First hummer and oriole

We had two new arrivals today - a gorgeous male Baltimore Oriole and a female hummingbird. I guess that means summer's really on its way! :)

Yard Bird species #67 & 68

Two more yard birds for our list this week! An Eastern Meadowlark singing at the top of one of the trees out in our field, and a field sparrow. Our list is growing! :)

Yard Bird species #65 & 66

I know, I know, I've been really bad about updating. I'll try to do better, I promise. :)

Anyway, we had two new yard birds over the past month - a Northern Shrike and a small flock of Tundra Swans. Our list is slowly growing!

Yard Bird Species #64

I know it's been a ridiculously long time since I've updated this blog, but this - THIS - sighting called for it. Because tonight we got the coolest yard bird yet: a Snowy Owl. The hubby saw it on his way home tonight, then I saw it when I got home two-some-odd hours later. Hopefully it'll stick around for a while and I'll have a chance to get some pictures of it. :)

First hummingbird of 2013

Finally - FINALLY - had our first hummer of the year show up at the feeders this morning. It was a gorgeous little male, and he visited the Oriole feeder for a while before finding one of the feeders actually meant for him. This is 5 days later than last year, so I was starting to get a little worried.

In 2012, our first Baltimore Oriole showed up on May 2, and the hummers on May 3. We had our first Oriole on May 5 this year. So yeah, they all seem a bit delayed, but they're finally here! :)

Yard Bird Species #63

I know I've been really slacking at keeping this blog going lately, but I really haven't had a whole lot to report. That changed this morning with the arrival of Yard Bird Species #63 - a Brown Thrasher. Hopefully this is just the beginning of new birds stopping by our yard as they migrate through the area. :)

Summer visitor in January

I'm home sick with the flu, which really sucks. I'm feeling quite sorry for myself, actually, since this is Day 5 of feeling like crud. The good thing, though, is that I was sitting on the couch and I heard a strange bird call outside, so I decided to check it out. There, in our hopper feeder, sat a male Northern Flicker.

It's so strange. We've got winter birds everywhere - Redpolls (yes, still), Juncos, American Tree Sparrows, as well as year-round visitors like Goldfinches, Blue Jays, a Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpeckers, and far too many Mourning Doves (seriously, they're pretty birds, but they're horrible feeder hogs). And all of a sudden this Flicker shows up. I know it's not completely out of the ordinary for them to stick around for some of the winter, but this is the first I've seen outside of April - September.

Winter finches

Just a quick post with a couple of pictures of our latest winter visitors.

Redpolls were one of my favorites birds when I was a kid, and I've only seen them a handful of times since then. We had one lonely little Redpoll show up in our yard last winter, but then this weekend we had a flock of 40-50 thoroughly enjoying our sunflower chip feeder. And they're back today, so hopefully they'll stick around for a little bit!

Anyway, I was able to take a break from Christmas prep yesterday to set up my blind and try to get a few pictures of these pretty little festive visitors. Hope you enjoy. :)

And Happy Holidays to everyone!

Killdeer babies - found!

I finally managed to track down the little fluff balls of cuteness known as baby Killdeer. They - and their parents - are pretty skittish, so I wasn't able to get very close. But I was able to work with the lighting conditions and distance as best as I could to get a few shots of them.

Crippled hummingbird

Discovered something very sad yesterday - our male hummingbird has a broken leg/foot. He seems to be doing okay - flies and feeds no problem, and still does the courtship dive for the females - but when he perches, he straddles the branch and his bad leg just dangles. It breaks my little heart to see him like this. :(

Yard bird species #58 and #59

Two new yard birds in the span of 24 hours. Not bad!

#58 - Cedar Waxwing. I know, it's a very common garden bird for a lot of people, but it's a first in ours.
#59 - Pine Siskin. This guy has been hanging out with the Goldfinches and House Finches, and I thought it was a female House Finch. But then I got a better look at it, and I realized the beak was completely wrong and it had a yellow tint to its wings.

Yesterday morning I was outside trying to get some more pictures of my tree swallows, and I got to witness the babies fledge! It was pretty special to be able to see these little guys take flight for the first time ever. I felt a bit like a proud mom. They spent about half an hour working up their courage - first squeezing their shoulders out of the hole, then perching there with their little feet grasping the ledge, and then - jump and lift off! Now they're gone, and the nesting box will be empty until next spring. Maybe one of those babies will come back and start a family of its own. :)

I also reached new levels of bird nerdiness yesterday. I bought a small photography blind to set up in the backyard to allow me to photograph our birds more closely without disturbing them. Tried it out yesterday afternoon, and from a preliminary review of my pictures, I'd say it was a success! (That's actually how I realized the Pine Siskin wasn't a House Finch - I was able to get some pretty close-up pictures of it in our pond.) So we'll see how this works out. Hopefully I'll be able to get some pictures of yard birds who have eluded me so far - like the Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and House Finches. I also really, really want to get some good Oriole pictures - NOT with them sitting on the feeder. Wish me luck!

Killdeer babies!

We have killdeer babies in our field! Dave spotted them and I actually saw one of the cute little critters as its parent was checking out the large puddle left by the rain we got today. My new mission is to stalk them and get pictures, because OMG I don't know if there are cuter baby birds out there than Killdeer babies.

Tree swallow family

We were finally able to get a peek at the babies in the nesting house in our backyard. There are at least two, but you can only see one in this shot.

Finally, some pictures!

Friday night I was able to spend half an hour shooting out my living room window (which is where I take a lot of my yard bird photos). Two female hummingbirds were semi-cooperative, and a male Baltimore Oriole posed all pretty-like just long enough for me to snap a couple of shots. Here are the results:

Fledglings everywhere

Work has been keeping me beyond busy the past month and a bit, so I haven't had much - or any - time to focus on taking pictures. Any spare time I have been spent trying to finish up the garden, and that's about it. That said, we've had a lot of bird activity lately.

• Lots of fledglings being fed in our yard: robins, starlings, grackles, sparrows, and house finches.
• Our tree swallows must have hatched their eggs, because the activity level has been crazy. One is always inside the nesting box, and the other goes off and comes back a few minutes later with food. Then they'll switch off. Lather, rinse, repeat, from dawn 'til dusk.
• We suspect there's a Killdeer nest not far off our driveway in the wheat field. We have a lot of them in the fields adjacent to our property, but they're usually pretty far out. (Except the last two weeks, when they've actually been bathing in our pond.) Anyway, there's an adult Killdeer in the same spot every time we come or go, and we figure it can't be coincidence. That has to be its designated guarding-the-nest spot. I want to try to find the little cuties (seriously, baby Killdeer are so freakin' cute it should be illegal), but I don't want to stress out the parents.
• Baltimore Orioles are our new summer bird of plenty. Yesterday there were three adult males frolicking in our pond. Yes, at the same time. It was really odd, since they're usually so territorial towards each other.
• Hummingbird activity is depressingly bad. We've got maybe two males and two females, and they don't stick around for long. They also don't seem to have developed any kind of behavioral pattern that would let me get any decent shots. Very frustrating. Hopefully activity will pick up in August again. *fingers crossed*

Yard Bird Species #57

We looked out our living room window this afternoon and saw a dark shape in the tree where we regularly see a variety of hawks and falcons. Too big to be a Merlin or Kestrel, I dismissed it as a small RTH. But then my hubby asked, "Do red-tails have dark cheek patches?" So out came the camera for an ID shot (and crappy ID shots, at that), and this was the result:

Well, hello there, Mr. Peregrine Falcon! Wasn't expecting this guy at all. Quite a nice addition to our yard bird list. :)