It's Almost Time!!!

The Great Backyard Bird Count is almost here!!! Don't forget that it starts next Friday. I can't believe how time flies. We've gotten our feeders ready just because of all the snow happening lately. The woodpeckers have even started coming back. Having out a variety of seeds will attract more species of birds for your count.

Homemade suet for the woodpeckers. However, the Titmice like it too. I've also had a couple of starlings come for a taste.

Nijer seed is what the finches love. They will bankrupt me on it come spring time. Nijer isn't the cheapest seed but I love to watch the masses of birds it attracts. Last year we even had a small flock of Pine siskins come for this seed.

This little guy is taking a taste of the typical bird seed mix you can buy. I rarely get this kind. In the rest of the feeders I just use black oil sunflower seed.

I put out some peanuts too and because our dog was in the house we woke up to a couple of rare visitors. Once the peanuts were gone, they went to town on the seeds I scattered on top of the snow.

Got him with his mouth open!

It was such a nice morning sitting and watching out the window with Tigger. He was able to identify almost all the birds we saw that morning. I was so proud of him!!! It's great practice for next weekend when I hope to have a private session with each boy. Tigger drives Pooh nuts sometimes because he's so bouncy. He drives me nuts because he can't wait quietly while I give Pooh a chance to process information. Pooh has recently told me he's not Pooh, he's Rabbit. LOL He says it's because he likes to read so much. I think he's right about that. He definitely has some of Rabbit's characteristics. But he'll still always be my Pooh.

In conclusion, we're ready for our bird count. Are you ready for yours???

Winter Bird Photos

They are just soooo cute!!! I filled my feeder, loaded up my suet cage and threw some seed on top of the snow. Then I sat at our picnic table and just waited. Within a couple of minutes they came to feed. This is as close as I've come to a towhee. The other one is a junco.

Don't they look like they are having a little conversation? Probably something like "Back off, buddy. This stuff is mine!" The white-throated sparrows are pretty spunky. They tend to chase other birds off, even other sparrows.

The view above my picnic table. Currently, we only have pines as mature trees.

Quite the charmer!

Ever seen a mockingbird's butt? You have now! He flew onto a wire above me and I just had to take the shot. At least you get a better idea of how his tail feathers look. (I was just hoping there wouldn't be a 'drop' mid-picture.)

Next up: Sledding photos and some shots of icicles.

Another Snow Storm!--Bird Photos

Osita's first foray this morning into the snow.

We are currently experiencing our 2nd snowstorm for this winter. This is very uncommon in our area. Usually we are fortunate to get ONE decent snow. Some winters we get absolutely nothing.

This male was being elusive for a while but I got him!

A song sparrow. They frequently sit in my butterfly bushes or the telephone wires and serenade us.

The majority of it came in during sleeping hours so the first word I heard from Tigger was "Whoa!" (Ok. Technically this was his 2nd waking. His first waking was him dreaming and punching me in the nose in the middle of my dead sleep. I whimpered and he woke up enough to apologize and then he was out again. Joys of parenthood.) We have at least six inches out there now and it's still a mix of sleet and snow coming until about 5pm, although it won't add too much more to our totals. I'll be getting out there later for measuring purposes and to play with the boys. We won't be going down the road to our sledding place today. I don't think we're ready to brave the roads.

This towhee wasn't being cooperative today. I took this through the window that had screening on it so it didn't come out as well. He wouldn't come to the side of the bush where my storm door was. Maybe I'll get a shot of him when we make it outside.

A goldfinch. It's holding a seed. They haven't been visiting much this winter. This is the first I've seen of them for a while.

The white throated sparrows move around so fast. I have both kinds--tan striped and white striped.

Just got a call from some friends who want to go sledding together! I told her we'd be watching the roads this weekend and I'd have to see how the King feels about these roads. Right now, the wind is something awful.

It's Chippy! The chipping sparrow. A whole flock landed in my backyard about a week ago. I'd never seen that many birds in my yard. I think there were about a hundred of them!

Chippy again. He's got beautiful coloring.

Female cardinal. The males are so showy but the females are very lovely and soft looking.

I spent my morning hours watching the weather first and then watching and taking pictures (at least trying!!!) of the birds who've come out of the woodwork to feed near the feeders. My feeders aren't doing that well this year because the King took down my feeder stand to fix the bottom and never got it done. Therefore, all my feeders are too close together and too close to the ground. I've put food in a couple of them and this morning I threw sunflower seeds on top of the snow. As I was trying to get a close up of a white throated sparrow, a hawk flew right in front of the window and scared them all away. I didn't get a photo of him because he was way too fast and I was in closeup mode. No time to catch him. He was a beautiful flash of color and power though!!! That wouldn't happen without all the snow around I can tell ya that.

Check out the colors on this bird's back. I think it's one of the white throated sparrows. I used to think all those 'brown birds' were boring, but you can't be bored by all those variations in color.

Enjoy your winter wonderland if you have one!!!

Hanging Rock

Edited: Ya know, I thought I had put up some pictures of this hike but when I couldn't find them at first, I figured I had just dreamed it. (unfortunately that happens to me often) So I apologize. I just found where they were--in the exercise post! Silly Me!!!

This is the hike that started the Autism Conversation with Pooh. It's very beautiful there. But I decided my friend was trying to kill me. The hike she does all the time with no problem, had me huffing, puffing and nearly passed out by the time I got to the end. It *says* it's only one mile. I guess it is. The problem for me was that it was straight up a mountain for one mile. My calves were in revolt. My body was too. I guess I have a lot more work to do with my new habit of exercising. Yikes!

