Daily Pics. Vol 203

A cold Robin on a snow covered branch.

Hey adel! Here's an Audubon's Warbler for you! And after I saw the Common Yellowthroat on the 2nd, I came right in and ordered the blind I've been wanting. I've got it all ready to set up down by the willow thicket where I saw such a variety of warblers last year.........when my camera was broken.

What great pictures, folks! I don't have time to comment much, but I sure do enjoy everyone's photos.

Tiger, nice shot of the Audubon's Warbler. I'm curious about your new blind, would you please post a picture of it?

Today was the first day of a week long vacation for me and I'm gonna spend all of it I can birdwatching! Here a few of the pics i took today.
#1. a too far away Belted Kingfisher but that silhouette is pretty unmistakeable. The lighting was not great, cloudy and yucky. THere was a pair of them here and they were just a chattering up a storm

#2. This one is better. a Brown-headed nuthatch trying to scare me away from it's nest. THere was a pair of them here, too but one was always guarding the nest and the other was trying to distract me.

#3. What I think is a Downy Woodpecker. Please correct me if I'm wrong!

This photo is from the web, and I did remove the rifle that was sticking out. Ameristep model 3318, I believe.

The blind has several window "strips" that are 3-4 inches wide and held in place at the top by magnets. They should be enough to put the camera lens through without too much upset. Some of the birds (Bullock's Oriole, Lazuli Bunting, Western Tanager) I encountered last year would be gone at just a hint of my movement, so I made up my mind then to get a blind by this spring.

#4. Again, not a great picture but I couldn't believe I was able to get this close to an Eastern Towhee. He was just a singin away and I kept whistling in response to him and I think that helped me to get this closely to him. I think he was looking for a mate, too, and I guess that can be distracting. ;))

#5. A ruffled Cattle Egret

Well it appears that my laptop is declaring mutiny for the night as it will not allow me to post anymore pics. I'll try again tomorrow!

flicker on the rocks-
(great fun pictures, everyone)

Geez, I wonder if anyone left me anything up there?

guess I'll settle for these.

Great pics everyone!

Tiger, Love the Warbler and blind!

cb, Beautiful Cattle Egret and Brown-headed Nuthatch!

Dirt, Great shots of the Flicker!

Burn, Love those Goldeneyes!

Does anyone feed the dried mealworms? I have bluebirds but I don't know where to buy the dried ones. I have purchased the live mealworms before.

This Bluebird site has a list of mail order sources for mealworms. They are about half what Wild Birds Unlimited charges here. When I checked the other day, several were temporarily out of stock, though.

http://www.sialis.org/index.html

duncraft has a special now... I never bought these but here is the link

http://www.duncraft.com/Mealworms-To-Go----WEEKLY-SPECIAL-P2605C144.aspx

I never had any luck with dried mealworms. The live ones are very popular.

I agree that live ones are best. But, some don't like to keep them in the fridge. My wife for one. But we do have some in there right now. :)

My husband can't stand it either. :-)

I could never get the Blues to eat the dried ones either. DH actually takes our live ones out of the fridge and shows them to people...I think he is trying to gross them out (the people, not the worms)!! LOL!

Nice pics everyone..Tiger I love that Audubons and your blind...very cool!

Heading for Springfield this AM and hope I get a chance to check out the lake for some shore birds...if the sun shines!

Oh Pelle, wish the Goldeneyes were mine, but they're lovely shots of Gary's .
Love the Flicker and Warbler.

Sorry about that. :-)

We have a Wild Bird store about 30 miles away. Before I order I think maybe I will try a small amount of dried ones. My son made me a special platform feeder last year so they couldn't crawl off lol. They gross me out but I sure love watching the blue birds!
Teresa

our local independent pet store carries fresh ones in small quantities. you might have luck at such a place.

I buy the dried mealworms, I've not had a chance to buy the live ones (yet). I usually soak them in warm water for a little which plumps them up. They are gobbled up as soon as I put them outside - the birds just love them.

Some Canadas down by the falls.

pretty smart to soak them Knip

The Great Egret. Those Canadas swam over there and chased him off. Makes me think they are going to nest here. There were two egrets, but they are extremely wary. I can't get close for better shots. Had to shoot this from across the pond. Maybe they will get more used to me as time goes on.

Canadas and Egret.

My little Goldfinch thru the window is not as good as pelles!

These pics are from back on saturday by the way...

Red-winged Blackbird....

Same, along with a pair of Brown-headed Cowbirds.....

Was surprised to see the RWB get a little feisty!!

With a Grackle....

Who new....they are always so mellow!!

Peace was restored...sort of!

Red, that's a beautiful area! Nice pics guys!

The egret and Can. geese are nice! I've seen a flock or two of the red winged blackbirds here, but not very often. I didn't know the grackles are so beautiful with their blue feather at close up.

On the way home, I saw a flocks of gold finches, but they were only passing through. Then I spotted a king fisher I was sure of it, but didn't have my camera with me. Arggggg!!!

I'll have a few pictures of my residential great blue heron coming to the pier for breakfast. Incidentally, this big fella chased a younger, smaller one off this spot this morning, I missed pix of the smaller one.