Ah, and thus begins yet another season of Pond Envy. Pixie, you are one lucky duck. Three beauties in your backyard. Excellent!

Jane (which, in Algonquin means, 'No Pond')

The pruning team going home this morning after the night shift. It was a young herd of 5. Some neighbors have counted 25.
Jane

This post was edited by corunum on Sun, Apr 6, 14 at 8:34

Hmmm... Maybe it's time for a deer fence? Or a pet bear?

Claire

Just a cardinal being a cardinal on a feeder in the sun, but it made me smile.

And a juvenile Cooper's Hawk being a hawk (not at the same time as the cardinal or I wouldn't have been smiling).

Claire

We'd be lost without the usual customers. Good close-ups.

I took your advice about the bear and stopped at the end of our street to have a chat with a local little fella. As soon as he's down, he'll come 'round.

Good tip - thanks. Jane

That may help, but he might be better suited to chasing these deer.

Claire

A leucistic Common Grackle appeared today in the mixed blackbird flock! It seems healthy - I'm not sure if it's a male or female although I'm guessing female because the body feathers aren't as black as the typical male.

Closeup of head

Claire

Neat! Good thing you were there at the right time. Forwarding to PFW?

I sent the photos to ProjectFeeder Watch using their Unusual Birds Report link on the Data Entry page. This seems to be the latest method - better than just emailing them.

Claire

I looked out yesterday and noticed two tom turkeys frozen in position mirroring each other. At first I thought they were about to fight, but then they moved in parallel and strolled off like conjoined twins.

These two toms are cooperating - a third is an outlier and stays off to the side of the flock.

Claire

A bit up-thread, nhbabs posted pictures of a squirrel doing gymnastics to eat dogwood fruits, an activity no one would object to (or almost no one).

Squirrels in my yard, however, have a habit of noshing on the pussy willow buds. They seem to be both eating the buds and just biting off small branches. They do this every year and the poor pussy willow loses a lot of its foliage. Little sprigs of catkins litter the ground under the tree (this old pussy willow is a small tree).

It's hard to get good photos because the rodents keep an eye on my window and scamper off as soon as they see the camera lens or me watching.

Claire

And one more sign of spring - bugs were flying today in the sun, zooming around happily! When I couldn't get a picture of those little flying creatures (the camera refused to focus on them), I decided to try for a video.

Flying bugs video

I have no idea what the little fliers are.

Claire

Claire, maybe we should have bought lottery tickets this weekend. You got newly hatched insects and I got Mr. and Mrs. Cowbird. We're on a roll. hehehe

Ah, you have the cowbird pair in the dating stage. I have the next stage: female cowbirds hanging out with the female red-wings preparing for the nesting stage.

Well, the red-wing makes the nest and incubates the eggs and cares for the babies - the cowbird just adds a few eggs and fades away (like the usual brood parasite).

Claire

I jut got home from driving the little girl to the bus stop and noticed the driveway was covered with worms. I almost felt bad for the little critters. But not bad enough to do anything to help them.

Yesterday, through rain-soaked windows, the Am. Goldfinch males looked like lemons on the birch tree. This morning, the Mourning Doves are searching through the snow for seeds.

Pixie - not easy to save a driveway full of flood victims.

pixie_lou: It's good the little girl didn't see the worms or you might have been out in the rain moving them.

Jane: Rain-soaked windows do diminish a picture but the idea of lemons on a birch is good.

I had to deal with a dirty window in the sun when I looked out and saw the heated birdbath with scillas in bloom. I waited a few minutes and a male red-wing stopped to sip water. Pretty colors even if through a light fog.

Claire

A fox came visiting today and stopped at the birdseed area. I think it was eating the suet nuggets I put out this morning.

It saw me watching through the window with my big camera eye, but didn't seem to be afraid (I caught it in mid-nibble). It stayed for a little while eating then ran off.

Claire

In a word- - - wow. That's a great tail. Looks very healthy.

Am I the only one having difficulty linking pictures from Flickr? They do not import - as they used to - and in the preview mode under this thread, I see a small white box with a broken diagonal line instead of my picture. Used to be able to choose the size in Flickr - 640 x 420, I think. Now there is no size selection. Just me?
Jane

Flickr has made some changes and it's a little harder to select the size.

This is the first Brown Thrasher of the season, I first saw it yesterday so I think of it as the Easter Thrasher.

Once you get to the picture sharing link it just says Medium 500 X 375 v, but if you click on the v you get a drop down list of more sizes. You also have to check the HTML box as usual, and then they've already selected the tag for you, but you still have to copy it. Don't try to select it yourself, if it's blue just copy it.

