Archive for March, 2009
« Previous EntriesNorthern Parula, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and Louisiana Waterthrush
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
This morning a Northern Parula sang from the branches of a large sweet gum tree on the edge of our back yard. A small, round, colorful bird with a blue-gray head, greenish back, and a blurry coral band across a yellow breast and throat, the Parula sings a crisp, buzzy song [...]
Birds have wings
Submitted by The Birdcouple Blog
… and show up in the strangest places.
We went birding today, in the far, far wild, unspoiled, pristine environment … of an office park.
That’s right. An office park. We saw a life bird - a Harris’ Sparrow - at a bird feeder behind some corporate office in a corporate park [...]
A new Eagle Scout
Submitted by Bird TLC Blog
Lisa and Petra surprised Devin Johnson (center) at his Eagle Scout induction ceremony yesterday. Then Mt. Redoubt surprised them by spreading a little ash. It’s my understanding that Devin is a third generation Eagle Scout.
Eagle Scouts do a lot for Bird TLC. They have built 75% of our outdoor mews. They [...]
Mixed Feeding Flock, #3
Submitted by The Birdcouple Blog
Tonight is Earth Hour. Turn off your lights! More over at Nervous Birds or at www.earthhourus.org. Locally, Baltimore is participating.
Ninety years of birding notes are going online, thanks to Maryland’s very own US Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. The notes cover 900 species including some–Great Auk, Carolina Parakeet–that are no longer [...]
Mammals of India
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
Warren is just back from a 2-day trip with Secretary of State Clinton to Mexico, but Birdcouple is still trying to savor our wonderful India vacation. It was crazy good with birds, but we saw a lot else besides. Including mammals, small…
Five-Striped Palm Squirrel
And large:
Gaur
The Gaur is a type [...]
Siskin Silence
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
The Pine Siskins have gone. The little brown-streaked birds with ravenous appetites that first appeared in our yard in mid January, swarming the finch feeder and keeping it busy every day since then, have finally left for their homes in the far north and west.
Their absence was the first thing I [...]
Pine Siskins – Rehearsal for Departure?
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
Yesterday morning I was working outside for a while and noticed the pines getting louder and louder with a congregation of Pine Siskins. Three came to one of the bird baths for a drink, and three or four more perched in some low limbs of an oak, but many more of [...]
Waiting for Warblers – and Other Spring Birds
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
About 8:30 this morning a gray-brown thrush with prominent dark spots on its breast and a wide-eyed look perched for just a moment on a low branch on the edge of our yard. It flew into thick shrubs before I could get a good look, and I wasn’t able to find [...]
Black-winged Redbird
Submitted by BrdPics Blog
I headed over to Barr Lake State Park today, just north of Denver International Airport. I was meeting my parents Jim & Karen and my niece Abby, with my little guy Garrett in tow. He idolizes Abby and was pretty psyched to see Grandpa and Grandma, too. I was anticipating a pretty [...]
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker at Work
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
I hadn’t seen or heard one for a while and thought they might be gone for the season, but this morning a vividly-colored Yellow-bellied Sapsucker spent more than an hour working on the lichen-covered trunk and large branches of a pecan tree in the front yard. Its throat and crown looked [...]
Hawk Watching
Submitted by BrdPics Blog
Over the weekend I went to the Dinosaur Ridge Hawkwatch, located near world-famous Red Rocks Park west of Denver. Sadly, the count there has seen a gradual decline in recent years, and this year there is no funding for a permanent hawkwatcher. Still, it is a nice place to hang out, tune [...]
If you missed “For the Birds”
Submitted by The Organic Beauty Expert
A heck of a time was had by all and a lot of money was raised “For the Birds”. There were a heck of a lot of good deals made also. There were over 125 silent and live auction items ranging from auto repair to trips to art and jewelry. [...]
Meanwhile Here at Home . . . Under Siege by Cedar Waxwings
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
Cedar Waxwings are among the most elegant and attractive birds, with sleek black mask edged in white, velvety gray-brown back, an upswept crest, lemon-yellow breast, and exquisite touches of gleaming red in the wing and yellow at the tip of the tail. All winter long, I enjoy hearing their high, thin [...]
Holi Spring! होली
Submitted by The Birdcouple Blog
Cute Husband and I were lucky enough to be in India for Holi, or the Festival of Colors.
Holi is a Hindu festival to celebrate the arrival of Spring.
The best part of this merry making holiday is the ritual of throwing or applying of colored powders and colored water on friends [...]
First ever “State of the Birds” report
Submitted by The Birdcouple Blog
is here.
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]
Great Blue Heron – Kiawah Island
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
A great blue heron, that almost spectral image of a prehistoric past, rises majestically out of the marsh on big, bowed, misty gray-blue wings, then settles some distance further on, disappearing into the confines of a ditch.
John Hay, “Migrants in Winter”
Last week we spent three days on Kiawah Island, off the [...]
In the Marshes and Ponds – Little Blue Herons
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
While sometimes they’re hard to find at all, Little Blue Herons seemed to be almost everywhere on this trip. One perched in a tangle of branches on the edge of a canal – its head and neck a smoky rose-blue, its back and wings slate blue. We also saw several immature [...]
. . . Tri-colored Herons and Egrets
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
Tri-colored Herons, with their contrasting colors and animated behavior were fun to watch as they foraged in several shallow ponds around the island, often raising their wings, lunging, or turning sharply as they hunted for fish.
Three Greater Yellowlegs were too far away to photograph, but we watched them through a scope [...]
On the Beach – Willets, Sanderlings, Plovers and Terns
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
Over the exposed flats at low tide, flocks of gray and white sanderlings, with many brown dunlins intermixed, are deftly probing the surface for tiny crustaceans or mollusks. . . . At times, they rise up, dip, turn, and swing like a casting of silver facets into the air . . [...]
A Map, A Friend, Birds and a Hive….
Submitted by The Birdcouple Blog
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]
Exactly!
Submitted by The Birdcouple Blog
Except for the part about the “endangered” Black-Necked Stilt, and birding have a “nerdy” image….
From the NY Times:
On Business, but Checking out the local airborne avifauna
Jonathan Rosen, then an editor at a Jewish newspaper, The Forward, was in Boca Raton, Fla., about 10 years ago for a four-day conference about [...]
Great Horned Owl in an Osprey Nest
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
One of the highlights of a short visit to Kiawah Island last week was finding a female Great Horned Owl sitting in a former Osprey nest in a tall pine, with the smaller male perched among the shadows of the pine branches not far away.
The nest overlooks an open expanse of [...]
Get ready, here it comes
Submitted by Bird TLC Blog
The annual “For the Birds” live and silent auction to help raise funds for Bird TLC will be held at the Captain Cook Hotel in the Discovery Ball Room this Saturday. The entertainment will be provided by Mr. Whitekeys of the “Fly by Night” fame. He’ll also be the auctioneer.
There [...]
Pine Siskins in the Rain
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
Coming home after being away for several days, I didn’t expect to find Pine Siskins still here. We filled the feeder before leaving, but they usually go through it in a day or two, so I thought they’d probably give up and move on, or decide it was a good time [...]
Tufted Titmouse
Submitted by Birding Notes Blog
Year-round, the most common birds around our yard by far are Tufted Titmice. During the winter months, several visit the feeders and the bird baths frequently and forage in the bare limbs of the oaks and pecans, coming and going just about all day every day, and they are so common [...]
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