I thought it might be nice if we could post the birds we see each day. So I got this topic heading from and old post.
Lately I've been really lucky. The pair of golden eagles came buy and sat in my trees for a few seconds. And then I saw what I think was a red tailed hawk twice while I was running around. And the cardinals and blue birds are out in force.
I'm so looking forward to the new growing season. it is definitely time to be able to enjoy the garden and my wild friends again.
Right now I have a flock of what I think are House Sparrows (white line over the eye, with a black line just below that, and a white line in the wing...am I right, Thorn?) fighting over my feeder. The ground is covered with them right now. I'll be glad when they get their fill. They tend to scare off the other birds.
Here are TWO Pics I took today. The FIRST is probably the BEST American Robin picture I have yet taken. Mu Laotian neighbor has a bright red sports car that he ALWAYS wants me to use a background for a Cardinal. I couldn't get a Cardinal for him today, but I got this......
RUBY ROBIN
This next picture I snapped out of a moving car against the bright sky in BAD light of a flying Great Blue Heron. Needless to say the picture was TERRIBLE, but then I got an idea. I used Photodshop to just blow the picture out of the water by messing tremendously with the settings of light focus and color and got this really cool pic......
MAGIC HERON
Kingdoms RAGE and go to war...but the PEasants plant potatoes..
EARTH FIRST! (we'll strip-mine the OTHER planets later.)
So far I've had a pair of Tuffted Titmice, some Chickadees, a Robin, and a pair of Doves, in addition to the House Sparrows. OH! And a Pileated Woodpecker! Usually I only see him in the fall, when the magnolia blooms have quit and are putting out their bright red seeds. He was in my Pecan tree today.
The white spot is the reflection of my flash off the door lock of his car. The Spot Metering, Center Focus settings on my camera blur everything, background AND foreground, EXCEPT the object in the cross hairs. The object in the cross hairs is given the EXTRA sharpness and clarity that were taken from the REST of the picture. It gives your pictures an Ethereal, dream-like quality.
Last edited by Thornius; Feb 27th, 2009 at 08:17 AM.
Kingdoms RAGE and go to war...but the PEasants plant potatoes..
EARTH FIRST! (we'll strip-mine the OTHER planets later.)
No pics today, but I think the birds heard the same weather forecast I did. They're calling for rain today and tomorrow with freezing rain, sleet. . . tomorrow night. I had TONS of birds at the feeders today.
Front yard: 25 Goldfinches 6 House finches 1 Rufous-sided Towhee 2 Song Sparrows 9 Juncos 5 White-throated Sparrows 1 Downy Woodpecker
Back yard: 1 Song Sparrow 1 House Finch 2 Pine Siskins 1 Cardinal 64 Goldfinches!!!!!
It's raining here today, as well. The birds are braving the rain for the feeders though. So far I've had a famale Cardinal, and a couple of Chicadees. Oh! And the crow that decided to raid the bread crumbs that didn't get eaten yesterday! It was funny to see him stuffing his bill with as much as he could possibly carry! LOL
tk...the ONLY reason I can indentify so many of my birds is due to Thorn's pictures! LOL I'd be lost without them!
obwan...I'm jealous of your finches and juncos! I have goldfinches, but no house finches. And I've never seen a junco, except in pics.
I wouldn't know what one sounded like if I DID hear it! LOL
I forgot to mention that I had 2 pair of doves in the yard yesterday. The larger male kept chasing off the small male and his mate. It was really neat to watch, because the one male would sit up on my power line and watch for the other pair to try to come eat. As soon as he would see one of them, he would dive bomb them! I wish I could have told the other pair that there was another feeder in the front yard...
I have noticed that since I put up this new feeder, the birds seem to prefer it. The other one has been in the same place for 2 years, and I've always gotten a goodly number of visitors to it. But since I put this one up, they don't hardly go to the other one.
Rain is where small nodules of di-hydrogen oxide fall out of the sky and burst open upon any contact with a hard surface, often accumulating on the ground to a depth of several centimeters.
Kingdoms RAGE and go to war...but the PEasants plant potatoes..
EARTH FIRST! (we'll strip-mine the OTHER planets later.)
I wouldn't know what one sounded like if I DID hear it! LOL
I forgot to mention that I had 2 pair of doves in the yard yesterday. The larger male kept chasing off the small male and his mate. It was really neat to watch, because the one male would sit up on my power line and watch for the other pair to try to come eat. As soon as he would see one of them, he would dive bomb them! I wish I could have told the other pair that there was another feeder in the front yard...
I have noticed that since I put up this new feeder, the birds seem to prefer it. The other one has been in the same place for 2 years, and I've always gotten a goodly number of visitors to it. But since I put this one up, they don't hardly go to the other one.
Annette
Juncos make a buzzy double-chip sound, that is VERY reminescent of a toy ray-gun!
Kingdoms RAGE and go to war...but the PEasants plant potatoes..
EARTH FIRST! (we'll strip-mine the OTHER planets later.)
I think I've found the location for my bird feeder. I'm going to put it in the trees outside my office window. That way I can see the birds when I'm working at my desk. That will be way cool.
Today my back yard was filled with robins. I had no idea that they would congregate like that. And then when I went into to beside the railroad tracks were 3 wild turkeys. I'd never seen the wild variety so that was way cool. I just know one of these days I'm going to wreck my car birdwatching.
Robins congregate in forests in ENORMOUS flocks in Winter to eat berries. In spring, they break up into pairs to raise their young in Suburban yards and change their diet to earthworms. Wild Turkeys are becoming as common as Cardinals in many parts of the U.S. I even have a small flock about a mile from my house.
Kingdoms RAGE and go to war...but the PEasants plant potatoes..
EARTH FIRST! (we'll strip-mine the OTHER planets later.)
Rain is where small nodules of di-hydrogen oxide fall out of the sky and burst open upon any contact with a hard surface, often accumulating on the ground to a depth of several centimeters.
I have heard the older folks tell of this strange phenomenon- water falling from the sky- the stuff of legend around here.
Last edited by stevie_g; Feb 28th, 2009 at 08:01 PM.
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