Osprey Ousting... Hummingbird Hunting

The last few days have been very quiet at San Elijo Lagoon. The weather has been clear and bright with daytime temperatures around 80 degrees. The tide has been extra high and the bird subjects have been a little scarce.

As I walk to the south end of the lagoon... I spot the Osprey chasing after the Northern Harrier... ousting it from her area.  It's interesting to see the difference in the size of these two raptors. Ospreys wingspan is 63 inches. The Northern Harriers wingspan is 43 inches.

The Osprey does a fly by but the shot is straight into the sunlight with her wings shading her face. I am calling her a "female" but that is only a guess. This photo shows that this Osprey has the brown speckle "necklace" around the breast and appears to have some brown spotting on the auxiliary feathers. These observations are just part of the "indicators" of "which sex"... male or female this bird could be. I am just enjoying the idea and hoping that there might be a chance that we get a bonding pair that nest at our Lagoon.

I saw several ducks flying over to the south side of the lagoon. There are many shallow areas they can dabble and feed even with the tide still high. With little bird activity here, I am ready to go check out the Solana Beach side of the lagoon. 

Entering the trailhead at Rios and heading East towards the freeway, there were lots of small bird activity but all were in the shade. My first subject in the sunlight was a very aggressive and territorial Anna's Hummingbird. He was making himself look very fierce. With his "gorget" fully flared out turning bright neon pink flashing a warning and looking very threatening.

When the hummingbird turns away... his feathers appear dull black in color. The bright flash of color will only be seen when the bird faces you. It is amazing how he can turn on and off the iridescent colors of his feathers simply by moving his head...

As he hears the sound of my camera clicking, he turns towards me and the iridescent feathers on his head and gorget catch the sunlight and flashes bright pink. "Gorget" is the iridescent plumage covering his chin and neck.

Walking just a hundred feet east, I see a young male Anna's hummingbird and he is hunting for gnats... He is hovering in a swarm of gnats and grabbing mouthful of these protein-rich insects.

You can see this youngster still has lots of pinfeathers on his face and very little metallic plumage. Lack of iridescent plumage may keep him from appearing as a threat to the mature males and for now... he gets to hunt in peace.

Much of the hummingbirds diet consists of tiny insects and today the young Anna's hummingbird is getting his share of gnats by hovering in a swarm of gnats and devouring as many insects as possible. This method of hunting is called "hawking".

He may hover in the middle of the swarm of gnats and sweep his beak back and forth, grabbing as many gnats with his beak as possible. This maneuver reminds me of a billfish feeding frenzy in a middle of a school of fish.

  

He charges at a concentrated area of the gnats swarming around him.

got one in his sights...

"Hawking" method of hunting is great for swarms of insects but the hummingbirds also will "glean" insects from tree trunks like woodpeckers and hover under leaves like warblers. They also apply the "leaf rolling" technique where they fly close to the ground that is covered with dead leaves and blast the leaves with air from their hovering wings turning them over to collect and consume tiny insects and insect eggs. 

* All of the info on hummingbirds is from The Sibley Guide to Bird Life & Behavior, 2001. It was great to watch this little guy hunt for the tiny gnats and now it's time for me to head for home.

Have a wonderful Friday everyone.