Who Are You Lookin' At?!

At the Park

I went on my first "official" bird watching outing yesterday. I am not very good at finding the birds, and when I do find them, I can only recognize a handful, but it is still a lot of fun. I didn't know ahead of time, but the place I went is home to a great horned owl. There were two great horned owl "babies" that were quite visible.

At the Park

I spent some time this morning watching the birds at a freshly filled feeder at a local metropark. I saw lots of red-wing blackbirds, several brown-headed cowbirds, a pair of goldfinches, cardinals, bluejays, eastern bluebirds, and a red bellied woodpecker. I also saw a tufted titmouse for the first time. It was a cute little bird.




I also revisited the park from my previous post and saw several pairs of tree swallows. The mommy killeer was still sitting on her nest.

At the Park

We went to the park today, where we saw this killdeer and her little speckled eggs. We also saw (and heard) a large male red bellied woodpecker and an Eastern bluebird. Considering how noisy we were, I felt lucky to see much at all!

Almost Time for Hummingbirds!

In an act of faith, I hung the hummingbird feeder today. I think my feeder was up a good month last year before I actually saw any hummers visit it. Hopefully it won't take as long this year!

This map is a fun reference to watch the hummingbirds' migration.

New Bird Sighting

I saw a northern flicker in my backyard today. They are big woodpeckers! The field guide I used to look it up said they are about 13" tall. It was the first time I've seen him, but hopefully he'll be back soon so I can get a good picture of him.

Birds!

Since receiving my new camera for Christmas, I've practiced a lot by taking pictures of the birds at my backyard feeder. A couple weeks ago, I decided to keep a list of the birds I've seen. After doing that for a couple weeks, I've decided I'd like to get involved in birding. So, this blog is to record some of the birds I've seen. Right now these are all birds that have visited my backyard feeder. Considering we only have 4 mature trees and it's the middle of winter, there's not a whole lot of variety. Once the weather warms up, maybe I'll be able to take a "field trip" while the kids are in school.

If I've misidentified any, let me know.

white breasted nuthatch

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American robin

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female northern cardinal

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male northern cardinal

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male house sparrow

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female house sparrow

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blue jay

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dark eyed junco

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black-capped chickadee

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mourning dove

I've also had a downy woodpecker and some Eurpean starlings at my feeder, but I don't have any presentable pictures of those yet.