DAILY PICS VOL. 216

Thanks. They are such strange birds. They always look astonished.

Wonderful shot of the Cowbird, Methodical. Are you taking your shots with the new beast?

Another Pintail. Going to TX for a few days, maybe I'll see a new bird or two.

Fantastic, Red. Looks like he's swimming in orange juice.

When it rains a lot, that's what ponds in Red Dirt Country look like. :-) I'll post a pic of the ponds after they clear up.

Wonderful, Great Birds everyone. Really enjoyed seeing them. Haven't any new bird shots to share with you, so will keep looking at your photos. thanks for sharing.

donna

Nice shot of the Pintail. He/she let you get that close to it

Margaret yes I am using the 400 5.6. I find myself using it more than the 300 f4 but I am searching for a 2nd camera body so that I have a little more versatility.

I discovered something interesting yesterday. The Common Grackles like to dip their bugs into water. I caught this one yesterday. Margaret tells me that her ravens do the same thing. Today I saw one actually take several drinks with a big old bug in its mouth!

LOL...Margaret!! It is hard to keep a good thing under wraps!

That is soooo COOL Jane!!

Eastern Phoebe!!! Gotta go....

Great pics everyone!

Yea Mrs Ed, Those Grackles dip or dump everything in water. :-)

It's just too funny! Guess they like their bugs really clean.

The worst thing is their putting fecal sacs in the bird bath.

Ewww, yes! The Brewer's Blackbirds do that to.

forgive the pictures we are in our 5 day of rain.

Great blue heron

a Little Green Heron

the Little Green Heron with a fish it caught.

I was taken these pictures from the car.

Female Red-Bellied Woodpecker is still taking food to her nest.

A LOOONNNG view of a female Anhinga

I was surprised to watch this little rat come to the feeder today in broad daylight and eat seed and then snatch a peanut.

Great White Egret

Beautiful Egret, wren.....here's another Anhinga.

Might be a Mottled Duck?????

Thanks

Laughing Gull

Yes, I'm sure that's a Mottled Duck.

My first!!!!!

I'd agree with Mottled Duck - note the yellow bill showing it is a male

Resin

Thanks

I also saw a flock of plovers but I was not able to get a good picture of them. I think they are Semipalmated Plover also saw 2 Spotted Sandpipers. I do not ever remember seeing them here this late in the season.

Would like to see some of those shore birds Wren.
GP, you have the strangest bird, at your feeders. lol
Great photos everyone.
Seen my first Oriole today, what a handsome dude..

This message was edited May 23, 2009 7:34 PM

another shot of him.

Purple finch and a Goldfinch.

Don't think this Pine Sisken is feeling to good.

American Goldfinch.

Love all the picture.

Great pictures everyone.

Margaret ... Love the spoonbill. They are such unusual looking birds. My hubby & I will be visiting Australia later this year. Unfortunately, we won't get to visit the western part of OZ; but I'm still hoping to see some exotic birds in the rain forest and Great Barrier Reef near Cairns. Here's a picture of a Roseate Spoonbill that I took at a zoo last year. I would love to actually see one of them in the wild. BTW, is it cheating to include captive birds in your life list?

A curve-billed thrasher built a nest in one of my cholla cactus. Those cactus thorns are mean little buggers; so I couldn't get close enough to see how many eggs were in the nest. I could barely see one egg (a pretty turquoise color); so I've been checking the nest every day to see when it hatched.

When I checked this morning, I saw some movement in the nest, so I reached my arm through an opening in the cactus, positioned my camera over the nest, and blindly snapped a couple pictures. Nobody warned me that bird watching is dangerous … I'll probably be picking cactus thorns out of my arm and camera strap forever.

At least I did get a couple mediocre pictures of the two babies (which aren't much more than naked little mouths) and one unhatched egg.

After today's experience, I think I'll wait until the babies are a big enough to have their heads peeking up over the nest before I trying to get any more pictures of them.

Sorry, Captive birds are not allowed to be included on our Life List.
I'd be up to 300 if that were the case. :-) The chicks are so cute Jane!

Nice catch on the Green Heron wren!

Good ones Burn and GP!

Jane those little birds have some BIGGGG mouths

Hi Jane, I know we don't know each other, but could I tag along on the trip to Australia? I've deam of going there someday. Beautiful pix, and love those babies too even the pic. was fuzzy.

This message was edited May 23, 2009 11:17 AM

Thanks the car makes a great blind but I need to work on being able to steady the camera.

Here is another of the Little Green Heron.

Hi wren, Do you have a bean bag you can rest on the door while the window is open? You could put the camera on that to be steadier.