BirdingGirl

Dawn Fine (of Dawn's Bloggy Blog fame) is coming back our way and is planning another BwBTC (Birders who Blog, Tweet, and Chirp) birding trip for the weekend of August 28th/29th. Read her full post here: http://dawnandjeffsblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/bwbtc-outing-new-england.html It's a lot of fun! If you're local to New England you should consider joining us :)

These Great Egret (thanks to my Anonymous commenter for correcting us) pictures come courtesy of my friend Elizabeth's in-laws. She tells me they love nature and wildlife photography, especially birds. I'm grateful to them for sharing these pictures since it adds to the diversity of photos on my blog. These are from their trip to Magnolia Plantation and Gardens in Charleston, SC. My guess is these are from the Swamp Garden since the link for that section is a picture of a Great Egret! I'm quite the detective... haha A very similar species is the The Great White Heron- a morph of the Great Blue Heron, a common New England bird. The surest way to tell them apart is to look at their range (they're only found in Southern Florida). For other clues see the comments section of this post. As my Anonymous commenter pointed out- it would be highly unlikely to see a Great White Heron in South Carolina. Granted this is a Great Egret and not a Great White Heron, I still find it amu...

Here's a picture of a common grackle at our feeder. We get a lot of grackles in our yard, but usually they just feed on worms/bugs on the lawn. Once in a while we get one at the feeder. They don't bother me too much since we live in a rural area and have a nice diversity of birds at our feeders. But I understand why some people whose feeders are dominated by this "nuisance bird" dislike them. A lot of people get grackles and starlings confused, and I admit I still have to remind myself of the difference, since I had them mixed up for so many years. In my mind, grackles should look "crackle-y" and the mottled look of starlings with their blend of black and tan feathers looks that way to me. Instead, it's the bird with the smooth black coloring (with a hint of iridescence) that is the grackle. I wrote a blog post about the difference between grackles and starlings a while back.

Magnolia warblers are my FAVORITE warbler (well, aside from Blackburnian Warblers, but I've only seen one once at Mt. Auburn Cemetery). I don't know what it is- the name maybe? "Magnolia" has such nice connotations. And the coloring- I love the yellow with black streaks, and the gray. All the colors come together so nicely. I decided to look it up on Allaboutbirds.org to see if they had any information about where the name comes from- apparently the name was originally given to them in 1810 by Alexander Wilson who saw one in a Magnolia tree. Funnily enough he took the Black and Yellow Warbler English name, and added Magnolia to its Latin name, which became the predominant name over time. We went to visit Steve's parents in Fairfield, CT the weekend of May 22-23 so of course I was on high alert for warblers. I noticed the Cedar Waxwings first. They were flying between the trees in his parents' backyard and the top of a dead tree in his neighbor's yard: I...

I was inspired by Andy, of Andy's Lens , and finally got around to entering my Birds of the Equinox count to Birdstack. I've had a login for a while actually, but this was my first time creating a list . Here's my list from the day: Bufflehead Common Merganser Red-tailed Hawk Song Sparrow Hairy Woodpecker Pine Siskin American Goldfinch Mourning Dove Dark-eyed Junco Tufted Titmouse Black-capped Chickadee I didn't get to go out during my lunch break since I had meetings the whole day (it was such a busy day) but at least I watched my feeders in the morning and watched for birds during my drive to work. I drive along Charles River Road during the last leg of my commute so I always check out the river as I drive along it. It helps that the speed limit of 30mph is strictly enforced so I have an excuse to go slow and look for ducks!

Welcome to my birdwatching blog. I decided to start this blog to learn the fundamentals of birding and to document my sightings along the way. A major motivation for starting this blog is my upcoming trip to Hawaii (Big Island) in March. I'd like to be able to identify some of the birds I see while there. Living in a suburb of Boston, I don't see the most exotic birds in my yard, but I hike regularly, go for walks on the Charles River and visit various conservation lands in the area. As a child I was always hearing my grandparents talk about interesting birds that came to their yard, and I learned to identifiy common birds from them and my mother. It's their interest in birding that has stayed with me all these years and has made me always aware of the birds around me. My vision for this blog is to share my experiences and knowledge as I learn about birding and put the practices into effect.