Who Let the Birds Out?!

Spring has definitely sprung in the kingdom of feathered frolickers…I barely posted about my long over-due ID of an Eastern bluebird, (seen on a power line, during a walk) when lo and behold, I looked out the window at the feeder pole and there sat a bluebird! I was even able to dash for the camera, which sits at the ready on the guest bed near the window…and get one shot before it zipped away. 

The following pictures were taken on two different days during a very short period of time...

I would think this is a female...

Not to be overlooked, finally a goldfinch sighting…I was beginning to wonder if I'd missed them this year...

I'm a bit thrilled to say, the Carolina wrens have become braver and less scarce at the feeders…this one didn't mind sharing with a pine warbler (r), even...

I saw four blue jays coming and going from the feeders at the same time…

The Carolina chickadees are appearing…no mistaking their distinct call…

But they're hard to capture…and fairly scarce...

I couldn't resist this shot through the lattice-top fence...

My guess is that this is a chipping sparrow, morphing from winter to summer coloring…

Update: A fellow birder, Laurence, feels this is a morphing palm warbler, pointing out the narrow bill…I would have to agree, the bill's too narrow for a sparrow. I've compared it to images online and it does match a palm warbler. Thank you Laurence!

…A female yellow-rumped warbler...

…And a male, hiding in a leaf-sprouting tree near the feeders...

…Up in the newly-leafed maple tree, a male No. cardinal waits for a turn at the feed…

At the front of the house, in the next-door neighbor's driveway, some serious drama unfolded…

One No. mockingbird gives the stink-eye to another…

…followed by strutting and posturing...

…Moments later, a kerfuffle!

…A blurry kerfuffle….

Until someone squawks, "I give!" and plays dead...

…Followed by more kerfuffling…

Now was this males being territorial,

Or a mating ritual?!

I hope the former, yeesh!

…Yet another new visitor…not very welcomed, either! An American crow checking out the base of the feeder pole…it didn't eat or even peck at a thing...

…While up above in a neighbor's pine tree, another crow looked on. The Stokes guide says they come to feeders. Please tell me this is NOT going to happen! N-o-o-o-o! It's bad enough I have to put up with the hoggish, couch potato mourning doves. Ack!

New Bellies to Feed

The only birding done lately has been watching the usual activity at home...well, except we did take a maiden voyage recently, with our new bike carrier and bicycles, on a park trail along the Intracoastal Waterway. I didn't take a camera (hubby would've been most unamused) as this was about exercise; a.k.a. no dwaddling. We saw an osprey on the opposite shore, surveying the expanse of water before it from the top of a bare tree. And we saw little blue herons and one great heron on the water's edge by the path, cruising for food. 

Yesterday we witnessed a female ruby-throated hummingbird hovering at one of the bell-shaped flowers in our front yard...then she perched on a thin tree branch above the flowers for a few moments. I knew I'd never get to the camera in time so didn't bother. Darn it....

However, I did get some shots "through the looking glass" of what I'm guessing are the new offspring pair of our resident male and female red-bellied woodpeckers!

First, this is Mama RB Woodpecker at the suet, which I can hardly keep in supply it's going so fast...and of course a blue jay at the nuts/seeds feeder...

...Ok, ok, without further ado...here they are! Our newbies! Will they stick around like their parents? I hope at least long enough to see what gender they are. Mom and Pop wasted no time showing them where the easy pickin's can be found.

A closer look at suet fledgling...

The tufted titmice are really scarce right now, but lately I've seen one here and there zing in to the feeder and zing out. This one looks like it could be a fledge, but I really have no clue.

The Blurry Bird Blog Bit II

I'm still here, have just been "out of pocket" for awhile due to the major distraction of putting a house together, from paint to furniture to what-nots.  We're getting there, slowly but surely.  New kitchen counters look fab, bedroom furniture is finally ALL here, tho there are a couple small issues that we have to wait for someone to come out and look at...ARG. Anyway, I have finally ordered a belated Christmas gift for myself, it is back-ordered naturally, so probably won't see it for 3 more weeks...a new 4-hook, squirrel repelling, tall bird-feeding pole. Dang they're expensive! If you haven't checked out Duncraft's website, I recommend that you do if you feed the yard birds...

Speaking of, I have been taking more blurry shots from inside the house but have not gone out birding ~ other than snapping beach birds during the past couple of visits ~ in some time.  Our weather is up and down, today being down to 55 for a high. Yesterday it was 75. We've had frost a few mornings...one of the perks of living in central Florida.  Yes Virginia, it can frost in Florida!

Ok without further ado....the latest (mostly) blurred birdy bling around the homestead...

The chipping sparrow is an occasional visitor...

I believe this female red-bellied woodpecker and her mate are the only 2 RBW's visiting the feeders...I love how they use their tail to stabilize themselves...

What the...? A red-winged blackbird came through briefly...

The titmouses have been checking out the suet...they continue to be very flighty...

