Ann's Bird Blog

Thursday, October 22, 2015

I Think a Bald Eagle

At the Galley Tuesday night, I am 90% certain that I saw a bald eagle fly past the restaurant.

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Immature Male Rose-Breasted Grosbeak

Last Saturday (10/10/15) an immature male rose-breasted grosbeak came to our feeder. He didn't stay long - didn't even eat, just checked it out and then flew away. It looked just like the female, except it had a triangular wash of pink at the top of its breast. A nice observation on a rainy Saturday morning.

Monday, July 6, 2015

Red-Headed Woodpecker

Yesterday we saw a red-headed woodpecker in the next door neighbor's yard. That's the closest it's gotten to our yard yet.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Today at Huntingdon Beach State Park

Painted bunting (feeder at nature center)
Also at nature center: cardinals and titmice

Causeway:
Anhinga male and female
Tricolored heron
White ibis
Snowy egret
Great egret
Green heron
Great Blue Heron
Wood stork
and lots of alligators!!!

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Sunflowers

When you feed sunflower seeds to the birds all winter. . . .

. . .this is what you get in the summer!

Friday, May 15, 2015

Blue Grosbeak

Nice look at a blue grosbeak the other night when we drove out to the Dobbins Farm Ponds. I hadn't seen one of them for 20+ years. It was perched on top of a large weed and singing to the female. We watched it for probably five minutes. The rusty and tan bars on its wings make for a lovely picture.

Sunday, May 3, 2015

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.

How This Bird-Watching Happened

I'm always a little self-conscious and reticent about telling people that I like to watch birds. Somehow that hobby conjures up pictures of little old women in khaki shorts and boots, peering through binoculars at some little spot in the woods. Maybe wearing a pith helmet.

But birdwatching is something that really brought my husband and me together in the early years of our marriage. He was a huge hunter; I had never picked up a gun. We were very different. But we discovered that we were quite a team about birdwatching - I was the bookworm about them, and he had the outdoors knowledge to pick up sounds and motion in the woods. We kept lists and watched everywhere we went. I picked up some of his extensive knowledge about wildlife. And it was fascinating.

Even after our son was born, we still could keep up with this hobby somewhat. Our home had a great shelf feeder, directly out of our second-story bedroom window, that was about fifty yards from woods and stream. So we had great variety coming directly to our house.

After moving to Mike's hometown, the hobby waned. Two children, not a good location for much variety at a feeder, not as easy to take trips, either short or long ones. So it became an occasional thing rather than a main focus.

On our trip to the northwest, fourteen years ago, we put fifteen new species on our lists and got excited about it once again. And on our recent California trip, we got a few more.

Now that our children are gone, we're intent on watching birds again. It is still bringing us together. And we don't even need khaki shorts or pith helmets.