Subject: [Tweeters] Albino B-c Chickadee
Date: Oct 2 19:35:35 2004
From: Douglas Canning - dcanning at nisquallyestuary.org


For the past week or so I've been occasionally seeing a partially
albino Black-capped Chickadee in the flock which frequents my
feeders, and today got to observe it in the company of some of its
fellows. It differs from the norm in this way:

It's nape is white to gray, with white streaks running forward over
its head which is otherwise pretty much black. Its back is white with
streaks of gray. There is more white on the wings than normal. The
buffy sides are rather pale. Its white cheeks are pretty much normal.
It seems to be more vocal ('chickadee trill' - dee, dee, dee,
dee....) than its fellows, but that may be my interpretation or
invocation.

They are all taking black oil sunflower seeds from the feeders and
carrying that to perches in the Blue Elderberry bushes (a failed
attempt at growing blue elderberry for wine-making -- too wet here)
where they stand on the sunflower seeds tearing them apart to get at
the meat, affording good, lengthy views.

Their homebase from which they access the feeders is a Salmonberry
thicket and the lower canopy of an open Red Alder - Big-leaf Maple
forest.


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Douglas Canning
Olympia, Washington, USA
dcanning at nisquallyestuary.org
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