawai'i take up residence at coastal ponds, lagoons, streams and beaches and may remain for several weeks or even months, however, due to the lack of suitable food individuals often end up emaciated and will starve to death. A large proportion of the gulls that arrive in Hawai'i never make it back to the mainland. Franklin's Gulls, which usually arrive in the spring, are almost always adults in summer plumage and appear to be just passing through and seldom stay for long at one site, and perhaps this is one species that does actually complete it's rather "off-course" migration. A full list of gull species that have been recorded from the Hawaiian Islands can be found in the
