Awesome Yard Birds!

Well it's been a while since I have had a new post here at Bird Lady Blog.  I've been a bit pre-occupied with becoming a first-time Grandmother, with baby boy Cyrus due on Thanksgiving Day!  Also, I was having an issue with getting car sick when I would go out birding.  But today, as fall has officially arrived, the birds decided to come to me!  Awesome bird days like these are few and far between...

As I stepped out on my balcony to get a wiff of that cool, crisp fall air, I heard a familiar sound.  It was a Pileated Woodpecker, one of my favorite birds, my 'Spark' bird, the one that got me interested in birding over 27 years ago.  As I scanned the ground where the woodpecker was, I catch a glimpse of another one!  Two Pileated Peckers foraging for ants most likely.  Ants are the main diet of these woodpeckers.  I ran to get my binoculars and camera to try and get some footage of these awesome birds.  When I got back, I noticed there was a third bird a few trees away from the other two.  When I took a break from the binoculars, I saw a fourth woodpecker fly on to the scene!  Likely an entire family!  And to top that off, there was also a Northern Flicker hanging with the gang of Pileated.

I took four different videos I will share.  Pardon the shakiness.  While I was videoing the birds, my son let the darn cat, Stanley Oliver outside.  Immediately he ran over next door and started stalking my lovely woodpecker family!  OMG, I would be devastated if he was to get one.  I did send my son out to get him when he proceeded to get too close to them.

After all the excitement of the four, well five woodpeckers, I went inside to download my videos.  Not long after that, I went back out on the balcony when I heard some birds calling back and forth.  For a quick second, I thought the Pileateds were back, but the sound wasn't quite right.  Then I thought perhaps it could be a Belted Kingfisher, they have an interesting call like what I was hearing.  I scanned the trees, over and over, looking for any movement.  Back and forth the birds were chatting with each other.  It took quite a while for me to finally see one of them when it flew to another tree.  I got the binoculars, but it was difficult to see, and mostly was hanging out behind a bunch of pine needles, so I couldn't see it clearly.  I snapped a couple of photos, thinking I might be able to zoom in on the computer and see better.  The photos weren't clear either, as the pine needles were in the way.  So I get out my trusty iPhone iBird app and do a search based on the criteria I do know.  Came up with three possibilities, an American Kestrel, which I knew it was too big.  A Sharp-shinned Hawk, which I have seen here once before, and a Merlin, which I have never seen.  Not knowing which of the two it was, I listened to the call of both birds.  Sure enough, it was not the Sharp-shinned, but indeed it was the Merlin!  A life bird for me!

A Shy Merlin hiding

So between the four Pileated Woodpeckers, the Northern Flicker, and a pair of Merlins for yard birds today, it makes for an A-W-E-S-O-M-E Bird Day!

New Yard Birds ~ Pine Siskin, House Finch or Sparrow?

After weeks of seeing the same old yard birds (Red-breasted & White-breasted Nuthatches, Downy Woodpecker, and Black-capped Chickadees), it's nice to get some new birds in the yard. I posted recently about the Brown Creeper that was new to the bunch. A few days ago, a sweet little brown and white streaked bird joined the yard gang. My first thought was Pine Siskin, but it is really difficult to positively I.D. a nondescript small brown and white streaked bird.  In the birding community these are called Little Brown Jobs (LBJ's).  I researched the Pine Siskin on my iBird app and in my bird field guides.  Clues that led me to to the I.D. were the pointy beak and notched tail. I did not however, see any yellow on the wings or base of tail, but it is not always visible on a perched bird. I recall the first time I saw Pine Siskins at my feeder, it was a siskin in flight photo that cinched the I.D. for me. Without seeing the tell tale yellow, I could not be 100% on the identity of Pine Siskin.

Cut to the next day, when much to my surprise I see a spry little red-headed bird scoping out the balcony feeder.  I did a double-take... Yes, I DID just see a red-headed bird, a new bird in the yard!  Yippee!  Now this one I was sure on the identity, it was a male House Finch.  But now I was more confused about the previous day's bird. Could the Pine Siskin have been a female House Finch? I spent some time consulting the field guides, Googling images of  Pine Siskins and House Finches and concluded it was indeed a Pine Siskin. Later I spotted a little bird outside the window in the neighbors Lilac bush.  It too was a little brown job.  But this one, I knew right away was a Song Sparrow, by the brown spot on it's belly.  But without the spot, all three birds look very similar.

Check out the updated lists on the new Bird Lady's Lists page. Here is the cute little Pine Siskin with Mr. White, the resident White-breasted Nuthatch.

Pine Siskin & White-breasted Nuthatch
JPEG edit

Pine Siskin & White-breasted Nuthatch
RAW edit

Photography Talk

Not the greatest of pics. I'm still trying to perfect shooting from behind the sliding glass door, with the tripod setup. It creates a less-than-ideal back lighting situation, and I just haven't got the settings down.  I did some reading online and in my camera manual and set my camera for spot metering, which should help when the background is brighter than the subject like it is in my balcony feeder setup. I will test it out tomorrow.

For the above pic, I was shooting in Shutter Priority mode with the shutter speed @ 1/256, f/6.5 This is an edit of the RAW photo, with some post processing done in Photoshop Elements 7. Honestly, I have been trying to do more of the RAW editing, but I'm not really happy with the results. Obviously, I still have lots to learn!

~ Sherrie (Bird Lady)

Old Man Winter ~ First Week of 2013

Well, the first week of 2013 has been cold, snowy, and icy. Just when we were getting used to it, the roads had been plowed and we could get around once again, Old Man Winter brought us several more inches of new snow overnight.  It doesn't make for the best birding.  Who wants to get out in the frigid cold when it's down to 1 degree Fahrenheit or snowing all day long?  Not this little chickadee!  

It's times like this that I am thankful for my yard birds that are attracted by my suet feeders.  For this first week in my 2013 Big Year it has been the trusty Red-breasted Nuthatches, between 1 and 4 of them visiting the suet each day.  Along with them is a female Downy Woodpecker.  Those were the only birds I had seen until Sunday, when two new birdies came to the suet feeders. I was excited to see a couple of Black-capped Chickadees and a White-breasted Nuthatch in the yard.

White-breasted Nuthatch

These four species of social birds often winter together in small mixed feeding flocks, so it is not unusual for them to be seen together.  The flocks are better able to keep an eye out for predators and can send warning signals to the other members.  They are also better able to find food and are less wary about visiting feeders.  A group of nuthatches are called a "jar" of nuthatches.  A group of chickadees is a "banditry" or "dissimulation".  Woodpeckers are known as a "descent" or a "drumming".  So what are these mixed flocks known as?  A "jar of drumming banditry"?  I get a kick out of some of these collective nouns they come up with for groups of birds.

An interesting fact about the White-breasted Nuthatch is that they are usually quiet during breeding season and in the summer.  But certainly not in the winter and spring.  They have a nasal sounding 'yank-yank' that is quite distinguishable of the nuthatches when you hear it.  The Black-capped Chickadee have their own cute little song... 'Chick-a-dee-dee-dee', hence the name.

Black-capped Chickadee

To sum up my 'Big Week' of 15 birds, (giggle)...                                                                                                            

Sherrie's Lakefront Yard Birds

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Downy Woodpecker

White-breasted Nuthatch

Black-capped Chickadee

Sherrie's Big Year Birds

American Crow

Red-tailed Hawk

Black-billed Magpie

Rock Pigeon

Herring Gull

American Kestrel

Canada Goose

Common Merganser

Mallard

American Coot

Wild Turkey