Daily piccies vol 448 and Welcome to 2013

Lovely piliated wp Nanny. I wish one would come here. With the snow both birds in the cardinal pair showed up.

Lovely pictures everyone. Nanny, that pileated is really neat and love that black spot on the little junco.

Quite a lot of snow for us here in Alabama. The birds love the feeders!

I love the photos everyone!!!!! I don't have too many birds around my feeder this year!! I hear the Blue Jays & Cardinals but they are not coming to my feeders! :0)

Julie, glad to hear that pretty cardinal was able to fly away. You have your hands full at the feeders-so many birds.

Nanny, I know you'll do the best you can to feed your birds. Sure hope things get better for you all soon. I'm still jealous of your pileated woodys and I'll bet they'll stay around. My hummers look like they have black spots on the front when they get their feather wet. I can't tell if your junco had the same. I can't believe you caught a wren and a nuthaters together-wow!

Cindylove, have you tried putting some peanuts out to get your birds started on the food?

Here's a female house finch, a dark-eyed junco and a ruby-crowned kinglet.

Duc, I so want to live in Kelseyville!

I'm having quite a few American Goldfinch visiting this week. My usual high number for them is 11, but I'm up to 26. Time to go buy some more thistle. Here are a few pix.

PS. has anyone else been getting thistle seed with safflower mixed in? This is the second bag of Farm and Fleet Brand that has had this happen.

Marna, I haven't been using much nijer for Goldfinches lately, so no I haven't. For some reason, I don't get many Goldfinches here. Wondering why, lol. Here I've a lone Goldfinch, seeing a flock of them is a rare thing for me these days.

I thought I've seen Cedar Waxwings visiting the garden the past couple of days, but wasn't sure, 'til I captured proof of it. (grin). Male Cardinal, and the residential Great Blue Heron. Last pic. is one of my winter migrant, a Pine Warbler, she has been hanging around the suet feeder for couple of weeks, which is a welcoming sight!

Mrs. Ed wrote:

We have seen the male wp here only.

Mrs. Ed, I love your goldfinches. I had to stop buying the thistle seeds when they got past $65 for a bag. Well it was either that or stop buying the tons of sugar, peanut butter and peanuts. That second photo with the squirrel is adorable. It looks like it's quite happy with the seeds too.

Lily, love all your birds too. That pine warbler is gorgeous. The fishing must be great at your house, that heron knows a good place to be.

Oh by the way, you're both welcome anytime!

My vet called and asked if I'd take photos of another hawk that had been treated for a gunshot and was ready to be released. This vet technician works with the birds brought into their office and this was her first "from pick up to release". The sky was gray and the rain just beginning but I did catch my pictures. This was a red-tailed hawk.

I finally got photos of the large feet of a coot in the water. The feet just don't seem to fit the coot.

Last one is my regular visitor, a nuttall's woodpecker.

65 dollars a bag!!! holy moley. I don't think i'm spending that much.

Our few goldfinches are stuck with black oil sunflower seed like the rest of the birds.

Lily...I don't think the male is taking food to the female at this time of year. We usually have a dominate red-bellied that rules....we have had both sexes in that role....and then which ever is not the dominate one comes at odd times of the day and we don't see them as often.

We have a male red-bellied that comes and drills on our old furnace exhaust pipe up up the roof...driving us NUTS!!!! lol

duc......Sad about the hawk being shot but glad it has made a recovery and you got to take its pic!

Thanks nanny and irisMA for sharing your observation of the woodpeckers. Boys! I can only imagine the noises those RBWP make drilling on the old furnace pipe. Duc, it's so neat to see your coot's large feet. They aren't anything I imagined. I thought their feet must be webbing like that of ducks but it isn't so. Great pics. of the wp and the rehabbed bird.

I was so thrilled to find out; this flock of birds are actually Pelicans flying over our region which is rare to see.

Hi folks. Great pictures. Love looking at them.

I am fortunate to have wrens living at my house. Here are some shots of them. The wren in the last shot either was yelling at something, or did not care for the suet. LOL

Carolina wrens are so perky. I prefer them to the noisy house wrens of the summer.

Lily, so glad you saw the pelicans. They sure are amazing to see all in a "v" or straight line.

GrannyG, your wren photos are adorable. Looks like they're very happy with the food you're providing.

The Cedar Waxwings have finally arrived and are loving the berries on the trees.
Here's a Spotted Towhee.
A first for me, this Mourning Dove passed by the chopped peanuts feeder and hopped up on the peanut butter log for a meal.

A pretty female cardinal; white breasted nuthatch twice, male cardinal, and busy little downy woodpecker.

