DAILY BIRD PICS VOL. 397

Lots of variety. You can tell it's spring time. Keep'm coming.

Still enjoy to come see, what you all have to share. Some really nice contribution.

I love having the Purple finches again in the yard.

I have a lot of Junco this year.

And a lot of White-throated Sparrows.

The Brown-headed Cowbird are here too.
The Fox Sparrow and the White-crowned Sparrow have not showed up yet..

I just love seeing where my winter visitors go for the summer...Nice Burn!

This Northern Flicker come to visit back on the 27th. I seem to have lots of ants in the yard so I hope to see them often! lol

The very large group of Blue Jays seemed to have moved on but we still have plenty around pigging out on the suet!

Both of the Red-bellied Woodpeckers are here quite often now...even at the same time any more. Now if I could just get them to pose together! lol

Very, very busy with Downy Woodpecker activity!!

lots of activity there in general, Nanny!

Some here too. I've been kind of busy, so I have a few pix from different days.

I have about a half dozen white-crowned sparrows right now. A few white throated sparrows, but nothing compared to the WTCs

The Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks arrived Saturday. I was running errands and DH called me to tell me. Those DHes can be quite sweet sometimes!

A first for the yard, a male Easter Bluebird. Don't know what he was doing here; I never see them in town.

Also had a visit from a male Baltimore Oriole. I've had a male here once before, 2 years ago at about the same time. Only sighted for a day then, and likely this time too. I put out some jelly but haven't seen him since.

Great shot of that oriole Mrs. Ed!!

Yup...the yard is busy all day long right now!

Great photos everyone. I got way behind so I'm just going to say I enjoyed all your photos.

This past weekend our local Audubon hosted a heron festival which included a boat ride out to a heron rookery. We were disappointed to see the herons seemed to all be resting on their nests by 9:00 in the morning when we got there, but I did see two little guys that looked almost ready to fledge.

This Double-crested Cormorant was nice enough to pose for me.

We were hoping this pair of Western Grebes would do the mating dance, but they just continued doing the preliminary part of their mating dance by bobbing their heads up and down.

This message was edited May 3, 2011 9:22 PM

We found this Black-crowned Night Heron just standing near the tules.

Here's a pretty American White Pelican. I thought it strange this one had two knobs on the bill, but a closer look at my photo showed a portion in the center had been broken off.

Nice variety of water fowls there duc. The Western Grebes pair is a cute one. Poor Pelican. Hope he turns out ok. Nice pics. everyone.

Those knobs are only there for mating season, so I don't think there's any harm for the pelican!

Oooops, blushed, (no comment) oooops.

Could someone tell mw where the Hummingbirds are? Have had the feeder up for about 2 weeks and nothing yet. Is it too cold for them? Temps have been in the high 30's at night and low 50's during the day, could that be why?

I know these things because I had to look them up once. I saw mine in breeding season too, thought maybe they were a different species.

Hey Duc.The Orioles showed up today.

Young Male Bullock's Oriole.

Adult male Bullock's

This Black-headed Grosbeak has been hanging around for several days, but he is camera shy.

This message was edited May 4, 2011 7:55 AM

No Orioles here yet. Have had orange and grape jelly out for them for 2 weeks, sparrows keep eating it.

Donna

Sorry, Lily, I should have mentioned that the knobs on the pelicans are just there during the breeding periods. I learn a lot about birds just being on this thread which I do appreciate.

Adel, congratulations on the Bullock's arrival-great shots. Hope you'll soon be seeing the Hooded too soon. I'm seeing more female Hooded (all yellow on stomach) orioles this year than ever before. Great photo of that grosbeak. I can never get them to come to any feeder or even the birdbaths.

Donna, hope you'll have better luck with the orioles soon.

I'm still trying to get a good photo of a Red-winged Blackbird. They just don't sit still.

Found this Yellow-headed Blackbird in the tules on the lake.

I love the way the Double-crested Cormorants have to run across the water to gain speed before they can fly off.

I keep trying to catch this immature Bald Eagle as it flies past the house but it just makes one pass and then sits in this same tree for an hour or so.

Duc...................Hope you are right. I haven't seen a Hooded Oriole here yet. That would be a lifer. Sibley's book shows them South of us.

Speaking of orioles, my first ever Orchard Oriole. Lousy weather yesterday and so a pretty awful picture, but YAY.

It was nice to see him take a dip… love the wing bars.

Today it's sunny! That means more activity at the pond. And warm enough to open a window.

Male Rose-breasted grosbeak. I will miss these guys when the head to the countryside. Haven't had many females yet.

Myrtle-butt warbler. I had two of these at the same time. Cuties.

Gray catbird

and bathing