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| Elizaray |
Posted - Apr 20 2007 : 11:09:34 AM
More birds are showing their faces in my yard each day! I am so happy that spring has truly "sprung". I love to see them hoping about getting worms and feeding from the bird feeder. Maybe this year I will get a bird bath for them.
Elizaray |
| 16 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Elizaray |
Posted - Jul 17 2008 : 11:07:37 AM
I wonder why the herons won't come? I read that an egret is part of the heron family. They sure are stunning, aren't they?
Elizaray |
| Jen |
Posted - Jul 17 2008 : 09:12:40 AM
A big egret has been frequenting our neighbor's pond. When it's there, the resident herons don't come around. I wonder how long the egret will stay?
Jen
Farmgirl Sisterhood Member #9
The View From My Boots: www.bovesboots.blogspot.com
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| Elizaray |
Posted - Jul 17 2008 : 06:25:57 AM
That is amazing Libbie! There is a cat collector in our neighborhood and I have only heard a few sparrows so far. There is a really nice riverfront park not to far from here. Maybe we will have to go listen. Maybe I will have to record them and figure out a way to share the file with you because I can only name a few bird's calls!
Elizaray |
| Libbie |
Posted - May 06 2008 : 09:31:11 AM
When I was walking with the boys near dusk along the canal last night, we were trying to identify bird calls - here's what we came up with: robins, red-winged blackbirds, a hummingbird, mourning doves, and meadowlarks. We heard crickets, too! YAY!!! I'm still waiting for the summer nighthawks to show up - and the bats, too. I just LOVE watching the world "spring" into action! Winter has its own quiet beauty, of course, but there is just SOMETHING about the exuberance of spring that makes my heart smile...
XOXO, Libbie
"Farmgirl Sister #10," and proud of it!!! |
| Elizaray |
Posted - Apr 29 2008 : 3:55:42 PM
That might be him- I will have to keep an eye out to see if I spot him again. I am not sure about the beak, but then again I only saw a 3/4 side of him- mostly side and back. What a pretty boy though!
Elizaray |
| LeslieAnne |
Posted - Apr 29 2008 : 2:44:07 PM
Elizaray, your bluey-black bird sounds like a grackle... http://www.ci.arlington.tx.us/animals/images/grackle.jpg
LeslieAnne...westTexas |
| Elizaray |
Posted - Apr 29 2008 : 07:48:05 AM
My White Crowned Sparrow is back! And lots of other friends as well! We had a pair of doves nesting in our ever greens and I have seen some sort of bird that has bluey black feathers. He is very sleek and graceful and a bit bigger than my sparrow but certainly not a crow or raven.
I have some stale bread and the dog's food is outside. The birds are loving it! Poor dog goes out and tried to defend the yard from the birds- it's a losing battle. We have big picture windows and at least once a week a bird thumps into one, but so far it seems to be a non-fatal hit- thank goodness! I will try to snag a picture of some of my "friends" soon :D
Elizaray |
| LeslieAnne |
Posted - Apr 22 2008 : 08:36:37 AM
I was already pretty excited this morning... the cardinal was on the birdfeeder & even came back for seconds after a Brewer's blackbird ran it off... but when I sat down at the computer & looked out the window, that bright blue bird eating seed along side the sparrows & finches gave me a real thrill... it was an indigo bunting!!!.. the first one I've ever seen... now I have 4 buntings on my list--indigo, lazuli, lark, & painted... I've added all but the lark bunting in the last 2 years... I've seen lark buntings all my life... the indigo has moved around to the south side, eating seed off the patio... I wonder if they ever go to feeders or if they're only ground feeders... the cardinal has left for now & has been replaced on the feeder by a red-winged blackbird...
Jen, how neat that you have northern shrikes!.. down here in Texas, they would be cause for much excitement... we have loggerhead shrikes, a relative, & they exhibit the same behavior, impaling grasshoppers or other prey on mesquite thorns or on the barbs of a barbed-wire fence...
Libbie, I love seeing bald eagles... my parents have a playa wetland across the road from their house in the northern Texas Panhandle, & in winter, if there's water in it, it's always covered with thousands of geese & ducks... that's when the bald eagles show up & they eat very well through the winter...
To learn more about playa wetlands, go to http://www.rw.ttu.edu/smith/playa.htm ... yeah, that's what it looks like around here, except for a few places like the Canyon Lakes & other locations along Yellowhouse Draw...
I would be hard-pressed to choose a most exciting bird sighting... today's indigo bunting was really exciting, but I've been just as excited many times before... when that first hummingbird shows up this season, I'll be pretty ecstatic!!!..
