Daily bird piccies vol 391

Bookends. a Great Egret and a Tri-colored Heron. Got a lifer Reddish Egret yesterday.

Red, looks like you're having a great birding vacation. Here, I'm home-ation and found a smaller Island within our Island with a dozen of Great Blue Herons' nest. I remember you've mentioned "Lily, look up high". And boys did I? Look!

Teddy, hope the flickers continue to use that hole in the tree.

Adel, that's a fantastic bath/feeder. Did you build it yourself? Great shots of the stellar and scrubs. I love it when the swallows act up with each other-cute picture.

Tiger, beautiful photos of the hawk and ducks. Love the wood duck hen photo-hope you're holding on to that one.

Lily, cute photos of your birds too. Glad you found the heron nests!

Red, great shots of the spoonbills, egret and heron. I hate thinking the gators are just waiting for a nearby bird. Congrats on the lifer. Did you get to see it dancing? I've read they're exciting to watch.

I found some Buffleheads on the lake a couple days ago.

Not a great photo, but this Bullock's Oriole is still not sure about me.

My first for the year Hooded Oriole arrived yesterday.

This female Bullock's Oriole is also a newcomer.

We sure were laughing at this Tree Swallow yesterday. She had a small stick that she tried to pull into the birdhouse and it wouldn't bend. Her mate finally flew up and pulled the stick away from her.

Here's one of the Tree Swallows.

That is a funny one of the Tree Swallow with the stick! Great looking Orioles too!

Not a good picture taking day today, it is raining and has been all day, I tried to take a picture of the female rb wp, but it came out blurry, so hopefully tomorrow will be a better(and drier) day. Happy birding! Ducbucin, hopefully I can find that tree again, I wandered around so much that day, I think I know where it is, like I said I THINK I know where it is.

duc the feeder is store bought (getting lazy)........haven't seen any Orioles yet.

Red, those first spoonbills look like cotton candy.

beautiful orioles Duc.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker playing peek a boo.

Hey, that's smart. That's like hummingbirds nesting hear Hawks.

That rookery is on an L-shaped island. I know I sure wouldn't want to try to swim out to it.

I didn't take many pics today, was too busy sorting through lots of birds, most of which I'm not very familiar. We are sitting on 100 species for the trip. Still not many warblers. There was a north wind and rain this afternoon, hoping for a little fall out in the a.m. If the warblers aren't in the woods, we'll probably go back to the rookery. Did I mention they have mosquitoes down here?

A smorgasbord of terns and Black Skimmers.

A Willet. Out on the flats of Bollivar Peninsula.


This message was edited Apr 4, 2011 6:27 PM

Another lifer-- a Clapper Rail. Usually pretty secretive. Two came out in the open while I was standing here. A Willet is also in the pic.

How about a few more spoonbills? They are beautiful birds. Lots of them down here.

Wow, Red! They're real pretty birds!!!

Hm, while I can appreciate that the gators might offer protection from other predators, I've seen documentary film where several heron and egret young were crowded from the nest. Nest above gator wasn't a very safe place then.

The warblers are finally starting to arrive. For a few days I had just one, and today there were three Orange-crowned Warblers. Yahoo!

Wow...great birds everyone!! Friday was girls day here for the woodpeckers....

Pileated came by first...

Downy next....

Hey congrats on the warblers tiger! I saw one on Saturday morning but missed the shaot. Not sure which it was.


Then Red-bellied!

Different looking Dark-eyed Junco here.....

Love the Spoonbill's and Willet red!

Sweet pic tiger!

Good seeing your woodpeckers nanny!

Red, I'm so excited by your fab pictures. I'm headed to High Island this morning. Spoonbills are some of my favs and I never pass up an opportunity to photograph gators!

Too many great photos to comment on them all!
Mrs. Ed, LOVE sapsuckers!
Duc, those orioles take my breath away!
Tigerlily, amazing hawk shots!
Adelbertcat, all great but really LOVE those tree swallows!
Burn, you're killin' me with those Evening Grosbeaks-- just stunning!
Lilylove, your finch pic is better than mine but I'm sharing it for Pelle!

Pelle, haven't read all the posts b/c want to get to High Island early this morn, so don't know if you solved your grackles problem, but wanted to share this feeder with you. It's designed for small birds, so grackles can't eat from it. I put safflower seed in it so house sparrows don't use it and yet the house finches always get some food even when the big birds (lately redwinged blackbirds) are dominating the other feeders. Wish the cardinals could eat from it though. It's a Stokes feeder that I got at Petco.

Have a great time at High Island Elfy. Ummm, wondering if I can modify that feeder to make it into a mealworms feeder for my BBs.

pelle, I recently purchased a couple of these feeders from eBay. They help greatly with my squirrel problem (metal feeders I had fixed to deter them they stole, and they destroyed plastic ones) and also prevent the jays from feeding. Jays are a real problem here, waiting in HUGE numbers for me to fill the feeders.


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150545136458&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Adel, do you the orioles get to your area soon.

Mrs Ed, love your little sapsucker. I thought I'd finally found one here but it took off before I could identify it.

Resin, that's very interesting about the gators and herons.

Red, love your "smorgasbord" photo and that Willet is beautiful. Congratulations on the new lifer!! Love the beautiful Spoonbills too! I'm sure enjoying your trip!!

Tiger, cute warbler.

Nanny, love all your wps. That different junco is a female Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon form) which come to my area.

Elphaba, congrats on the pretty new feeder.

Here's one of my female juncos-Oregon form- for Nanny to compare to hers.

Here's a pair of House Finches enjoying the sun.

Our California Quail were enjoying a dust bath yesterday.

I always get a kick out of how deep they dig down into the ground when I can barely get a hole dug to plant a flower.

Here's a happy little Oak Titmouse.

Nanny, Maybe you have a female pink form Junco.

Thanks for the suggestions for feeders tiger and Elphaba!

Duc, Those Quail are so cute!

Ditto on the cute quail.

Interesting that I had another Yellow-bellied sapsucker visit. Not only do I rarely get them but on the Illinois bird exchange, lots of people were reporting sightings the past couple of days. I'm tempted to put a humminbird feeder out and see if the sapsucker will drink from it.

Meanwhile, over at the pond…

Mama rb wp

Papa rb wp

I heard the Pileated WP this morning and went outside.

Sun was in the way, and I missed a great chance for a shot when he flew right over my head. Too quick for me.