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House Finch during snowfall
Birds, Butterflies, Furbabies, Critters and Such # 14
Charlotte, sparrows are not easy to ID in the winter because some change colors...well, they are all brown but some lose the stripes, solid head color, etc. and some are juveniles. So, I cannot with 100% certainty...just 95. lol
1-2 Chipping Sparrow in winter plumage
3-4 Yes, they are Downy Woodpeckers. The one with red is a male and the one without red, is a female.
5 White-throated Sparrow
6. Juvenile House Sparrow...which are related to finches not sparrows. Your trivia for today ;o)
Very nice shots!
I forgot to say that I love all the pictures. Charlotte got a real nice mix of birds too. Carole we certainly want you to follow along with us so keep us reminded when we get too long for you. I love your finch picture. I can see with all the birds you have posted why your feed bill is high. I only have one new picture although he is not a new bird. He hangs around on that pipe pretty often. He used to would fly off at the slightest noise or motion but I think he is getting better. At least he let me get out of the house. He is probably 75 yards or more away but would still spook. I forgot to say this was taken with a 400mm lens and cropped hard
Belted Kingfisher
This message was edited Jan 22, 2011 7:05 PM
I love the sound that Belted Kingfishers make. Very nice, Cindy! Do you use a tripod with 400mm lens? I really want one but keep buying plants instead ;o)
No I propped my arms with grill. I have problems hand holding this lens sometimes because it does not have image stabilization. IS for short. My 100-400 lens does and that is my lens of choice most of the time although it can go very soft at max 400 which is a drawback. I hate tripods. They are useless to me because I never know where a bird is going to be. I sometimes use a monopod but I have about the same problem with it. I've tried all kinds of things mainly not breathing when I am making the shot. I have a hard time getting this across to Luke when he wants to use this setup. I've decided if he is going to be my sidekick to buy him a nikon coolpix p90 to shoot along with me. He knows that all cameras stay with me so we can take care of them.
I forgot to add I am buying him a used camera not a new one. Athough it is a point and shoot it has a great lens on it
Forgot I did have some pictures on my camera after all. Need help though
This message was edited Jan 22, 2011 8:53 PM
I though they were chipping sparrows but not sure they were small enough.
Another of same birds hunting off the wire
Love the Belted Kingfisher! Very unusual fella! Very good shot by you!
I believe they are White-Crowned Sparrows....first winter immatures. Chippers would have a notched tail and these do not. Also, if you will brighten the third picture, you will be able to see a small patch of white in the middle of its forehead.
Thanks for the id's Kim.
Thank you Kim you absolutely amaze me with your knowledge. The more I learn about the birds the more confusing it is to identify them. Not that it takes too much to confuse this 60 year old mind.
You're welcome, ladies. Winter time is a very difficult time to bird watch. When spring migration starts, you will be able to identify the birds more easily because they will have their breeding colors.
Y'all need to participate in this. Just another way for you to practice your birding skills. http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/whycount.html I usually count for 30 min-1 hour in my backyard and then 1 hour at the lake. It does not take much to report your sightings and you can download your pictures, which may make it to their website. They also give away prizes. I have participated for many years and I have not ever won anything, nor have any of my pictures been posted ;o))
Thank you for the new thread. It's great that you have the water too. I enjoy your water birds!! I was going to participate in the count up at Land Between the Lakes, but, alas, the illness in my home precluded that.
There were even more on the ground. ^_^
Mostly doves and cardinals.
If you feed them, they will come ... and come ... and come. lol. ^_^ Wish I could capture the ones in flight a bit better.
^_^
No wonder I have so few Goldfinches...they are all at your house. LOL Nice shots!
At least when they are in the snow, you don't necessarily see their droppings. My birds all feed in a probably 5 ft area, some days it's hard to climb up onto the hill and avoid their droppings.
I think everyone's birds are at my house this year! LOL. I keep telling these little feathered flying pigs that my neighbor across the street has feeders and she's going to Germany next month so go eat hers now while you can. They pay no attention to me. You would never know I have two cats, would you? The furbabies prefer to sit in the window and view the birds from inside where it's warm. :)
Yah, that droppings business can be a pain, keep, not to mention discarded shells. I feed year around but not nearly so much in the warm months.
Goldfinch, House Finches and Cardinal...and one dirty feeder ;o)
We raised this guy and his sibling...this is either Lovely or Dovely which is a Eurasian Collard Doves
Not a very good picture but I thought the yellow flowers made the yellow on his crown really show!
The last one with the yellow pansies is a really nice shot!
Crissy lost her kitty today
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1151485/
Thanks for info, Sandra.
Today ... 3 crows and 3 squirrels.
Don't know where #4 is.
Just now.
Lunch
Last one ... now someone post some good pictures. ^_^
keepingactive/Sue ... I wished you a Happy Birthday over on T2T but I know you hang out here sometimes. Soooo ... here's hoping your birthday is special. Sure enjoy you on DG. ^_^
Happy Birthday ...♪♪♪♫♫♪♪♪... to you!!
Wonderful pictures Kim.
Carole they are eating you out of house and home. LOL
Kim is this a Pied-billed Grebe I never got a really good shot because it was getting dark. I am not sure if that is the start of the mark on the bill though.
I forgot to ask How can you tell that is the pair you raised? Do they have special markings or because they are tamer?
Is this a Slate-colored dark eyed Junco?
^_^ We've have had enormous flocks of various kinds of birds flying over lately. I hope those crows don't come back today. But at least they let some the other birds eat too until they just couldn't take the crowd anymore. After they finally left there was a huge flock of another type of bird that came in. This one was smaller than a regular crow but aggressive and would chase off the other birds. It is solid black with a dark brown head. Not starlings or grackles but not sure what they are?
Cindy, you are right on both!
Carole, sounds like you had a flock of brown-headed cowbirds.
Yes, looks like the former ID only they seemed larger this time but perhaps I'd just forgotten from before. Now that I look this morning there are some starlings too. I feed "mine" in the evening after the others have left and then they eat from that in the morning early and then I won't put out anymore seed the rest of the day ... so that will help eliminate the feedloaders out there, I hope. They should start finding some food elsewhere too as it's supposed to be 50 this weekend. 50!!! We haven't seen those temps in soooo long. No snow at least for a week. So glad!
I bought a new feeder earlier this week. Hobby Lobby has these on sale 1/2 price this week. I filled it with sunflower seed. I looked out this morning and saw a crackle on it and when I walked to the back door to take a picture 25 or more of them swooped up and off. I think the food is probably gone now and the trees are full of them!!! This fellar wasn't going to let me stop scare him away before he got his fill!!
This blue jay kept circling around trying to get a turn and he finally made it.
Nice Jay shot, Charlotte. I have one out there and he always comes and takes the peanuts first thing. Seems there were a couple more of them last year. This one has had to wait his turn too lately. But he eventually gets in to feed.