Hubby and I just visited No. Peninsula State Park a few miles south of Flagler Beach...this is where the FL scrub jay can be found supposedly. We heard and saw many birds but not well enough to ID any, except for some black vultures and a blue jay. ARG! Discouragement reigns supreme!
Ok I really shouldn't whine, we have quite the variety of birds coming and going at the back yard feeders, and neighboring trees...
The most common birds, the chipping sparrows, arrive daily...
Yellow-rumped warblers are about town...but are rare to our feeders...
We are suddenly seeing a No. mocking bird here and there...not at the feeders, but
this fellow came in for a vigorous bathing...
The tufted titmice grab a nut and zip away...
The American goldfinches have appeared recently, still pale...
The male pine warblers are very yellow now...
The blue jay couple continues to show up daily, usually separately...
When together, they don't seem to share well or tolerate one another...
Despite there being two separate platform feeders...
The same goes for the red-bellied woodpecker pair...this is the female...
Another No. mockingbird, this one in our blooming bottlebrush tree...
(I was very excited when it started blooming!)
We're seeing a few brown-headed nuthatches now...
In S Dakota I saw white and red-breasted nuthatches,
So was excited to see this little fellow to add to my lifer list...
The male red-bellied woodpecker up in our backyard maple tree...
The squirrels have STUFFED themselves with those pink seeds from the front maple tree...
Wiping out the entire tree's seed supply, except for what is
Scattered all over the driveway and front lawn...we saw up to 5 squirrels
At a time in the front maple...the back maple already has leaves...
Will the front yard maple grow leaves?!
A handsome male No. cardinal on a feeder arm covered in morning dew...
The new feeder pole has 2 criss-crossed arms and holds 8 feeders...
I'm going broke just using 5 of the hooks...
A chance visit from a yellow-bellied sapsucker, looking for a drink...
The robins rarely visit, but when they do it's a good-sized flock,
Descending upon the bird bath and ground feeding...
They're in and out for a short period just one day...
Then gone again for weeks...
This photo includes a female brown-headed cowbird...
The females are like the robins, wham, bam, gone...
Except for very recently...we're now seeing males & females,
all over the feeders, daily.
(Queue the theme from "Jaws" ...)
The bad boy of the bunch...a sharp-shinned hawk (I don't think it's a Cooper's hawk due to the small size)...he appears to have a mockingbird perhaps...these guys scout backyard feeders for prey...we have seen him swooping thru the yard a couple times since this deadly visit...
Even tho we didn't see any birds of interest today at No. Peninsula St. Park,
On the way back home, heading along Flagler Beach, we stopped so I
Could attempt to photograph the No. gannets...still too far away for decent shots...
Only to discover that a small pod of porpoises (our guess) was cruising by...
3-4 of them were actually surfing in the waves! Cowabunga!
Happy St. Pat's, former South Dakotan! Ma Nature gifted us with snowflakes the size of silver dollars yesterday! No March blizzard, but it is white on the day of Wearing of the Green.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great catch on the surfing dolphin, Cowabunga is right!
You certainly have some stunning birds visiting your backyard, Jann! Beautiful photographs of all the birds and the AWESOME dolphin! Congratulations on the Brown-headed Nuthatch lifer sighting. Last time I was in Florida, I was on the hunt for Florida Scrub Jays, but unfortunately had no sighting. My fingers are crossed you will see one soon! Enjoy viewing all the lovely, colorful birds at your feeders.
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