It looks like these Steller’s jays are overcome by the heat but they’re actually sunbathing on Michelline Halliday’s roof in Seattle.
Today is the wrong day to sunbathe in Pittsburgh! The high will be 94oF but the heat index will make it feel like 102o. Last night at 9:00pm it was still 89o with a heat index of 97o. This morning it was 80oF at dawn. And did I mention that the air will be bad? Stay indoors.
Today it will be only 69oF in Seattle. (I’m so jealous!)
Even so, it looks like one jay is saying to the other, “Hot enough for you?”
(photo by Michelline Halliday)
Just read a bit on Seattle’s “summer” yesterday. One of the local meteorologists did some data mining of local weather and found they’d only had 78 minutes of summer!
http://www.komonews.com/weather/blogs/scott/125742443.html?blog=y
Granted, this is using an arbitrary mark of 80 degrees for “summer,” but it really has been cool there. He’s got an even more remarkable stat for Everett in his post. At least these jays found some sun to sunbathe in.
They need to put us in a bag & shake us up.
It’s been Summer here in Albuquerque since April then. And we have Steller’s Jays in the mountains, very cool looking birds.
Am wondering how the falcons deal with this hot weather??
They sleep a lot. Today at lunchtime Karen saw Dorothy roosting in a nook on the north face of the Cathedral of Learning. When we walked over there later, Dorothy was gone and one of the juvies — we think it was Henry (Red) — was perched high on the north face. Perhaps his arrival prompted Dorothy to choose a different place to sleep. Henry can be loud. 😉
Hi Kate–Thought this might be the wrong venue to ask, but others above have asked about “our” peregrines! So–it’s alright.
You posted some marvelous photos on 6-30, taken by Brian Cohen, showing Dorothy defending her chicks as they were banded. We’ve seen billboards locally, advertising the RAPTORS exhibit at the Nat’l Aviary. Is that Dorothy in the billboard? Another photo by Mr. Cohen? The long “mustaches” surrounding the golden beak make her look like a Steeler from the ’70’s when the Fu Manchu style was popular! Her golden feet in Mr. Cohen’s photos reminded me of Frenchy Fuqua’s preferences, too. Perhaps I’m showing my age and hometown loyalties!
Anne
It is great to see that the birds know how to deal with this awful heat. Great capture.
It was so hot yesterday that a guy got stuck to a hot tar roof for two hours! Read about it here: http://m.post-gazette.com/local/neighborhoods-city/worker-stuck-on-a-hot-tar-roof-1162206 …There’s even a reference to a bird in the news article… 🙂
Anne, the raptor on the billboard is one of the lanner falcons at the Sky Deck show. Lanners certainly resemble Dorothy because they too have moustaches and golden feet.
I’m looking forward to seeing these birds fly at the SkyDeck event on August 22: http://www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org/2011/07/12/lets-go-to-sky-deck/
So far, 37 people signed up!