bluebirds galore

I saw several bluebirds this morning, a flock of maybe 20 behind 1st Christian Church in a sycamore tree, and nosing into all the birdhouses at the house. Wonder if they'll stay all winter...

November in Gainesville, Fla

Nov 7-8, Alachua Sink, midday

Loggerhead Shrike
Red-tailed Hawk
Northern Harrier
Herons: Little blue, Great blue
Vultures: Black, Turkey
Redwinged Blackbirds

4 Wood Storks

5 Sandhill Cranes

Common Snipe

4 Lesser Yellowlegs

Osprey
White Ibis

Killdeer

Pied-billed Grebes
Egrets: Snowy, Cattle
Herons: Great blue, Little blue, Louisiana
Palm warbler
Swallows

Anhinga

Nov 8, Paynes Prairie boardwalk on Hwy 441

Northern Harrier pair sparring in flight
Blue-gray Gnatcatchers
Gray Catbird
Redwing Blackbirds
3 Sandhill Cranes

Cormorant standing on turtles

Nov 17-19, PP boardwalk
Warblers: Yellow-rumped, Black-and-white, many others
Northern Harriers
Bald Eagle pair
Eastern Phoebes
RW Blackbirds

Common Yellowthroat hopping through the underbrush

White-throated sparrow

Nov 18, Lake Alice

Anhinga
Great Blue heron
White Ibis
Snowy Egret
Belted Kingfisher
Cormorant

Nov 25, PP boardwalk

Red-tailed hawk
Northern Harrier
House wren
Sparrows: Swamp, Orange-crowned
Warbler: Palm
Common Yellowthroat

October in Gainesville, Florida

October 20, Paynes Prairie

Glossy Ibis

Northern Harrier

Red-winged Blackbird
Boat-tailed Grackle
Sandhill Crane

October 22, Paynes Prairie

Eastern Phoebe

Northern Harrier

Red-winged Blackbird

Warblers: Palm, Yellow-rumped

Carolina Wren

Cardinal

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Barred Owl

Bald Eagle

October 23, Paynes Prairie

Loggerhead Shrike

Red-shouldered hawk, immature
Herons: Little blue, Great blue
Vultures: Black, Turkey
Bald Eagle
Red-winged Blackbird
White ibis

Snowy Egret
Pied-billed Grebes
Common Moorhen

November 26, Ichetuknee Springs, Fla

Osprey

Coot

Yellow Rail

Great Egret

Great Blue Egret

t

Dec 11 Gainesville Fla

Hooded merganser pair in a downtown neighborhood duckpond

sandhills

Couple of hundred cranes flew over about 1:30 PM today, bugling and heading South on the cold front wind - wish I could go with them. Paynes Prairie in Florida had started gathering its winter flock last week.

Greg sez

A large piliated woodpecker was pecking away at a dead branch in our front yard in Oakhurst over the weekend. It seemed unworried as we watched for about 10 minutes only 20-feet below it.

greg

Stan sez

 Nov 2, 2010, at 1:05 PM, Stan wrote:

Hey, Bruce.

About an hour ago, I saw two groups of hawks, at least 20 in one group and the other seemed as large or larger, headed south over Decatur. They passed roughly over the two blocks between Church and Commerce. Interestingly, I also saw hawks headed south on November 3, 2008 at about 11:30 AM, and hawks and sandhill cranes (not together, of course) headed south on November 7, 2009 at about 12:30 PM.  

Chimney swift crepuscular descent

September 23, 2010

Fun morning in the backyard

Northern parula

Downy woodpecker

Northern flicker

American redstart

Ruby-crowned kinglet

Bluebird pair

Mockingbird

Bluejay

Towhee

Titmouse

Chickadee

Backyard today

American Redstart flitting about in the shrubbery this morning, flycatching. The underwing was very dark orange, with the wing and tail colors more yellowy.

Icelandic birds 8/9/2010

These guys are like heavy, short gulls that nest on cliffs and fly large semicircles through the mist to their nest.

 

Arabia Mountain, Tuesday evening

Killdeer were flying around and settling on the bare rock at dusk

Chuck-will's-widows were calling to each other at the toe of the mountain in the trees at dusk

This morning

Eastern towhee singing at dawn on the powerline.

House wrens sitting on a second set of eggs in the backyard.

lately

Goldfinch joined the bluebirds at theDHS Community Garden last weekend.

This weekend on Rich Mountain three belted kingfishers sat on a powerline above the field next to the creek, and a young hawk sitting on the gravel road scrambled into the weeds to escape the dog, who only sniffed at it. Amazingly yellow under the wings and belly - didn't want to pester it overmuch so didn't examine it closely, but its beak looked plenty sharp. Half an hour later it was gone.... no idea how it came to be down.

Also had a spotted fawn run by, maybe 30 pounds on twiggy legs. The next morning it was bleating like a goat as its mom hurried it down the hillside, and sent it off in one direction and she in the other, avoiding.....?

A new month, a new location

I was up in the DC-Baltimore area last week and was frustrated by a feeder bird with a super-stout beak, finch-like; I went for a female indigo bunting, since its head was orangey, fading down its shoulders, but then the mate showed up with less color, mostly brown with a faint single wing bar (white) and a mildly dark eye strip with light eyebrow stripe. I ended up with a purple finch, but have never seen such a strong beak on the ones around here, nor the orange head.

Oh well!

At the upper end of the Skyline Drive in Virginia, a ruffed grouse with chick, who spread its tail to show the banding.

Indigo buntings were all along the grassed areas, singing from high branches, very blue indeed.

Goldfinches were all around.

Vireos sang endlessly, sounded like red-eyed ones "look-up over-here see-me..."

Also red-winged blackbirds and grackles at a lake, and lots of barn swallows everywhere.