Close Encounters

Big week for birds Karen and Tom Beatty are aflutter with feathered-friend news. Karen sent photos of pine siskins feeding with goldfinches at her Hunt Club Forest bird feeder. Pine siskins look similar to female house finches, but the males have a touch of yellow on their wings. They are an irruptive species and visit here in winter only when food is scarce farther north.

Tom Beatty twice spied a white pelican flying along the Oceanfront near Lake Holly. Though white pelicans have been seen in the area, the big birds are mainly a mid-western to western species. And both Beattys were lucky enough to photograph a dovekie in Owls Creek. The little black and white bird is a North Atlantic seagoing species and must have been blown into the area by the strong winds not long ago.

Another visitor from afar A big surprise greeted John Koehler in his North End yard last week. A young white ibis was perched in a pine tree in his front yard. Though these long-legged waders also occasionally range up our way, it is certainly rare to see one in a suburban yard. "I have never seen anything like it in all my life, not way up here," Koehler said. "It look s so tropical."

 Eagle news The domestic bliss of Norfolk Botanical Garden's eagle pair and the status of their nest are up in the air since another female eagle has entered the scene. Wise eagle observers Reese Lukei and biologists from the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries are keeping an eye on the situation. The garden's eagle cam shows that neither eagle is sitting on the nest at times.

Rosie Kantor saw an eagle not 20 feet away from her last week on Lynnhaven Parkway around Twin Canals. "It had tried to land on a small crepe myrtle tree," Kantor wrote, "but the tree could not hold the bird's weight. I have never been that close to an eagle. "

The mating game Robert Brown writes that he has been watching two female cardinals fight over the resident male. "This has involved a good deal of angry chatter, furious, acrobatic chases through the air and through the hedge, and actual wrestling on the muddy ground," Brown wrote."It's exhausting to watch. They don't take many breaks."

 Red-tailed hawk visitors Jane Kressel, who lives in Indian River Plantation, said a red-tailed hawk got trapped momentarily on her partially enclosed back porch. "It flopped around acting very confused, but then after a few minutes found his way out and flew away. How exciting to see it really close up just about 4 feet away," she said.

Thomas Brewster sent a photo of a red-tailed hawk that has been hanging around his Thalia neighborhood. "I'm alerted to his presence by crows which gang up on him," Brewster said. Have a look To see the finalists (and more) from the Nature Conservancy's 2007 photo contest and to vote for the grand prize winner, visit www.nature.org and click on "Photo Contest Vote."

Whales are here Whales were sighted around mid-month for the first time this year by Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center whale-watching trips. At least two fin whales put on a show, rolling on their sides and surfacing several times. Fifty or so dolphins also were sighted.

Prolific eagles For the third year in a row, the female eagle at Norfolk Botanical Garden has laid a third egg. Eagles can lay as few as one egg or up to three. She laid the egg last Feb. 8 and was photographed on the infrared camera that is part of the garden's eagle cam. Check it out at www.wvec.com/cams/eagle.html.

Seal sighting After Sunday's column about seals hauling up on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel rocks, Jayne Munoz wrote that she saw a seal inside Lynnhaven Inlet when she was out boating Saturday. The harbor seal was sunning himself on the rocky rubble off Bubba's restaurant, Munoz said.

Goldfinches galore "Can you believe, despite this incredible wind, all of my goldfinches are sitting on the feeder eating?" wrote Susan Wenzel last weekend. "There must be a dozen of them out there swinging and swaying and munching away!" Wenzel lives in the Red Mill area.

Brian Abbott has his share of goldfinches in Kings Neck Woods, too. He writes that birds "are all over the place eating me out of feeder and home." He's even put up another feeder to accommodate the hungry critters. They are dining on a mix of sunflower chips and thistle seed that's "going fast," he said.

Hummingbird comings and goings The rufous hummingbird that had been dining at Claude and Dorcas Bell's home in Linkhorn Park took off three weeks ago, Claude Bell said. But the ruby-throated hummingbird that has been hanging around their home, too, is still there.

What surprises or puzzles have you come across in nature, or do you have a tidbit of local lore? Send e-mail to barrow1@cox.net. Include your name, neighborhood and city.