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!!