Claire

Thank you. Must be me, failed again. Will try again another day.

He looked down as if he were thinking, 'even my feet are yellow'.

Yup, it changed -got it, thanks.

Brown thrasher vs. hermit thrush, visually, seem so closely related. Will have to read more about their differences. The hermit thrush hasn't been here since winter. The Brown thrasher is a lovely bird. Has he been one of your visitors before?

I guess it's a little like the old Easter tradition of the new outfit to wear on Easter Sunday, except that the birds get to wear their new clothes all day and all night. If I woke up and suddenly was all yellow they'd probably call it jaundice, but it looks great on a goldfinch.

I get the thrashers every year in the spring and they breed here so I sometimes see the fledglings. That yellow eye is a good identification mark.

Claire

I think this is a Winter Wren vs. a House Wren. He's been here for the past few days, a newcomer. When on the ground, his tail is held vertically so that he resembles a chubby check mark.

Jane

Cute little fella - I'm not good at wren identification but Winter Wren looks good to me. I've never seen a House Wren, though, and a possible winter wren only once.

Suet really draws in birds that you usually wouldn't see.

Claire

No ID needed here. sigh.Two pairs of Cowbirds here with House Sparrows making more nests. Somehow if the sparrows raised the cowbirds there would seem to be an evil but balanced twist to nature's way. Too big a subject. At least there is a pair of Chipping Sparrows nesting nearby along with four Blue Birds, a pair of C. Wrens, and three individual BC Chickadees....best not to ask. Maybe one is the MIL. NO RW Blackbirds though.

Like most neighborhoods, you seem to have a mixture of conventional families and unusual pairings with a deadbeat dad (or mom) or two - combined with a few non-natives that will never be accepted by some, no matter how hard they work.

Now, if only there were some hummingbirds to add some buzz....

Claire

Jane - Here's a page from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to help with telling apart thrushes, though I think I would need to be looking at the page for it to help me.

Here is a link that might be useful: Thrush ID

Thank you, nhbabs. I had seen this page on allaboutbirds and like you, I'm sure I'd need the page in hand to tell the difference between the thrushes. Just when I think I'm getting a small handle on bird identification, along comes a new bird, out come the books, and the realization that, for me, five lifetimes would be insufficient to learn all there is to learn. Life is good. :) Thanks.
Jane

It is a very windy afternoon for landing, I admit. However,

This was his backyard landing on March 31st, the belly flop approach

And this afternoon, nearly a month later, there seems to be little luck going his way

Jane
P.S. I did not know that chipmunks raid bird nests much less consume baby birds. There's a tainted image.

This post was edited by corunum on Thu, Apr 24, 14 at 17:38

Very windy here, too. One of the regular crows in my yard seems to have a slightly deformed wing, only it flies OK. Maybe yours has leg problems that affect landing? Flying can be a hazardous endeavor.

It seems like almost anything that can reach baby birds would eat them if it has a chance. After all, our species considers squab a delicacy.

Claire

Fascinating photos. We've left the sunflower feeder up and are throwing more seed on the ground for the wild turkeys and other ground feeders. Usually the feeders are down by now so we don't attract a bear. Raccoons started raiding the feeders, even opening a suet feeder my husband had wired closed.

Red winged blackbirds are using the feeder which we never saw before. We thought we had a new bird but finally identified it as a female RW blackbird. I had to look thru internet images to find one with the very yellow throat that ours had.

My husband has spotted what he thinks is a Louisianna warbler but I haven't seen it. Finally my husband helped our young granddaughters to make bluebird houses which I hope will go up soon. It may be a little late but at least they'll finally go up. Although young (almost 8 and almost 10) the girls were allowed to use the cordless drill to drill the ventilation holes. I know the bluebirds are probably nesting out back in the woods.

Good on you, defrost49, to let the granddaughters use the cordless drill, although I'll bet you didn't breathe during the process. If the bluebirds don't nest in them this year, then there's another year on the way, and you have two proud granddaughters now.

It's three weeks later than Jane's sighting, but a woolly bear caterpillar sauntered across my path yesterday, pushing aside the vegetation in its way.

In the fall, people say the width of the bands may forecast the severity of the winter. What does a spring woolly bear forecast? Hurricane season?

