Anna's Hummingbird... Farm Bird #151

Although Anna's Hummingbirds are common both summer and winter in areas east of us, we have never had one here that I've seen. But a few weeks ago, Johnny saw a hummer hovering outside the back door. I caught a glimpse of it perched on a weed before it flew off and disappeared. I quickly filled my long empty hummingbird feeders, since our Rufous hummers are only here in the summer. But nothing came to drink until today... Friday the 13th (always my lucky day).

I had put a feeder outside my milk room window so I could watch for hummers there. The other feeders are outside the kitchen window but I'm in the barn more often than in the kitchen. This morning while doing the morning milking, I caught a glimpse of a hummingbird feeding from that feeder. I had my camera with me so took photos through the milk room window.

Thanks to the several birders more knowledgeable than I about winter Anna's who, after viewing the photos, let me know that this is, indeed, an Anna's Hummingbird. Floyd Shrock said: "No doubt in my mind, Linda, that you have an Anna's there. I notice the greenish on the flanks and lower abdomen, and the beginnings of a dark gorget. I'm guessing it's an immature male..."

Click on the photo for larger images.

Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge

Dawn and I hoped to find the Ruff today (a shorebird that has been seen at Ankeny recently), but we did not. We saw lots of shorebirds, most of which I could not identify. When someone tells me what they are, I'll caption them.

I could identify the peregrine falcon that sat high in a dead tree, keeping watch over all.

                                                       It was a gray day, so I lightened it.

The Great Egrets were easy to recognize... we saw many.

After getting thoroughly chilled at the pull-out by the railroad tracks where the Ruff and its Yellowlegs companions had been seen, we drove to the boardwalk through trees where the wind was not so brutal. Eagle Eye Dawn spotted a Red-breasted Sapsucker along there. I had a hard time finding it in my viewfinder, then holding my heavy camera still for a photo, then getting a picture when the sapsucker's head wasn't hidden. All are a bit blurry. The clearest one has a branch through the bird's head.

We drove on to the Acorn Woodpecker site, where we found no woodpeckers, or anything else moving about in the cold wind and drizzle. So we went onward to the kiosk and there found a zillion birds, including a distant, lone, Greater White-fronted Goose. It was grazing as it walked and not often picking it's head up for a photo.

One Dowitcher was close enough for a reasonable photo... so I took lots of them, front, back and sideways.

I do not know what the rest of these shorebirds are. I await input from knowledgeable folks.

My guess is Western Sandpipers

My guess is Dunlin

Any id help would be appreciated.