Very busy at the bird feeder today! (1 Viewer)

[longbow]

Jos, that is something to think about, now that you mention it. The whiskey jacks around here are usually up in the Spruce forest, whereas down here in the valleys it's pine and fir and some cedar. Any you are so right about the tameness of the chickadees and their friends. Even out in the bush I've had them land on me. They behave more like tame pets than wild things.

And Banana, on your suggestion, I will also take that under advisement, about collating my records to show the changes year by year, but I only have about five years I've been serious in my record keeping and don't know if that would be statistically useful.

A very few geese flying south now, but the big migration has yet to start, which again, is much later than usual. We also still have some american crows about and they should be gone as well.

 

[SPINNEYGAL]

On the whole very quiet in my garden compared to some of the posts. Some very nice pics posted.

Actually had a Jay land on the floor under my feeders and guess what my camera battery was flat. A little later the Sparrowhawk landed on an archway just feet from the window and still no camera :-C

 

[JeffMoh]

We had a good weekend away in the hill country west of Houston and added quite a few birds to my year list. The highlight, though, was a bird we'd already seen several times this year but never get tired of watching: the Vermilion Flycatcher. Incredible color.

We arrived home to find our front yard filled with the chipping noise of Chipping Sparrows. So our winter birds are finally arriving.

Jeff
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com

 

[earleybird]

On the whole very quiet in my garden compared to some of the posts. Some very nice pics posted.

Actually had a Jay land on the floor under my feeders and guess what my camera battery was flat. A little later the Sparrowhawk landed on an archway just feet from the window and still no camera :-C

oh bad luck :-C they would have been excellent captures:t:

Isn't it always the way ! No matter how many re-chargables you have charged up you never seem to have 4x just when you need them most .
I have started to keep some new Alkaline battery packs in the drawer for emergencies . Now that I have a new camera I even keep my old camera charged up just in case lol:-O

 

[earleybird]

We had a good weekend away in the hill country west of Houston and added quite a few birds to my year list. The highlight, though, was a bird we'd already seen several times this year but never get tired of watching: the Vermilion Flycatcher. Incredible color.

We arrived home to find our front yard filled with the chipping noise of Chipping Sparrows. So our winter birds are finally arriving.

Jeff

what an amazing plumage !

Isn't it odd how we marvel at the colour and variety of birds in other climes yet all of us have some pretty amazing native birds of our own ?

Lovely capture Jeff

 

[JeffMoh]

what an amazing plumage !

Isn't it odd how we marvel at the colour and variety of birds in other climes yet all of us have some pretty amazing native birds of our own ?

Lovely capture Jeff

It is odd. It's all too easy to focus on less common and alien species. I have to keep reminding myself that even our most common birds (including invasives, such as House Sparrow and European Starling) are pretty amazing either in appearance or behavior or both. That's one reason why I like this forum.

Jeff

 

[captaincarot]

had a gull fly past the window this morning about 30 feet from me, unfortunately my attempt to see it better just ended up with me in a tangle mess with the duvet, though i'm half convinced i saw yellow legs.

just had a large flock of jackdaws land on the roof and a fly past from the heron

 

[Cheshire Birder]

And Banana, on your suggestion, I will also take that under advisement, about collating my records to show the changes year by year, but I only have about five years I've been serious in my record keeping and don't know if that would be statistically useful.

Five years of data should give you a reasonable stastical base line.

We had a good weekend away in the hill country west of Houston and added quite a few birds to my year list. The highlight, though, was a bird we'd already seen several times this year but never get tired of watching: the Vermilion Flycatcher. Incredible color.

Jeff
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com

Vermilion Flycatcher! Wow!!! :eek!::eek!:

CB

 

[theconstantwalker]

That's one reason why I like this forum.
Jeff

I think it's why we all like the Forum.:t::t:

 

[JeffMoh]

A good day today - for a working day!

At the college campus I was greeted by a Great Horned Owl that zoomed by about 15 feet above my head.

Made a quick trip home at lunchtime to find an American Kestrel on power lines and about 25 Black Vultures circling over our subdivision.

The front yard was very busy. In 10-15 minutes I saw: Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Chipping Sparrows, House Finches, House Sparrow, Blue Jay, Northern Mockingbird and White-winged Dove. I think I would have seen more except that the Red-bellied Woodpecker was being very territorial and kept chasing other birds away from the feeders.

As I was leaving, a Downy Woodpecker was hammering away in one tree while a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker was drilling away at another.

I love this time of year!

Jeff
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com

 

[michael23]

well, not really seen much of my feeders over the last few days,
Main bird of note yesterday was a fly through kestrel.
This morning a -3c frost saw the blue and great tits moving around rather energetically, feeding well on all feeders, around 3 robins along with 4+ dunnocks. A fair few chaffinch keep appearing from the trees, but not much else of note. On my way taking my daughter to school, a large flock (c50) of wagtails including pieds and a few greys, hopefully will get chance for a decent watch soon!

Edit, its -3 already, a nice morning hopefully.

 

[Bananafishbones]

Jeff, a star bird indeed with the Vermilion Flycatcher...

here I have just had 6 Redwings over and 2 Long Tailed Tits in the front garden

 

[earleybird]

it sure was a hard frost this morning !

Two magpies at the far end of the garden were swarkingtheir heads off wondering where there daily supply of bread had got to.

Two coal tits were taking it in turns to fly back and forth to the sandstone wall of the house collecting spiders and three bluetits snatching some seed and hightailing it back to the safety of the tree.

