Linn's Lunchtime Treat

I got out of the office at the bottom of the lunch hour and headed for the Pont de Rennes pedestrian bridge. The span was full of people today, tourists to judge by the big red charter bus parked near the Center at High Falls. I wound my way past them and headed for the east side of the gorge, where I noted a knot of watchers assembled.

Lisa McKeown pointed out a juvenile sitting in one of the trees hanging over the gorge. She was well hidden behind the foliage, making identification a futile exercise. Luckily, she decided to fly our way:
     

Even luckier, she landed on the portrait tree and gave us a nice look at her red band:


It was Linn, and she brought lunch!
     

While she ate, a trio of House Finches (Carpodacus mexicanus) watched from some nearby branches:


Here's a 30-second video clip of the meal that I took :

1.9MB WMV file

She was not at all shy about eating in front of us, and for a good fifteen minutes or so we had a perfect view while she tore the prey into little pieces and devoured them all:
          

I was surprised that we saw no signs of the other fledglings. Usually when one of them has food the others are near by, hoping to get a few scraps for themselves. The whole lunch hour was a solo show, though. Good for us, and for Linn, who ended up with a nice full crop. After eating, she sat on the bough for a few more minutes, watching other birds flying in the gorge:
     

Near 1:00 she took off, dove beneath the bridge and followed the river north and out of sight:


It was a perfect segue, and I left the bridge as well, returning to my afternoon's work.

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For the past couple of days Dawn and I have had the good fortune to be graced by a female Pileated woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) and her two offpsring. She brings them to the suet feeder in our back yard, and they perch on the tree trunks while she fills up on peanut suet, which she regurgitates for them. Unlike the adults, the juveniles have brown rather than yellow eyes, and their red crests are shorter and not as bright as the adult's:


Their short crests remind me of the tonsures favored by celtic monks during the Middle Ages. This one decided to try its luck at our seed feeder:


It's weight triggered the anti-squirrel cagework, which closed off the feeding ports, so it had to wait for mom to get its meal.

They've been showing up several times a day. On one feeding trip I shot some video. in this clip, the female is at the suet feeder, while one juvenile moves down a nearby tree:

1.8MB WMV file

Speaking of videos, I took both of these with my newest camera, a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3.

I can hear the screaming already: "What, not a Kodak camera?!?!?!"

Well, in a word, No. I love Kodak, as you all know, and I especially appreciate the fact that every couple of weeks their payroll department makes a well-earned deposit into my bank account. But sometimes I need a camera that Kodak just doesn't have, and this is one of those times. Popular Photography magazine voted the DMC-TZ3 one of their "Cameras of Summer" for 2007, and I can see why. Leica optics, 7 megapixel resolution, 10x optical zoom, image stabilization, and high-def video in a pocket-sized camera for around $300USD street. How can you go wrong? Oh, did I mention it has Leica optics??? It has a raft of features aimed at travelers, and I'll definitely be keeping it close at hand when Dawn and I head to the Bahamas later this summer!