BirdingGirl

It's been raining all day but that hasn't stopped the birds! They were a little slow to rise, but sure enough around 11:00 they were swarming the feeders. I couldn't believe how active they were even when the rain was at its heaviest. It's been just the usual suspects so far, but I did see an interesting sparrow. Since I've been watching from the safety of my covered porch I wasn't able to get close enough to get a good shot, and had to rely on the strength of my Canon PowerShot's zoom. Fortunately I had the steadiness of my new tripod in my favor. It's not very tall, but I can set it up on the table in the porch. It works out pretty well. The rain has added an interesting element to my shooting today. Some of the pictures make the birds look like they have white specs on them. Dark-eyed Junco and Tufted Titmouse: Male Northern Cardinal: Blue Jay and Squirrel: I know squirrels are a nuisance but I don't see very many of them (this is maybe the seco...

I just completed my second count for Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Project FeederWatch. I happen to have today off so I was able to spend more time than usual watching the feeders in my backyard. It was a light week, compared to last week: Black-capped Chickadee- 4 Blue Jay- 1 Dark-eyed Junco- 2 Tufted Titmouse- 1 White-breasted Nuthatch- 1 Northern Cardinal- 2 Song Sparrow- 1 The Song Sparrow was the only one that threw me off because I'm not used to seeing them when they start to bulk up for winter. Here are some additional pictures of my second feeder, hung on a fallen scrub pine tree. It doesn't look too nice laying on our back lawn, but I haven't had the heart to cut it up because the birds love it. Considering the open landscape of our back lawn, it's nice to give them someplace to hide from raptors while they're visiting the feeder. Here is a Black-capped Chickadee at the feeder. They especially love this feeder because I only fill it with the black oil s...

Today is the official start to Project Feederwatch, operated by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. This is my first year participating and I'm excited because it will make me much more disciplined about birdwatching. I've never done counts before, so I think it will be helpful in getting into the habit of doing that. Although today is the official start date, I won't be starting my counting until Tuesday. I've decided to count on Tuesdays and Wednesdays since the odds of me being around are much higher than the weekends. Plus, it will be good motivation to get up early to watch the feeder before work (and start my day earlier on Tuesdays and Wednesdays). With the time change, it's actually daylight when I get up now so it shouldn't be too hard. This morning I went out back for a practice run. I knew there would be a lot of birds since I had been hearing them outside starting around 7am. The feeders were in rough shape (the smaller one was empty, and the long tube ...

Here are some pictures I took last weekend in Bridgeport, CT. Steve and I went to a concert in New York on Halloween and then on Saturday we went for a walk in nearby Bridgeport with some friends. Our friend Katelyn wanted to show us the monk parakeets but they were nowhere to be found. I did take some pictures of their huge nests. An urban legend she had head was that a priest kept them as pets and when he died the birds were released since there was no one to take care of them. I just did a little bit of research and didn't find anything that interesting- most sites just say they're the result of families tiring of them and releasing them since they didn't make very good pets.