PEACHFRONT SPEAKS

purple finch joins the yard list and the bald eagles nest again at white kitchen

2007-01-28 - 3:24 p.m.

A big day in the yard yesterday with the rain holding the birds close. The best bird of the day -- and an early favorite to be the best bird of the year -- was the Purple Finch, not just a first for my yard list but also a first for my life list.

I have no real cause for complaint. The bird came in nicely to a bare tree that a number of other birds had been using all day for baths -- the Hermit Thrush, several White-Throated Sparrows and Northern Cardinals, some American Goldfinches. I saw at once that she was a tiny finch with a well-defined face pattern complete with distinct large white eyebrow. If you want to see what I saw, the lower of the two female Purple Finches in Kaufmann is the bird to a tee.

Still, it would have been nice...if my life Purple Finch was...you know...actually purple or something. Oh well. Maybe someday.

DH grilled some steaks that I'd marinated for 24 hours in olive oil and balsamic vinegar and we smeared bleu cheese over the top. Delicious!

This morning we decided to check out the White Kitchen site in Slidell. As we drove out of our neighborhood, we encountered a Great Egret marching proudly across Highway 22. Not a good idea, bird. Fortunately, he managed to get away unscathed, but it was pretty close. Around the Big Branch area, I saw an American Crow mobbing an adult Red-Tailed Hawk.

There are still signs of the storm along the road to White Kitchen, but more signs of progress. The site itself is pretty much good as new, except for the absence of the large trees downed by the storm. The boardwalk is repaired and open again, and all of the downed oak trees, 55 gallon drums, and abandoned tank cars have been hauled away. Perhaps because of the rain, the Bald Eagles don't seem to have gotten as far in their nesting project this year. By Jan. 7, 2006, they had at least one fluffy white eaglet in the nest, probably two. Today, a good three weeks later in the winter, it looked like the parent on the nest was still sitting on eggs. Most of the time the bird sat posed dramatically, white head feathers blowing in the wind, but a couple of times it looked as if it was turning eggs.

Afterward we checked the pond at Lakeview Regional Hospital for the Snow Goose. The Snow Goose was there, in a huge flock of clearly domestic geese, Muscovies, and ducks. In fact, a rehab lady was there releasing a recovered Mallard, who was welcomed to the pond by a Muscovy who immediately mounted him repeatedly and obnoxiously. I dunno. I'm skeptical that the Snow Goose is a wild bird, rather than someone's escaped or surreptitiously released pet. It came forward a little too eagerly when we were driving up and we could see the lady feeding it.

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