Here are Pooh and Tigger sitting in the shade once we reached the top. They, of course, had no problem climbing the mountain.

None of the boys did. Enjoying the scenery from up top.

Young man hanging over the edge of the hanging rock. Glad he's not mine. I would have have broken out in a cold sweat at seeing this if he was mine. Made me nervous enough!!!

My treat for reaching the top: Seeing a Black Vulture up close.

Barely made this photo! My settings were all wrong which is why the color is weird. Just glad I got him taking off! They sure are a lot larger looking when their wings are open!!

Bird Nests

We have a bluebird box in our backyard. I know these pictures aren't that great but I tried! I was standing on a block on my tiptoes with my camera up in the air trying to aim it right. The things we do...

The first three photos are of baby bluebirds:





This is a little better. These were taken the beginning of April. They are Carolina Wrens that nested in our shed. They nest there every year. There were 5 babies and they must have fledged when we were on vacation.


A couple of days ago The Latin King told me that there was a bird that had gotten into the basement. It was through the window I have been keeping open to the greenhouse. When I went to look in the greenhouse, sure enough! there was a nest in amongst my carrots. More Carolina Wrens. Fortunately, there were no eggs in there yet so I removed the nest and harvested the carrots. Our house is now closed up and the AC units are running. Summer is upon us.

Can't wait to see what other birds come visit this year!

Birding

Just a quick post to check out the redesigned All About Birds website. They included some nice how to videos on bird identification.

(We've been back from vacation for almost two weeks now. I'm still recovering. This is also our busy time with our homeschool co-op. I have to finish some pirate costumes, practice lines/song/jokes, and keep up with all my other stuff at home. The garden weeds have started taking over! I'm also preparing to go to a homeschool conference book fair at the end of the month and making sure I know what I want to buy before I get there. I took lots of pics on vacation and will load some of them eventually with some cool things we got to see. In the meantime, take care!)

More Pine Siskin

Here he comes having landed on the little dead tree branch we attached to the arbor.


He first went for the thistle sock feeder. (it was refilled after he left)


These are two very nice snapshots of him at the black oil sunflower seed feeder. You can really see the yellow touches of color on his wing and tail feathers.


Remember that you can click on the pictures to see an enlarged one.

(The pictures are getting better, yes? ;D)

New Bird-Pine Siskin

These little birds have shown up at our house this winter perhaps within the last month. They could have been here before and I just didn't catch it. They look very much like a female house finch or you could possibly mistake it for a female goldfinch. That's who they seem to be hanging out with-the Goldfinches. They are after the thistle seed. If you do a Google search, you will find that people from all over are having an irruption of these birds. I'm glad that I don't have numbers up into the hundreds like some. I couldn't afford to feed that many! Thistle seed is pricey!!!

What got my attention were the yellow bars on its wings. One day I was watching my feeders through the window and noticed them while it was fluttering. Boy, that bird book came open so fast!

Some minor differences I've noticed and things I look for when I'm trying to figure out who is who:
*The beak is pointier-sharper looking.
*This bird is aggressive-it goes after any other birds looking for its spot. A serious 'don't mess with me' demeanor.
*It is streaked like the house finch but instead of white hints in its wings, there are yellow hints.
*I believe it is a little smaller than the house finch.
*When it flies you may see the bright yellow bars (or patch section). I need to investigate that more because it seems as if the female may not have the bright yellow patches that I saw on the male.

My observations of these birds have come on rainy days so that may affect how they appear to me. I hope to view them when the sun is shining to get a better idea of how they compare to the other finches. Oh! and I guess you could say it might resemble a song sparrow too. That may help you get an idea of what I've seen. The picture above shows the yellow very well, but you may not be able to see it as easily when it's hanging partially upside down on a feeder.

I've got my new camera! Hopefully, I'll be able to get some bird photos of my own now. I'm not sure how that's going to work without scaring them away but I'll give it a go.

A Real Snow at Last!

Most people on the east coast of the US just had an awesome snow fall. In our area, we ended up with 5 inches. I know because I took my measuring stick outside and measured several places in our yard just to be sure. I never trust those news forecasters on snowfall totals. ;D

My camera was out of commission during this snowfall so I have no current pictures to show you. I do have a couple of pictures of the usual sissy snow we normally get. That 'light dusting'...

January 2008

January 2009




See what I mean? Sissy snow. Not this time though. With 5 inches we were finally able to go sledding!!! It's been about 5 years since our part of the country has seen 5 inches. (and if I remember correctly, that was the year our power was out for 3 days and we broke down and bought a kerosene heater.)

We took off to a nearby school (I knew those public schools were good for something. LOL) and proceeded to spend two hours riding down some great hills. It was so fun to see everybody out there. There were, of course, tons of little kids, parents and even teens on their snowboards. We had pretty humble equipment: cardboard and an empty bird seed bag that was great for me! ;D They all did the trick.

After that we came home for a potty break and lunch. Then the kids went back outside in our yard while I did some inside chores. They were very disappointed that they couldn't form a snowman. The snow that fell was pretty dry. However, with a little bit of melting from the afternoon sun and Dad to the rescue, they were able to go back out in the evening and make one. Complete with eyepatch and one of their pirate hats. (of course!)

Charlotte Mason would be so proud of all our Outdoor Time today! LOL

Surprise!!! One of my friends is graciously letting me use some of the photos she took in the woods behind their house. She did a great job with these pictures, don't ya think?






And a few of her feathered friends enjoying the seeds she provided...

Titmouse

Junco

Chickadee

Bluejay

Hope you enjoyed a glimpse of our recent winter wonderland!