Daily Bird Pics (and conversation) #454

Another few shots of the Rainbow Bee-eaters. The second and third shots show the numerous nest tunnels under construction. The fourth one shows one with a dragonfly.

No. 5 Willie Wagtail.

A few more.

1. Juvenile Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike.
2. Great Egret.
3. Welcome Swallow.
4. Silvereye.
5. Great Crested Grebe hightailing it out of the territory of a pair.

Last ones for now. In my experience Buff-banded Rails are shy birds that normally run into reeds or grasses if they even glimpse you from a distance. Yesterday, at Lake Herdsman, I was amazed at how unconcerned they were, not only at my close presence, but completely ignored walkers and joggers going by on the nearby paths. What was even more amazing was that they had their young (so cute) in tow.

wonderful collection Margaret. But oh my how adorable are those last little fuzzies!!

Thank you Margaret! Your birds may have to carry us in the northern hemisphere through the winter. For me, your Bee-eaters are wonderfully exotic.
Unusually cold here - the temperature is supposed to get above freezing today for the first time in a week. My selection of birds is going to be limited through January.
1 & 2 is a Canyon Tohee that Resin was kind enough to ID for me. Local Audubon tells me that they aren't a feeder bird, and that it must have needed a little help in the extreme cold.
3 is a I-can-shriek-like-hawk Blue Jay. It scares the other birds away from the feeder, then scares itself being alone at the feeder.
4 my lonely white-winged dove. Nothing scares it away from its perch - it stands its ground against everything,

I always enjoy seeing wildlife and birds from other lands. Great stuff MargaretK!

Do we have a Birders Anonymous thread for when things get out of hand?
I went to drop my kid off at school, hadn't intended to go anywhere else, but the State Park entrance is only a few blocks away. I went to see if the River had frozen, it hadn't and I had an Aha! moment: sub-freezing temps + open water = birds. My first clue was the Bald Eagles cruising the River. I hadn't intended to get out of my car but ended up at the east end of the trail hiking upstream so the sun would be behind me. My feet started getting cold in my holey old running shoes so I decided I better get back to the car, and I thought of a way to keep my feet warm in running shoes. So here I am, shortly after dawn in freezing cold weather, jogging through the State Park, looking for Eagles that aren't looking for me.
1 Northern Flicker getting a drink
2 Killdeer, a "shore bird" that ironically I have never seen near water before
3 Mallards. The other water fowl didn't mind joggers, but took flight every time I stopped.
4 Bald Eagle. I got this driving back out of the park - they had circled around behind me.

woodpeckers have done in our suet cakes so will have to get more.

This tiny Northern Pygmy Owl flew into a window a few weeks ago, I picked him up, he was groggy but still pretty feisty, I wanted to put him in a safe place but he wasn't having any of that and he flew into a small shrub landing at an awkward angle, I ran and got the camera and got these shots as he righted himself, sat a few minutes then flew off into the trees in my neighbors yard.

Wow....sorry that the owl hit the window...but man what a photo op!! Lucky!!!

The snow storm brought the cardinals back. they like our feed & seeds on the ground after a storm.

IrisMA........I'm new to this forum...I am usually talking water gardens but.....after the snow over the week end I have a pair of new birds I have never seen, and can't identify. About the size of a starling but with yellowish wing bars, the top one is wider then the bottom one. There are only two and they are staying fairly close together. Does anyone know if red-winged black birds change color for winter and shouldn't they be gone from New Jersey?
Thanks for any help.
Susan

The rw blackbirds have yellow under the red & the red may not be showing.

snow storm dropped about 6" of snow & the cardinals have returned. Snow may have covered up their other source of food besides the feeder.

IrisMA, just as an aside you are about and hr and half from my son...he loves the snow.....now about the birds.....when they fly there is no red....these birds are speckled with the wing bars.....and yes my cardinals are much more active at the feeders.........I have nine going. One is full of whole peanuts (shells and all) for all the birds but I wish I had a movie camera for the antics of the blue jays and how hard they work at pulling the whole peanut out of the wire and carry it off............it is fun to watch.

Winter coloring of starlings is very speckled but no wing bars outside the color range of the speckles.

Well, I finally succeeded in photographing the elusive "Snowy Owl". I would have liked it to be a little closer but you take what you can get. It was photographed using a 500mm lens and then a 100% crop. I did add the falling snow to the original photo. It seemed appropriate.

Congratulations, Linth. Beautiful bird.

mcash, love your Pygmy Owl.

I can see why you couldn't get any closer to Snowy. Even at that distance it was keeping you in sight. Here's looking at you, kid.

Thanks. Not to bore you with details, but this is what I got out of the camera at 500mm, before cropping.

Snowy Owls rarely get this far south. They are on the list of birds for "if you see one notify the Audubon Society (so we can all come and look)". I have never seen one. I watched a documentary on them - very interesting birds.

They sometimes get to the Boston airport which can be a worry interferring with the airplanes.

Wow, lots of wonderful sighting on this thread!!!

All these birds have been at the feeders when it was extremely cold and snowy.
1. I rarely see the Robin when there's snow on the ground, but I know some do stay for the winter.
2. I had a pair of House finch for the first time in Summer and they are still here with a new addition to the family.
3. The Junco do not show up here in winter, but this pair decided to stick it out.
4. The Goldfinch have been missing for the last few winter, but they are around this year.
5.The White-crowned is very unusual for this time of year. Hope he will be able to survive the cold.

I have not seen any Redpolls so far.

White Throated Sparrow

Merry Christmas everyone.

Red bellied woodpecker on the suet feeder for a Christmas present the morning of Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas all!

Now at 21° only the tufted titmice seem to be flying.

A couple fuzzy pix for you all. I was trying out a new teleconverter (manual focus). Unfortunately, it's a bit of a learning curve as suddenly my focus "beep" has disappeared. Sigh. More reading!

American Kestrel. Although I see these fairly frequently, it was nice to see this one near a Kestrel box.

Horned Lark. So adorable and fun to watch, as well as listen to.

Nice birds, Marna. With the beep, go to the menu and the first one (far left) has the beep on or off (3rd down). Which lens were you using?

These are both the 1.4 TC and the 100-400. First time I've used them. I may also try to do the taping of the pins trick.

I was glad to see that with the bright sun, I did not have exposure problems.

I live south of the goldfinch range so I look forward to see them every year. I put thistle socks and thistle feeders out about the middle of December each year. They usually show up between Christmas and new year. They were here on Christmas day this year. The chipping sparrows and Juncos arrived a week before.

Lovely pics. Frank, I saw Goldfinch visiting my mealies feeder, but not sure if they pick on those mealies?

Mrs. Ed. like you I'm learning more about the new camera. Wishing you, Margaret and all my friends here peace, love, and a happy New Year. Oh and another beautiful year of birding.

Squirrels have been chasing birds away from the suet feeder, even though they don't like it because of red pepper. Downy woodpecker ignored them & onto the feeder this afternoon.

Happy New Year everyone.

Mostly still getting goldfinch, juncos, chipping sparrows and doves.

Welcome back Frank!

I'm still lurking here. Everyone's doing a great job.

Snowing so everybody will show up at the feeder. Just a glance out the window showed juncos & a downy woodpecker. DH is shoveling the walk at the moment so they will wait again. Light & fluffy snow over an inch so far, but it is supposed to continue.

Thank you for the welcome back Mrs_Ed. Thank you for the compliment Lilly.

Below freezing here again. I am calling this a Great Horned Owl, although I never got close enough to see its face. The sound of my boots crunching and squeaking in the snow disturbed its nap & sunbath, so it headed out of the neighborhood.