A Redstart That Doesn't Stop

I've been charmed today, to be watching an American redstart flitting all over the backyard parameter. They technically winter in S Florida, but can "over-winter" in Florida (probably doesn't trust that the frigid weather north is over with…) and so I'm guessing this cute little fellow is in fact passing by as it heads north. I'd love to say it's a lifer, but alas, I've seen redstarts in S Dakota. Never got good photos there, either. Oy.

I also saw, very briefly, an all pale-yellow bird today, but it was extremely aloof and so I'm not sure what it was. I do know it was not a palm or pine warbler, so I'm hoping it was a female summer tanager, or another newbie... Fingers, toes, and eyes are crossed...

The redstart flitted all over, among trees and shrubs, as it does...

….Other exciting news, we now have not one, but two female painted buntings visiting the feeders! Actually the one on the left has a good amount of pretty yellow so am wondering if it's an imm. male. Either way, here's hoping a mature male shows up one of these days…..

…I was also lucky to witness a female red-bellied woodpecker, apparently, "sunning" on the fence. She sat with wings fanned out like this for several minutes. After 3 days of rain, including a couple nasty storms, I can't say as I blame her. The weather's super nice today…great day to be a bird.

A Feathery Tail…or Two

 Well, I'm finally back at my Blog, updated my bird sighting list and now posting the latest photos collected in the past month or so…I saw my first bald eagle in Florida about a week ago! I was driving, so no photo…the eagle was soaring over the coastline, hunting breakfast no doubt...

A recent round of beach therapy…in-between Arctic Vortex blasts…resulted in a first sighting of 3 black skimmers at Flagler Beach, since moving to the area. I'd seen a couple at Fort Lauderdale Beach a couple years ago, but didn't have my camera then (gasp!) 

The larger birds shared the shoreline with the usual sanderlings, ruddy turnstones, and this lone willet…

Meanwhile, back at the "ranch"...

The titmice are showing up a bit more, flitting in and out as rapidly as ever...

…And the pine warblers are back, equally good at flitting about…although, this fellow allowed me to get within 8 feet to take photos...

…Along with the pine warblers there is an occasional Carolina Chickadee, scarce really…

and still about impossible to photograph...

The fairly abundant pine warblers and No. cardinals chow down daily…

…The feeders can be so busy that there is literally a queue in nearby trees…the chipping sparrows are back in abundance this winter as well…

…The red-bellied woodpecker couple is back…they're suet lovers...

…And the squawky, pushy blue jays…have been seeing a pair together at the feeders more often than I did last year…but they still don't seem to like to share with one another...

…I know we're getting more than one type of mottled brown sparrow at the feeders but can never seem to get a clear shot…is this a song sparrow? Or…? Probably just a "vague" chipping sparrow…

…Hubby likes the olive-colored female cardinals...

…Like last year, a downy woodpecker has made a few scarce appearances, not 

at the feeders, but pecking at our small trees...

…Not to be left out, the brown-headed cowbirds are back, sporadically as usual...

…The Carolina wrens are also scarce and flitty, seen in the background mainly but also they take a peek at the feeders, not sure they actually eat anything (don't think so)...

…The yellow-rumped warblers arrive at dusk, mobbing the maple and small trees in our front yard...

The American robins are back too…these lovely red berries don't stand a chance…as soon as they were ripe, the robins came, conquered, and left…in 3 days the tree was BARE. Well they're still about town, just not at this property now that it's been wiped clean.

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.

Catch Up but No Fries

I confess! As anyone can see by the date on my last post, it's been over 2 months that I've been MIA...Nothing drastic has happened, I've just been extremely lazy about keeping up with my Blog. I have done very little birding outside of watching the backyard birds at the feeders, or the few varieties of birds seen at the beach, but what deliberate birding I have done ~ namely visiting two different birding spots on the Great Florida Birding Trail ~ has produced very disappointing results as far as visual and photographic issues goes...

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!

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.