BirdingGirl

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 ...

I was at my parents' house on the Cape this past weekend and despite the rainy weather there was quite a lot of activity at the front and back yard feeders. I saw a lone Chipping Sparrow, which went back and forth between the front and back yards, a Goldfinch pair, a female Cardinal, several chickadees and nuthatches, and a titmouse. I was also happy to observe that both of my parents' birdhouses are currently being moved into—the nuthatches are moving into the front yard birdhouse and the titmice are moving into the back yard birdhouse. Two years ago my parents had a great crested flycatcher family attempt to live in the back yard feeder, but House Sparrows kicked them out. They cleaned out the birdhouses after that and repainted them, but didn't get any inhabitants last year. My dad hypothesized that maybe they didn't like the fresh paint smell and now that the houses have had a year to 'season' they're attractive again. Nonetheless, I'll be anxious to...

While I was at my parents' house this weekend I got to see lots of birds up-close at the bird feeders and suet basket in the yard. They're so used to my parents and dog being out in the yard that it takes a lot to scare them away so the whole weekend they were in close proximity. Birds I saw this weekend include: Goldfinch Purple Finch Chickadee Nuthatch House Finch Downy Woodpecker Tufted Titmouse I also saw a female Ruby-Throated Hummingbird, with the beatiful green back. My dad did some tree-trimming in the yard on Sunday and unfortunately one of the falling trees knocked over a hanging plant that they like to visit. However, after I repotted it and hung it back up she returned as if nothing happened! My mom also has two hummingbird feeders but the past few times I've been home I've seen them favoring this plant. I'll have to bring my camera next time so I can get some pictures to post.

I've started seeing a lot of the same birds during my runs along the river. What amazes me is that what I always believed to be common birds have the most beautiful and most diverse range of calls. Just tonight I heard an interesting call while I was jogging and looked up to see a robin. Last week I saw a speckled bird that turned out to be a juvenile robin. It reminded me of the plovers I saw in Hawaii ,or some sort of shore bird but my Sibley Guide told me otherwise. Another thing I've been noticing lately is how active hawks are. I was home on the Cape Sunday and saw 3 different hawks- one of which swooped down to grab a mouse in the grass by the side of the road and then flew up to the top of a telephone pole to eat it. When it came down it looked like it was going to hit the side of our car but obviously he had a precise flight plan. They really are amazing. Speaking of hawks, there was a good article in the Cape Cod Times about this very subject: Bird scouts sound the ala...

We were able to get out to Blue Hills this past Sunday since it was such nice weather (sunny and in the 30s- a relief from Friday's frigid temperatures). We went to the area east of Ponkapoag Pond. We had been out there once before to go to the Ponkapoag B og area- one of my boyfriend's favorite areas in the park. We'll have to go back there in the spring to see what kinds of birds there are since it's such a unique part of Blue Hills. A friend had given me a tip to expect some Northern birds to come down from Canada due to the cold temperatures. However, he was expecting them to be down on the Cape and I never made it down there this weekend. Nonetheless, we heard a lot of different calls while we were out in Blue Hills, but weren't able to spot very many. That's the difficult part about being in mature woods- we can hear them but can't spot them since they're up so high. I'll have to start looking into binoculars. I have the Columbia pair from Chri...

On Sunday my boyfriend and I went to Blue Hills to test out the new camera. This time we went to the Fowl Meadow area since we hadn't been there before and it seemed like a good place to look for birds. We didn't get there until midday so there wasn't too much activity, but we did manage to see some good birds. These included a Northern Flicker, White-Breasted Nuthatch, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, a female Cardinal, Downy Woodpecker, and what we believe to be a Mourning Dove. The best pictures of the day came from the nuthatch. I just love them- they have such great personalities. Northern Flicker: Mourning Dove (?): Yes I know, not too exotic. But at the time it seemed much bigger than any mourning dove I'd ever seen and I had never seen the tail hang down as long as it did. We were on one side of a creek and it was on the other side high up in a tree. When it finally flew away, again, it seemed much bigger than a mourning dove. I was fortunate to be abl...