Great symphony, Claire! Well done.

Red-bellied woodpecker taking advantage of a storm damaged limb on the walnut tree. We've also seen chickadees, nuthatches, and others there.

Haven't seen mockingbirds much this year, but here's one decorating the j. maple today.

Susan

That little girl red-bellied is looking for a feast. Sorry your walnut was damaged, Susan. The picture of the N.Mockingbird is spot-on. Excellent shot of a really nice bird.

Jane

Hoping that we all get to see more of them this year, here is a new report on Monarch Butterfly increase

That aerial photo of trees covered with butterflies is astonishing!

Claire

Hooray for more monarch butterflies! I've been nursing a milkweed seedling, as well as sowing the contents of a local pod I found. (We'll see how successful this is....)
I also was given Seedballz for Christmas, which have milkweed seeds in the mix.... http://seedballz.com/?page_id=181

AND persevering with ridding my garden of masses of black dog strangle-vine which confuses & tricks monarchs, I've heard....

Outside my window -yellow-bellied sapsucker.

Some days I can't face it either -

I also fight the black dog strangle-vine AKA black swallow-wort or pale swallow-wort.

The monarchs lay their eggs on the vines but the caterpillars can't eat them and die, according to the Monarch Joint Venture.

Claire

Husband said he saw a red winged blackbird this morning. Bluebirds are checking out the bluebird houses again. Fingers crossed although we have a family of bluebirds every summer which are probably nesting in the woods.

They're still berry shopping. I suppose it's no different from us choosing apples or peaches -

Jane

molie, my guess is wood duck nesting box

I would second Jane's suggestion of wood duck. They are tree cavity nesters, and these substitute for the dead and hollow trees that we humans are prone to removing. The entrance hole looks rather larger than those I've seen; usually the entrance is made as small as possible to keep preditors such as raccoons from eating the eggs. At some point in the past I've seen a film of wood ducklings shortly after hatching jumping out of a high tree nest hole and landing unhurt. I'll see if I can track it down.

Thanks to both of you, and for any additional information you might find. I'll check the local branch of the Audubon Society to see if they placed duck nests along the river.

Wood ducklings leaving the nest video. (Edited to actually include the link. . .)

and here is a set of directions from the National Wildlife Foundation on how to build a wood duck nest box. Perhaps Molie's nest box is smaller than the ones I've seen so that the hole looks larger. NWF says 4 1/2" x 3 1/2". Regardless, it's nice to see the protective baffle on the pole.

We often get wood ducks here during spring migration. I've seen them in the stream, our "pond" and in the corn field.

Thanks for that link to building a wood duck nesting box. I'll be away for a few day but will check with the neighbors later in the week. Because the two osprey platforms were put up nearby, I'm thinking that it these boxes have come from the same source either our city or the local chapter of the Audubon Society.

We've never seen wood ducks on the river but do have mallards and geese, the occasional owl, and hooded mergansers at certain times of the year.

I'm no longer in Kansas. The.lizard doesn't show up, but he's there.

Great video, NHBabs - another reason to leave a thick layer of leaf litter on the ground! I'm amazed that the ducklings don't hurt themselves belly-flopping after their jump.

Jane: Lizards and flowers and storks, oh my! That can't be CT.

Claire

I thought you might be interested in the article, "Short-eared Owls: Help Track a Secretive Bird," in the link below:

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/1533ddac88b70d30

Pat, your link just goes to Google mail in general, not your particular article on short-eared owls. Perhaps you could just copy and paste the article or a link to where the organization that sent it has it online?

I'm so sorry that happened. I am at work right now and not able to access that link. I will get it right either tonight or tomorrow. Don't know why that happened.

So Jane, do we get to know where you are? I am going to hazard a guess that it is coastal SE US, based on the Spanish moss dripping from the trees. It's snowing very lightly here today and I don't think will get above freezing, so bask in the warmth a bit extra for me please.

A friend shared this link to an article, The hidden language of bird feathers. Maybe some of you have seen it before? It was new to me. I especially enjoyed the embedded videos. Hope my link works.

Molie

I forgot to mention the location...head not always attached lately, sorry. I'm south of Tampa on the Gulf of Mexico. But, returning home tomorrow with hopefully, decent bird pictures. I traveled light, leaving the bigger Canon home, so we'll see if stork, anhinga, and herons are worth posting. Temp has hovered around 80 mid-day, so I will take some warmth for you, NHBabs. Nice for a little while, but I am a Yankee, so I'm coming home. . Jane

Fascinating link, Molie - the club-winged manakin feathers can make sounds that really shouldn't be possible for a bird (you have to wait for the series of videos to load themselves - just when you think it's the end another video continues the topic).

Jane: South of Tampa, eh, and 80 degrees - definitely not what we're seeing here.

This is what I'm seeing outside my window - not a major snow storm but still not what I like to see in March.

Claire

Well, Claire, let's hope this is the part of March that's coming in like a lion. I'm ready for what Jane has down in Florida.... ready to get out in the yard and uncover things.. ready to think about spring planting... also ready to sit down by the river with wine in hand!

Molie

Lately, Molie, I've been getting this insatiable urge to open a window - I want to smell fresh air in the house, even if it's filled with pine pollen and the kitchen surfaces get a yellow-green patina....

Claire

Ah, yes, Claire... Spring pollen everywhere, on tables, counters, TVs. Still, it will be nice.

Come over and visit. Chairs enough for everybody, party happening here tonight. Hope you can hear the water on video. One acre, new house, awaiting more gardens.Come visit

Jane

That looks surreal, Jane, but I don't think I could make it in time for the party!

