DAILY BIRD PICS - VOL. #436

Pelle informed that it's time for a new thread. Admittedly, I've been lurking in the background enjoying everyone's photos. With Spring arriving it's great to see all of the birds that the changing seasons bring to us. If you wish to look at some of the more recent photos the following link will return you to the last thread.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1247847/

Personally, I've been doing very little bird photography. The warm weather that we had this winter altered bird behavior significantly. The question is, is this temporary or is it a trend ? Even the Osprey that normally fly south, as far as South America, hung around the southern Chesapeake Bay area during this winter. The Bald Eagles were fewer than previous years because they could stay put up North. Snow Geese were fewer than previous winters. I hope it's a temporary change.

I'll start this thread off with a few photos of the White Pelicans. Now for some, their sighting may be unusual but for here in Maryland they were seldom seen in previous years. I suppose the warmer weather is attributable for this trend, also. The first photo includes one large group at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. Seldom are they close to the shoreline so one needs all of the reach they can get. These photos were taken at 700mm.

Note: Sorry for the photo duplication. It was way past my bedtime !!!



This message was edited Mar 29, 2012 6:57 AM

Waterfowl numbers were also down, especially where I frequent. I don't recall any rare waterfowl sightings this Winter. Here are a few photos of the normal visitors.

The first two are of American Wigeons. The third is male Bufflehead and the last one is a male Canvasback.

This is a series of photos of the Green-winged Teal.

The last series of ducks includes a lone Northern Pintail and three photos of the Lesser Scaup.

That's it for now. I'll be back later with a few more ......

Great shots Linth! I love seeing the Pelicans.

Thanks for starting the new thread!

Beautiful shots Linth. BTW, you can double-post anytime you wish, I love our photos.

Thanks, Pelle and Granny Grunt. The White Pelicans are always a welcome sight.

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge is home for a number of Bald Eagles. Tragedy struck this year's family that is displayed on the Backwater webcam when an intruding eagle killed the two eaglets. Biologists suggest that with the increasing population of Bald Eagles and the competition for nesting sites increases, this behavior may become more commonplace. I hope not .....

I've been following a few Bald Eagle nesting sites at Blackwater, on my occasional visits. Each year, Blackwater hosts a one day Eagle Festival which attracts a lot of people. I usually don't visit on that day because of the crowd but the "Friends of Blackwater" used a few of my photos in a collage advertising the event. The collage shows four different nests that are currently active. I probably won't revisit until the eaglets have reached the fledgling stage of their young life.

Too many great photos in the last thread-well done everyone. Burd, your leucistic junco sure is pretty with the white eye.

Linth, thank you for the wonderful new start. I love the pelicans and we've just had a few here and not the thousands as in past years. Beautiful photos of all the waterfowl. What an honor to have your photos used for the event-congrats. Sad story of the eaglets.


Here's a scrub jay, a house finch and a Calif. quail.

Love that Scrub Jay duc!

Nice photos, duc. I always like to see the Scrub Jay. They are a beautiful bird, as is the California Quail. Our Quail are few and far between.

Just to emphasize the uniqueness of having the White Pelicans in the Mid-Atlantic area, I have attached a range map. You can see that nothing is noted in Eastern U.S., except Florida.

It's always amazing to me how quickly the Osprey arrive in large numbers. One day you see none and a week later they seem to be everywhere. Shooting toward the Sun doesn't lend itself to a lot of good photo opportunities. So with some of the Osprey photos, I've tried to salvage something out of them.

The first one was taken at the Osprey webcam location at Blackwater, at 700mm. It provides a good view of their wingspan. This photo was taken on the first day (3/15) that an Osprey arrived at Blackwater, this year.

Beautiful photos Linth!

Thanks, nanny .... Here are a few Great Blue Heron photos.

While waiting patiently for some activity at one of Blackwater's eagle nests, I took these two photos of a Carolina Wren.

Sweet shots Linth!

Linth, funny how you said the osprey showed up everywhere. So far we've just got one pair on a nest. Hoping for more soon. I love all your photos, especially the heron shots-wow.

Here's a lessor goldfinch, a mockingbird, a pair of tree swallows and my female nuttall's woodpecker.

Nice photos, duc. I always like to see the Nutall's Woodpecker. ,

Have you heard the latest ? "Lady" of the Loch of the Lowes, in Scotland, returned yesterday for the 22nd consecutive year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-17561256
http://blogs.scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/osprey/

The webcam is up and running .......

Oh my, do we dare watch.....but glad to hear she did return!

Thank you Charlie for the great new thread, love all the pix y'all. Speaking of return. My Redheaded Woodpecker(s) left our backyard for over a year after the storm took down their nest from a standing dead pine tree. For the past couple of days, they came back to visit. But very cautious and camera shy. Today, I finally captured a few pix.

