Any interesting birds by your pond?

[j.w]

Nice birdy now don't eat all addy's frogs up!

 

[CountryEscape]

OMG, this is sooo funny! My brother, in SEATTLE, just posted a sharp shinned hawk pic on his FB page yesterday, and I told him it looked just like a hawk my friend Addy posted on the GPF. So, watch out, JW!!! Those guys are in your area.

 

[addy1]

See how the wings go forward? the coopers hawk has straight wings.

According to the birding sites they are only successful 10% of the time in their hunt.

 

[riparks]

We have a pair of hawks that have nested in the woods behind our house for years. Every once in a while, I find a pile of dove feathers in the yard and know the hawks have been in the yard. A couple of months ago, I heard the familiar hawk call in a tree very close to me. I looked up and it was a blue jay. Cracked me up. The blue jay is very smart, it will perch in the trees near the bird feeders and start screeching like a hawk and scare all the other birds away. Then, it will proceed to eat like a pig!!!

We have jays, cardinals, tufted titmouse, chickadees, blue birds, doves, woodpeckers, starlings (ugh), brown headed cow birds (ugh), hummingbirds, purple martines and indigo buntings.

I also have an unidentified bird this year, the male has a yellow head and chest and light grey feathers, the female has a yellow head. The male will land on all of the upoccupied birdhouses and sing (and sing and sing and sing) for the female. He is not shy and will land 5-6 feet from me.

 

[SE18]

All kinds of birds love my water features, especially b/c the water in the canal and aqueducts and departing the stream from the waterwheel mill is relatively shallow and they drink and splish splash around there, leaving feathers in the water. I'd love to see some herons or egrets but I think they're only interested in koi, preferrably the most expensive type LOL

Still looking for a rare bird but I wouldn't know one if I saw one unless it were a penguin or something

 

[addy1]

We have 4 pairs of eastern blue birds nesting here this year. So neat, they flew in a few times last year, but this is their first nesting.

 

[j.w]

I've only seen one blue bird here in 12 yrs. Maybe they don't live around here and he was just passing through? They are so pretty. We see a few Goldfinches now and then here,more so when I was feeding the birds.........darn cats, so can't do that anymore. It's also our state bird and quite pretty!

 

[CountryEscape]

JW, look u Indigo Bunting. Talk about a BLUE bird! The Eastern Bluebird is what most people refer to as bluebirds, and they are more beautiful in my opinion, because they have more colors than blue, including kind of a rust color. The "bluebird houses" are set up for them, and they are great bug catchers. I wish I had some of these birds where I live. I used to live in the woods, and had the indigo buntings along the roads I walked. They like to be close to the woods.
Riparks, I've heard the blue jays make the hawk sound before, too. Funny that they would use it to chase other birds from your feeders. Quite smart of them, I'd say. LOL
Only strange birds I have around my house are "passing through" but have been here for well over a month now, and after finding one dead (hit by a car, I assume) in my ditch while mowing, others have pegged them as palmated sand pipers. Very unique, flying in huge flocks (earlier the flocks were huge, now much smaller, so many have continued their trek north), and doing neat acrobatics in the air.

 

[CometKeith]

Addy, Great surveillance. I think our government can use your talents!

 

[addy1]

Addy, Great surveillance. I think our government can use your talents!

I watch nature way more than anything else.

And yesterday saw this bird, didn't have camera darn it and it flew fast.

Not my picture red headed wood pecker

 

[j.w]

CE I looked up that Indigo Bunting and it is a very pretty bird and has a nice shrill sounding song. They aren't found here tho. Found this photo of one:

 

[CometKeith]

Addy, I saw one of those red headed wood peckers in our yard a couple years ago. I had to look it up because I had never seen one before. It's a really pretty bird except when it's knocking a hole in something you don't want it to. We have cedar siding on our garage and for some reason there are always woodpeckers making holes in it.

 

[CountryEscape]

I used to live in the woods, CK, and the red headed woodpeckers were the most popular ones around. I've still never seen a pilated woodpecker in person. My son always talked about them when he would deer hunt, telling me they were "as big as a chicken!"

 

[CometKeith]

CE, I looked those up. They look like really neat birds. After reading a little more about woodpeckers I understand the benefit that woodpeckers are to other birds by creating nesting holes. I feel bad for spraying that foam stuff in all the holes they made in our garage, but my better half wasn't thrilled by seeing a bunch of birds flying into the holes and maybe getting stuck behind the drywall!

 

[CountryEscape]

CK, if woodpeckers were making lots of holes in the siding of your garage, my guess is you have some type of bugs living in the walls of your garage. Get rid of the bugs, and the woodpeckers will quit making holes, I would assume anyhow.