Daily Bird Pics Vol. 371

Wow ...late to the party again!!

Enjoyed all the great pics....but I love that Northern Harrier, Elphaba!

Another lifer! I finally got a photo of the Carolina Wren, he has been here several times today. I cannot afford to feed them just Sunflower Seeds, that stuff is expensive! I have mixed seed I guess I could give them that instead of bread, but I thought that bread would help out. I guess I don't know as much as I thought I did about birds.

teddy, Chicken scratch is a bargain bird seed. It won't attract some of the smaller birds, but Cardinals, Blue Jays, doves and such will eat it with relish. It varies in content, but usually has a lot of cracked corn and milo along with whatever other grains were on hand. I buy it at the farm store for about $8 for a forty-pound bag. You might give it a try as a supplement for the larger birds.

This guy decided to see if he could get any seed, he was VERY determined, I even knocked on the door, but he was so engrossed into getting seed, he did not pay any attention to me. He did not knock down the feeder, he got some seed out of the tray at the bottom but that was it, he was entertaining to say the least. I was able to get quite a few of him on the feeder in different positions.

Here is another shot of him trying another position.

linth - great subject to start the new thread with. I never get tired of seeing those beautiful eagles.

Lily - nice pair of Pekin Ducks. AND those Red-headed Wps are great.

Burd - of all your pix, the Red-breasted Nuthatch is my favorite.

Granny - I love the look of those Flickers.

Elphaba - so many great shots. Your pic of the Yellow-rumped Warbler reminded me, I saw my first one of the year today. It's post its pic later.

red - that Common Goldeneye from Lake Lawtonka is a first for me, sharp looking duck.

teddy - congrats on the Lifer Wren. I no longer buy the "gourmet" seed. I can buy a 50 lb bag of Wild Bird Seed (and the birds eat it up) around here for under $20 (same is true for White Millet). I found that an unlikely store called Tractor Supply has good deals on seed. I buy my suet cakes there for $0.99 each. You can also find some good deals at a Feed and Seed type store.

Hack

Hack, I got a Barrow's/Common Golden-eye hybrid recently. I've never seen a Barrow's though. Quite a few of them around now, but they usually stay way out in open water and are difficult to photograph.

This is a shot of 3 different flotillas of shovelers in their pinwheel feeding formation. I wish I could post the video. This is the largest group of them I've observed doing this thing.

Red, That is neat. Can you post a link to the video?

I can't afford the gourmet seed either, we get the seed at Wal-Marts, it says Wild Bird Seed, and we can get it in a pretty good size bag, the only expensive seed is the Sunflower Seed, but they have not been getting a whole lot of that at once, I have a small cup that I use, the ledge gets some and I put some on the ground. That is all the Sunflower Seeds they get. I have a friend that has a BIG bag of seeds from his Sunflowers and he said he will bring it with him the next time he comes to visit I managed to catch this guy(or girl) in mid-leap, I thought that was a lucky shot..

Ditto on buying seed at Tractor Supply. It is my favorite store!! I only go to Wild Birds Unlimited to get Tree Nuts and special treats from time to time.

Hairy Woodpecker

Tractor Supply sells 40 lbs of Black Sunflower seed for around $15-16 and on sell sometime for $12-13. AND you just put out so much a day.

Hairy again.....so happy he is still here!

Great start with the Bald Eagle, and this thread is really rolling along fast. This is the first Goldfinch I have seen this winter.

Osprey flyover.

I am in love with this little bird. Really hope it sticks around now for… well, forever.

And these piggies (European Starlings). They are such characters.

Not a great quality video, I've never shot one with my camera. But, you can get the idea of how the shovelers form these pinwheel formations. They do this to stir up the water so they can strain food particles with fine projections (called lamellae) along the edges of their bills.

Also my first youtube upload at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isFj5EI2mAM

You are right Mrs_Ed, I hope ours stick around too, I looked at the ingredients of the seed we get, it has Grain products, White Millet, and Sunflower Seeds in it. I put some on the ground a week ago, and they loved it. I may talk to my hubby about getting the Sunflower Seeds at Tractor's Supply, with just putting a small bit out at a time, it will last longer. My hubby got a small bag the last time he went to the Wal-Mart store and it is not empty yet. I saw a couple of starlings last week but they seemed to have moved on, maybe they came to your house!

That is fascinating the way they do that, I have never seen anything like that before!

Wow !!! Lots of activity elsewhere in the country. Nice photos everyone.

On the subject of bird seed ..... I usually buy bird seed at Costco. Right before Christmas, I bought 2 - 40lb. bags at $11.99 per bag. It's Audubon Park Nature's blend - no fillers. For years I have bought bird seed at Costco's. This blend consists of Black Oil Sunflower, Millet, Sunflower hearts, Safflower and Stripe Sunflower. I like it because it has no corn in it. If I want corn I'll buy it separately.

Thank you for your "eagle" comments. This is my "Hello, down there !!!" photo. My photo editing software has a "spotlight " feature which I applied to this photo, just to change the presentation.

Red, that's interesting! Thanks.

Another Red-tailed Hawk shot.

I got this one when he decided to get on the platform, he sat there for awhile getting the seeds. He sure is cute!

We're gonna have a severe Winter storm tonight. Everything is closed tomorrow. But I got some pix today. I'll share some of them now.

This first one was done is real bad light. I tweaked it with PSE 7 and this is the best I got. If anyone wants to give it a try, feel free.

But, I wanted this one because this is the first time this year that I've laid eyes on a Yellow-rumped Warbler - and I almost missed it.

If it hadn't been hopping around, I'd probably never have seen this Brown Thrasher - it blends in well.

This message was edited Jan 9, 2011 11:59 PM

This chipping Sparrow was at a feeder I'd just placed on the porch so that maybe some birds could feed in relative shelter.

This female Downy sure stayed at the suet feeder a long time.

This male showed up later.

I SEE IT, I see it, I finally got to see the ruby colored crown (or, at least a little bit of it) of a Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

My last one tonight.

I had a bunch of Blue Jays taking turns at the platform feeder today.

Hack

Hack, I used a little Nikon P80. I wasn't sure if you held the shutter release down or just hit and it worked. But it worked well enough to see the action.

I had a RC Kinglet in the yard for the first time yesterday. We saw it several times in some rose bushed just outside our living room window. Because it was below us the 'crown' was clearly visible. The crown was pretty much the entire length of the head on this one. Didn't get any pics. Was a gray day and I was just too busy watching to go and get my camera.

I haven't taken any pics in a couple of days, I'll just post a pic from the OKC zoo. Don't know what this bird is, but it caught my eye. I checked the guide in the aviary and it didn't show this bird.

I am having fun learn how to use my video on the Canon...and it is not half bad either! I took the JVC camcorder back since it was not as good as my camera.

I am jealous that you got the crown on your kinglet Hack!

Hope your little wren stays Mrs. Ed...I understand compltetely how they steal your heart. I hadn't seen mine for a few days & was worried. But they were out there yesterday....big sigh of relief!

Red - neat video.

Love all the pics.

Love the wren Mrs. Ed. Hope it moves in with you permanently.

From Saturday, a little White-throated Sparrow with snow on its beak.

This was taken this last summer when it was nice and warm! I hope it gets that way again, I am SOOOOO tired of winter. And we are supposed to get more of this white stuff. The only thing I don't like about the warm weather, the winter birds go away. I hope some of them will stay around for awhile longer.

House Sparrow in wintry pose.

Nice pics GG!

Sweet Mallard pair Teddy!

Nice video red!

Good pics everyone!