DAILY PICS Vol. 293

I watched these Mourning Doves mate several times today.

Congratulations on the hairy!! It's a beauty. I love the way the doves are just relaxing on the railing-great job. Sure is a cute Nuthatch too!

Duc, That is really neat!!! Thanks for sharing that with us!

Red, Your Bluebird is beautiful!

Nanny, Love the Nuthatch, Goldfinch and those Doves! Congratulations on the Hairy!!!!

Red that bluebird looks pretty on that dish. very nice shots.
Duc, that is fantastic. That deer was enjoying the attention for sure, great capture.
Nanny love your adorable Nuthatch. I keep watching the suet for some, none yet. Congratulation on the Hairy.
Sacarvounis, those Dove looks quite at home there.
Starlings eating frenzy, seems they never have enough. ;)

Mourning Doves and Starlings of course.

Both the Hairy and Downy are here in pairs.

Here's the Downy.

Very nice shots burn!

Neat pic of the deer and jay. Too bad the bird could not clean off the whole body, looks like he has quite a few ticks. Here is a near collision between two Turkey Vultures.

Neat!

Wow! Already off to a great start!
Thanks Nanny for the new thread... love your first red-bellied, and later the nuthatch.
Linda... nice Scrub Jay. We don't see those here.
Burn... love your grosbeaks and redpolls... something else we don't see here.
Hack... really liked your pine warbler!
Duc... Loved the series and story about the scrub jay and deer! That is really cool! I thought the first shot was excellent!

We had a nice day yesterday, and got to go walking by the river again. I saw a number of birds!

Not a perfect shot, and not a pretty bird...
But a decent shot, and a good look at a Black Vulture.
I was surprised by his starkly white legs!

A red-bellied woodpecker on the tree...

A red-shouldered hawk in flight...

Two pair of mallard...

Ring-billed gull in flight...

Mallard take off...

Canada geese in flight...

Not a bird... but an old bird house!
Taken at a pre-civil war era historical home...
A purple martin house (I assumed) made out of brick, matching the house.
I was trying to google the history of martin houses and if they were that way more than a hundred years ago, but I couldn't find anything.
Anyone else know?

Burn...looks like things are busy at your house!

Rose....nice hawk & vulture!

GP...I watched 2 TV's the other day....looked like one was pursuing the other. Looked like they were having fun anyway.

Went to Cooper Creek Park today and snapped a few shots.

Here is a Great Blue Heron.

Hack

Here are 3 American Coots and a Ring-necked Duck

Hack

Here are a couple of Canada Geese.

Hack

My last one is a Rock Pigeon.

Hack

I posted a pic over on the ID Forum and Burd_Photos said it was an immature Ring-billed Gill. But after I posted it there, I came here and saw VA_Wild_Rose's Ring-billed gull in flight and was pretty sure that's what I had.

Another LIFER for me - Yipee.

Hack

Here's another look at it. Leaving with a morsel.

Hack

Last pic, for real. Something is in its beak.

Hack

Thanks to all of you for sharing your feathered friends. duc, I'd like to see more of your deer/scrub jay photos. What a cool thing to see!

I haven't been posting much since my Canon 30D shows error reading. I have to turn in off and then back on to be able to take another photo. What a pain. I'm now using a Nikon P90 with UZ. I HATE this camera! I'll try to explain why on the Camera and photo forum tomorrow.

The tom turkeys are displaying here now. Isn't it a bit early?

VA, I tried too but failed to get any info on them. I'll try again later on using different words unless someone else comes up with it before that.
Nice variety of birds! Love the Ring-billed in flight! Great job! I'll be looking more closely at Black Vultures next time (the legs). The photo from Cornell shows very light legs too.
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black_Vulture/id

Hack, Good shots! Love the Gull and Coot series!

Tiger, Nice shot of the Turkeys displaying! I'll be checking the camera forum about that problem; hope it gets fixed soon.

tigerliliy, the irregular fan and lack of a long beard indicate this are first-year birds, jakes. Kinda like teenagers, their hormones are raging, but unlikely they will get an opportunity for fun this year. Will most likely be run off by a long-beard.

rose, I saw a piece on TV awhile back about a guy who builds birdhouses modeled after your home. Can't recall where he is. Not cheap of course. You might be able to find him on the net.

A couple of 2-year old birds I snapped last Thanksgiving. Rio Grandes.

Excellent photos, everyone.

Nice series of photos, Hack.

duc, the photos of your deer and Scrub Jay are the kind you live for. It's nice to get a close-up but sometimes being a little farther away gives you a little more perspective. Sometimes I prefer that to a "portrait".

tigerlily, nice photos of the Tom turkeys. I don't think it is too early for the turkey to start their mating rituals.

VA, if you can find some articles authored by James Hill, III you might find more information. He's considered the expert. I don't know if the use of the word 'vintage' will turn anything up. The Martin Houses as we know them are probably less than 100 years old but the Native American Indians used to hang out gourds to attract the Purple Martins because they kept away the Vultures from their animal kills, for food.

Lovely pictures everyone. VA_Wild_Rose -- I'm amazed at what great in-flight shots you get. I really loved the Canada Geese.
Hack, always enjoyable!
TigerLily -- love that shot of the turkeys.
Duc, your deer and jay pics are soooo amazing! They're so bambi-like.

Red-winged blackbird.

Same Red-winged Blackbird but he's pecking at my dead plumeria. Must be getting buggy. So much winter clean-up to do!

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Brown-headed cowbird

Downy Woodpecker. Not the best pic, but I have such a hard time getting pictures of them at all--almost as bad as the kinglet of which I only got one blurry pic.

Goldfinch above me.

This is my last one and the one that I was most excited about -- the bird not the pic. Didn't get a great picture, but it's the first time that I've seen a house finch in about 2 years. I have never seen anything but goldfinches at my finch feeders, so I was surprised to look up from my desk and see this one.

Okay I am really getting Turkey envy.....I mean we have them here and I have seen them in the fields. Though I have yet to get a photo. But man to have one in the yard would be too cool!

Hack... like the coots... never seen them before.
Tigerlily and reddirtretiree... great shot of the turkeys, and great info!
Elphaba... like your red-winged blackbird.

Thanks everyone... for trying to find info on the martin house. I am just interested in whether it is as old as the house. I appreciate all input!