Purple Finch at the Feeder

Haven't positively identified one of these in years.  Great treat at the feeder!!

Turkeys in the Back Yard & Other Recent Bird Photography

I love this new camera.  If I'd just take the time to read the instruction book, I'd probably love it even more.

This morning we had a YARD FULL of turkeys - up to four at one time strutting.  Below are pictures, and below that a few more pics I've taken lately.

Turkeys in the Trees

Mike was spreading a little cracked corn in our back yard for his deer friends, when he heard a loud "whoosh-whooshing" overhead. He looked up to see five turkeys flying toward him from the neighbor's trees. They all perched directly above him and looked down as if to say "Please leave so we can eat." He took this shot with his phone. I thought it was a neat shot for something so sudden and unplanned.

Feeder Birds 2016-2017

To be added to throughout the winter:

1. House Finch
2. Purple Finch
3. Tufted Titmouse
4. Carolina Chickadee
5. Red-breasted Nuthatch
6. Brown-headed Nuthatch
7. White-breasted Nuthatch
8. Carolina Wren
9. Mourning Dove
10. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
11. Downy Woodpecker
12. Red-bellied Woodpecker
13. Northern Cardinal
14. Mockingbird
15. Pine Warbler
16. Northern Junco
17. American Goldfinch
18. Eastern Phoebe
19. Chipping Sparrow
20. Red-Winged Blackbird

Pics from my Feeder

I have my nice new camera this year, purchased for our trip to Machias Seal Island, and hope to use it more this winter to get pictures of our feeders.  Here are a couple of first attempts.

Tufted Titmouse

Red-breasted Nuthatch with seed in its mouth.  I so wish this were just a bit more clear.
They move so fast that it's very difficult to get a clear picture of them.

No Sea Bird

I convinced Mike to drive to the base of Lake Strom Thurmond on Friday.  A brown booby has been observed for two weeks there, ever since Hurricane Matthew blew through.

However, the winds were horrible.  Very high winds - so high that I could hardly hold my binoculars still.  No rare bird.

But it was a nice excursion!

Photography

These were all taken in July and early August of 2016, when Mike and I would go out in the mornings.

Recent pictures from the Dobbins Farm Ponds and the SC 243 Beaverdam Bridge:

Great Egret

Great Blue Heron

Red-Headed Woodpecker

Egrets at the Beaverdam Bridge

Immature Little Blue Heron

Great White Egrets

Another shot of a Little Blue Heron

Green Heron

I did not know about post-breeding dispersal until this summer.  Birds like the Little Blue Heron and the White Ibis disperse northward after breeding.  That's why we were seeing them, and they are apparently in larger numbers than usual.

Two Recent CarolinaBirds postings

5/22/16 - My husband and I rode out to Townville Saturday morning, hoping that the
cloudy breezy weather would lead to some interesting sights.  The ponds
themselves were quiet - four mallards and a great blue heron were all we saw
there, plus the usual field larks.  However, Gaines Road was very active with
songbirds.  We saw about half a dozen blue grosbeaks, several goldfinches, a
couple of indigo buntings, Carolina wrens, etc.  And our prize for the morning
was a yellow-breasted chat--a lifer for both of us.  We watched it for about
ten minutes in the scrubby bushes near the road.  I love watching a bird like
that, then later reading up on it and seeing how perfectly it fits the
description in Peterson's book.

7/7/16 - --Recently a red-headed woodpecker flew into a large tree in our yard. I knew

they were in our neighborhood, but this is a first-time yard bird for us.
Such a striking bird.

--Last night as my husband Mike and I were leaving church, we heard a huge
bird altercation.  A hawk flew up from beside the building carrying a
mockingbird in its talons, and two other mockers were flying alongside,
pecking at the hawk and giving it what-for.  They were flying low, and the
hawk was by far getting the worst of the deal.  Mike saw the hawk finally drop
the mockingbird about the time they got to the road.  I thought it was a
smaller red-tail, but he thought it was a smaller hawk.  (It was getting close
to dusk.)  It made for quite an observation.

Puffins at Machias Seal Island

Well, there will be more pics and info to come.  But suffice it to say that this was Mike's and my best birding experience in 30+ years of together watching birds.