The Carolina chickadees are occasional visitors and also very flighty, which is weird considering how people-friendly (curious) the black-capped ones are...

The yellow-rumped warblers are occasional and fleeting...

This is Mo, Larry, or Curly...one of three squirrels that are almost always on the maple tree or under the bird feeder eating fallen seeds...due to crippled nature of the feeder, at least one of them knows how to get to the platform feeder despite the baffle....

Finally, robins! They came, they saw, they conquered....and now they don't visit anymore, but I do see them around the area.  This is the first I've seen any robins at all since arriving in Florida over a year ago, tho the Stokes field guide claims they're here year-round. What's up with that?!

The Carolina wren (me-thinks the same one) still visits occasionally, and seems to be getting a little less timid....

Two female brown-headed cowbirds and a male No. cardinal...I wasn't sure what the dark birds were (except female) until I saw the male...

The cowbirds are abundant in S Dakota so I knew him right off....

Beings that this is Florida, there are 'shrooms...this one appeared in our backyard...

The mourning doves are plentiful...

As you can see by this shot...which also captured Mo/Larry/Curly zipping up the maple tree...and a chipping sparrow at the green feeder.

Our daughter visited for a week in early December...we had perfect weather the day we got our beach therapy.  Here she's greeting some brown pelicans as they do a fly by....

There isn't much variety of shore birds at the beach here, I'm sad to say, at least not that I've found yet...will try to explore the Intracoastal Waterway side soon...of course there's gulls; this is an immature (winter) ring-billed gull.

The willets are a common sight at the beach...

As are the sanderlings...

...Back on the "ranch"...a female cardinal poises for a shot at the feeder while Mo/Larry/Curly hangs on the maple tree...the cardinals are very common and plentiful, and a bit hoggish of the feeders...

A red-shouldered hawk visited recently...a step up the food chain from the other feathered visitors...

While trying to snap the hawk, I heard a familiar drumming sound...and could just make out this pileated woodpecker in a pine tree a couple houses down, and waaaay up high...

This was the first time I saw a blue jay eating suet instead of the seeds...

Naturally I could only get one blurry shot of this bright yellow fellow... a pine warbler...

Hubby and I went for a bicycle ride yesterday... and discovered a couple of these bright red mushrooms like the ones always depicted in fantasy art that includes faeries and elves...when we got back home we jumped in the car and drove back to the spot so I could take some photos.  :o)  Do you think they're poisonous?  Hmm.

Well, I'll see you next year...I hope everyone had a lovely holiday season and will have a healthy, exciting 2013!  See you in the new year...

The Blurry Bird Blog Bit

Bet you can't say this post's title 5x really fast. Seriously, I had to take these photos from indoors, through a glass window, and from several yards away...I'm pretty sure I'm minus one tiny bird too small to get the camera to focus on, plus the recently spotted Eastern bluebirds did not come in today (that I know of)...seeing those a few days ago was a lifer experience!  (Well, sort of...I'm pretty sure I saw at least one somewhere while living in S Florida for those 6 months before we bought our house in NE Florida, but it was one of those zingers and all I saw was a flash of bright blue)...

Ok, I'll point out the obvious here and say that the birds have discovered the newly hung bird feeders.  When we left for Hawaii the end of May, the tall pole for hanging feeders on was firmly in place (or so we thought).  This was left by the previous, original home owner. Somewhere in July my brother-in-law checked up on the house for us and discovered the pole lying on the ground, broken.  SIGH.  Turned out the metal had rotted through and...snap.  And I have yet to get to Home Depot to buy a new one, so the old shorter one was stuck in the ground in the meantime.  At least one squirrel leaps above the shortened cone gizmo meant to keep him off, and shimmies up to the platform feeder.  I know, I know, I NEED to buy a new pole!  I want to put it in a particular place, not where it had been before, and this means chopping down the 8 foot "sprouts" from a magnolia tree stump...the thing looks like a big bush after 5-6 months of growth...anywho, it's one of many items on my to-do list (or hubby's)...at least the birds have found the feeders!  The hoards seem to come flocking in all at the same time, briefly, once a day around 3 PM-ish.  The N Cardinals are plentiful and frequent visitors to both the feeders and the ground below them.  These photos were all taken during within about 15 min. today.

It appears that the tufted titmouses (titmice ?) are a year-round bird here... 

Wouldn't you know, I can't find my Eastern bird books and this wren isn't in the W book so I can't ID it as yet...only one that I can conjure up mentally is "Carolina" ?

I do know female goldfinches when I see them....

Well, is it a house finch, purple finch, or Cassin's finch??  I'd say it isn't a Cassin's, too much color, and the W book says we don't have house finches here in Florida..?  Hmm.

A chipping sparrow made its debut...

And there are always varying colors of N cardinals about...

...Just this one deep red male...

The blue jay can be heard before seen, what a squawker...

...And last but not least, this red-bellied woodpecker was pecking at something on the fence.