There were 4x starlings hogging the suet block and a surprising number of sparrows under the seed tube perhaps 8+ . Later inspection revealed that Cyril the squirrel has chewed away the plastic feeding hole allowing all the seed to pour to the ground below. grrrrr :C

Just goes to confirm my suspicion that most of the sparrows and chaffinches seem to prefer to ground feed rather than use the high level seed despensers and trays. Anyone else find this in their gardens ?

Just had to post this link to a forum i found yesterday. Take a peek at FLDSpringer's absolutely stunning bird pictures . He claims they are just 10 shots banged off quickly to test his replacement camera body !.....yeah right
:-C http://forums.steves-digicams.com/olympus-dslr/180021-e-5-2-raw-hacked-bird-pics.html

 

[JeffMoh]

"Just goes to confirm my suspicion that most of the sparrows and chaffinches seem to prefer to ground feed rather than use the high level seed despensers and trays. Anyone else find this in their gardens ?"

I don't know about Chaffinches but most sparrows are basically ground feeders. Some, though, seem to be quite happy also perching on feeders - this is certainly the case in our yards with House Sparrows and Chipping Sparrows. Perhaps this is an adaptation, like the way pigeons have learned to eat from feeders.

Jeff
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com

 

[earleybird]

"Just goes to confirm my suspicion that most of the sparrows and chaffinches seem to prefer to ground feed rather than use the high level seed despensers and trays. Anyone else find this in their gardens ?"

I don't know about Chaffinches but most sparrows are basically ground feeders. Some, though, seem to be quite happy also perching on feeders - this is certainly the case in our yards with House Sparrows and Chipping Sparrows. Perhaps this is an adaptation, like the way pigeons have learned to eat from feeders.

Jeff
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com

I think you're right Jeff. I suspect that the local feeding envionment probably dictates bird feeding behaviour as much as anything.

We never have to think much about personal safety when we go outside but for birds it must be uppermost on their minds every second. Imagine being the constant prey of practically everything in the envionment that runs, jumps and flies and wants to eat you! :eek!:

 

[SPINNEYGAL]

it sure was a hard frost this morning !

Two magpies at the far end of the garden were swarkingtheir heads off wondering where there daily supply of bread had got to.

Two coal tits were taking it in turns to fly back and forth to the sandstone wall of the house collecting spiders and three bluetits snatching some seed and hightailing it back to the safety of the tree.

There were 4x starlings hogging the suet block and a surprising number of sparrows under the seed tube perhaps 8+ . Later inspection revealed that Cyril the squirrel has chewed away the plastic feeding hole allowing all the seed to pour to the ground below. grrrrr :C

Just goes to confirm my suspicion that most of the sparrows and chaffinches seem to prefer to ground feed rather than use the high level seed despensers and trays. Anyone else find this in their gardens ?

Just had to post this link to a forum i found yesterday. Take a peek at FLDSpringer's absolutely stunning bird pictures . He claims they are just 10 shots banged off quickly to test his replacement camera body !.....yeah right
:-C http://forums.steves-digicams.com/olympus-dslr/180021-e-5-2-raw-hacked-bird-pics.html

I HAVE HAD A LOOK AT THIS LINK AND VERY IMPRESSIVE. I CANNOT GET MY PICS AS GOOD AS THAT NO MATTER WHAT I DO, ( I HAVE A CANON EOS 550D WITH A 70-300 IS LENS) SO I CANNOT BELIEVE THEY WERE QUICK SHOTS, UNLESS HE IS AN EXPERT OF COURSE.

MY SPARROWS AND CHAFFINCHES ARE ALSO MORE AT HOME ON FLOOR OR TABLE FEEDS.

 

[earleybird]

I HAVE HAD A LOOK AT THIS LINK AND VERY IMPRESSIVE. I CANNOT GET MY PICS AS GOOD AS THAT NO MATTER WHAT I DO, ( I HAVE A CANON EOS 550D WITH A 70-300 IS LENS) SO I CANNOT BELIEVE THEY WERE QUICK SHOTS, UNLESS HE IS AN EXPERT OF COURSE.

MY SPARROWS AND CHAFFINCHES ARE ALSO MORE AT HOME ON FLOOR OR TABLE FEEDS.

I think he uses some impressive after image editing in some expensive software called ' Lightroom' by Adobe I think.
Nevertheless the composition,lighting and attitude of the birds is extraordinarily good.
He obviously has spent a lot of time and care arranging his feeding station with the weathered branches etc He may well have taken several hundred shots in burst mode in raw to get just one or two useable shots.

Certainly is impressive though eh?:eek!:

 

[Shirley Roulston]

Away for a while but love the photos that are appearing here, Jos your photo of a Pygmy Owl and the Crested tit are fantastic and all the usual garden birds from other folk are also great. Nice to hear about everyone gardens, keep up the good work.

 

[Bananafishbones]

Great news.... and this mornings garden watching pays off!

First Redpoll (m) of the winter is currently feeding on the nyger with 6 Goldfinch. This is the first visit since the start of Spring.

Happy day

no hope for a picture this morning as the rain beats down heavely and I am NOT venturing out in it....

 

[earleybird]

Great news.... and this mornings garden watching pays off!

First Redpoll (m) of the winter is currently feeding on the nyger with 6 Goldfinch. This is the first visit since the start of Spring.

Happy day

nice one BFB :t: Did you get a picture ? I'd be interested to know what your setup is as your pictures are always exceptional. Do you use a hide in the garden or just an open window ?

I've not seen any migrants at all but I guess I'm a bit too far south really. I guess I should just be grateful for my Buzzards ,Robins, Wrens and LTTits .