Archive for February, 2009
« Previous EntriesA Mixed Flock of Blackbirds
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
About 11:30 this morning I heard a sudden big whoosh of wings outside my office window, and when I looked, sure enough, the front yard was full of Blackbirds, several hundred perched in the bare limbs of the trees and spread over the grass and pine needles and leaf mulch, all [...]
A Cooper’s Hawk, a Great Blue Heron, and a Rusty Blackbird Singing
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
Late this afternoon, with the sun low but still bright, Pine Siskins called their twanging zhrreEEE from the pines as I went out for a walk. It was pleasantly cool, with a light westerly breeze. Cedar Waxwings scattered high, thin, piping notes and perched in the tops of trees, facing the [...]
A trip to PET ER
Submitted by Bird TLC Blog
Bird TLC interacts with lots of veterinarians and clinics. One that I get to visit often is Pet Emergency Treatment. Pet ER is one of the few 24 hour, 365 days a year facilities that’s there for your pet when you need them the most. It’s their intention to specialize predominantly [...]
A Carolina Wren’s Morning Song
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
Each morning for the past several days, a Carolina Wren has begun the day by singing from a perch on the top of a plant hanger just outside our kitchen window. I hear its song first thing as I wake up, and later, it sings as we make breakfast and eat [...]
Mr. and Mrs. Beaver
Submitted by The Birdcouple Blog
While Lisa was being the marvelous daughter that she is, visting her dad in the hospital Saturday, Warren kept up the BC quest by doing a spot of birding up at Fort McHenry up in Baltimore, which is actually quite a birdy spot.
Warren didn’t expect to see the Snowy Owl [...]
Mixed Feeding Flock, #2
Submitted by The Birdcouple Blog
Time for our occasional, eclectic mix of birding and blogging news, new and old. For starters, we just LOVED this piece by the Kitchen Window Birder about how she discovered the joy of birds and birdings just a year ago. Wonderful photos, too!
On a much more depressing note, a DC [...]
New presenters
Submitted by Bird TLC Blog
Bird TLC has a couple new presenters in it’s education program. Patrica checked off on the rough-legged hawk and Beki checked off on the snowy owl. Both gals will make awesome representatives of Bird TLC
One of many things that TLC never has enough of is presenters. You just don’t become [...]
Ross’s Portraits
Submitted by BrdPics Blog
Yesterday, I found a cooperative Ross’s Goose at Golden Ponds in Longmont, Colorado. A birding pal had told me about the bird a week earlier but I hadn’t been able to find it then. Checking yesterday, I noticed a very small white bird in with large Canada Geese on a little residual [...]
Crossbills, at last!
Submitted by The Birdcouple Blog
White-Winged Crossbills have been everywhere this winter, hanging out in every hemlock tree for miles around. Everywhere except in Birdcouple’s bins, that is. They’ve been kind of hiding from us, to tell you the truth:
Until today, that is. We headed down towards Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary, where WWCBs have been [...]
Pine Siskin Photos
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
Several Pine Siskins continue to visit the feeder on the edge of our back deck. Mornings are the busiest hours of the day. At times there are Siskins at each opening on the feeder and several waiting on the deck rail or the top of the feeder or the branches overhead. [...]
Red-shouldered Hawk Pair
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
Late this morning – a beautiful cool, sunny, spring-like morning with a quilt of white clouds slowly drifting from west to east across a blue sky – two Red-shouldered Hawks flew into the top of a pine tree on the edge of our yard, calling a squeaking eee-er, eee-er a couple [...]
A Female Rusty Blackbird and a Sharp-shinned Hawk
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
Late this afternoon, the sky was a clear, cool blue and the sun was sinking low as I went out for a walk. A Northern Flicker perched in the top of a tree in one yard, a House Finch and a Bluebird sang, and a few Cedar Waxwings flew over – [...]
