A Visit From a Pair of Oak Titmice

The gray, stormy days of January have been livened up lately by the continued presence of a pair of Oak Titmice that have been hanging out around our yard and frequenting our birdfeeders.  I wrote about these feisty little mites of the oak woodlands a few years ago, but only recently have they shown up in our neighborhood.


While some describe them as plain or drab, I think Oak Titmice are endearing - and full of lively energy!  This pair is routinely seen nabbing sunflower seeds from our feeders before flying off to perch in a tree or shrub where they hold the seed between their feet and hammer it open with their stout bills. 


I suspect these two little birds were drawn to our neighborhood by an abundance of mistletoe in a nearby ash tree - and enticed to stay by the steady supply of sunflower seeds in our feeders!  In any case, they are a delight to watch and a welcome addition to the usual sparrows, finches and doves that call our yard home.


Hopefully they stick around for a while!!  A yard with titmice - or any type of chickadee or chickadee-relative - is never boring!


Comments

Post a Comment

About Me

Named after the Sierra Nevada Mountains, I am a naturalist and avid birder based in Central California. Above all, I am a follower of Jesus Christ, our amazingly good Creator God whose magnificent creation is an unending source of awe and inspiration for me. I hope to inspire others to appreciate, respect and protect this beautiful earth we share, and invite you to come along with me as I explore the nature of California and beyond!
- Siera Nystrom -



You Might Also Like:

What Makes California California: More Than You Ever Cared to Know About Climate

Image
California is certainly a special place.  A treasure trove of natural wonders and beauty, the state encompasses one of the world's hotspots of biodiversity .  But what makes California so remarkable, so rich in endemic plants and animals found nowhere else in the world? There have been a couple of key factors at work in this mountainous West Coast state through the ages, shaping it into what it is today: one of those factors is its unique climate, and the other is its diverse topography and underlying geology. Today, we'll take a look at California's very special climate. A quintessential Californian landscape - golden, oak-dotted hills - inside the now-imperiled Del Puerto Canyon, a hotspot for biodiversity, endemism and really neat geology in the central Coast Range. The mild, Mediterranean climate of California is shared by only four other regions in the world: central Chile, the southwestern tip of South Africa, southwestern Australia, and the Mediterra...
Read more

Birding in Southeastern Arizona: Riparian Woodlands along the Santa Cruz and San Pedro Rivers

Image
Riparian forests are invaluable in all regions and climates around the world, but as one might imagine, they are especially critical in arid regions like southeastern Arizona.  While a plethora of bird species cluster along the rivers, breeding in the complex, multi-level gallery forests, even more incorporate these riparian corridors into their migratory pathways.  With this in mind, I knew that a good portion of our time birding in southeastern Arizona would need to be spent along such rivers, and we found a few locations that lived up to their reputations as particularly good spots to find neat birds. (In case you missed it, in Part I of this series, we visited  Madera Canyon .) The San Pedro River, near Sierra Vista The Santa Cruz River, which we visited near Tubac, has its headwaters in high grasslands to the east of the town of Patagonia.  From there, it flows south into Mexico before changing its course to flow north past Tucson where it eventually ...
Read more

The Birds Among Us: Learning to Bird Along the Coast

Image
I am fortunate enough to live within about a two-hour drive of the Pacific Coast (which is far enough away to avoid the traffic and potential earthquake damage, but close enough for day trips!).  Some of my earliest and fondest childhood memories involve days spent on the beach at Carmel, and entire weekends and weeks spent along the rocky shore in Pacific Grove with my dad, building sandcastles and poking around in tide pools.  Until I began birding seriously a few years ago, most of my time along the coast was spent like this: Following in the footsteps of "Doc" Ed Ricketts: tide-pooling in Monterey's Great Tide Pool area ... Looking for things like this: Hermit Crab ... And this: Anemone ... And this: California Sea Hare (found already dead, washed up on the beach) I was aware of "seagulls" and "sandpipers," maybe even vaguely aware of that mystical group known as the "sea birds" which exist somewhere out the...
Read more

The Harris's Hawks of San Diego County

Image
When most people visit San Diego, they hit the beaches.  Or Balboa Park, or Old Town, or the many other iconic San Diego destinations.  Generally speaking, they do not drive an hour east into the desert to the tiny border town of Jacumba Hot Springs.  But all those people on the beaches are missing out on seeing some very special birds that have moved into the neighborhood from across state lines, and now call the quiet town of Jacumba, California home. It probably goes without saying that a high priority on my  somewhat unique list of things to do on our recent visit to San Diego was to make the drive over to Jacumba to find these birds.  But, you might ask, what kind of bird would entice me away from the heart of sunny San Diego, into a tiny town of 597 people, nestled in the rocky desert and known for its "magical, mystical waters," "energy vortex," and excellent view of the border wall? The answer: Harris's Hawks. Most commonly a resident of scrubby desert r...
Read more

Double-crested Cormorants Visit CSU Stanislaus

Image
Double-crested Cormorant ( Phalacrocorax auritus ) Recently, there have been a few newcomers on campus at CSU Stanislaus.  In addition to augmented numbers of Canada Geese ( Branta Canadensis ) and American Coots ( Fulica americana ), the cooler fall weather seems to have brought a small flock of Double-crested Cormorants ( Phalacrocorax auritus ) to campus ponds.  I've counted seven at one time, mixed in with a much larger flock of Canada Geese.  The cormorants, coots, and Canada geese at Stanislaus State lend a rather cosmopolitan feel to the ponds. Double-crested Cormorants can be found across North America, commonly in fresh water.  They sit very low in the water, sometimes with only their rather snake-like heads and necks exposed above the surface.  They have obvious bright yellow skin on their faces, and vivid blue eyes.  If you happen to get a glimpse of the inside of a Double-crested Cormorant's mouth, ...
Read more

Cliff Swallows: Aerial Acrobats & Adept Architects

Image
Spring is in full swing here in California's Great Central Valley, and for a naturalist, that means blue skies and warm weather, blooming flowers and budding trees, butterflies and baby animals, and, of course, birds!  Spring brings a whole new assemblage of bird species to the Valley: colorful, subtropical birds that spend winters in Central and South America.  A few of these birds include Western Tanagers and Black-headed Grosbeaks, both of which nest and spend their summers in the conifer forests of the Sierra Nevada; riparian species such as Bullock's and Hooded Orioles; brilliant blue Lazuli Buntings and a host of warbler species.   Another group of birds that have returned are among my favorite birds to watch: the swallows.  Some species, such as the Tree Swallow and Violet-green Swallow remain in the Central Valley through the winter.  (Other populations of these swallows are migratory....
Read more