Each day throughout the year, observant visitors to the Urban Forest and its surrounding gardens are treated to the fascinating spectacle of tiny dynamic aerialists that suddenly appear as hovering iridescent jewels as they dart from blossom to blossom, urgently seeking and sipping life-sustaining nectar. Two species of hummingbirds make this park their year-round home. [...]
It was a beautiful day. Sunny, clear, and calm with temperatures in the mid 60’s to begin and 70 at the end! Surveyors this morning were Lena Hayashi, Betty Kanne (eBirder), Ellen Tipping, Jim Kendall, Dave and Sharon Telford, and welcomed Cheryl Searcy, a first timer at UF. The highlight was the Western Meadowlarks in [...]
This fierce, locally common raptor is known by many different names throughout North America, including the chicken hawk, striker, and flying cross. It is a crow-sized hawk. It is often identified by its proportionally large flat head, long and banded tail feathers, and fierce hunting habits under the canopy of wooded forests where they use [...]
Team Lena’s Legion kicked off the first Urban Forest Bird-A-Thon this morning. It was a beautiful day. Sunny, clear, and calm with temperatures in the mid 70’s and NOT HUMID! Lena’s army of wonderfully talented, fun-loving, and talkative birders included Betty Kanne, Ellen Tipping, Jim Kendall, Jim Currie, Brenda Sabin, Debra Gala, Claire Grozinger, Pema [...]
Fall birding means the welcome return of the secretive Hermit Thrush that revels in its own company diligently rummaging through the leaf litter and forest under-story in search of spiders, ants, earthworms, and insects of all varieties. A favorite winter food includes the red berries fallen from our abundant native Toyon bushes and other fruit [...]
