Yard Birds

Birdwise, we are on the margin of two seasons- fall migration is trailing off, but there are still plenty of late migrants around, and winter birds are starting to arrive. The combination made for some pretty good birding in my yard yesterday. 

I put up my bird feeders on Saturday, hoping for Purple Finches or siskins. No sign of them yet, but when I was filling one of the feeders I spotted a Hermit Thrush on our neighbors' fence- a yard bird. Two Fish Crows flying over were also nice. 

By Sunday, the feeders were hopping with bird activity, and I counted 13 species there, including Red-bellied Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Cardinal, and Carolina Wren. The majority of the birds were chickadees, with a fair number of titmice and juncos as well. They were quite tame, with one chickadee briefly landing on my finger, and were unconcerned by me taking photos of them. 

Chickadees:

 

Titmice:

 
 

At one point, I looked up, and was very surprised to see a group of hawks- 2 Turkey Vultures, 3 Buteos, and an Accipiter. I ran inside to get binoculars, and for the next couple hours did a hawkwatch, tallying 84 raptors. The species counts were:

Turkey Vulture- 20

Red-tailed Hawk- 21

Red-shouldered Hawk- 5

Cooper's Hawk- 3

Sharp-shinned Hawk- 18

Osprey- 3

American Kestrel- 1

Unidentified Raptor- 10

Unidentified Buteo- 2

Unidentified Accipiter- 1

Non-raptor migrants were also present, with a few flocks of Canada Geese, a flock of Brant, and a few dozen Double-crested Cormorants all flying over. 

When a small bird with a forked tail fly by, I thought I might have found a siskin, but when I refound it, I realized it was actually a Golden-crowned Kinglet, another yard bird. 

I saw 34 species of birds from my yard, which proves that to find plenty of birds, all you need to do it fill up a feeder, or just look up!

Snow Day Sightings

Snow storms always bring lots of birds to feeders, and this one was not an exception. I finally broke my record of birds at my feeders in a day, and by a lot. There were 16 species today, compared to 12, the previous high. The Red-winged Blackbird and European Starling that showed up with a grackle flock boosted the number, but the best bird was my 50th yard bird, an Eastern Towhee. It dug around in the snow for seeds all day, similar to what it would normally do, albeit with snow instead of leaves. My first attempt at uploading a video onto my blog is below.

Good Birding!

Costa Rica Countdown:8 days

Oh, and I made a slight change to my blog- you can now view my 2009 year list and soon my life list in the sidebar on the right.

Some Recent Sightings

I'm doing a project on whether birds can predict storms for a science research class. The 79 birds that were seen the other day immediatly before the storm would seem show that . There were 12 species, which tied the record- species seen at my feeders in a day.

The goldfinches showed up in force (These are 7 of the total 13):

But the best bird was a single Fox Sparrow, a year bird and a yard bird (#49) for me. It was huge in comparison to the house sparrows and white throats.

Tuesday I rode my bike to shore park and glen island, with the idea that there was a very remote possibility of a storm-blown Dovekie, but that obviously didn't happen. The best birds were a Greater Scaup and a buoy that looked exactly like an Ivory Gull from a certain angle.

Okay, maybe that isn't the angle. But trust me, it did. I hope the real one gets this far west. It's near Newport, RI now. (plus one in Georgia)

Also, Ever since seeing this video: http://www.youtube.com/user/ernlarson#p/u/6/RzqdVkGFFi8 I have been really psyched about my impending costa rica trip. I am going to be where that video was taken in about 3 weeks!

Good Birding,

Corbett

Some Nuthatch Photos

With my new camera, I was able to get a couple of shots of a white-breasted nuthatch in my yard. Not incredible, but way better than anything I had taken before.

I was about 4 feet from it. I'm not sure why it didn't fly sooner.

Greenish Siskin

Today I had another unusual visitor to my bird feeders: a Pine Siskin. I had not seen any since early may, and they are unusual this far south in summer. Even more unusual, this bird was a green-morph siskin, a rare color variation occuring in only ~1% of male siskins.

In addition, we also had 2 house wrens in our backyard.

To see a good photo of a green-morph siskin, click here and here.

Good Birding,

Corbett

Interesting Sighting

I had an unusual bird at my feeders just now with the ususal house sparrows and finches- a partially albino (Leucistic) house sparrow. It was not as extreme as many cases of leucism, but it still had 2 or 3 tail feathers that were bright white, rather than the drab brown. At a distance, it looked like those were the only feathers in its tail, because they were so bright.

Good Birding

Corbett