Great start to the new thread Linth!! Lots of beautiful photo's! Nice shots of your bird's Duc! You have Nuttall's WP's now? Nice! Lily glad you still have your Red-headed WP's..rare to see them here. Well I,m still have problem's posting photo's...its keep's throwing me to the home page and I lose everything I did...so I'll do what I did on the last thread and start of with just a shot and work my way from there. I haven't been visiting Dave's like I used to but I have met a lot of birder's in Ohio now and have become a member of a group called Birding Ohio. I will be doing some volunteer work for the group during http://www.biggestweekinamericanbirding.com/

First I'll try to upload a Bald Eagle

Ok, from there i'll try a couple more. lol

A Northern Cardinal and Elvis

Hmm guess five pics is not going to happen...anyone else have this problem? A couple more and i,m done. lol


Gadwall's, Ring-necked Duck's, and lastly Sandhill Crane's. Have a backlog of photo's from the last month or so, will post some more next week.

This message was edited Mar 30, 2012 10:41 PM

well, we just put our hummingbird feeder out, although they are probably hunkered down somewhere because it is COLD in Indian Lake! We also put some honey grain and nuts on the platform feeder for the other birds, hopefully the squirrels won't figure out what is in the red thing hanging on the lattice. But unfortunately they are not that stupid.

Wow, 22 years of nesting! That osprey is amazing.

Lily, your redhead is sure beautiful.

Burd, loved seeing all your beautiful photos too. Sounds like you're really enjoying the birds. Sorry you're having problems posting here.

Teddy, hope a hummer will come soon to your feeder.

Here's a handsome house finch, a female northern flicker, a junco and a house sparrow arguing over the seeds and a couple of my tree swallows.

The cereal that I have put on the platform feeder has been a big hit! Papa rb wp has been munching on it and so has some of the downy woodpeckers, the feeder is up but no takers so far. Papa has been around here quite often, he flew past my head earlier today, if I had moved a inch he would have crashed into me. I guess he has gotten used to us had to put another suet cake out too, the sparrows have been eating it too.

I'm not able to photograph birds. However I enjoy all those which are posted here. Red winged blackbirds are returned to the small local marsh near us. It is part of the sluggish Miles river which is near us.

Linth a very lovely start. So great you got to see the W Pelicans, what a treat! Our ducks are now arriving. Some do stay year round, but I don't get to see them, as the river near my place, is solid ice in winter. I have seen a few last week, took blank shots of some.(no card in camera. Duh!)

A wonderful beginning with all your photos, everyone. it's fun to see different birds, that are different from what I see.
Burd, I had that problem when uploading pictures here for a while. I downloaded Firefox, and It's working fine for me now, plus it's faster to view and post.

Female Brown-headed Cowbird, American Goldfinch, Purple Finch, Grackle.

Mallard Ducks in flight at Northwood Park, Anchorage, Alaska, March 31, 2012.

Great shots guys!

Teddy, glad your wp has been enjoying your feeder.

Burn, great photos of your pretty birds.

Gras, great photos of the ducks. I've always loved the mallards.

I had a great birding day yesterday. My first bullock's oriole arrived at the feeder. He arrived three days earlier than last year.
Then this white dove, identified as a Barbary or Ringed Turtle-Dove arrived. This is probably a domestic escapee, but it looked healthy.

Fantastic shots folks. Wonderful selection of birds.

Here one of my suet thieves!! Didn't even take time to clean his beak!!

A pair of cardinals have been working on seeds dropped from our tube feeder.

Granny your little guy wasn't taught to use a napkin when eating-so cute!

Iris, hope you'll be seeing some young cardinals soon.

Here's a Bullock's oriole, an intergraded northern flicker, and some tree swallows.

www.youtube.com/embed/87xNpOYOlQ4?rel=0 I found this vid interesting.

Congrats Duc, on your Bullock's Oriole return. And nice escapee you've got. Love all your Tree Swallows. Good shot of the Suet Thief GG, Gary beautiful capture of the Mallard in flight. Burd, it's nice to see your posting. Looking forward to see more of your photos soon. I'll post to share a few water fowls I saw yesterday. I was so glad to haven found a few Pelicans -- stopping by during Spring migration yesterday at our local lake. Next is pic. Great Egrets, and 3rd is a GBH sunbathing.

Some more of the same birds.

Beautiful shots Duc, you are fortunate to have such a wonderful variety of birds. Love those Swallows.

Lily, you in such a beautiful place. Those shots are wonderful.

Great shots everyone!! A Ferrugious Hawk ( immature) has been found and confirmed within the past week at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Int. Airport. According to the fellow who noticed this different looking (buteo) its been there for nearly 3 months. I will be taking a trip down there Friday, to observe and photograph it and will post images in a thread called Ferrugious Hawk.

My hubby saw our first Hummingbird yesterday, it is posted on the migration maps. I keep looking out at the feeder trying to get a glimpse of it. Here is a picture of the male cardinal that I got the other day, he was right above my head and here is a picture of a female cardinal that took several drinks out of my homemade birdbath. She had just turned around so I got a picture of her tail end, but at least they are drinking out of it.

Adel, I've never seen an eagle swim like that one in your link-sure was determined to get that duck. An amazing feat to watch.

Lily, glad you were able to see the pelicans. They sure are beautiful.

Burd, hope you can locate that hawk. I keep searching for the one that's in our area.


Here's a female red-winged blackbird, a purple finch and another first arrival-a female bullock's oriole.

Got a photo of our male and female Red-bellied Woodpeckers both at the suet feeder together yesterday morning. Late in the day I had a kinglet of some sort out here but the batteries in both cameras were dead!! lol