LeslieAnne...westTexas |
| Libbie |
Posted - Apr 21 2008 : 07:24:55 AM
Every year, we have bald eagles that soar over our chicken coop (YIKES!) looking for prey. I can tell when they are around, because the chickens all of the sudden become VERY quiet and run for cover under the lilac bushes. It's amazing. It happens every time - I can tell there's an eagle up there even before I look into the sky. That's my most interesting sighting because of the interaction between the two bird species.
Now I'm all inspired to get a Utah list of birds and start on it with my boys - at least the oldest one...
XOXO, Libbie
"Farmgirl Sister #10," and proud of it!!! |
| Jen |
Posted - Apr 20 2008 : 09:08:01 AM
I love birding, LeslieAnne, but for some reason I never thought of doing in any serious way with my kids. The girls are old enough now that they'd really get into learning the species & tallying them up. Thanks for the inspiration! Isn't it exciting to spot "off-the-map" birds?
One of the most unusual neat birds I've ever seen was a northern shrike in WA. They're not flamboyant by any means, but they're beautiful little predators that impale their prey on thorns. Wild!
How about you girls - what's your most interesting bird sighting?
Jen
Farmgirl Sisterhood Member #9
The View From My Boots: www.bovesboots.blogspot.com
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| Libbie |
Posted - Apr 20 2008 : 08:51:12 AM
WOW, LeslieAnne - that sounds like such an incredible day - and what a list!!! Oh - I am envious - I am sure you all had a wonderful time - and yes - it is WAY cool that birds just "know" where they'll be happy. The Canyon Lakes sound like great habitiat for so many birds - and lucky ones, at that. I love little "pockets" of nature within larger areas. They are like little presents when you stumble upon them...YAY!
XOXO, Libbie
"Farmgirl Sister #10," and proud of it!!! |
| LeslieAnne |
Posted - Apr 20 2008 : 08:39:46 AM
Our birding hike yesterday was a big success... Lubbock has a series of long, narrow lakes called the Canyon Lakes, located in Yellowhouse Canyon... it's the best place in the city to go birding... we started out in a riparian area & then climbed out of the canyon to a more brushy, prairie-type area... most of the birds we saw were in the riparian area, either in the water or in the trees, on the cattails, or on the shore of the creek-like lakes... the weather was great... we started at 8:00 a.m. with 52 degrees & finished at 11:00 with about 75 degrees... the wind was calm & the sky was clear...
Here's the list:
yellow-crowned night heron
wild turkey
red-winged blackbird
rock dove
mallard
barn swallow
great-tailed grackle
green heron
western kingbird
northern shoveler
cattle egret
American coot
black-crowned night heron
northern mockingbird
pied-billed grebe
Canada goose
killdeer
European starling
common moorhen
American robin
turkey vulture
northern cardinal
white-crowned sparrow
ferruginous hawk
mourning dove
Eurasian collared-dove
A few of these aren't supposed to be here... in other words, the field guides don't show this part of Texas as being within their ranges... but the Canyon Lakes aren't "typical" west Texas... the birds don't care one bit about what the maps show, they just know they'll find good habitat here... pretty cool, huh?..
LeslieAnne...westTexas |
| Jen |
Posted - Apr 16 2008 : 5:43:25 PM
Scarlet red with feathered crests and chunky orange beaks - almost like marvelous little parrots! I would just love to see all of the birds in Hawaii, Libbie - I bet it was wonderful.
Jen
Farmgirl Sisterhood Member #9
The View From My Boots: www.bovesboots.blogspot.com
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| Libbie |
Posted - Apr 16 2008 : 1:01:38 PM
LeslieAnne and Jen - I am so envious of you gals who have cardinals in your areas - are they the red, "look-like-they're-on-a-Christmas-card," type? There were some multicolored cardinals in Hawaii where my grandmother lived (the one who just passed away), and my boys and I fed them in the winter of 2006 with her. What a great memory to have...
XOXO, Libbie
"Farmgirl Sister #10," and proud of it!!! |
| LeslieAnne |
Posted - Apr 16 2008 : 11:19:15 AM
Mountain Girl, I'm pretty far north in Texas, almost in the Panhandle... hummers have been in Texas since the first part of March, & I think they're even this far north now, but I haven't seen any... it's usually mid-April or later when I have my first black-chinned... so, it could be any day now... I've had feeders up for a couple of weeks, just in case...
I had a male northern cardinal a few days ago... still have pine siskins, that's unusual...
Libbie, I love your grandmother's meadowlark song...
LeslieAnne...westTexas |
| Jen |
Posted - Apr 15 2008 : 2:40:50 PM
Sat and watched a vivacious cardinal singing about being a "pretty bird, pretty bird, pretty bird!" this morning...waiting for the hummers here too.
Jen
Farmgirl Sisterhood Member #9
The View From My Boots: www.bovesboots.blogspot.com
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