DAILY PICS VOL. 406

Papa red belly surveying his domain, making sure everything is in order.

Nice ones guys!

The pictures are great this morning! I really like the Ospreys. We saw our first and only this spring. They rarely breed in Iowa and we happened to find one of their spots. Robins and House Finches are thriving here. In our area Orioles start leaving by end of July.

About feeding if you have grackles, if you can afford it, get some Safflower seed. They don't care for it, but we've had Mourning Doves, Finches, and Grosbeaks enjoying it.

My son took a picture of one up at the feeder looking at the seed but moved on. He did not look pleased! My boy sure did as he gets a kick out of putting grackle pictures on the camera for me.

Here is one you are not going to believe! This was taken at our front yard right at the trellis. I could not figure out who was feeding who, but I thought it was a lucky shot, and so is the next one, the blur you see in the bottom of the picture is my chair, I was inside at the front door taking her picture.

This is what you call up close and personal! I can't believe they came back! I told my hubby we are going to have to keep buying the suet cakes, he said why and then I shoed him the picture, he said ok.

Nice shot of the male Flicker feeding the female teddy!

So weird but my Flickers have never come to any of my suet feeders, they just feed for ants on the ground all over the yard.

I did not get the shot, but they were BOTH on the upside down feeder, but I could not get zoomed in, it would have looked like a black blur. Hopefully they will stick around, do ya think they will?

That is something only they can answer. :-)

Lily, your mom cardinal is pretty.

Pelle, beautiful shot of your hummer on the honeysuckle.

Nanny, I think I agree with you, that grackle baby isn't the cutest little one. Sorry about your little finch, poor baby.

Margaret, fantastic photo of the osprey and friend. The gull shot is beautiful too. The osprey sure put on a great show for you.

Teddy, great job with the wp and flicker photos.

Chillybean, your son did a great job with the grackle!

Here's one of my orioles waiting for me to move away from his feeder.

A juvenile House Sparrow.

This message was edited Jul 5, 2011 5:39 PM

And a sweet Tree Swallow.

I went back to the North Mole this morning - still no Skuas. No Osprey either. I did see a couple of Australasian Gannets fishing and soaring on their long, slender wings.

...

Last one of the Gannets.

Adult Silver Gull

Crested Tern.

Crested Tern banking just before landing.

A flock of Grey Teal.

Wonderful flight shots Margaret!

Fabulous!!

From back on the 1st.......the Eastern Towhee has been here over the last few days and he is starting to get up on the platform! He is still very skittish tho and doesn't stay long.

The Baltimore Orioles came around front and explored the front flower bed ...hunting for bugs I presume/

It was a great photo op!

Beautiful pics nanny!

Here is my first good look at one of the juvenile Hairy Woodpeckers.

Second day with the caged feeder and more birds are using it. House Finch at this time.

Margaret, your photos of the gannets are beautiful. Love that first one-they fly so flat, just like the eagles. You sure saw a great variety of birds.

Nanny, love your oriole and blooms. They may also be seeking the nectar in your lily blooms.

Pelle, that juvie wp is a cutie and it looks like the finches are happy with that feeder.

This juvie oriole was really intrigued with its reflection in the solar panel.

We were having lunch out on our deck when this recent HOSP fledgling appeared.

Another HOSP!

Here's a pair of Nuttall's Woodpeckers from a few days ago.

Nice ones duc! Love the Oriole!

All nice images, Duc. Even the Hosp. Love the Nuttalls wps. Margaret, love the Gannets, Gulls and Tern. Here a sweet face of a baby face of a Housefinch juvenile.

This is the first and knowing my luck the last picture of a Hummingbird getting nectar out my neighbor's Hydrangea flower. When you enlarge the picture, you can see the hummer a lot better.

Great variety everyone! I'm adding some baby Mallard ducks, swimming by .

A young male starting to show some color.

Burn, how neat! I didn't know that the young male looks almost like the female like it. That's until he shows his true color. lol. Nice one of the hummingbird teddy.

Lots of good birds and pics. Had something unusual happen in the second mockingbird nest yesterday. A smaller fifth egg appeared and three of the eggs had hatched when I returned from Texas. I took a pic of the fifth egg to id and when I checked a couple of hours later, it was gone. I assume the adults removed it. It isn't a cowbird, nor a Yellow-billed Cuckoo. My best guess is a runt mockingbird egg. A local expert told me they sometimes do this on the last egg and it usually doesn't contain a yolk.

A pic of the egg and hatchlings. BTW, the YB Cuckoo I saw in the yard yesterday brings my yard bird total to 138 species, the most recorded on eBird for my state.

This morning I checked the mocker's nest and caught the fourth egg hatching. Lots of progress in getting along with the adult mockingbirds. They seem to recognize me now.

Wow, Mockingbirds recognized the 'smaller eggs' as wasn't their own? I think I read that somewhere. Those hatchlings looks so tender and fragile. Thanks Red for sharing those info.

A few taken back on the 3rd......none of them really good!

Eastern Blue Bird fledgling

The best I have gotten this year of a Eastern Kingbird

and a chatty House Wren! I just love these little birds!