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!

Fall is here

The last of our sweet little hummingbirds disappeared from our yard on September 24. I miss them already. *sigh*

We had our first Dark-eyed Juncos of the season at the feeder last night. I love those little birds - so pretty! I actually thought I saw one flitting around the pine trees out back about a week and a half ago (the white side tail feathers are pretty telling), but couldn't confirm it. But now they seem to be here to stay, since they were bopping around on the driveway this morning.

Haven't seen that many migrants passing through, really. We had our annual October Eastern Phoebe stop by briefly, and there was some kind of mystery warbler in the yard on Monday, but we didn't get a good enough look at it for an ID.

So yes, the season change is definitely upon us. Come ooooooon, snowy owls! :D

Yardbird species #60, #61, and #62

It's been a productive migration so far, in terms of visitors to our yard.

First we had a House Wren. Next, a juvenile Common Yellowthroat. And tonight, a Red-breasted Nuthatch was fighting the Goldfinches for sunflower seeds at one of our feeders.

Also, some exciting news for me. One of my hummingbird photos was published in Photo News Magazine. My first credited magazine publication! :)

On another note, we've got somewhere in the range of... oh, a billion Goldfinches in our yard right now. If anyone wants any, you're welcome to them. I love those little birds, but they're eating us out of house and home in the numbers they're in!

Biiiiiig yawn!

Biiiiiig yawn!, a photo by Jen St. Louis on Flickr.

This little guy was far too cute to watch. He kept getting puffier and puffier as he settled onto the stick, and his blinking was getting slower... and then yawning. I've never seen a hummingbird yawn before, and was really lucky to get this shot. :)

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. :(