We’re Still Here

Pam and I are still alive, we’ve just been distracted/focused on other stuff the last couple of months.  Pam has been crazy at work, as have I, plus I’m getting into the meat of the cycling season.  In addition, since late March I’ve been focusing, when I can, on a new blog called Video Beer Reviews that I’ve wanted to do for a while.  I’ve been a lover of quality beer for 20+ years and now I am reviewing beers and posting the videos on the blog.  So, if you like beer and want to see somebody babble on about why they like or dislike a beer feel free to go over there and subscribe.  How does beer relate to birds you ask?  Well we spend a lot of time on the deck enjoying beer and watching the birds so there you go

Birds We’ve Seen And Missed

In the last month or two we’ve seen a few new birds in our yard including Brown Headed Cowbirds, Magnolia Warblers, Purple Finches (pretty sure although they are “rare” in Georgia), Red Headed Woodpeckers (very cool bird!), Cedar Waxwings, and Blue Jays.  We’ve also noted the return of the Ruby Throated Hummingbird to the sugar water feeder on our deck.  The Goldfinches have come back as well. I think we’ve missed most of the Spring Migration.  We were planning on getting out to bird with a group this Spring, especially for Warblers, but it’s May and most of them are gone.  We’ll catch them in the Fall and next Spring I guess.  Both our life lists are a little bigger than before.

Looking Ahead And Another Mystery Bird

We’re hoping to get back in the swing of birding more often and posting about our experiences.  I’m also going to try to get some more pictures to post as well, including one of another “mystery” bird that we just saw yesterday.  It was mostly brown, songbird sized, and had a thin white “crown” and white dots on the wing.  The beak is short and stubby and might be slightly hooked at the end.  It was hanging out at our feeders.  We’ve looked through our field guides but can’t find anything close.  We’ll keep trying and hopefully we will figure it out.  If anyone has any ideas please let us know.

Anyway, I’ll try to be a bit more regular in posting.  We really appreciate those of you that visit the site on a regular basis.  Thank You!!!

Right after I snapped the pictures he dove off the branch and nearly picked off one of the male Cardinals that frequent the feeders.  The Cardinal escaped several attempts by the hawk to grab it.  The two of them were flying in/out, and around a magnolia bush and pine tree.  Finally the hawk gave up and sat back on the same branch he started on.  I took a few more pictures.  Unfortunately they are pretty blurry due to the low light and my having to hand hold the camera.  Here they are.  Maybe one of you more experienced birders can tell us which hawk it is, Coopers or Sharp-Shinned:

These first two are of the front of the hawk:

Here’s a couple of the back:

Based on these pictures, and our Kaufman Field Guide, we think it is a Sharp-Shinned Hawk. What do you think?

A Winter Wonderland

This first picture is of the backyard at nearly the “height” of the storm.  There was a bit of slush/ice on the roads for a few hours.  The snow stuck around on the grass for a day or so and in the shady areas for nearly 3 days.  We ended up with maybe 2″ of accumulation.

Carolina Wren

here is one of our regular Carolina Wrens sitting on the snow covered platform feeder.  You can also see the beak of a male Cardinal peeking out from behind the tube feeder.

Cardinals And Yellow Rumped Warbler?

Here is a picture of a couple of cardinals along with what we think is a Yellow Rumped Warbler.  There’s a little bit of yellow under the wings along with the “wing bars”.  What do you more experienced birders think?

Another Picture Of The Warbler (We Think)

Here’s another picture of the bird we think is the Yellow Rumped Warbler.  See the little bit of yellow on his head?  The only place we didn’t see yellow was on his rump

Winter is on its way out here in Atlanta. March is usually when things start to warm up a bit here in the South so the late snowfall (March 1st) was a nice treat. Pretty soon we’ll be complaining about the 90 degree days with 90% humidity.

Lots of Participants

In 2008 over 85,000 checklists were submitted and over 9.8 million birds of 635 species were reported.  Obviously, lots of people take part.  We’re looking forward to being part of the 2009 edition.

Our Plan

The count takes place from February 13th to the 16th.  We will be around most of the weekend except for a few hours on Saturday.  Our plan is to spend some time Saturday afternoon as well as Sunday morning and afternoon recording all the birds we see in our backyard during those times.  Hopefully, we have some good activity and are able to get some good counts.  This will be a good opportunity to test our identification and “binocular handling” abilities.  We have a fairly large backyard so we will need to pay attention and count correctly.

A Good Opportunity

The Great Backyard Bird Count is a great way to participate in birding.  You don’t need to be experts, Pam and I definitely aren’t , and the information you gather is used to further science.  If you are getting started in birding like we are, this is a great way to contribute and have fun at the same time.

To learn more about the GBBC, visit their site, then get ready to count!

Swarming The Sweetgum

The birds were all over the seed pods of the big Sweetgum trees we have, hanging upside down on them and pecking away.  I tried to get some pictures but they were too far away and the camera didn’t focus too well, at least on full auto.  Then, all of a sudden they all flew to the platform feeder and began eating.  I managed to get a couple of pictures before they flew off.  Now the question is, what were they?

Bird Identification Time

Pam thought they might be Pine Siskin right off the bat.  I wasn’t so sure.  I uploaded the clearest picture I had to flickr.  here it is:

After looking at the picture and our Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America we both settled on them being Pine Siskin.

Are We Correct

What do you think?  Are these Pine Siskin, or maybe a bunch of Goldfinches?  They seem to have too much streaking on them to be Goldfinches.  But, we’ve only been birdirs for 4 weeks so we very easily could be wrong.   My guess is that once again, Pam’s intial guess is right and I was wrong (as usual)