Beautiful birds..........

[CathyA]

It was almost acting like spring the other day (warm and sunny), and some of the birds showed up. The first pic is of a male northern parula. It just showed up in the past couple of the years. (I think because of climate change we're starting to get different birds stay through the summer).
The second pic is of a male golden crowned kinglet.
I love birdwatching!

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[catherine]

Beautiful, Cathy! Thanks for posting!

[Rogar]

Very pretty! Those would be unusual around here. My birder friends have told me that tax day is just about when the hummingbirds return here, Past years that has been very close, although we've had a cool spring.

[Float On]

My youngest studies ornithology. Yesterday he took off 2 hours to the north because there have been reports of Burrowing Owls setting up a home in a field. He went in 34 degree weather to watch all day for those owls to make an appearance (they didn't) but he did get to add a few other birds to his yearly count and lifetime count.

About 2 a.m. I was awoken by a Barred Owl not 8 feet from my bedroom window calling "who cooks for you". It was so close you could hear the vibration in his call. We watched him for 20 min. before he glided off to the front yard and then beyond.

Youngest and I hiked last week (when it was warmer) to a spot where he knew we'd see some parulas and that was a first for me (in recognizing them). That little kinglet is so pretty. I love any bird with a bit of yellow. We've had "swarms" of goldfinches on the move. There must of been 60 in my yard on saturday.

[CathyA]

Thanks everyone.
Float On........Wow! What a great field to study! I would probably see lots more different birds, if I moved, but that's not in the plan. I've heard that the snowy owl has been spotted in northern Indiana this year.....but I doubt it would ever come this far south. I have a friend in southern Illinois who put up a barn owl house and immediately got a family of barn owls! I've never seen one of those either. Mostly, around here, we have barred and great horned. When we first moved here we had screech owls, but haven't heard them in years. If I had to do my life over, I think ornithology would be a great thing to study! Has your son always been interested in birds?

I saw 2 male towhees this morning. They started showing up about 10 years ago. I think a lot had to do with us letting our property grow up..........lots of habitat now.
Good luck to your son! What a cool thing to study!

[Float On]

Thanks everyone.
Float On........Wow! What a great field to study! I would probably see lots more different birds, if I moved, but that's not in the plan. I've heard that the snowy owl has been spotted in northern Indiana this year.....but I doubt it would ever come this far south. I have a friend in southern Illinois who put up a barn owl house and immediately got a family of barn owls! I've never seen one of those either. Mostly, around here, we have barred and great horned. When we first moved here we had screech owls, but haven't heard them in years. If I had to do my life over, I think ornithology would be a great thing to study! Has your son always been interested in birds?

I saw 2 male towhees this morning. They started showing up about 10 years ago. I think a lot had to do with us letting our property grow up..........lots of habitat now.
Good luck to your son! What a cool thing to study!

Yes, he has. And I was amazed when he was 7 or 8 and knew a lot of the Latin names. Did you know Barn Owls were recently put on the endangered list? So cool your friend had a family move in. My one memory of Barn Owls was on a small iron bridge when a family swooped in and sat on the rails of the bridge and we watched by the headlights of the car. I think I was 5 or 6.
We put up an owl house I think when he was 10 but never had any owls check it out. I noticed the other day the bottom fell out of it so we either need to climb up there and fix or remove. The snowy owls come down as far as north MO in cold winters. We've seen them on my parent's farm. No sighting this year though. We had a family of screech owls raise their young and they'd swoop onto a tree branch just outside the big garage door to watch us blow glass. That was a cool season.

[CathyA]

That IS cool! One summer my son and I drove my electric golf cart around, around dusk, following a family of barred owls around the property. I get so excited when I start to hear them at night. Have you ever heard them really get going, talking to each other? They sound like a bunch of monkeys in the jungle! A couple years ago, I could hear an adult great horned owl with it's "child". They would talk back and forth.

I thought of putting up a barn owl house, but I don't think they're around here.
I think you're probably in a great birding area, right? I wish I had lots more land around me and was further away from civilization.

[CathyA]

Just had another beautiful surprise out my window.

This guy was with his 1 year old son. :)

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[dado potato]

Thanks for the pictures, Cathy. Keep them coming.

This spring I got to watch a peregrine falcon fly along the river bank. I imagine he was migrating along with the waterfowl. This falcon did not have occasion to stoop on prey while I was watching, but I have seen this incredible dive performed in the past.

[razz]

Just loving the bird pictures and reports. Moving into town has decreased the number of birds in my life but they are coming as my landscaping grows.

[KayLR]

Lucky! I wish we had blue birds here other than jays.

[frugal-one]

First thing this morning I saw a downey woodpecker on the feeder outside my kitchen window. It was a lovely way to start the day. We had snow the past few days and sure needed a pick me up!

Loved your pictures!

[iris lilies]

Te NorthernParula is beautiful!

[CathyA]

Downey woodpeckers are cool. Sometimes we see a Hairy woodpecker......which looks just like a Downey, only bigger.

Here's an interesting bird we saw out our window this morning. A turkey! I've seen this on one other occasion last year. It's sort of almost like an apparition.

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[iris lilies]

I asked a vitner what creature was the worst for destroying grapes in Hermann, and he said wild turkeys are the worst. Later confirmed by another grape grower.

[rosarugosa]

Thanks for persevering and getting those pictures uploaded, Cathy!
We had a flock of turkeys strolling down our street about a week ago. Two were males with their tails fanned out, quite an impressive sight!
We regularly walk the nearby rail trail which goes through a salt marsh. There are a pair of ospreys nesting (they return every year), many egrets and many great blue herons. We also see a regular pair of black-crowned night herons.

[Float On]

Someone mentioned bluebirds above. My mom always gets a lot of them in the winter. Dad leaves a pan of water on top of the outdoor wood furnace. They flock to the warm water.
This was from a couple winters ago.
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[CathyA]

The bluebirds here show up some years, then not as much another year. One year, I had a nest of them in a box I put up, but something got them. :( I had a coon baffle on the pole, so it must have been something like wrens or sparrows, who can get pretty mean.

Float on........your pic looks like one I got a couple years ago. I have one somewhere of about 6 bluebirds around the birdbath, but I can only find this one.

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[rosarugosa]

Great pictures; we have never had bluebirds around our place.

[Gardenarian]

Beautiful photos - thanks!

[Float On]

FYI. I've had hummingbirds about a week now but hadn't seen them till today. Saw 8 so I've added a few more feeders. Those to the north, get ready!!

[Lainey]

A side note: we went on a group bird-watching hike with a leader. At one spot she said she usually sees a certain type of bird, but it wasn't around that morning. So she had an app on her phone which played an audio of the bird's calls, and she turned the sound up. It still didn't make the actual bird appear that morning, but she said she's used that in the past and it's worked.
Learned another use for smartphones that day.