Snapping Pics at the Feeder (1 Viewer)

gthang · Mar 30, 2004

Tammie: Well, blue jays are supposed to be pretty common around my home, but for some reason they only show themselves once in a "blue" moon...

Also, one of my lifers is to see a red-breasteed nuthatch, which are supposed to be wintering visitors here, but according to the Sibley Eastern guide, right around where the CT border meets the NY border is where the red-breasts are year-round residents.

And one more thing, do you see Three-Toed Woodpeckers or Black-Backed Woodpeckers? They are residents of your area, according to the only good field guide I've got.

Good luck with your birding!

Tammie · Mar 30, 2004

gthang said:
Tammie: Also, one of my lifers is to see a red-breasteed nuthatch, which are supposed to be wintering visitors here, but according to the Sibley Eastern guide, right around where the CT border meets the NY border is where the red-breasts are year-round residents.

And one more thing, do you see Three-Toed Woodpeckers or Black-Backed Woodpeckers? They are residents of your area, according to the only good field guide I've got.

Good luck with your birding!

Hi,
I do see the three toed once in a while and for the longest time, I had it confused with a black backed. I had a pair hanging out in some trees in our back yard but the last time I saw one was over this winter, in the trees across the street. I've never been able to see one up close, it's always near the top or at least the middle of the tree. Cool birds!
I have red breasted nuthatches here all year round but have only seen white breasteds here once, about 5 winters ago. I had a pair of them here for one winter but they never returned.

I keep hoping to see them every winter. Now that it's spring (I think!!), I should be seeing the brown creepers return soon too. Last year, I had three in the backyard!

gthang · Mar 30, 2004

Yeah, i wanna see a brown creeper too! you get red-breasts all year round and rarely see a white-breast. Me, on the other hand, see white-breasts all year round, and rarely see a red-breast...

gthang · Mar 30, 2004

March 30, 2004:

Photographed at feeder:
Black-Capped Chickadee
American Goldfinch
Tufted Titmouse
Pine Siskin (For some reason, the pics came out very poor quality. Dammit...)
White-Breasted Nuthatch
House Finch

Photographed elsewhere:
Dark-Eyed Junco
American Robin

Not Photographed:
Turkey Vulture

Total: 9 birds
Average of the nine days: 10.66666 bird species per day

gthang · Mar 31, 2004

Today, got up at 8:11 AM Eastern Time, and looked out the kitchen window and saw a Blue Jay eating the seeds from the railing. There was also a Downy Woodpecker there too. Pity I had to go to my bedroom and fetch the SmartMedia card that I downloaded yesterday's pics from. By the time I got back, the Blue Jay was gone, but the Downy was still there. Dad-gummit!

Anyway, Good selection of birds today, especially at the beginning of what appears to be a 4-day-long raining frenzy.

The list so far today:
White-Breasted Nuthatch
Tufted Titmouse
Blue Jay
Mourning Dove
Black-Capped Chickadee
American Goldfinch
Downy Woodpecker
Red-Bellied Woodpecker
Dark-Eyed Junco

And only a couple of those have been photographed so far... dammit to <bleep!>-ing hell!

9 birds since 8:11 Eastern, which was 1 hour, 5 minutes ago.

EDIT: Got a House Finch at 9:19AM.

Steve-O · Apr 2, 2004

Tammie,

You see things that many do not, Three-toed and Black-backed peckers as well as Hoary Redpolls are birds many have never seen. Even Red Breasted Nuthatches and Brown Creepers are not well known in most of the US. (On the other hand, I am too far north to see a Tufted Titmouse unless I travel a bit.)

I am lucky, I live in southern MN and vacation in or near Canada so I see many of the same birds that you do. gthang sounds like he is east of me, ...a GREAT place to see shorebirds and the eastern migration.

Spring will come, when it decides to come, so let's enjoy it!

Steve-O

Michael Frankis · Apr 2, 2004

Tammie said:
Hi,
I do see the three toed once in a while and for the longest time, I had it confused with a black backed. I had a pair hanging out in some trees in our back yard but the last time I saw one was over this winter, in the trees across the street. I've never been able to see one up close, it's always near the top or at least the middle of the tree. Cool birds!

Best place to look for them will be in all the dead trees where the fires were last year - I've read that 3-T & B-B Woodies go for old burn sites. Or do the forestry people cut all the dead wood?

Michael

Tammie · Apr 2, 2004

Michael Frankis said:
Best place to look for them will be in all the dead trees where the fires were last year - I've read that 3-T & B-B Woodies go for old burn sites. Or do the forestry people cut all the dead wood?