GG, very nice serries. Here I've a Brown-headed Nuthatch that has been hanging around the garden the last week, and Eastern Bluebirds are very active in the garden this time of the year.

GG....nice to see you posting some pics again!! Things look busy at your house.

Nice to see your nuthatch there Lily and your BB!! That is maybe one plus I look forward to when I quit putting seed out maybe the BB's will come around even more and enjoy the birdbath. I may think about adding another bath.

DH was so funny yesterday. I was talking about how it will almost be a relieve to not have the feeling of responsibility for the birds anymore once the the seed is all gone. But we will keep the suet and so jelly for the orioles come summer. He was like ...we are going to do the hummers too , right??? Yes honey we will feed the hummers too!! lol

Fun to watch the birds use the sunflowers we grew last summer. Here is a cardinal going to town on the flower head. haha

The birds are amusing to watch with the sunflowers! :0)

My hubby got me 3 hot pepper suet cakes the other day, the squirrels finally got the rest of the regular one so I am going to try these and see what happens. I took a sniff and if I was a squirrel I would go somewhere else for food. Will let you know what happens.

Lily, I've never heard of cotoneasters. Looked it up here and there's lots of them. I was wondering which one you'd recommend? Looks like something my birds might like. Love the bluebird feeder cage and the nuthatch photos.

GrannyG, your birds are beautiful. That white-breasted nuthatch looks sooooo white, almost leucistic. It should have some coloring under the wing. Sweet!

Nanny, lol, glad you'll have a hummer feeder too.

JulieQ, cute set of photos of your cardinal. Great idea of setting the flowerheads on the ground.

emptyeyes, hope the new suet works for you.

I don't think I've ever noticed the line of coloring on my dark-eyed juncos' backs before.
The pine siskins are really posing for me-here's my fav three photos.

we have quite a few pine siskins this year, the little brown wren has been around quite often too. not too many cardinals this year, but have seen them occasionally.

We have always used the pepper imbeded suet cakes. Squirrels leave them along. Hairy woodpecker visited today.

Duc, I thought too that Nuthatch seemed very white and cannot see any coloring under its wing. I have some more photos of it, and will have to take a look.

BTW, your photos are fantastic.

Duc, you haven't noticed the fine details on your birds before? Neither have I until I see you recent pictures. Such fine quality and clarity. Hah, those nuthatches are so adorable, I just love 'em GG.

Duc, the contoneaster I've is a cutting that I asked for from my fav. local nursery. This is the one. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/349894/

So far, the squirrels have not even come close to the suet cake.

Thanks for the plant name Lily, I love it and want it for my birds.

Emptyeyes, glad the suet is working.

The high winds brought the raptors today. First the crows had to work hard to chase off this red-tailed hawk, but they finally did.
Here's one of three bald eagles that chased each other all over the lake.
And last is one of many white-crowned sparrows. They don't eat the berries but I thought this one looked cute sitting there watching the robins.

Beautiful WCS among the berries. Nice in flight pics. of the raptors Duc.

My adorable Wrens at the meallies cage-feeder. This Yellow-bellied Sapsucker(s) do not come to the feeder, but love to go after various berries in the garden.

Nice photos, Lily, especially the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. I haven't seen one for quite some time.

Excellent photos Duc, as always. I like the colors in the White-crowned Sparrow photo, in particular.

I don't take a lot of photographs around the house only because I get the same varieties. But, I broke down and took a few earlier this week hoping for something a little unusual. No luck, however.

Downy Woodpecker male, Re-bellied Woodpecker male, White-breasted Nuthatch, Blue Jay and Carolina Wren ...........

Lily, your little wren is sure adorable and I love that sapsucker.

Linth, you should take more photos of your everyday birds. You sure have a great assortment of birds. Loved the photos.

The eagles have been in "their" tree below our house and scoping the lake for ducks. I think this one was after a meal when it took off. Thankfully, it went behind a tree so I didn't see the catch.
This robin was just sitting and watching the others eating berries in the trees.
This yellow-rumped warbler came up to the deck to check out the peanut butter log.

What a wonderful location you have,duc. I'm afraid I would not get much done around the house.

I've been lurking, but have nothing to contribute other than my pleasure at seeing birds from the northern hemisphere. Some amazing shots.

Wow, Great shots and captures everyone!! ~ I would like to add a few here ~
This is a Finch taking a bath. It was cool and overcast day and it gave me the chills watching this bird take a bath on such a cool morning ....

Time to get out and go dry off ...

Finches and chickadee getting a drink

Hope you all don't mind that I'm adding so many, I don't get much time at all to add photos so I'm adding extra's while I do have the time ..
The Bluebirds come around quite a bit and I have been giving them there mealyworms which they really enjoy!