Monday, June 29, 2015

The Elusive Male Calliope Hummingbird, Plus A Beetle

To my great surprise, on June 28, I observed the elusive male Calliope hummingbird at my feeder. In addition to his small size, his throat markings are diagnostic. During his three visits to the feeder, I studied him carefully with the binoculars that I luckily had in hand already. The female Calliope came first at her usual time, and I had pulled the binoculars out to observe her. She flew off then suddenly the male appeared. If you don't bird-watch, you may not understand the pleasure one gets when observing an "uncommon" species in one's own backyard. 

When I was making the daily poop scoop tour of the backyard this morning, I encountered this creature:


It is a banded alder borer; scroll down in link to find the entry. This bug eats dead wood on a variety of different trees. Despite its rather ferocious appearance, it doesn't eat living wood or kill trees. So after snapping a few pics, I left it in peace.

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