An hour and a half in a blind on Machias Seal Island, seeing sights like these.  These are not taken with a long lens.  This is directly outside our blind.  They were almost close enough to reach out and grab.

Furthermore, we added six species to our life lists:

Atlantic Puffin
Razorback
Arctic Tern
Northern Gannet
Common Murre
Black Guillemot

What a wonderful trip!!

Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher and more

We've had an interesting 24 hours of birding.  We made two trips to the Farm Ponds - saw herons and egrets both last night and this morning.  We also got great looks, close-up, both times, of a red-headed woodpecker on the fence posts.  And this morning - a great look at a barred owl that flew across the road, then stopped in the trees and posed for us.

Then I convinced Mike to go to Gunter Road in Piedmont to try to find the scissor-tailed flycatcher that is way out of its range but in that area.  We found it easily and it put on quite a show.  We watched it for about 20 minutes.  It was a haul up there but well worth the trip.

Yellow-Breasted Chat

New bird today.  Mike and I traveled to the farm ponds because it is a cool and overcast morning.  Not much action at the actual ponds - just a few mallards and a few meadowlarks.  But Gaines Road was full of action.  Mike picked up on an unusual sound, and then we were able to identify a yellow-breasted chat - a new bird for both of us.  It's always interesting to study a new bird, then read about it and realize it matches the information given almost identically.

Apparently the yellow-breasted chat only sings in the spring, so we got a special treat.

Also saw a lot of blue grosbeaks, indigo buntings, goldfinches, cardinals, and other bright birds.  And two beautiful eastern kingbirds posed for us on a fence post.  It was a good morning.

Belted Kingfisher

I saw a belted kingfisher on New Prospect Church Road on Saturday morning.  The profile was unmistakeable on a wire over a bridge.  I turned around and came back, to see him flying across the creek to a tree--too far away to get a good look except for the characteristic white "belt" around the front.  But I heard him rattle.  Haven't seen one of them for probably 25 years, so it was a great treat.

Blue-Winged Teal

(not my photo - taken from the internet)

This morning Mike and I went out to the Dobbins Farm Ponds to see what was there.  Our first beautiful sight was not avian - As we turned onto Fred Dobbins Road, about a half mile down, two deer came running across the field, leaped over a barbed-wire fence, crossed the road, leaped over a second barbed-wire fence, then disappeared across the fields into the woods.  They jumped those five-feet fences without any trouble at all, and what was instinctual to them appeared to be something that had been practiced for months or years.

Then we watched about 20 blue-winged teal on the farm ponds.  There were a couple of scaup mixed in the group.  We could tell they were teal because of the white markings on the face and back end.

A female kestrel practically posed for us on a fence post.  The bird book said "hovers while hunting," and we watched it hover on three occasions before it returned to the post.

Saw two mallards on the second pond but that was all.  I also watched a Savannah Sparrow.

A good morning!

Feeder Birds 2015-16

1. Carolina chickadee
2. Tufted titmouse
3. Pine warbler
4. Yellow-rumped warbler
5. Pine siskin
6. Downy woodpecker
7. Red-bellied woodpecker
8. Yellow goldfinch
9. House finch
10. Purple finch (almost certain)
11. Carolina wren
12. Red-winged blackbird
13. Blue jay
14. Brown-headed nuthatch
15. White-breasted nuthatch
16. Ruby-crowned kinglet
17. Cardinal
18. Mourning dove
19. Chipping sparrow
20. Northern junco

Winter Storm Birds

Winter storm - feeders crazy all day.  Mike went out and refilled the feeders, as well as cleaned out two of them that were a little stopped up.  He also pruned the rose bush outside our picture window that was hiding some of our view.

All these birds were there today, as well as a female finch of some kind that might have been a purple finch.  Not certain enough to say so.

1. carolina chickadee
2. tufted titmouse
3. northern junco
4. carolina wren
5. pine warbler
6. goldfinch
7. house finch
8. pine siskin (new for the year)
9. ruby-crowned kinglet
10. cardinal
11. mourning dove
12. red-bellied woodpecker
13. downy woodpecker
14. brown-headed nuthatch