bird blogging

We still aren't sure what's going on with Aziza. She seems to have some kind of low-grade infection going on, though, so on Tuesday I got some antibiotic and antifungal medications to treat her with. I started treating her yesterday; I let her rest Tuesday, because she was so exhausted from screaming at the vet and the vet's staff while getting x-rayed. She's a fighter, I'll give her that.

And it hasn't taken her long to decide that I'm untrustworthy. I was able to get her to step onto my hand both times I had to medicate her yesterday; but this morning, she wasn't having it, and I ended up having to take her out of her cage in a towel. I know she's going to hate me by the time this is done. I hope she can forgive me eventually – she really is a sweet bird.

In wild bird blogging: We seem to have a pair of robins nesting in a juniper in the backyard; another pair of robins may also be nesting somewhere nearby. The robins seem to be fighting over territory at times, as we have seen at least three or four birds at a time in spats over the last week or so.

I would still like to find out where the downies are nesting, though. And I haven't seen anyone in the nest hole the flickers were using the last few years, though I know the flickers are around. I haven't had much time to observe, though, in the last few weeks - it has just been too crazy.

Yesterday on the way to work I saw one of the Ship Canal peregrines circling to gain altitude over NE 45th, while being harassed by a crow. Those crows have some brass ones - it's one thing to harass a slow, relatively unmaneuverable bald eagle, but a peregrine? I wouldn't want to take the chance that it would get above me, a bird could end up very dead!

I often see one of these peregrines sitting on one of the two towers just west of the Ship Canal, usually facing the southwest. Once, I saw both of them. I'm not a good enough birder to say, when I see a peregrine sitting on one of those towers, which of the pair it is. I know the females are larger, but without seeing some male and female peregrines side by side, I don't really have any frame of reference for the birds I see; I don't know if I am seeing the same bird every time, or if sometimes it's the male, others the female. Maybe I'll be able to tell, someday..