Bird Watching

[Artemis Windsong]

I am starting this thread as a relief from our day-to-day issues. Bird watching is easy and relatively free depending on your desired level of involvement.

My bird bath is a robin bath-in today. It seems every robin has to have a bath or a drink. The ringleader won't let the house finches water. A cedar waxwing moved on to another yard.

I am waiting and hoping to hear the whirl of the sand hill cranes heading south.

On a recent drive, I was delighted to see an array of raptors including golden and bald eagles sitting on fence posts or large hay bales.

A red tailed hawk displayed it's magnificent tail and wings in a brief mid-air hover.

[Deleted]

My favorite bird right now is the beautiful blue jay..



Their beauty is stunning and they can become quite distracting with their not so pretty song.. Their splendor makes up for their noisiness..

I have a woodpecker(s), not quite sure how many, peck a perfectly circular and deepened opening in one of my backyard trees over the last few years.. Next spring I will use the opening as a planter for impatients, hoping that'll move the woodpeckers over to begin again on another tree not far from the already carved out tree..



My little look alike carver..

Thanks for beginning the thread..

[Deleted]

Ruby-Throat Hummingbird

Beautiful

[Tosh]

On a recent drive, I was delighted to see an array of raptors including golden and bald eagles sitting on fence posts or large hay bales.

I live in a cardboard box on the pavements of an urban ghetto, I saw a seagull yesterday, it stole my breakfast after a brief scuffle.

Happy days.

[Deleted]

The Seagull has a beauty all it's own too..

[Artemis Windsong]

2 thanks for the photos. We get the blue jays and downies, also. Sometimes Harries. The jays go down the buffet line of feeders and fruit trees in the neighborhood.

TT, our hummingbirds migrate with the Canadian geese. My brother didn't take down his feeder and is now fretting about one little hummingbird not making the migration. All of his neighbors took theirs down on Labor Day. He also gets stellar jays.

Tosh, you need a bird book so you can identify the subtle differences in markings on the sea gulls as your scuffle with them. I do enjoy your wit from the ghetto sidewalk and hope you are able to garner a daily living. I know more than most people about the edge lifestyle.

[Artemis Windsong]

Drama of the bird bath. The robins were there all day. I did refill. A couple of gold finches and house finches were able to water with out being scolded.

[Deleted]

Good morning, bird watchers/lovers..

[Tosh]

I was just explaining to the police that my bird hide was not my home, when the postman delivered my mail.

Gypsies have more rights than bird watchers.

[Tosh]

The beauty, variety and diversity of birds reminds me of the reality of God and creation and the fact that evolution is BS and this isn't an accident of the universe.

lolol, humans do live with dinosaurs, birds used to be dinosaurs, so you were right all along......sort of.

Why do they call birds of prey, raptors ?

mmmm ? eh ? eh ? ;D

[Tosh]

Birds used to be dinosaurs? Oh OK. Even my sons find that totally unbelievable. They tried to feed us that garbage at the Smithsonian and my sons started laughing. Ridiculous.

Do your sons believe in a 500,000 year old spark plug ? ;D

Snicks do me a favour and watch this very simple 10 minute clip called evolution made easy.

[jackthelad]

I am an ardent bird watcher, and really, when you are nearly eighty years old, watching is about as much as anyone can manage.
All joking apart, we find squirrels are a problem in the garden, they chase away the birds, and eat all the food we put out. We have bought some new bird feeding cages, supposed to be squirrel proof, that remains to be seen.
Not allowed guns, and well out of practice with the old catapult, and as far as throwing a stone, i would never win coconut.
The squirrels are the American Grey ones, not the native English red squirrel, the bugger that introduced the gray to this country should have been shot for bringing in vermin to the country.
We get a lot of tits in the garden, the feathered variety, great tit's, blue tits, long tail tits. We are at moment trying to attract goldfinches into the garden, not had much success yet. We have special feeders and seed only goldfinches like, so hope to have some success this winter.