Claire

This post was edited by claire on Fri, Apr 25, 14 at 15:14

defrost - My reaction is the same as Claire's - so glad to read that your granddaughters were allowed to use the drill. A true aside, my 35 yr. old Canada Goose weather vane lost a wing in a storm and I couldn't find another goose that pleased me as much as that old one. So I cut my own this afternoon and it will be sanded and painted soon. Maybe someday your girls will teach their daughters. Birding involves the whole spirit! Echoing - 'Good on you'! and your husband.

Poor wooly caterpillars. I remember reading that the width of the band tells about the past season. So your wooly bear is in good shape, Claire, no hurricanes did him in, lol.

Jane

It must be big bird day at my house. Pileated Woodpecker flew in and went directly to the squirrel residence in a maple. Not sure any of this popularity bodes well for my aging maple. There are branches in front of him, I had shoot through the birch. But look at those feet. He's a good 16"+ tall.
Jane

That's a magnificent woodpecker, Jane - he'd make a good weather vane too, or a whirligig.

Claire

Love the whirligig. The photo of the woodpecker doesn't show. Did you take it down?

Our 2 yo grandson is fascinated seeing the birds especially the wild turkeys. He helps bumpa put seed out for them. I think the girls are very lucky to have a talented grandfather with lots of tools. He used to teach 4-H woodworking when our son was in 4-H.

defrost - no, woodpecker picture is still there. Perhaps if you reload the page - any webpage to refresh it - the photos will come in. And, the goose is actually a static weather vane, not a whirlygig. Unfortunately, I'm not that talented in woodworking, just self-taught.

Male Eastern Towhee foraging under the pieris tree. To me it's a dwarf pieris patch, but to the little birds there's a forest over there.

I'm not sure, but I think I saw a squirrel chase a Cooper's hawk away this morning. At least there was a flurry in the winterberry and the hawk flew off while a squirrel charged in that direction.

Claire

We have broadwing hawks that nest on our land every summer, but usually they are either soaring relatively high or in the woods. This week both of them have been hanging out near the house, on the laundry line pole, in the big red maples, and on the phone wire. It's hard to get a good photo since they aren't too big and the light hasn't been good, but here's the best photo I have. We've also had up to 6 deer and 15 turkeys at a time grazing in the corn & alfalfa field, but too far to get good photos.

nhbabs: Do you think the hawks are hunting something, like voles, near your house? Or maybe considering a nesting site close by?

I saw the first Baltimore Orioles of the season today! and it's before the hummingbirds show up - usually the orioles come a little after the hummers.

The grackles had gobbled up most of the suet outside and the orioles were picking at the scraps. I raced out and put new suet in all of the cages and added some apricot preserves in a dish. This one came back but didn't seem too impressed with the new suet.

He did seem to be looking down at the preserves in the dish in the middle of the feeder.

When they start showing interest in the fruit I'll phase out the suet in those cages to discourage the grackles. I have another suet feeder up in another area.

Claire

I can see the magnificent woodpecker!
The bluebird houses are up and today a pair of tree swallows were checking one out. I think the hole is too small for them so I might relent and have my husband make one bigger. There are 3 houses. We think we also saw a purple martin.

While I was away, my husband took down the last feeder, a tube feeder because a squirrel had gotten inside. Sheesh.

Would that the hawk removes a few voles!! In the other garden down by the shop, as I was stomping holes and tunnels flat, they were literally jumping out of the far end of tunnels and diving down another. I don't know if I actually stomped one or more, but I sure felt better about getting rid of tunnels. I will be setting traps where they reopen tunnels.

Nice to see the oriole, Claire. I always think of them as a summer bird.

Today is the first time I've seen a Baltimore Oriole here - and there were 3; 2 female, 1 male. Also saw the first hummer today, AND, a Scarlet Tanager - first time to see one anywhere. Big birding day here.
Male Scarlet Tanager that was interested in maple tree blossoms

Female Baltimore Oriole in Japanese Toyo quince. Not sure what she was taking out of the blossoms, but she seemed happy.

I had just walked away from the computer and put the cameras away when it started to hail/sleet/rain in the gray sky out back while the sun was shining out front and this is the result:

Jane

Jane, you hit the jackpot for photography today! I don't think I've seen a tanager here. I'll need to look up and see if this is part of their range.

Definitely a big day, Jane, with a lot of firsts. A Scarlet Tanager! I've never seen one. I love the picture of the female oriole in the quince. Maybe she was eating insects? or nectar?

And then a rainbow to put a finishing touch on the day.

Claire

This thread is getting long and probably slow to load for some people so I'm starting a new thread (not quite there yet).

Claire