DAILY PICS. VOL. 31

"How many birds can fit in a 12" bowl?" ... That's what these white-winged doves seemed to be trying to do. I filled the bowl with 3lbs of seed mix this morning and it was totally gone by the end of the day. They must be half bird and half pig! ;-)

It's so great to see the images of birds I don't see here. I especially enjoyed the Cactus Wren and the Scaled Quail. I've never seen either.

Got some decent towhee shots today to share with you. He looks a bit excited here.

This looks happy.

I fell in love with these birds when I lived at the coast. The eyes got me. ;-) Only once did a pair over winter there, that I'm aware of. Here, I have them all the time, and there are many.

This message was edited Nov 16, 2007 8:27 AM

tigerlily..........I think his brother lives here.

Beautiful towhees tiger and adel. I love their colorful markings.

Beautiful shots! Thanks for sharing.

Great photos everyone .... I concur that it is always great to see birds that do not inhabit one's own area.

Yesterday wasn't the best day for photographing birds since it was foggy here until early afternoon. Today's worse but with much needed rain. Here are a few photos from yesterday.

#1 - Blue Jay

Edited to correct proper verb usage (is/are) .... since my daughter (school teacher) corrected me !!!!

This message was edited Nov 16, 2007 12:21 PM

#2 - Belted Kingfisher ....

Great pics as always linthicum.

#3 - Northern Cardinal ....

#4 - Eastern Bluebird ...

#5 - Cedar Waxwing ....

a.nd #6 - another Cedar Waxwing photo ... the sun finally peaked through for a few minutes.

Wonderful photos Linth!

I love seeing the Eastern Bluebird and the Cedar Waxwing!


NMJane, adel and tiger, very nice shots! Love the towhees!

Not the best of pictures, but here's a resident hawk that was about 300 feet away ...

I agree on that Bluebird. I want to frame that one!!!

Check out the extra rosiness of this guy.

It's not the best photo; but I finally got a picture of a female Scott's Oriole. I've only seen her a couple of times and she doesn't seem to go for any of the seeds I have. Anybody know what orioles prefer to eat?

Here's a close up of curved-billed thrasher. They are very curious birds and not at all timid around people.

Orioles are nectar birds - though I'm not familiar with Scott's. They also like oranges cut in half and stuck on a branch, and grape jelly.

This photo is one of my older photos; but it really shows off the colors around a roadrunner's eye.

Thanks kaperc. I've got a hummingbird nectar feeder; but she hasn't tried it. I'll try some oranges and see if she likes them.

What Great Shots
I so Love Kingfishers

Wonderful shots Jane!!!

Thanks so much for posting them!!

Yes the Orioles like the Grape Jelly and Orange halves.

This message was edited Nov 15, 2007 12:21 PM

Jane, we have a feeder that's flat with holes in the (orange) cover and perches around the perimeter. It even has dimples for the jelly, and an orange half can be skewered by the hanging post. They are at it all day when they are here spring through mid-summer. Even with their own feeder nearby, the hummers use it, too.

Hope yours goes for the oranges.

The Scotts Oriole have a nice song.

I was just listening to it and reading about them here.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Scotts_Oriole.html#sound

Bears like grape jelly too. The new feeding station survived the first bear visit. It stole the woodpecker treat bar, the suet cake (with holder), pulled down the hanging feeder and ate all the boss, ate the grape jelly and damged the screen while eating the boss and dried corn. All in all very little damage.

The ground around the station is rocky so I could only find one decent print.

Nice feeding station! Much as I love wildlife, I'm glad we don't have bears and deer to deal with.

Hi Jane, Although I've never seen Orioles here this is the feeder I use for them.

You can see the grape jelly and the serum is 1 parts sugar to 6 parts water.


adel, Glad the bear didn't do too much damage.

Trying to catch up..

Avmoran, what a gentle look in the eyes the duck, and a very determent one in that of the seagull. Beautiful sharp pic.
Love the pattern on the feathers of the scaled quail, NM-Jane.

Bebop and Pelletory, my camera is a Canon Powershot G7 and the lens I bought for it is Canon Tele-convertor TC-DC58C 2x. It doubles the zoom function in the camera to 12x.

Lovely junco, Chisolm!

Never seen a Great Spotted Woodpecker before, Wallaby and nice to see a Magpie in the flight.
That female pheasant looks impressed. I often think that birds might confuse camera's with guns, specially with a tele lens on.
I love this little cute fluffy blue tits, they are so charming!
That crow looks a little mean and the starlings really do match so nicely with the colours of the tree.

Never seen a towhee bird before Tigerlily and Adel.Very interesting .

That Belted Kingfisher looks so funny with its out of proportion sized beak and its punky hairstyle Linthicum.
and the Northern Cardinal is so pretty and charming.

Beautiful close-ups of the curved-billed thrasher and roadrunner ,NM-Jane!

Nice bear-bird feeder station Adel!

I'm sorry, it may sound stupid but can I ask what is grape jelly Pelletory and what type of birds like it ?

Hi bonitin, The Orioles like grape jelly, nectar and orange halves. I hear the House Finch also like grape jelly but I didn't see mine trying it. Theres probably others that would like it but I can't think of them right now. :-)

This forum is great! I really appreciate all the wonderful tips and advice I've gotten from you all. The more I learn about our local birds, the more questions I seem to come up with. (Hope I'm not making a pest of myself!)

In my area of New Mexico we supposedly have both house finch and cassin's finch. If I understanding correctly, the cassin's finch has a white chest; whereas the house finch has a red chest.

I've stitched together 3 photos of "red birds" that I'd love to get a positive ID for.

Initially I thought that the top two photos were house finch (notice the red chest) and the bottom photo was a cassin's finch (notice the white chest). Now, I'm beginning to wonder about the bird in the top left photo. It is a bit smaller than the other birds. It also has a more rounded body and a slightly shorter tail. This really seems like a different bird to me; but it could be just a fat little juvenile house finch. Any ideas???

This message was edited Nov 15, 2007 12:56 PM

Maybe someone else with better eyes can tell. The Cassins Finch has a straight pointy beak where the House Finch has a more rounded upper beak.

I'll take another look. :-)

LOL, no I can't tell, sorry. And no your not being a pain at all we love seeing the new birds and having another person w/ great enthusiasm!

Maybe Resin will be able to tell.

This message was edited Nov 15, 2007 3:39 PM

Heres a page on the Cassins Finch.

Be sure to look under "Cool Facts", seems they really like salt like some other birds.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Cassins_Finch.html

Thanks Pelletory! After looking at the cornell web site, I'm now thinking the first (top, left) is a house finch and the others are all cassins finch. Hopefully, Resin can tell for sure ... she really knows her details on these little guys/gals.

Also, I came up with a way to hopefully attract my oriole back. This was such a simple idea. I had some bamboo barbeque skewers, so I put two of them through an orange half to make perches, cut off the sharp end, and tied on some yard. (see pic). I'll let you all know if it works.

Wow thats really neat Jane; good job!

Not much happening today. The Fox Sparrow, Juncos, Scrub Jays and Towhees are still here.