Pained Bunting and Black-Throated Sparrow

11 May 2014 - wabbaloo

Finally got a picture of the male Painted Bunting.  It's great to have him back; he's the most beautiful bird we have in our menagerie. I think I saw the female today, but I'm not quite sure.  Here's the male:

Also, looks like we have a black-throated sparrow. Most of the sparrows we have are chipping sparrows, I believe.  What struck us right away was the black throat, so I grabbed the camera. Here he is, drinking with the daddy Cardinal:

We also happened to see the hummingbird check out the Mexican Oregano plant we have at the base of our main bird feeders. It has some nice light purple blooms right now. It reminded me to clean and refill our hummingbird feeder :-(

Until next time!

Return of the Painted Bunting?

4/29/2014 -- Wabbaloo

The kids say they saw a painted bunting at our feeder today.  I wasn't able to get a picture, and didn't see it long enough to ID it.  Stay tuned...

Carolina Wren babies arrive

4/14/2014 - Wabbaloo

Looks like the 5 or 6 eggs in the nest that a pair of wrens built in one of our rosebush containers hatched yesterday or today. The kiddies actually discovered them this afternoon after pre-school, so what a momentous discovery for them.

Picture attached, which is actually a snapshot from the 90-second video my wife took with her Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7. This is a _great_ camera! Has 12x optical zoom, lots of settings.  The second picture is a pic of one of the wrens.

Ruby-Throated Hummingbird and unidentified bird call

12 April 2014 - Wabbaloo

Got a good pic of the ruby-throated hummingbird today.  

Wednesday, I got a glimpse of something that first struck my ears, as it was a call I had not heard before in my yard. I recorded the call with my camera, please give it a listen to see if you know what it is:

I was in the backyard when I heard the call, so I followed the sound to near the garage, where I spied the bird on top of a security camera, but then it flew away immediately into the tall tall trees. I was never able to get a picture.  The only thing that I could register before it flew off was that the head looked somewhat pointed (???) and that it was a dark-colored bird.  I continue the hunt...

EGGS! In a plant!

4/5/14- Nicholas

          We have discovered eggs in a Carolina Wren nest that is in a knock-out rose container!!!  There are several in there.  The nest is cleverly built as a roof over the soil, with a "side opening."  

A Carolina Wren nest with eggs.

//UDPATED// Spring 2014 - here's what we have so far this year

4/2/2014 - Wabbaloo

With spring here, I figure I should resurrect our birdwatching blog.

In the backyard bird area, we have a pole with two tube feeders (one with niger, the other with a mix; they bring the finches, titmice, chickadees, and what appears to be a common swift) and a traditional feeder with the sunflower seed mix (cardinals and titmice).  We also have a hummingbird feeder, and saw our first hummingbird this year on 14 March 2014.

Our cardinals:

Our finches:

We have a mealworm feeder which has only seen Carolina wrens visiting it. The wrens have built a next inside a large plant container which houses a knockout rose bush.  If I recall correctly, these are our wrens:

We've been visited by a ladder-backed woodpecker on the other side of the yard a few times, and we occasionally see white winged doves.

The common swift I believe I'm seeing at the feeder coincides with the building of a nest on the other side of the house.  Haven't seen them at our feeders in the past, kind of interesting.  Not 100% sure it's a swift, but it looks pretty close. I've reached out.

Looks like we have male and female brown-headed cowbirds. See http://nature.gardenweb.com/forums/load/bird/msg04195646760.html?2 for my question on Garden Web's Birdwatching Forum. Here are 3 pics:

Also, the chickadees have started using the little birdhouse that's been hanging up on a post for years in the backs.

We have NOT seen the return of the male and female painted buntings that we've had in the past!

Both feeders:

Stay tuned for further updates.  Will get a pic of the swift nest, the wren nest, the chickadees in the bird house, and I think the cardinals are building a nest as well.

New System!

1/3/2014 - Nicholas

         We have a new bird feeder system: a pole with four "arms" to hang bird feeders from and one on top of the pole and a flower-shaped bird feeder. Hopefully there will be ore birds now!