DAILY PICS VOL. 32

Another Belted Kingfisher photo ....

And lastly, a Myrtle or Yellow-rumped Warbler .....

jws1949, the Rufous-sided Towhee has had a name change. (I hate when they do that!) It is now called the Spotted Towhee........at least in the west.

Wonderful pics Linth!

Thanks for posting them!

beautiful heron!

Wow, what a fantastic bunch of photos everyone! I love seeing all of these unfamiliar birds, seems like mine are so common but I enjoy them anyway :-)

I had my first female Eastern Towhee today, I saw the male last weekend and just couldn't figure out what looked different about this one until I came in a downloaded the photos. The males are black, where the females are brown.

Wonderful!
Nice shot sadie!

Thanks Pelle :-)

I had some uncommon visitors yesterday, I've only seen them in the yard once before. They were taking chunks of old bagels that I had thrown out by the feeders. I believe they're Common Grackles. I think those pale eyes look so strange with the dark heads.

The little Chickadees are so cute, but hard to catch still for very long.

One of my favorite visitors, WB Nuthatch

Very nice pics! You have a nice variety!

lithicum..............looks like a Yellow Butt (aka Yellow-rumped Warbler) to me.

On further research I think it's a Myrtle.

This message was edited Nov 18, 2007 7:45 PM

Great pictures everyone. Aside from my regular visitors, I had a few interesting sightings today.

In this pic, I was focused on the scaled quail and not really paying attention to the two Gambel's Quail. When I was looking at the photos on my PC that I noticed the solid gray wing on the one Gambel's quail. I've never seen one like him before ... normally they have brown and white streaked wings.

This male Pyrrhuloxia decided to grab a snack and catch the last rays of sunlight this evening.

The Dusky Moorhens in Mathison Park have just produced some tiny little chicks. I saw them first on Friday and got one picture, but the light was all wrong.
I went back to the park today specially to try for pictures of the baby moorhens.
Here is one adult dusky moorhen with one downy chick:

Here are 4 of the 5 chicks

Here's a little inca dove. I'm starting to see a number of them around.

and one of both adults with 3 of the chicks

This roadrunner decided to make a meal out of one of my house finches :-( but I guess he's got to eat too.

The white-winged doves are really becoming pests. This is about 1/4 of the ones that have been hanging around and eating everything in sight.

Any ideas on how I can get rid of them but still continue feeding my quail?

This message was edited Nov 18, 2007 9:40 PM

Last one ...

I really like the little white-crowned sparrows. I don't know about all of them; but this little one looks like it's got eyes in the back of its head.

Great pics guys!!!

kennedy- Love those Dusky Moorhens! The chicks are so cute!

Thanks so much for posting them!


NMJane, Wow that is alot of Doves! Nice catch on the Roadrunner.

I love the WC Sparrows!

Tigerlily,
Thanks for the correction on the name change for the Spotted Towhee. I tend to use the old names(no excuse) that I grew up with. I know I should get with the times but I find a lot of the old names much more romantic and descriptive. Rufous-sided Towhee, Slate-colored Junco, Yellow-shafted Flicker, etc. And wasn't the Baltimore Oriole changed some years ago to the Northern Oriole? Some names make no sense to me at all like the Red-bellied Woodpecker that is at my peanut feeder everyday. Either I'm color blind or something, but I see no red on that belly! Pretty soon they'll be calling the Black-capped Chickadee the Northern Chickadee or some such name.
Jimbo

You're right, Jimbo. I don't like name changes myself, be it a critter or a place. It only creates confussion.

Had a very exciting happening yesterday. Neighbor had stopped by, and DH and I were chatting with him out in the drive. I happened to be facing them when I saw a large bird coming in low. WOW!!!! A Baldy was landing in a tree in my back yard! I'm going "Look, loOK, LOOK!!"
I usually have the camera when I'm outside, but it was inside here on the desk. Eagle was still there when I got back out and I did get some (very bad!) photos because the sunlight coming through the fog was behind the bird. As I was going through the yard to try to get behind it, it flew across the creek. ;-(

It was a first though. First sighting of the season, and the first IN my very own space. I've seen them in the air several times, but never before right here. Woohoo!

A few minutes later the sun peeked through and the little birds were suddenly everywhere. There were chickadee's, creeper's, nuthatches and kinglet's. It only lasted a few minutes, until the sun again was again behind the clouds/fog.

This message was edited Nov 19, 2007 8:15 AM

Jimbo.....I'm with you...... Like American Kestrel (Sparrow Hawk) Northern Flicker (Yellow Hammer) and American Dipper ( Water Q?????...don't know how to spell it) When you have an advanced case of CRS... (can't remember spit)..... it's hard enough remembering the old names much less learning new ones.

Water Ouzel!

LOL!!

Thanks jimbo. The first time I saw an Ouzell I was 13 years old and camping out on the San Lorenzo River. I saw this bird fall into the river and I thought it drowned, but it popped back up a few seconds later and did the same thing several more times, I realized it was normal for this bird to go under water.

I moved my peanut silo over to in front of my window for the winter, and watched the Nuthatches and Chickadees fight over the feeder. This is one time they shared.

Dee

Goodness how delicious EATING GOOBER PEAS. Part of an American Civil War song. The words and music can be found by doing a Google search for eating goober peas

Warning!!!!!! Eating goober peas could cause you to have a punk hair do.

Plus

Congratulations tiger! Its always that one time when you don't have the camera!

Nice pics debilu!!


adel, Nice pics!

For the Yankees out there in the South peanuts are called Goober Peas.

Jimbo, the Red-bellied Woodpecker does have red on its belly although somewhat pale in color.

Linthicum,
Thanks. That is the first picture I've ever seen of the "red" on their belly. Even the bird books don't show it or even talk about it as a field mark. I have a RBW coming everyday though it's a female so maybe she doesn't have the red wash. I'll try to watch for it.
Jimbo

Here's one more just for you .......

LOL. Very cute. That is a handsome looking bird close up, and great photos!