[Tosh]

I thought the Smithsonian was a joke. I want to see real bones and real artifacts, not recreations. Save the recreations for Universal Studios. I expect museums to have nothing but the real deal.

There are plenty of real bones and real artefact's, but I am not sure they would persuade you, your fundamentalism is for what ever reason very important to you.

You are not a stupid woman.

[Tosh]

OK. Is there some need to even make this kind of condescending, back handed comment in the first place? By doing so you further attempt to question or belittle my intelligence.

My, you are on your high horse today, only you could take my backhanded compliment as an insult.

When I say you are not a stupid woman it does not infer you are a stupid woman, unless one is...

Only kidding, lighten up Snicks please, I am not the bloody devil incarnate.

[jemima]

I'm a free spirit bird.

[Tosh]

I'm a free spirit bird.

A bird of prey, if I had to hazard a guess.

[Deleted]

I'm a free spirit bird

Ostrich?

[jemima]

Oct 7, 2011 10:14:16 GMT -5 Tosh said:

I'm a free spirit bird.

A bird of prey, if I had to hazard a guess.

Oct 7, 2011 10:19:11 GMT -5 @devianity said:

I'm a free spirit bird

Ostrich?

I am a flamin' hot free spirited bird and that's all you need to know about me.

[Tosh]

I am a flamin' hot free spirited bird and that's all you need to know about me.

So sayeth the Phoenix.

[Artemis Windsong]

My bird is the American Bald Eagle.

Now for the squirrel wars. My DH engages them, also. He found that if he put the feeders closer to the house where the vermin can see him watching them, they backed off for a while. He uses tennis balls and golf balls to scare them off.

The upside down garbage can lid looking thing on a post works unless the squirrels have a way to jump to the feeder.

Another friend uses a tube feeder and cuts the sitting pins off part way. That eliminates the black birds and grackles who will strip a feeder.

A friend has trained her squirrels. She lets them feed for 15-minutes then she opens the door to shoos them away.

[Artemis Windsong]

Very windy today so the birds are having a hard time.

[Mad Dawg Wiccan]

I live just a block away from a nature reserve. It houses some fascinating creatures, including a sixable flock of wild turkeys.

[Deleted]

Cool pictures, Mad.. I see lots of wild turkey around my parts too, but have never been in the position to kodak the moment.

[Deleted]

Male cardinal feeding the female cardinal..

[weezybear]

Heart such a beautiful picture of nature's best

[Artemis Windsong]

Both of the photos are great. We have a flock (?) of turkeys that roam our neighborhood and pass through. I'm too far north for the Cardinals. Very cool photo. Maybe it was bird chocolate he had for her .

DH filled the feeders this morning. The house finches are liking the face (it looks like someone watching with binos with a tray for the mouth). One feeder is an adapted plastic gallon jug and the other is a house.

I'm headed back outside to watch.

[Deleted]

Maybe it was bird chocolate he had for her .

She sure was enjoying being fed, huh?



Male (rt) & female (lft) house finches..

[Artemis Windsong]

Lovely little gossips, those finches are. If a little birdy told you, it was probably a finch. A friend told me they are chatty just like housewives.

A black capped chickadee stopped at the feeder and some sparrows were out. The robins moved off the bird bath probably because a heavy rain Thursday night filled the puddles.

[Deleted]

American Tree Sparrow

As a matter of fact, I just had this noisy little fella hoping from the shrub in front of my window onto my window sill, chirping and pecking around.. These are birds of plenty in my area and have the tiniest nest compared to other birds that almost appear doll house like in size.. So cute.

[Artemis Windsong]

A lovely red tailed hawk was floating on the wind currents on Wed. The bird could hover motionless for several seconds.

A bunch of finches were following along jumping from tree to tree watching the human action.

A lot of robins came back to the yard but weren't in the bath. Probably hiding from the wind. One lone junco was on the ground.
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I am amazed at the coloring on the American Tree Sparrow. Another great photo.