Any Bird Watchers in the House?

I started the hobby about a year ago. I just put out some feeders and bought a field guide book. We live in a wooded area, so we get a nice variety of the little guys. Mostly common birds, woodpeckers, chickadees, nut hatches, cardinals, etc. I'm still waiting to see something exotic. Last spring I saw a Scarlet Tanager, although not really exotic, it was the only time he was around.




Here is a video I made a few weeks ago just prior to a snow storm. The birds know when it's about to get crappy out and start stocking up on food. http://www.vimeo.com/2778669

 

Half-heartedly, FL is awesome for it yr around. Dragonflies are my thing. Little stealth fighters they are. That Scarlet is beautiful.

 

Not a bird watcher, but birds can be cool. Just came back from Kauai for a mid winter sun fix before I go down to Daytona. Every morning my wife and I would go run on the beach at dawn, then come back and sit on the patio of our condo and have breakfast, and the red crested cardinals (BRIGHT red head), mynas (noisy knocking sounds like a diesel pickup pulling a box trailer up a steep hill), and Zebra doves (in spite of their peaceful image, basically a warlike bird) would flock around and eat last night's leftover chips, pieces of toast, etc. Here in snow country, nothing around now but cedar waxwings.

 

[Anti Cannoli Bashing Suit ON!]

I'm a casual observer. I have several feeders just outside my kitchen window near my computer so I see them often then try to identify them on the internet. Here's a pic of a woodpecker that frequents the feeders. I shot it through the window so it's a little fuzzy.

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I had a Peregrine Falcon land on a tree branch about 10 feet away from me while I was walking through Central Park in NYC - I never saw pigeons scatter from an area so fast!

One of the local bird watchers told me that Central Park is one of the best bird watching sites in the country - who would have thought that?

 

Those 'peckers are common in Carolina. There is another species with a HUGE comb on his noggin that would show up rarely. Check out www.eol.org some time.

 

This POS keeps getting in the feeders and eating all the food... even after taking a few rounds to the ass from a CO2 BB gun...



And living so close to the Chesapeake Bay we get these guys all the time too...

 

Seagull = Flying rat

 

That's a Red-bellied Woodpecker. We have a family of them that comes to our window feeders. It's hilarious to see daddy woodpecker hang on the little plastic suction-cup window feeder - he's bigger than it is.

We get some downy woodpeckers too - they root through the feeders like a dog in a trashcan, throwing out any seed they don't like. The occasional flicker will show up for peanuts or suet.

Most of what we get are chickadees, titmice, wrens, cardinals, cowbirds, nuthatches, bluebirds, warblers, goldfinches, house finches, sparrows, and the like.

The fun starts when a hawk or an owl shows up to see what all the little birds are up to

I too had a massive squirrel problem at our feeders - tried shooting the little rats but the dead ones didn't seem to bother the rest. I got a live trap, baited it with birdseed, and relocated the ones I caught about 5 miles away. Eventually, after catching 6 females and a male and hauling them away, the rest apparently decided they didn't like the mysterious disappearances and moved on to my neighbor's house

 

Me and my daughter Emma do some bird watching thru the kitchen. We have a gray squirrel named Fred, a chipmuck named Charlie. The birds come and go but we had a male/female cardinal couple that stuck around. The occasional red headed woodpecker.

 

One more of Fred.

 

There was a documentary made a few years ago about several Hawks that made nests on some buildings around Central Park. I can't remember the name of it, but it was awesome.

In that video in the first post, there is a red-bellied woodpecker that stole a hunk of suet, then brought it up to a tree and stored it inside a hole he made. He pretty much stood guard until he felt like eating it. Birds are very cool. And such a cheap form of entertainment, some $10 feeders and a bag of seed every few weeks is all you need.

I once saw a male cardinal feeding a female cardinal. I couldn't believe my eyes.

 

Nice video, Fred.

My neighbor across the street has two dogs that pretty much live outside, which is where he feeds them. One day I watched our Red-bellies systematically steal all the dry dog food from the bowls and stash it in the hollow tree they live in. Told my neighbor about it - he said it couldn't have been any birds, it had to have been another neighbor's dog because he was sure his dogs wouldn't let birds steal their food

 

We just moved into a more urban setting but I am surprised at the number and variety of birds that are at our one feeder. Nothing exotic or rare, but 20-25 sparrows and such are pretty fun to watch. I stuck this years X-mas tree out there next to the feeder and they will fill its branches, while waiting to get at the feeder or the ground under it.
When I lived in Western Alaska we used to see Mckays Buntings which ahve a very limited range, so very few people in the world have ever seen one.

Ken

 

I've been looking at getting a decent camera. I like Hawks, falcons ect. This is a great time of year for them around here.

Since you brought up Dragon Flies, I'm on the right coast on the barrier island and once and sometimes twice a year we get a hatch of them that is insane. Millions of them swarming everywhere. They are here for a couple days then they are gone. Any idea whats going on?

 

The Great Backyard Bird Count is happening right now (Feb. 13-16), http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/

If you've never done this, it's free, and you just count and identify birds in your yard for 15 minutes and report it on the site. It's cool because you can see what kind of birds people are reporting all over the country. And lots of other statistics, like usually that Texas reports the most species and that Northern Cardinals are the species most reported. It evens narrows it down to municipalities, so you can see what your neighbors are reporting.

 

When archery hunting several years back...had a Jake (turkey) roost up to my tree stand, about 6 feet away....Held still for about 15 seconds until he started to get wise. Man was he spooked! Nothing like full camo and a face net to hide in the woods.

 

Saw a bunch of Shearwaters and Jaegers about 30 miles off the GA coast last week. Those fckrs cover some serious ground over the course of a year...

 

Hmm, I dunno. Could be the hatch coincides with some prey they depend on.

A small red-shouldered hawk swooped in front of me on the way in this morning. You're right about the raptors here I literally see one everyday. There is a big field behind our office a pair has been hunting in for months. It's like their own buffet.

 

I am a casual bird watcher and like to watch the hawks from my office window. I watch several marsh hawks (Northern Harriers) grow up over the years. After Ike, I had a Kestrel that would feed off of the dragonflies near the building. We would have lunch together and one day I counted 11 tries with 8 kills.

David