It's been a wet week. Not the best for getting outdoors and walking around to look for birds (especially when you're stuck in an office during daylight hours). I still got to enjoy the bright colors of birds this week, though... just in a slightly different form.
American White Pelican and sand castle.
My ornament problem has been somewhat out of control for years. (I'm actually doing better now - I don't acquire as many because I'm running out of space.) As you might guess, one major theme is birds. They're scattered around the tree, but they also have a few special clusters.
For example:
This is Skagit. It's where the eagles gather so they can....
... hunt for the salmon. (the bottom tier of the tree is all fish, sealife and birds that live near the water)
Another area is the Backyard. Like my own yard, it's got some feeders hanging there (wish I could find a birdbath!) and a flock of chickadees and goldfinches hanging around.
Unlike my real backyard, the goldfinches have been hanging out on my tree for years - they only showed up out back three years ago. (And I wish my backyard had a red-headed woodpecker in the mix - a bird I saw but once, nearly twenty years ago in Central Park.)
Speaking of backyard birds, let's look at what was distracting me while I trimmed the tree yesterday. A Golden-crowned Sparrow...
Back to the tree. Given the makeup of our household, it shouldn't surprise you that parrots figure prominently:
(yes, that's an ornithologically-sound Black and White Warbler at bottom right.)
Since they're Christmas-y colored, Scarlet macaws are popular for ornmaments (I think our tree has five of them), but I have managed to find a few Blue-and-Gold macaw ornaments... just like Amelia, this one looks like it's up to something and just got caught in the act.
There are other exotic birds, like the flamingo...
.... the African Crowned Crane ....
.... and the Motmot, who's actually a functional ocarina (about 1" long!) - you blow into the little slit on his foot.
Another "real bird" break...
larger version here
For some reason, the one thing that it's pretty hard to find in Christmas ornaments is bloodthirsty predators. Sure, there are the eagles, but that's more the national symbol thing - you notice there are no golden eagles. And there are owls, but they have a certain wide-eyed charm that helps their image.
But you know what kind of birds I'm looking for, so it was a thrill to find this Peregrine a few years ago:
The real treasures, though, are these raptor ornaments given to me by some friends (and fellow banders) for the past few years:
Snowy Owl, Northern Harrier, Rough-legged Hawk and Gyrfalcon - aren't they amazing?
The most important ornament of all is this one given to me by my husband twenty years ago this Christmas.
That live bird of my choice turned out to be our sun conure, Kodachrome. We have had many discussions over the years about whether "reasonable" is a good description of her - her opinion and ours may vary at times - but there is no question that this ornament was the source of much happiness over all these years. It gets a place of honor at the very top of the tree - the last one placed to make the tree complete.