Red-breasted, Red-headed, Red-spotted, Red-winged, Red-tailed

Yesterday was a dreary day, snowing most of the day. Many of the birds used the feeders as a sort of refuge from the snowy weather. The Red-breasted Nuthatches used the suet to shield themselves from the snow, and were just kind of frozen there. The Pine Siskin roosted for quite some time on the black sunflower seed feeder that is under the eaves and clear of any falling moisture on my, as I like to call it, bird balcony.

Another bird who I haven't seen come to the balcony feeder, spent a good deal of time there while it snowed.  I had only seen the red-headed male House Finch once this  year, perched on my bird tree.  He stared me down as I took a few photos of him through the glass slider door.

Handsome House Finch

A male Hairy Woodpecker with a red-spotted crown, showed up in the hood a couple of days ago, and was back again.  Up until now, there was only one female Downy Woodpecker that frequented the suet feeders just about daily. So it's kind of nice to see a male and a Hairy for some variety. In the following picture you can see the size difference between the male Hairy on the left and the female Downy on the right.  They look very similar except for the body and beak size.

When I get away from home, it seems much closer to spring when I'm out and about, away from my snowy wonderland here on the backside of the lake. Today on my way home, I took the back roads and was able to stop and take some snapshots of some birds that remind me of spring. Like the Robin Red-breast (American Robin), I've been seeing more and more while out. Today, there were a dozen or more of robins hanging out with a 'cloud' of blackbirds. A few of them were Starlings, but then there were plenty of Red-winged Blackbirds staking out their territory in the small ponds with spent cat tails. I was able to catch this guy as I pulled up under him with the sun roof open. He started zinging and whizzing and showing me how big he was with his wings and tail all fanned out.

Red-winged Blackbird

Another bird I like to stalk with the sun roof open is the Red-tailed hawk. I always count the Red-tails I encounter along the highway and today was no different (I counted 11), except that since I was on the back roads, I could actually pull over and snap some pics! This hawk was sunning itself in the last couple of minutes before sunset. I got one quick shot in before it flew off (and one really fuzzy one after it took flight).

Red-tailed Hawk

Oh, and how could I forget, the last bird sighting of the day was a highway hawk, but not my typical Red-tailed.  It was smaller, with a long barred tail. I swung back around and did a u-turn to go back and check it out.  The little hawk flew off before I could get a photo, but I did get a good look. After I got home, I consulted my trusty bird reference book and it was indeed a Sharp-shinned Hawk. A new bird for 2013 and for my life list!

All the RED birds featured in today's post...

Red-breasted Nuthatch

(Red-headed & Red-breasted) House Finch

(Red-spotted) Hairy Woodpecker

American Robin (Red-breast)

Red-winged Blackbird

Red-tailed Hawk

Grow Your Blog Party

Welcome Grow Your Blog Party goers!  

My name is Sherrie, and they call me the Bird Lady.  Bird Lady Blog is about my birding adventures here in eastern Washington (US).  I have blended my favorite hobbies together, bird-watching, photography, and computers.  I love sharing my love of bird watching, wildlife and nature with you!

I was excited when I stumbled upon the Grow Your Blog idea while reading a fellow bird bloggers post, but disappointed that the deadline had already passed a couple of days before.  By chance, I asked to still be included and Vicki, over at 2 Bags Full, was kind enough to let me join in on the fun.  I am looking forward to meeting other bloggers and readers and expand my reading list of interesting blogs.

Recently, Bird Lady Blog has had a bit of a makeover, with several new features added and a new scrolling banner at the top and bottom, as well as a new Photo Gallery page.  It's a great way to check out some of the older posts. Another neat way to explore Bird Lady Blog is Blogger's new Snapshot View or Magazine View.  There are several other views available that you can choose. There is no sidebar available when in these special views, so to get back to the normal view, just click on "Bird Lady Blog" at the top of the page.   I noticed that these 'views' don't work on my iPhone's mobile browser.

If you are on Pinterest, there is now a "Pin It" button on the sidebar at the right, that pins a link to Bird Lady Blog on your Pinterest.  I'm planning on adding a button to future posts so that you can easily pin a post you are interested in also.  Bird Lady Blog is also on Facebook.  So be sure to stop by and 'like' the new page.  There you will find links to all the posts here on the blog.  

I have been gearing up for a Big Year birding project for 2013.  My goal this year is to see as many bird species as possible, and to visit as many of the Great Washington State Birding Trails as I can. I've been tracking my bird sightings daily with my iPhone app BirdLog, which submits my sightings to eBird.  My sightings show up here on the blog in the sidebar to the right under the BirdTrax gadget.

Red-breasted Nuthatch, a daily visitor at my suet feeders

I hope that you enjoy reading about my birding adventures, and hope that you will continue to follow as I blog about my 2013 Big Year.  I'm always interested in meeting other bird minded folks, or those that just enjoy nature, photography and blogging.

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Sherrie {Bird Lady}

Great Blue Heron

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

New Features on Bird Lady Blog

The days have been cold and long and boring.  Not many birds now that the lake is frozen.  So I decided to add some new features to the Bird Lady Blog.  Now, there is a Photo Gallery page in addition to a Home page where all of my blog posts appear.  The Photo Gallery page has most of my photography that I have shared here on the blog.  Each picture is linked to the original blog post that was associated with the photo.  Here you can scroll through the pictures, and if something catches your attention, you can go right to the post, which will open in a new window.

Also, new on the Bird Lady Blog, is the BirdTrax gadget.  Yes, more tech gadgets for birders! You will find it on the right hand column above my life list of birds.  BirdTrax displays eBird sightings and data, and can be customized to your liking.  I have mine set to show sightings in a 30 mile radius around my Loon Lake home in the last 30 days.  I was going to change up the settings, but have found I can't get access to the code like I did when I put it on here.  So I guess for now, we are stuck with it like it is.  Oh well, it shows my sightings and others in the community that have submitted to eBird, so it's all good.

A view counter is now located to the right above the archive directory, so you can see how many visitors the Bird Lady Blog has been getting.  I am thankful to my Facebook and Google+ followers for my increased traffic lately.  In just the last month, Bird Lady Blog has had over 500 page views for a total of 1454 as of this moment.

Recently I also added a couple of ways to quickly become a Bird Lady Blog follower on the right hand column.  You can submit your email address and become a follower, or you can subscribe to posts and/or comments. I'm always interested in other bird bloggers and photographers and would love for you to become a follower. Be sure to leave me a comment on the blog to let me know you stopped by!

A couple of cosmetic changes were made, like enlarging the headings so they are easier to see, and I made them look just a tad fancier :o)  Also planning on changing up the header and footer photos, but I'm having a hard time deciding which ones to use.  So it will be a bit yet before you see those.

Hopefully, you will enjoy these newly added features here on the Bird Lady Blog!

As I'm finishing up the final touches on the pictures for this blog post, my husband was flicking through the T.V. channels and happened to stumble on one of my favorite movies "The Notebook".  My favorite part just played where they are at the beach with all the seagulls and she is talking about wondering if in another life she was a bird.  She starts "ka ka ka'ing" and flapping her wings, and makes him say she is a bird.  Then she says "Now say you're a bird".  He replies, "If you're a bird, I'm a bird".  Love that part!

The only visitors to my yard in 2013 have been four Red-breasted Nuthatches and a female Downy Woodpecker.  They have been there each day so far.