Anybody know what this is?

This is a weird tree - possibly several? - on a street in Oak Ridge, where my father lives. Neither of us have the slightest idea what it is or why it looks so strange. Any help?

Day Twenty One: Post Falls to Everett

Whew. 10,157 miles door to door. (At least I got a ten day break; my friend's been traveling for five weeks now!) Tomorrow I fly back to DC...

We left Post Falls a bit later than usual, since we'd stayed at a B&B last night. But we'd decided to take I-90 all the way instead of US 2, so the drive wouldn't be as long.

We crossed into Washington almost right away - the Idaho panhandle is narrow.



The part of Washington after Spokane looks different from the rest of the state - it's the Columbia plateau, and there's corn and potatoes and wheat fields among the sage desert. I saw a lot of red-tailed hawks, but 70mph isn't conducive to photos of flying birds - or even birds perched on a railing.





Potatoes with a center-pivot irrigation machine - I sure saw a lot of those in the hot, dry states.



This is Moses Lake.



This is Puget Sound Energy's Wild Horse Wind and Solar and Priest Rapids Hydro Power complex. It's pretty stunning.



This little guy sounded exactly like a phone ringing. I'm not sure what he is - he looks like a wren, but he doesn't match anything in my book... Edited to add: He's a rock wren.



Here's the floating bridge over the Columbia at the end of the lake.



Here's the wind part of that complex - or part of it; there are 149 turbines in all.



The sign on the side of the interstate read "Mount Rainier in the distance"



Here's the approach to Snoqualmie pass in the Cascades



And the Seattle skyline

Birds in Nebraska

Here are some of the birds I've seen in Nebraska. Others seen but not pictured (either because they're common or I only heard them or I just couldn't get a shot) include crows, robins, sparrows, red-winged blackbirds, cardinals, a blue heron, several hawks (mostly red-tailed, I think) and turkey vultures. Of these here, all were at Stuhr except the red-headed woodpecker who was at Ft Kearny.

First up are the domestics or ferals, then the wild ones, beginning with a rooster and his hens avoiding the heat.



Some weird mongrel ducks at Stuhr. These - and the koi - were utterly expecting to be fed. Unfortunately, we didn't have any quarters to buy their food...







A family of Canada geese



A killdeer



A flicker - drinking, then on a tree









This female grackle has all the attitude, but she's having a bad hair day!



I'm not sure what this one is. I think I should, but ... I don't. (edited to add: Of course I do; it's a juvenile robin, duh.)





A female wood duck



A red-headed woodpecker (a first for me)

Mystery Bird Blackpoll Warbler!

It's been a while since I posted a mystery but I do not know what this bird is. I thought it was a chickadee when I saw it this morning, but clearly that's not right. A sparrow of some sort?

No! It's a Blackpoll Warbler! Cool - my first one of those.

No longer a Mystery Bird

From this angle, I wasn't sure what this bird is. A thrush, maybe, I wondered.


But then, later in the day, he came down and sat in the Japanese maple. I still wasn't sure, but then in his virtually nonstop preening he flashed those wings and I almost guessed (his tail is so short though) before suddenly an adult showed up.


He's a very young mockingbird, and he's stretching, preening, getting his adult feathers in order, and waiting to be fed. An adult flies up and pops something into his mouth every so often.

Birds of North America (subscription) says that fledglings leave the nest able to run, and then climb into shrubs after a couple of days, only able to fly after 8. This guy must be able to fly a bit, given the height of that callery pear he was in, and that means it's dad feeding him, while mom tends the next nest and eggs.



Stretching like a cat, almost





And dad shows up.



He was there all day. Here are a couple of shots from nearly sundown - the one of him getting something to eat is blurry but I'm posting it anyway. :-D

Mystery oriole

I'm not at all sure what this bird is. It's absolutely not a Baltimore oriole. It's not the right color for an orchard oriole. And it has too much brown and is waaaay out of its normal range if it's an Audobon oriole. Perhaps it's a young male orchard oriole molting into its adult plumage? It's looked this way for several days - these pictures were taken on May 19 and May 25, in College Park, Maryland. Anybody have a good ID?

added: He is a young male orchard oriole. Thanks, Sarah!

Yellow in the green

Even with my Sibley's I'm not sure, but I think this is a young Orchard oriole. Anybody out there have a (different) idea?