A Lovely Dinner In The Gazebo (1 Viewer)

T

Tammie

Well-known member

• Aug 24, 2003

• #1

Hello Forum!
First of all, thanks for the birthday wishes and greetings. It's been a very quiet birthday with the power shut off for most of the day (broken cable down the street) and hubby off at work... spent most of the day alone. What else is new?!

I had a very pleasant dinner alone in my gazebo though. Right at the end, a fair number of my feathered buddies decided to join me. As I sat and watched, I spotted 3 brown creepers in the trees beside me. Around them were 3 red breasted nuthatches and a male downy woodpecker. A female hairy woodpecker joined the scene shortly along with a flock of chickadees, purple finches and goldfinches. The evening grosbeaks were around as well. All day, I've been hearing flickers but have yet to spot them. Lots of grackles and female red winged blackbirds too. Even my beloved Whiskey Jacks (gray jays) popped in for a visit! A male ruby throated hummingbird zipped up to the feeder next to the gazebo for a snack and then just hovered in front of me for a second before chasing another off the other feeder!

The things my husband misses by having to work....

 

dennis

Have binoculars. Will travel.

• Aug 24, 2003

• #2

Hi Tammie,

Happy Birthday!!!!

Wish I could see those Grosbeaks. I'm still looking for my first!

dennis

 

Larry Lade

Moderator

• Aug 24, 2003

• #3

Tammie, I sit here almost in disbelief. The Evening Grosbeak is one of the birds on my "want list". I have been up north (to Minnesota and Ontario) two or three times. I have not been able to see this bird! On a birding trip to the Duluth, MN (in January) we did see Great Gray Owl, Snowy Owl, Pine Grosbeaks, Northern Shrike, Common and Hoary(1) Redpolls, Snow Buntings, Northern Three-toed Woodpecker and other birds which were a pleasure to see. But no Evening Grosbeaks! I am beginning to think they just may be a ficticious bird! And you say it is a common summer bird in your area! There is just no justice!
I also missed the Northern Hawk Owl, Bohemian Waxwing and some of the grouse.

Still looking, I am,

Larry, in Missouri

 

KC Foggin

Very, very long time member

Supporter

• Aug 24, 2003

• #4

Well that makes it a threesome cause I have yet to add one grossbeak to my life list. We need to do a trade here Tammie. I'll send you a couple of cards and you send me a couple of grossbeak.

Gentleman, just wait for the grossbeak pics Tammie posts come winter time.

 

T

Tammie

Well-known member

• Aug 24, 2003

• #5

KC, if only life were like that! I want to see a cardinal as much as you guys want to see the grosbeaks! The evening grosbeak is a particularly lovely bird though... wonderful calls and quite timid. I actually had them bring a few babies to the yard this year, which was a first.
Hope you all get your sightings soon. I'll try for more pictures.

 

sparroweye

Well-known member

• Sep 8, 2003

• #6

Evening Grosbeak

I used to see evening grosbeaks at the feeder in January up in
Charlotte, North Carolina, but not down here in Florida.
You want to see Cardinals Tammie. I must have about four
families of cardinals and at least 20 total. They are just now getting their winter coats, and the juveniles coats are filling in.
They do have a lovely bunch of songs.

 

T

Tammie

Well-known member

• Sep 8, 2003

• #7

Hey Sparroweye, what are the chances of you sending me a couple of pictures? I wouldn't know what a cardinal sounds like either. For all I've heard about it, I've never heard one sing.
The cardinal is the #1 bird on my want list!

 

sparroweye

Well-known member

• Sep 8, 2003

• #8

Tammie, I just got a pretty good shot of a male cardinal on my tree stump. He has been moulting or either he is a juvenile still getting his color. Do you want me to email it to you as an attachment or put it in the gallery. I also have a very good audio of the males trill. Let me know. I can email you the attach of the photo and the audio.

 

sparroweye

Well-known member

• Sep 8, 2003

• #9

Cardinalis

Tammie, here is a wonderful sound wave which is very good.
And I shall try and upload my photo I have just taken of the male in my yard. Cardinals are wonderful family birds. They are very close knit. The males feed the females and the babies. I do not know if they mate for life, but they are very lovely birds. We have a lot of them in North Florida. They are almost as common as the sparrow.

http://birds.cornell.edu/BOW/NORCAR/

 

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sparroweye

Well-known member

• Sep 8, 2003

• #10

Be Patient, they are migrating North

Tammie, if you read that Cornell article about the Red Cardinal
you will see that their natural migration has reached Southern
Ontario. Maybe you will get your wish one day. They are still
not out West in Colorado because my mother lives out there now
and she misses them. Download the audio just to a temporary
file and listen to it. It is the best audio of a cardinal I have heard.
Of course it is from Cornell.

