Wings UP!

I’ve finally added a new album in my Picasa Web Albums.  You can view all of the latest uploads in “Wings Up”.

Downy Woodpecker (male)

Northern Cardinal (male)

Cardinal on a Snowy Branch

Birds are cold this morning ….

Hey …… did you know it snowed and it’s COLD out here

 

I have to stay all fluffed up to keep warm

Please bring us some seeds out NOW!

 

This Titmouse looks a little PO’d because I haven’t filled up the feeders yet :o)

Cardinals (male & female)

Taken during our little snow and BIG COLD spell ..  shot through the window!

Woodpecker Stack

Click on the Woodpecker to go to the “stack”

 

Cooper’s Hawk (Accipiter cooperii)

He had his eye on “lunch” so he let me walk very close to him. 

Among the bird world’s most skilful flyers, Cooper’s Hawks are common woodland hawks that tear through cluttered tree canopies in high speed pursuit of other birds. You’re most likely to see one prowling above a forest edge or field using just a few stiff wingbeats followed by a glide. With their smaller lookalike, the Sharp-shinned Hawk, Cooper’s Hawks make for famously tricky identifications. Both species are sometimes unwanted guests at bird feeders, looking for an easy meal (but not one of sunflower seeds).

Look for Cooper’s Hawks to fly with a flap-flap-glide pattern typical of accipiters. Even when crossing large open areas they rarely flap continuously. Another attack maneuver is to fly fast and low to the ground, then up and over an obstruction to surprise prey on the other side.

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris)

Two more hummer shots from several days ago.  Most of the hummingbirds have departed from this area.  I have a couple that are still buzzing around the feeders.

 

Duckies at Burdette

These images were taken at Burdette Park in June and July of this year during a couple  of my visits to Heavensville.  We always go to Burdette early in the am and sit for hours …. she reads and I shoot a gazillion photos ….. always loads of Ducks and Geese around the water.

 

 

  

 

Hummingbirds

I haven’t shot any hummers this summer so I decided to take a few shots today. 

 

Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)

“Old Blue Beauty”

 

 

A couple of intruders in his territory

A Double-crested Cormorant Take-off (Phalacrocorax auritus)

One lone Double-crested Cormorant on the lake yesterday ….

 

 

 

 

The double-crested cormorant is a little more than two feet long with a wingspan of about four feet. It has dark brown to black feathers, a long hooked bill with an orange throat pouch, a long tail, and webbed black feet. Adults have tufts of feathers over their eyes. Males and females look alike.

Cormorants dive for fish and marine invertebrates from the water's surface. After catching a fish, the cormorant surfaces, flips the fish in the air and swallows it head-first.

The double-crested cormorant doesn't have well-developed oil glands and isn't waterproofed very well. It often dries its feathers by perching on a pole or tree limb and stretching its wings out.

Great Egret (Ardea alba)

  The Great Egret is a large bird with all-white plumage that can reach one meter in height and weigh up to 950 grams (2.1 lb)  It is thus only slightly smaller than the Great Blue Heron.  The Great Egret can be distinguished from other white egrets by its yellow bill and black legs and feet, though the bill may become darker and the lower legs lighter in the breeding season. In breeding plumage, delicate ornamental feathers are borne on the back. Males and females are identical in appearance; juveniles look like non-breeding adults.

There were plenty of Great Egrets at the river yesterday, along with several Great Blue Herons and Cormorants.  This image is my favorite of the day. 

Red-headed & Pileated Woodpeckers

He was far away but I got off one shot!

 

Nearly as large as a crow, the Pileated Woodpecker is the largest woodpecker in most of North America. Its loud ringing calls and huge, rectangular excavations in dead trees announce its presence in forests across the continent.

 

I was trying to hide in some low hanging tree branches but the Red-headed Woody  spotted me anyway .. ha

 

An unmistakable bird, the Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus)  is striking at rest and in flight, showing its colors of red, black, and white. It is one of the most aggressive members of the family and one of the most omnivorous

 

 

Oh that silly Squirrel

This little squirrel has become my buddy over the past few weeks.  I put out pecans for him so he hangs around most of day.  He always manages to keep me laughing with his silly antics.  He is a very young squirrel so he is just learning the ropes!  I've seen him fall out of the maple tree twice and I'm sure it's not the only two times he has made a crash landing.

