Daily BIRD PICS VOL. 455

From yesterday at one of my favorite in-town "wild" places...
Downy Woodpecker
Red Bellied Woodpecker
Eastern Bluebird
Cedar Waxwings
Cedar Waxwing with Hackberry

great photos

Yes, I agree, great photos. And what wonderful birds you found to take pictures of.

Pre-Super Bowl activities include bird watching for me. And since it was sunny, I took a trip to the next county where there have been up to 8 snowy owls spotted in the past few weeks. I found 4!

It's finally raining in California, the wildlife is doing cartwheels. The birds are still hanging out at the feeder even though it's really wet out there. It's been so long some of them have never even seen rain!

Marna, that's fantastic! Congratulations. Wish I'd been there with you in all that cold, white stuff.

I have Owl envy. Feb 1st was supposed to be Eagle Day at Lake Pueblo State Park. Weather was terrible and I had to work. So I headed out Feb 2nd in frezing but clear weather, too. I didn't see any Eagles or smaller rapters.
1 Horned Larks that I was herding along with my car for a while
2 Western Grebe, cold calm clear conditions made them look bigger than they are
3 Some Grebes and Ring-billed gulls
4 I'm calling this a Gadwall even though it doesn't quite match my field guide
5 Northern Flicker, I think he was trying to look back at me

Oh, my field guides aren't THAT bad. I have an admittedly old Roger Tory Peterson, and a newer National Geographic. Both show the Gadwall approximately the right color. RTP points out the bar between tail and wing shown in picture. But both show the feathers giving the color texture, almost a pattern - like a female Mallard but finer. All the ones I saw had that slick perfectly smooth not-made-of-individual-feathers look. It had me puzzled the first few trips through the field guides.
1 More Gadwalls, backlit so ID was hard
2 Northern Shoveler, IDed by bill as color of head kept changing with the light
3 Mixed batch of birds including Mallards
4 Belted Kingfisher, female with 2 "belts", Lake Pueblo dam in background
5 Killdeer - ID was easy, photo was hard. I could hear it, and if it moved I could usually see it. But when ever it would stand still, it would disappear - and it was even harder to find with the camera.

We have several editions of the Peterson. Also a little book of Birds of Mass. I just found my book (a Peterson guide) of hawks. More confusing that the regular Peterson.

We don't pay much mind to the Super Bowl, but I heard about Superb Owl Sunday, I wanted to see owls. Sadly, we were too sick to even go to church. BUT were blessed with a life bird/ yard bird/ bathroom bird (I am not sure you want to know about that, but I'll share if you ask. ;) A Short-eared Owl!!!

A couple of years ago when we told someone we were seeing Northern Harriers here, they said we should also see Short-eared Owls since they share habitat. Finally one came.

Beautiful Snowies, Mrs. Ed!! And yay for rain, Domedhomedee. I heard it was getting really dry there. I sure like your Horned Larks, pollengarden. They are a winter favorite here, but never come to our place.

I have owl envy too of both Marna's Snowy and Chilly's short-eared! Wow!

I've been lurking for a while. Love everyone's photos. Looks really cold just about everywhere. Where are those Australians with their warm-weather photos when we need them? I went to a warm place yesterday - Mission, Texas. At least it was warm until mid-afternoon when a cold wind arose.

These are common birds but still quite extraordinary: Green Jay, Long-billed Thrasher, Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Plain Chachalaca and Great Kiskadee.

Okay Resin, your bird looks like the guide if I enlarge it - and it looks like my bird if I don't enlarge your image. So the problem isn't the Field guide - it is that my arms are too short to hold the book out far enough!

I was lucky to see a whooping crane family up close yesterday at the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge near Decatur Alabama.

Fantastic!