And the Rabbit became a Red-tailed Hawk…
Submitted by The Birdcouple Blog
Our friend, Patty, sent us these shots of a Red-tailed Hawk feeding on a rabbit a few months ago. These pictures may be a bit disturbing for rabbit lovers. We occasionally hear from folks about how sad or horrified they are to find feathers or remains of a squirrel [...]
Four Corners Fun
Submitted by BrdPics Blog
Folks- I’m happy to announce that I’ll be the keynote speaker at the 5th annual Ute Mountain-Mesa Verde Birding Festival based in Cortez, Colorado, 14-17 May 2009. Come on down to the fabulous Four Corners region to do some birding & take in the sights! If you’ve never been to Mesa Verde [...]
White-Throated Sparrow with Conjunctivitis
Submitted by The Birdcouple Blog
Birdcouple hates sights like this. After participating Sunday morning in the annual Patuxent River Waterbird Count - and snagging a cool male Barrow’s Goldeneye spotted by another team - we headed up to one of our favorite spots in southern Maryland, Battle Creek Cypress Swamp.
There, we planned to check out [...]
Sharp-shinned Hawk Flying
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
About 2:30 this afternoon, as I was driving out on my way to do some errands, a Sharp-shinned Hawk flew over the highway ahead of me, a little above tree level. Its compact shape and fluttery way of flying caught my eye. It flapped several quick times, then a short glide, [...]
Macro Monday
Submitted by Craigs Birds Blog
Can you guess what this one is?
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]
Flirting and Displaying…
Submitted by The Birdcouple Blog
Cute Husband and I do some citizen science each year by helping with the Patuxent River Water Bird count.
We always find something wonderful and the weather (it hit 60 degrees!) yesterday begged to be outdoors. On our first stop, we found a Lesser Black-backed Gull slumming with some Ring-billeds.
And, when [...]
Got Fish?
Submitted by The Birdcouple Blog
Once in a while, you snap a picture and don’t even realize, just from looking through the viewfinder, what you’ve got. We were toodling along the Wildlife Drive at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge last Sunday when we noticed cars ahead of us stopped to see and photograph this Great Blue [...]
Our House and the White House
Submitted by The Birdcouple Blog
Apparently, Cute Husband and I have something in common with the new first family. The LoveNest is constantly under attack by a family of raccoons who enjoy tipping the trash, eating bird seed and washing their cute little critter hands in the bird bath.
And, according to this from The [...]
Faces in the Crowd
Submitted by BrdPics Blog
I headed over to a local birding hotspot in southern Boulder County, Colorado the other day to follow up on some reports of interesting geese. Pulling in to Stearns Lake with tasty late afternoon light, I immediately saw that I’d be able to burn lots of 1’s and 0’s on my memory [...]
Some do like to visit
Submitted by Bird TLC Blog
we aren’t set up to do tours at our clinic. The USF&W regulations says we must seperate the birds under rehab and the education birds from viewing if we give tours. Our layout just doesn’t make it that easy.
However, there are a few that are exempt. They don’t even check [...]
Cardinal Duet
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
Early this morning – a clear, cold day – a Cardinal sat in the top of a pecan tree, catching the first rays of the rising sun, and sang. His bright song – seeer-seeer-purdy-purdy-purdy – was closely echoed by another, slightly softer purdy-purdy-purdy-purdy that chimed in near the end each time [...]
Birds In Motion – Variations in the Obvious
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
Late this morning the sky was a soaring soft blue, marbled with swirling white clouds, and a northwest breeze was stiff and cold – it felt good to be outside and walking. Birds were active everywhere. A Bluebird flashed against a background of drab and faded grass. A Phoebe swooped down [...]
Pine Siskins’ Metallic Zhree-eee-eee
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
From a stand of several pines came a grating, sharply rising call – zhree-eee-eee – and a twitter of shorter, raspy chirps. The trees were full of Pine Siskins. These were the first ones I’ve run into away from the feeders in our yard, and it was interesting to watch them [...]
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