A Dozen Sightings

A dozen sightings since Tuesday of this beautiful rose-breasted grosbeak!  (About fifteen if you include other sightings of the female.)  The blue stripes are the slats of the blinds.  I thought today maybe they were gone, but then saw another one a couple of hours ago.

Rose-Breasted Grosbeak!!

Two reports of rose-breasted grosbeaks in the area today, so I have watched my feeders for the past three hours - and just got one!!  It was calmly eating sunflower seed at one of the feeders.  It stayed about five minutes and moved on.  I only wish I'd had my camera close by.  Such a beautiful bird.

I submitted this complete checklist to eBird.  The white-crowned sparrow is unusual for this time of year in this area.  Thirteen species - unusual for this time of year.

Apr 28, 2015 4:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Protocol: Stationary
13 species

Mourning Dove  6
Red-bellied Woodpecker  2
Downy Woodpecker  2
Eastern Phoebe  2
Carolina Chickadee  6
Tufted Titmouse  6
Brown-headed Nuthatch  1
American Robin  10
Northern Mockingbird  1
White-crowned Sparrow  1    Scratched on the ground for about an hour.  Unmistakable black and white striped head, pinkish bill
Northern Cardinal  12
Rose-breasted Grosbeak  1
House Finch  25

Ducks Going to Roost

About 6:15 last night I mentioned to Mike that a blue-morph snow goose had been seen out at the Dobbins Farm Ponds yesterday.  He asked if I wanted to go try to see it, and of course I said yes.  We left immediately because it still seemed fairly light, but as we got out there we could tell that it was really too late to identify anything very well.

We could tell at least that there were no geese out there (except for two Canadas), but there were a lot of ducks.  So Mike asked me if I wanted to stay to watch them go to roost, as ducks rarely overnight at the same place where they spent the day.  Of course I again said yes.  We waited about fifteen minutes, watching the darkening sky and the fifty or so ducks in the pond.  Then, at some unseen signal, about thirty of them rose up as one, flew in a large circle toward the west, then came back around and flew toward the east.  Mike said they were probably going to roost in a nearby swamp.  About five minutes later, another group rose up and flew in the opposite direction; then the final group flew, in a circle and toward the east, like the first one.

The sight was beautiful against the last rays of sunlight.  Who knows what the trigger is that makes a certain flock rise up and fly away to roost.  Mike said that maybe an alpha male makes a sound; however, he didn't know for sure what it might be.  It was a relaxing thing to watch on a day that had been stressful for us both.

Showdown Between a Cooper's Hawk and a Downy

This morning a Cooper's Hawk swooped in and cleared out all the activity at my feeders for quite awhile.  I watched him close up for about twenty minutes before it flew.

I came back out to the kitchen a few minutes later and looked again - it was back, at the top of a pruned crepe myrtle, looking out toward my driveway, patiently awaiting a meal.  On the near side of the crepe myrtle was a downy woodpecker that had been heading for the suet.  Apparently recognizing the dire situation it was in, the downy literally did not move a muscle for about fifteen minutes.

Finally, the Cooper's Hawk flew toward the house, landing on a wire plant support right outside my kitchen window.  And the downy disappeared.  At first I thought the Cooper's had gotten it, but the Cooper's didn't have anything in its talons.  Then I realized - at the first motion from the hawk toward the house, the downy instantly disappeared to the back side of the tree.  It happened so fast I didn't even see it move.  And when the Cooper's finally flew away, the downy finally got brave and got its breakfast at the suet feeder.

A fascinating interchange to watch.

Ice Storm

We've been under a winter storm warning for the past 24 hours.  It's been much worse in our area than originally expected.  This morning Mike put out my new shelf feeder.  Within five minutes it was mobbed with goldfinches.

Pine siskin on the suet.  At any one time there have been up to about 60 goldfinches at the feeders, with about half a dozen siskins mixed in.

So icy on the round feeder that I don't see how any of the birds ate from it.  But a few got through.

 This is the wire perch that they like so much.  Not much sitting on it this morning.

After the goldfinches and siskins move out, the rest of the birds come in.  I saw the red spot on the ruby-crowned kinglet's head for the first time yesterday afternoon.  Carolina wrens, downy and red-bellied woodpeckers, white-breasted and brown nuthatches, pine warblers - just mobbing the feeders.  And today, while I was filling the feeders, a rufous-sided towhee even came out for a look.  It didn't seem afraid of me at all.

They are going to eat me out of house and home.

Rare bird! Ross's Goose

We saw a rare bird this morning!!  We drove to the Dobbins Farm Ponds . . . didn't see anything.  At the Fork Bridge we saw a great blue heron huddled against the wind.  We got breakfast, then decided to check out the new Green Pond boat landing.  Afterward I suggested - let's go see what's at the old landing.  There was a flock of about 15 Canada geese - with a little white goose walking, and then swimming, in the middle of the group.  At first we thought, just a common farm goose.  Then snow goose.  But the more we watched it, the more we realized it was much smaller than a snow goose and did not act like a tame goose at all.  We studied it carefully, and realized it had none of the black of a snow goose on its bill, but it did have the gray at the back of the bill, like a Ross's Goose.  They are not common around here at all - in fact, you won't even find them on the range maps.  We both determined that that is what it was!!  I turned it in to eBird and to the Carolina Bird Club, and got agreeable confirmation on both.  Very exciting for us!

Siskins are here!!

Yesterday as I drove in from school, I thought - "That looks kinda like a siskin on the feeder."  I came in carefully and looked through the binoculars - and got a beautiful view of that blinding yellow on the wing.  It was so nice to see a real siskin, and not just a female house finch.

By today, they are beginning to come with a vengeance, and take over the feeders as only siskins can.