Wow Julie Q! I think that may be one of those once-in-a-lifetime things.
Here is something I can take advantage of here - Bald Eagles winter around Lake Pueblo.
1 Bald Eagle
2 Different Eagle different tree
3 I think this is the 2nd Eagle again
It has been very cold here. -4F/-20C when I was out taking pictures, even colder last night. There were a lot birds in or near the Arkansas river, which hasn't frozen - which means the water is at least 40F/20C warmer than the air.
4 Lake Pueblo with ice starting around the edges, which is unusual.

I resigned up for the great backyard bird count. Of course I forgot my user name & password from last year. they gave me the name (on request) & I set up a new password. Now I have it on list I know best; pen 7 paper. I hope it snows the weekend of the 14th. that is when we see most of our birds, especially hungry chickadees etc.

We got to claim a Bald Eagle as a yard bird the other day. No pictures, though. :(

But we had a flock of six Western Meadowlarks in our feeding area yesterday. Almost makes me wish I was doing Project Feeder Watch again this year.

Here is a photo of five of the six. The one was off a little ways away. If you saw my photo above, it doesn't look like they've deflated much. Yesterday's high was 1 degree F.

Well Chilly, there's always the backyard bird count, which is coming up. Much easier to count for 4 days rather than all winter.

yes, it starts Feb. 14 & the birds know it & some refuse to show up. I always wish for snow then so they will come to the feeder.

We usually get a wind storm for the GBYBC. No birds out in that weather, either.

Good Morning...I have this little fella that is pigging out at my feeders and I think he is an Eastern Towhee ? Please tell me what he is...

He sure is! A bit early, but not too much I'd say.

thank you Mrs_Ed...wow so I was right , was having a facebook discussion...lol...I wondered if I was reading it right , the Map is soo small in my Stokes Field Guide...We are soo close to the year round ...Ok so when is the Birdy count ?...an now that Im finally going back to work...this week...all the time I had on my hand's the last Month...with the Holidays and my bout with the H1 N1 and all this snow and the like...lol..Id like to do the count this year. Is there a Thread ?

Here's the link. It's next friday through Monday.

http://gbbc.birdcount.org

Lovely to see the towhee. they no longer seem to be in our area.

When you check into the bird count write down your new user name & password. I forgot my user name from last year & they had to tell me what it was. Shhh! don't tell the birds that you are counting them as they disappear if they know.

A very hungry goldfinch must have heard the forecast for sleet. I think I can see a little of the cold mist on his feathers already.

Goldfinches are always hungry. they will clear out a feeder in no timed. ☺

No real good shots, but I thought this was cute. We started putting seed in an old wagon on the porch when we had high winds, in hopes to keep it somewhat contained for the ground feeding birds. The birds took to it quite well.

After a snow last week, I saw these cute little prints. They now expect food there, so I put in the millet for the Juncos and Tree Sparrows.

A Cardinal couple taking flight...Looks like she's smacking him!

He's probably greedy.

A few back yard locals from last week's "snow event" in DFW.
Dark-eyed Junco
Sparrow
Blue Jay
Cardinal
Chickadee

TXSkeeter, those are neat photos of the Dallas Forthworth's backyard variety. Rose, love the Cardinal pair. It does look as if she's upset with him for what's the reason. lol
Chillybean, that's cute "footprints", and how our birds do know how to train us, Huggergirl, glad you're getting over with the Flu. Elphaba, that's quite a colorful bunch you've got there. Waving hello to everyone.

The picture of the cardinal in the snow is beautiful!

Look at this cardinal giving me a glance out of the side of his eye. haha

The little warblers are so friendly.

Photo one: Western Meadowlark, "This weather is making me fat!"

Photo two: Tufted Titmouse, "All for me??"

(I cannot take credit for these; they were taken by a little one who knows how to use those fancy settings on the camera. )

Nice Julie and Chilly!

Lovely birds, TX, Chilly and JulieQ.

Chilly, the "little one" sure does know how to use a camera and has taken a fabulous shot of the meadowlark. It should be entered in a competition.