Michael

Michael, I believe it's cut down if it's considered a danger or hazard.... otherwise, I believe it's left alone. We drive by a few old fire sites regularly and they are full, never having been cut.
Lately, it seems we've been seeing a lot more pileateds than usual. I see them regularly now, every time we go to town... 2 or 3. It's great.
Steve-O, I'm also too far north for titmouse and have never seen one. I'm almost desperate to see a cardinal... do you see those? Any pictures??? I really get a kick out of how people get so excited about the birds I see here regularly but I guess it works both ways.

gthang · Apr 2, 2004

Speaking of cutting, What's going on with President Bush? I mean, he allowed logging to destroy any remaining forests we have, and heck of a lot of other stuff that are peeving envirnmentalists, such as me...

"Be Patriotic, Vote Bush Out"
That's a bumper sticker i saw a few months back...

gthang · Apr 7, 2004

OK, so a big day today. Got my new Olympus C-740 camera yesterday.

Got a chance to photograph for the first time a brown-headed cowbird male. beautiful bird. also photographed a murder of red-winged blackbirds, and a few blue jays. And of course, the usual birds.

Blue Jay
Brown-Headed Cowbird
Red-Winged Blackbird
Black-Capped Chickadee
White-Breasted Nuthatch
American Goldfinch
Red-Bellied Woodpecker
House Finch
Purple Finch
Common Grackle
Dark-Eyed Junco
Tufted Titmouse
American Tree Sparrow
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Cardinal

Total: 15 (so far)
I'll add more later.

Michael Frankis · Apr 7, 2004

Hi Gthang,

Congrats on the new camera, hope it works well for you

Any gardener will tell you that a bush is best cut back hard after a while, say 4 years or so . . . :-O

Michael

gthang · Apr 15, 2004

Whoa, man, talk about a light day!, Not only was the sun shining bright, but the feeders were seeing "light" action, and the breeze was gusting up "light" objects...

Anyway, wanted to update everyone for the days of April 8th, 9th, 10th, 12th, and 14th. In order to keep it short and sweet, I've decided to list every bird seen, followed by the date(s) it was seen.

Red-Bellied Woodpecker: 8th, 10th, 14th
Downy Woodpecker: 8th, 9th, 14th
Hairy Woodpecker: 8th, 14th (see notes)
Purple Finch: 8th, 12th
Northern Cardinal: 8th
Common Grackle: 8th, 10th
White-Breasted Nuthatch: 8th, 14th
American Goldfinch: 8th, 12th, 14th
Dark-Eyed Junco: 8th, 14th
Black-Capped Chickadee: 8th, 14th
American Tree Sparrow: 8th, 9th, 10th, 14th
House Finch: 8th, 14th
American Robin: 8th, 14th
Blue Jay: 8th, 14th
Tufted Titmouse: 8th, 14th
Brown-Headed Cowbird: 10th
Mourning Dove: 14th

17 birds seen since April 7th.

Notes: One of the Common Grackles lost an eye somehow. I have a shot in my gallery, called "What the Heck???"

Several Downy/Hairy woodpeckers visited the feeder. One bird had a large bill for it's size; in other words, it was a downy-sized woodpecker with a hairy-sized bill... not sure if its a downy or a hairy... might be a dairy...

American Tree Sparrows have been coming more frequently, which means that winter is here in my part of the USA...

For the first time, on the 14th, a Blue Jay landed on the feeder for a portrait. I snapped a total of 3 shots, but the feeder was swinging, making it hard to focus on the bird. But i then focused on the feeder itself, and when the camera was ready, I snapped an awesome shot (although I cut part of the bird off)...

That's all for now!

gthang · Apr 19, 2004

OK, guys, big update today! Awesome, got three different uncommon birds today, as well as two of the more common ones!

Chipping Sparrow (New Tick!!)
Purple Finch 1 male and 4 females!
American Goldfinch
Pine Siskin both were adult females
Tufted Titmouse
[/b]House Sparrow
Red-Bellied Woodpecker: a female
Dark-Eyed Junco
Black-Capped Chickadee
Downy Woodpecker
White-Breasted Nuthatch

11 birds so far today! at least I got my first migrant!

EDIT 9:53AM: Just got back again, this time i saw 3 male purple finches, and 5 females.

Tammie · Apr 20, 2004

gthang said:
EDIT 9:53AM: Just got back again, this time i saw 3 male purple finches, and 5 females.