I opened the front door a couple of days ago and there he sat on the porch eating a pecan.  Needless to say, I scared him and away he went like a streak of lightning .... out to the road and climed up a pole.  He sat up there for about 10 minutes just staring at me and then decided he would cross the wire to another pole.  A couple of times he nearly fell but he kept right on truckin. He's a wreckless little guy so I have named him "Kamikaze".

He makes it over to the next pole ….

He almost didn’t make the “swing” around

Oh yeah … he’s gonna make it … LOL

He’s looking at me as if to say “I knew I could do it”

Little “Kamikaze” is quite the entertainer!

(all photos are clickable for a larger view)

Purple Finch (Carpodacus purpureus)

I was looking out the kitchen window at one of the feeders and saw what I thought was a male House Finch.   I left the kitchen and headed for the front door and it hit me …. no, not a House Finch, a Purple Finch!  So I grabbed the camera and took some shots of him.  He certainly is a beautiful little thing.  I haven’t seen one around here for over a year.

The Purple Finch is the bird that Roger Tory Peterson famously described as a “sparrow dipped in raspberry juice.” For many of us, they’re irregular winter visitors to our feeders, although these chunky, big-beaked finches do breed in northern North America and the West Coast. Separating them from House Finches requires a careful look, but the reward is a delicately colored, cleaner version of that red finch.

 

Purple Finches are numerous and conspicuous during spring migration; pairs are territorial, the brightly colored male displaying in front of the female with his rich, spirited, warbling song. After the clutch is raised, they may be seen in large flocks visiting orchards, parks, and other woodlands. In winter they visit feeding stations in large numbers, showing a fondness for sunflower seeds.

 

Female Purple Finch 

This image was made in February 2008

Yellow Warbler (Dendroica petechia)

One of the cutest little warblers ever!

 

The male.

Small warbler with olive-yellow upperparts and bright yellow underparts with rust-brown streaks on breast, sides. Wings are dark with two white bars. Tail is dark with yellow-tinged edges. Has a wider range than any other North American warbler. Eats insects, larvae, and some fruit. 

Preferred habitats include edges of marshes and swamps, willow-lined streams, leafy bogs, thickets, orchards, farmlands, forest edges, and suburban yards and gardens.

 

This is the female.

The nests of the Yellow Warbler are frequently parasitized by the Brown-headed Cowbird. The warbler often builds a new nest directly on top of the parasitized one, sometimes resulting in nests with up to six tiers.

Preferred habitats include edges of marshes and swamps, willow-lined streams, leafy bogs, thickets, orchards, farmlands, forest edges, and suburban yards and gardens.

 

The basic mating song of the yellow warbler is often written as “sweet-sweet-sweeter-than-sweet” or “sweet-sweet-I’m-so-sweet”, but males sing various other songs as well, some of which resemble those of the magnolia or chestnut-sided warbler or the American redstart.

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Dendroica coronata)

 

Three to five brown and gray marked, white to creamy white eggs are laid in a bulky nest made of twigs, rootlets, and grass, lined with hair and feathers, and built in a conifer. Incubation ranges from 12 to 13 days and is carried out by the female.

 

In summer, both sexes are a smart gray with flashes of white in the wings and yellow on the face, sides, and rump. Males are very strikingly shaded; females are duller and may show some brown. Winter birds are paler brown, with bright yellow rump and usually some yellow on the sides.

 

 

The Yellow-rumped Warbler is the only warbler able to digest the waxes found in bayberries and wax myrtles. Its ability to use these fruits allows it to winter farther north than other warblers, sometimes as far north as Newfoundland.

Yellow-rumped Warblers are common and widespread. Their populations are stable or increasing in most areas. Migrating Yellow-rumped Warblers, like many migrants, are frequently killed in collisions with radio towers, buildings, and other obstructions.

Duckies and Geese

I went off without my good camera and lens today so all I had was a little Point & Shoot in my purse!  Someday I will learn not to leave the house without the “big guns”.  These images are totally blown out but that is to be expected with the camera that I was using :(

The  little ones were just adorable.  

And the geese ……