 

T

Tammie

Well-known member

• Sep 9, 2003

• #11

Hi Sparroweye, sorry for taking so long to reply.
Thanks a bunch for all the info and the picture. I have saved the picture and I have just added the link to my favorites list to try again. Unfortunately, when I tried to listen to it the first time, I had a complete system failure... again. These blasted machines are so frustrating sometimes!
As for seeing cardinals up here, one was spotted 2 years ago in a town an hour from here so I have faith for the future.
I really do appreciate all the trouble you've gone to for this. You meet the nicest people in cyber space!

 

sparroweye

Well-known member

• Sep 9, 2003

• #12

Envious

I envy those Peonies in your webshots album. We can grow
Dahlia's but not peonies. What beautiful flowers they are.
I also love you r fox photo's. I have heard we have them in
our woods but I have never seen one. I had a little trouble
getting that audio to play, I had to use my windows media
player.

 

B

Beverlybaynes

Mod Squad

• Sep 9, 2003

• #13

Tammie, I completely missed your post about your birthday dinner in the gazebo! It sounds just lovely!! Sigh!

I'm waiting for my first Evening Grosbeak, too. Had my first Rose-Breasteds a year ago at my feeder, but none this year.

And I'm envious of your Red-Breasted Nuthatches, too. I had one ONCE two winters ago -- but this should be an irruption year! One has already been seen just south of the Lake Michigan shoreline in NW Indiana, so I have real hope!!

And Larry ... oh, how I WANT Great Gray and Snowy Owls!! VERY high on my 'gotta get' list. Some friends and I are talking about a trip to Sault St. Marie MI either in January or February (budget permitting, for me), as that is about the closest you can them with any regularity. We DO get Snowies here, but infrequently -- 1 or 2 a winter, and people are fairly close-mouthed about it. It's 10 hours or so to the Sault, but with 4 drivers....

 

T

Tammie

Well-known member

• Sep 10, 2003

• #14

Hi Sparroweye,
I had trouble with the audio clip too... as soon as it played, my computer crashed again! I'm a little nervous to try again.
Glad to hear you enjoyed my photos. My flowers turned out quite well this year, although late for some reason. I sure do hope you get to see a fox in the wild someday... they are one of the world's most fabulous animals. We just love them and I'm hoping to get a few new ones this winter. They usually start showing up around October so here's hoping!
Beverly, I also hope you see an evening grosbeak! I'm lucky enough to have them here all year round although right at the moment, they're pretty scarce. I do have one female hanging around who looks sick. The feathers on her head look terrible but I haven't been able to get a real close look at her to be able to tell. I just spotted her yesterday and by the time I got out with the binos, she was gone. Didn't see her today. They sure are fabulous birds though. I would dearly miss their loud, peircing call if they weren't here!
As for owls, we see Great Grays regularly (my husband, at work, more than I see) and I've only ever seen 3 Snowies. My husband also sees Great Horned owls all the time. I'm going to post a separate thread in a minute of just what he saw at work today... and I wasn't there to see it! WAHHH!!! :-C

 

M

mariceclaire

New member

• Mar 9, 2011

• #15

Tammie said:

Hello Forum!
First of all, thanks for the birthday wishes and greetings. It's been a very quiet birthday with the power shut off for most of the day (broken cable down the street) and hubby off at work... spent most of the day alone. What else is new?!

I had a very pleasant dinner alone in my gazebo though. Right at the end, a fair number of my feathered buddies decided to join me. As I sat and watched, I spotted 3 brown creepers in the trees beside me. Around them were 3 red breasted nuthatches and a male downy woodpecker. A female hairy woodpecker joined the scene shortly along with a flock of chickadees, purple finches and goldfinches. The evening grosbeaks were around as well. All day, I've been hearing flickers but have yet to spot them. Lots of grackles and female red winged blackbirds too. Even my beloved Whiskey Jacks (gray jays) popped in for a visit! A male ruby throated hummingbird zipped up to the feeder next to the gazebo for a snack and then just hovered in front of me for a second before chasing another off the other feeder!

The things my husband misses by having to work....

Click to expand...

Wow. What a lovely scene. I have this setup in my mind imagining those scene. I believe Gazebo was the perfect place to have a relaxation and peace of mind. Since they are usually situated in an area with a lovely view or in the garden, they are perfect places for holding candlelit dinners.

 

Last edited: Mar 9, 2011