A pretty good week of birding.
Happened on a Mallard in the river, got some really good shots of it as it swam by at about 15', it came to some dead fall in the water and took flight to get over it, I managed to get some pictures at about 30', unfortunately I missed the Mallard with the focus dot and the camera focused on the brush behind it. Still got the Mallard but it is quite a bit out of focus. Was a little disappointed but this happened in a matter of a few seconds and I doubt I would have gotten the picture with manual focus either. It would have been a wonderful shot if I had it in focus. Posted the result below.
Two pairs of White Throated Sparrows have been frequenting our feeders for the past week, they actually feed on the ground.
A pair of Broad Winged Hawks seem to have taken up residence in a heavily treed area I walk through several times a week. First spotted one perched high in a tree at about 100', the hawk also spotted me and took flight, was watching hoping I might spot it again through the canopy. I noted something come out of the bush about 20' up the trail to my right, looked down the trail to see a Broad Winged Hawk flying along the trail about 4' off the ground. It soared up into a tree about 50' away, immediately raised my camera for the much hoped for perfect shot, but the hawk only roosted for a few seconds before flying off again. Never even got the camera to eye level. I did manage to get a quick picture of it through the canopy later on.
Saturday evening I looked out the window and saw a sparrow perched in our tree. At first I thought it was a House Sparrow, but the markings around the face were different, it eventually dawned on me that it was a Harris's Sparrow. Didn't get any pictures and thought that I would never see it again, but today it has been back a few times feeding on the ground around our feeders.
We've been having some real problems with bird strikes on our living room window, several a day, no deaths as yet and only one bird stunned which seemed to recover and flew away. We have placed about 14 plastic window stickers on the window, the results were immediate, only a couple of strikes a day for the first few days and none so far today. We got them at our local dollar store, $1.00 for 16 stickers.
We have been engaged in battle with a seed inhaling squirrel for the past week. The squirrel has been a visitor for the past year, never bothered with the seed before, would take some of the black oil seed, but the squirrel has recently developed a very keen interest in the mixed seed, going though half the feeder in an hour. We had to drive 25 miles to Winkler where we found a squirrel baffle on clearance at the TSC Store. It installed in minutes. The squirrel tried for 1/2 an hour to get past it, was quite interesting to watch. The squirrel eventually gave up and chowed down about 1/8 of a block of suet, which hangs in our tree unprotected. As a parting gesture the squirrel leaped into our bird bath, which hangs in the tree, and traveled to the ground with it. Before this the squirrel never paid any attention to the bird bath.
Finally got some pictures of a Belted Kingfisher, but it was at about 100 yards and they didn't turn out as well as I had hoped.
Carman Sightings 2-9 May
Mallards
Yellow Rumped Warbler (numerous)
White Throated Sparrow
Canada Geese
House sparrow (numerous)
Palm Warbler
Northern Flicker
White Breasted Nuthatch
Crow
Broad Winged Hawk
Wood duck
Hairy Woodpecker
Common Yellow Throat
Downy Woodpecker
Hermit Thrush
Ruby Crowned Kinglet
Harris's Sparrow
Eastern Phoebe
House Finch
Purple finch
Pine Siskin
Robin
Blue Jay
Veery
Belted Kingfisher
Mourning Dove
Goldfinch
Brown Thrasher
Stephenfiled Sightings 6 May
Kildeer
Hooded Merganser
Lesser Scaup
Mallard
Barn swallow
Palm Warbler
Tree Swallow
Bonaparte's Gull
Swamp Sparrow
Ring Billed Gull
American Kestrel
Common Loon
Robin
Red Wing Blackbirds
Crow
Red Tailed Hawk
Wild Turkey
Mourning Dove
Canvasback
Northern Shoveler
Happened on a Mallard in the river, got some really good shots of it as it swam by at about 15', it came to some dead fall in the water and took flight to get over it, I managed to get some pictures at about 30', unfortunately I missed the Mallard with the focus dot and the camera focused on the brush behind it. Still got the Mallard but it is quite a bit out of focus. Was a little disappointed but this happened in a matter of a few seconds and I doubt I would have gotten the picture with manual focus either. It would have been a wonderful shot if I had it in focus. Posted the result below.
Two pairs of White Throated Sparrows have been frequenting our feeders for the past week, they actually feed on the ground.
A pair of Broad Winged Hawks seem to have taken up residence in a heavily treed area I walk through several times a week. First spotted one perched high in a tree at about 100', the hawk also spotted me and took flight, was watching hoping I might spot it again through the canopy. I noted something come out of the bush about 20' up the trail to my right, looked down the trail to see a Broad Winged Hawk flying along the trail about 4' off the ground. It soared up into a tree about 50' away, immediately raised my camera for the much hoped for perfect shot, but the hawk only roosted for a few seconds before flying off again. Never even got the camera to eye level. I did manage to get a quick picture of it through the canopy later on.
Saturday evening I looked out the window and saw a sparrow perched in our tree. At first I thought it was a House Sparrow, but the markings around the face were different, it eventually dawned on me that it was a Harris's Sparrow. Didn't get any pictures and thought that I would never see it again, but today it has been back a few times feeding on the ground around our feeders.
We've been having some real problems with bird strikes on our living room window, several a day, no deaths as yet and only one bird stunned which seemed to recover and flew away. We have placed about 14 plastic window stickers on the window, the results were immediate, only a couple of strikes a day for the first few days and none so far today. We got them at our local dollar store, $1.00 for 16 stickers.
We have been engaged in battle with a seed inhaling squirrel for the past week. The squirrel has been a visitor for the past year, never bothered with the seed before, would take some of the black oil seed, but the squirrel has recently developed a very keen interest in the mixed seed, going though half the feeder in an hour. We had to drive 25 miles to Winkler where we found a squirrel baffle on clearance at the TSC Store. It installed in minutes. The squirrel tried for 1/2 an hour to get past it, was quite interesting to watch. The squirrel eventually gave up and chowed down about 1/8 of a block of suet, which hangs in our tree unprotected. As a parting gesture the squirrel leaped into our bird bath, which hangs in the tree, and traveled to the ground with it. Before this the squirrel never paid any attention to the bird bath.
Finally got some pictures of a Belted Kingfisher, but it was at about 100 yards and they didn't turn out as well as I had hoped.
Carman Sightings 2-9 May
Mallards
Yellow Rumped Warbler (numerous)
White Throated Sparrow
Canada Geese
House sparrow (numerous)
Palm Warbler
Northern Flicker
White Breasted Nuthatch
Crow
Broad Winged Hawk
Wood duck
Hairy Woodpecker
Common Yellow Throat
Downy Woodpecker
Hermit Thrush
Ruby Crowned Kinglet
Harris's Sparrow
Eastern Phoebe
House Finch
Purple finch
Pine Siskin
Robin
Blue Jay
Veery
Belted Kingfisher
Mourning Dove
Goldfinch
Brown Thrasher
Stephenfiled Sightings 6 May
Kildeer
Hooded Merganser
Lesser Scaup
Mallard
Barn swallow
Palm Warbler
Tree Swallow
Bonaparte's Gull
Swamp Sparrow
Ring Billed Gull
American Kestrel
Common Loon
Robin
Red Wing Blackbirds
Crow
Red Tailed Hawk
Wild Turkey
Mourning Dove
Canvasback
Northern Shoveler
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