Birding Institute Park & Downtown Worcester

I did a little bird of birding during lunch today. I couldn't take that cooped up feeling anymore and had to get out there. Birding has become my new stress buster similar to running which was a big hobby of mine 5 years ago before I blew out my knees to that and my weight lifting. If I don't get my fix at least a few times a week I feel anxious and cranky. Needless to say while it was fun it's not the same as weekend birding or after work birding when I can be in comfortable clothes and hike in the woods and yes get a little dirt on me because I find that sometimes the best birds can be found in the most inconvenient and messiest of places. There would be none of that this hour due to the fact that I had my work clothes on and didn't think it would be appropriate to go back to work with mud on my face and thorns on my pants. ;o)

Anyhow, the picture above was taken at Institute Park. There were a lot of Baltimore Orioles there including the female above who was up on a tree branch preening herself after what appeared to be a bath in the pond. Look at those eyes and the seriousness of her face. She was not at all uncomfortable with my presence either which is probably due to the fact that she is used to people considering she lives in a public park.

A male Baltimore Oriole surveying the scene perched high upon a snag.

There were at least 6 gulls there too and I saw these two hanging out together. The pictures are lousy but I believe these to be Ring-billed Gulls due to their sweet face vs. the rather angry face of a Herring. I am not sure if it is a male and a female but they do appear to be adults (or third year?). Since most Ring-billed gulls don't breed here I am guessing they decided to remain childless for the summer and enjoy it some. HA! ;o)

A Great-blue Heron flew past me and if I didn't look up I would have missed it as it was rather quiet.

I went back to work to check on the Peregrine Falcons and I was just in time for an aerial show of sorts. I am almost positive this is the male who does this on occasion and a lot more over the past few days. I took this from my window at work and wish the sun was out more for a better photo.

Here is the female I am assuming going back into the nest box. I went up on the 24th floor to the 446 Main Street building in an attempt to get a look at the side section of their nest box to see if I could see her sitting on her nest. I am happy to report that she did indeed spend a lot of time there today and both were not out that much at the same time.

Here she is sitting on the side of the nest box. Most of the pictures I have taken in the past have been the front view but I think the side compartment is where I will see most of the action if anything should occur. The one thing that perplexes me is the fact that she sat like that for at least 5 minutes. Again, she was not on her eggs???? The picture is really bad because the falcons are a block away from me but if you look to the front of the nest box you may see what I believe to be the other falcon sitting on the right of the box. Not sure though.

While all this was going on, I looked down to see a Pigeon fight, that's right a Pigeon fight! They got in each others face the way people do before the first one breaks out a punch and then this is what happened. Finally the one on the right took off and the one of the left was declared the winner. Yup, this is birding for me today. The weekend cannot come soon enough for me!