One good thing about today, I finally got confirmation that the Carolina wrens made it through the bitter cold of a while back. I hadn't seen them and I'd about given up, but today the pair (I'm assuming it's the same two) were out and about and looking healthy. I wanted to yell "Where were you! Didn't you know how worried I've been?"

Claire

Jane, it will be interesting to hear about your visit and if you'd consider that area as a winter retreat!

Let's try this again. I was thinking you might enjoy this read, but my link was faulty. This should be the rare owl article I meant to send you above:

http://blog.nature.org/science/2016/03/01/short-eared-owls-help-track-a-secretive-bird/

Thanks, Pat, for the successful link to the article. Owls are magnificent and so difficult to see. I often hear one nearby very early in the morning before sunrise, but have never seen it. The one we hear sounds like a Great Horned Owl.

Thanks, Pat for the link. As often with items posted on this thread, Pat's linked article led me to visit Cornell's bird pages. I wasn't sure if we would have short-eared owls much here since we aren't exactly a prairie state. However, it turns out that they like the seacoast, and there have been lots of sightings from Hampton Beach, NH to Cape Ann, MA, which is as far as I checked. Plum Island (Parker River Wildlife Refuge at the mouth of the Merrimack River) is a real hotspot, including one spotted this month already. I might need to bundle up one day this week and head out there.

Here's ebird's map of short-eared owl sightings.

Thanks, Pat, for the article and NHBabs for the eBird link. I've never seen any owl, much less a Short-eared Owl, but I have heard some sort of owl, probably a couple of Great Horned Owls.

RE Short-eared Owl range: According to Birds of North America Online (subscription site),

"Massachusetts (Holt 2003):
breeders confined to islands of the southeast (Nantucket, Tuckernuck,
Martha’s Vinyard; Monomy), likely owing to increased predation pressure
and development at mainland coastal sites. In winter, more common at
mainland coastal sites."

While we're short of prairie grasslands, we're strong on marshes which the owls like too.

Neat bird!

Claire

Today while down at Gulf Beach in Milford, CT, we think we saw a small group of Tufted Ducks. I know these ducks have been spotted in Bridgeport, which isn't far away. Unfortunately... no camera.

American Kestrels are all over North America, but I had to get to a parking lot in Florida to see my first one. Handsome, small parrot-size bird.

Went looking for eagles yesterday down by the Connecticut River and came home with various gulls. However, I think this one shows a bit more aerodynamic feather structure than we usually associate with gulls. Anybody familiar with flight can see the built-in thrust reversers, :)

I know people kind of lump house sparrows, starlings, grackles, gulls, etc., into a nuisance grouping, but I like them. This fellow was simply peaceful. To me, there is something about a gull's eye that reflects an ancientness of nature's smartness.

And after romanticizing the ordinary gull, somebody left a pile of something in the parking lot and their reputation was restored.

Great pics, Jane!

I wonder if the kestrel was showing off for the gawkers - it really looks pleased with itself. - and rightly, it's a gorgeous bird.

We take bird feathers for granted, but that gull really seems to have a sophisticated flight system and you photographed it beautifully.

Claire

Jane: Your second post appeared while I was responding to the first one. You've captured the essence of gulls well, both serene and raucous depending on the occasion.

Claire

Just beautiful, Jane, especially the kestrel. I grew up around gulls near the water, but these days I see them mostly in those strip mall parking lots or perched on towering light fixtures over fast food joints. Can't blame them for being opportunistic. Must be easier than dropping clams from the sky one-by-one to break the shells!

Susan

For the Winter that wasn't, Spring is now appearing in many places. Daylily tops, daffs are poking through, and somebody is 'high tailing it'.

Northern Mockingbird back home (assuming he left)

Nice pics of a chipmunk looking very busy, and a mockingbird looking very regal.

I saw the first chipmunk of this season yesterday, and today, and probably tomorrow as well. It really feels spring-like today, enough so that my little red wagon and the lawn dragon came out of hibernation on the porch; the wagon just in time to carry two bags of bird seed in from the car, and the dragon in time to guard the bird baths.

Claire

Claire, It was lovely here today as well, up into the mid-50's. I went for a walk near one of the oxbow ponds and although the water still had ice on about half of the surface, the birds were enjoying the entire area. Ravens and gulls walking on the ice, geese, ducks, and 2 kinds of mergansers in the water, and chickadees and a mockingbird in the shrubs on the margins. There was also an eagle overhead, but I didn't have a camera with me. Do you put the lawn dragon in the same spot each season or does he migrate around a bit?

Jane, your chipmunk looks about set to pop with all that seed in his cheeks. I love the kestrel photos. Kestrels are another favorite bird of mine; they are quite common in Ohio, and their rarity here was one disappointment when I moved to New England. I love the feather patterns for both sexes, and also like watching them fly - they can hover to look for potential prey.

an ancientness of nature's smartness?

Pat, yes, that's what I see in a gull's eye; an intuitive wisdom.

Jane

Yup. Got it.

NHBabs: The lawn dragon pretty much stays in that spot because it's right in my view from the computer window. I can see birds and squirrels jumping on the dragon.

I was out with the camera today looking at various things and I realized that there were insects flying around in the unusually warm weather, so of course I had to try to photograph them.

Claire (who is really desperate for spring)

It's not just humans who repeat the same actions and expect a different outcome (not a good thing). This guy flies right into the seed pile under the feeder and always looks crestfallen that everybody else leaves. Cooper's, I think -- but my hawk ID track record stinks.

That juvenile hawk really does look crestfallen, Jane, - not an expression often seen on a hawk. "I'm hungry, life isn't fair" is something a lot of us humans can identify with. Well photographed.

This thread is long and that snuck up on me so I'm starting a new thread.

Claire