This is the opposite of what I'm seeing here... I now have at least 5 male purple finches but have yet to see a female. Hopefully soon as they are one of my all time favorite feeder birds!
What I did see today in town was gulls.... lots of gulls!! Soaring on the thermals.... we'd look out a window and see 50 or 100 floating high in the air, not flapping wings at all. Shortly, they'd be lower to the ground and they'd start all over again.
Then we drove around the street corner and came across 30 or so ripping someone's garbage bags apart!!

gthang · Apr 20, 2004

I forgot to edit it again, as I had been counting the number of PFs that I see at any one time (The best way, IMO, to determine local populations), and have counted 5 males and twice that in females! boy, nature sure does like to get guys in the mood, huh? two girls for every guy, eh?

Regarding seeing a female: if you have a male at the feeder, look around for a song-sparrow-ish bird about the same size as the male PF (the females look very similar to a song sparrow, but lack the central breast spot; also the PFs are much bigger than a song sparrow, which if you've seen a song sparrow, you'll know that its small, about 5 inches long)

EDIT: I added this picture of 6 PFs to show you the female. There are three males, and three females.

gthang · Apr 21, 2004

So far, another awesome day.

Finally got the best pictures yet of the House Sparrow, and saw a Chipping Sparrow eating off the deck. When it flew up to the railing, I noticed that it wasn't a Chipping Sparrow! It had yellow supraloral, and one photograph showed the bird facing away, but his head was turned in my direction, showing all the features I needed to make an ID!

Also, the one-eyed Common Grackle showed up, all alone as usual. I feel sorry for him/her having to use his right eye for the rest of his life.

The List:
House Sparrow
White-Throated Sparrow (New Tick!!)
Chipping Sparrow
Red-Bellied Woodpecker
American Goldfinch
White-Breasted Nuthatch
Common Grackle
Tufted Titmouse
Dark-Eyed Junco
Mourning Dove
Black-Capped Chickadee
Downy Woodpecker

So far today: 12 birds!

Here's the White-Throated Sparrow picture that led to the ID:

gthang · Apr 22, 2004

So far this year, I have seen lots of good birds, but my favorites are the White-Throated Sparrow, Pine Siskin, Blue Jay, and Brown-Headed Cowbird, as these are some of the least seen birds around here.

So that's 6 sparrows, 3 woodpeckers, 3 finches, 1 siskin, 1 wren, 1 dove, 1 titmouse, 1 chickadee, 1 grackle, 1 nuthatch, 1 junco, 1 cardinal, 1 blue jay, 1 robin, 1 phoebe, 1 cowbird, and 1 blackbird. Makes a total of 26 birds seen since I started this thread!

gthang · Apr 23, 2004

Yesterday afternoon, went to the pond to supplement my bird list and to try and confirm my dad's GBH sighting four days ago. Didn't happen though.

Here's the list:
Pine Siskin
White-Throated Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
American Goldfinch
Red-Bellied Woodpecker
White-Breasted Nuthatch
Turkey Vulture at pond
Northern Flicker at pond

Total for yesterday: 8 birds!

Two new ticks in as many days!

gthang · Apr 23, 2004

OK, Yet another great day!
At the feeder were the same old birds, with a few less common ones to boot. Then I wanted to take my car for a ride since it hadn't been driven in a long while. Saw some more birds. Then took a trip down to the pond, where the best part of the day was.

At the feeder:
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch
Black-Capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-Breasted Nuthatch
White-Throated Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Total at the feeder: 7 birds

On the road:
Mourning Dove
American Robin
Total: 2 birds

At the Pond:
Northern Flicker
Red-Tailed Hawk
Eastern Phoebe
Mallard
Red-winged Blackbird
White-Breasted Nuthatch (although already seen earlier at the feeder)
unknown bird; see below:
Total at the pond: 7

Total birds today: 15!

W00t! Now for the pond story:

I had decided to go to the pond again to try and see the Great Blue Heron again (he wasn't there, sad to say), and started looking around. I saw some small birds flying around at the water's edge, so I snapped a few pictures. Turned out they were Eastern Phoebes. So then I went around the eastern-most path and made my way up the hill overlooking the twin ponds. Just when I got underneath a pine tree for a breather, I heard what sounded like a goose honking, and I looked around, and two Northern Flickers landed on a tree about three car lengths away from me! I looked at them for a few seconds, trying to determine what they were, and saw the yellow "shafts" on the wings, and at that instant I realized what I was seeing! So I snapped some pictures, of which a few are shown below.

I saw two other birds down at the pond, but being that it was overcast, I can't really describe them to you. I will start a new thread in the ID Q&A forum to ID them. For now, enjoy the pictures I took today of the Northern Flicker!

Joe A. · Apr 24, 2004

gthang, would love to have as many birds as you have at the feeder. I have my regulars but not near as many as you.

Snapping Pics at the Feeder (1 Viewer)

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