Remember, Not All Birds Feed on the Feeder

  

Pine Siskins in Bermuda Run (NC) Note: You can click on photos to enlarge them.

Pine Siskin Party (Why I put as much seed on the ground as I put in the feeders.)

 

 

   Eastern Bluebird bath time

Downy Woodpecker and American Goldfinch

Northern cardinal and American Robin

American Goldfinch and Dark-Eyed Juncos

Hard-to-photograph Brown Creeper and White-Breasted Nuthatch

 

House Finch and White-Throated Sparrow

Tufted Titmouse and Cedar Waxwing

 

Hold it, [Almost] Goldfinches only!

The neighborhood bully (Immature Red-Tailed Hawk)

Cumberland County Eagle Festival 2-7-15

The Cumberland Country Winter Eagle Festival was held this weekend in Mauricetown, NJ (near Cape May). The Glades Wildlife Refuge (shown below) is home to literally dozens of Bald eagles. Over the past two days, I personally saw at least a dozen Bald eagles as well as many Red-tailed hawks, Northern harriers, and Turkey vultures.

There were beautiful eagles almost everywhere around Cumberland County. Apparently, the habitat is almost ideal for nesting. In the sequence (four photos below), that mating pair put on quite a show. (Note: The male is on the left and the female on the right.)

  

  

Peace restored

The real highlight of this trip for me was meeting Pete and Linda Dunne. Pete’s is the retired director of the Cape May Bird Observatory.  Pete (and Linda) are giants in the birding world, and Pete is a great writer. I think I have most all of his books, three favorites are Golden Wings, Hawks in Flight, and The Feather Quest.

This Red-tailed’s name is Aldora (“Winged Gift”); she is an “educational bird,” and she was on display as a terrific hawk ambassador at the show from the Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge.

  

There were Turkey vultures everywhere, too.

This is Turkey Point in the Glades Wildlife Refuge.

Pete Dunne

The marshland

Red-tailed hawk

Winter Birds 2015

Starling all puffed out for insulation

House sparrow all puffed out, too.

Sparrows not puffed

Common Redpoll in the Ramble (Sun., Jan. 25th)

Birders at the feeders in the Central Park Ramble. Most wanted to see the Common Redpoll — and he was accommodating (below) — though my photos weren’t great.

Goldfinches

Chipping Sparrow in the Ramble (Sun., Jan. 25, 2015)

 Scram! (Titmouse turf war)

The Central Park Reservoir

Pale Male … He’s Back!

Does this Building and the nest (above middle/top window) look familiar? It is 927 Fifth Avenue at 74th Street, New York, home of Pale Male for the past two decades. (Click photos to enlarge and left arrow to return to post.)

Pale Male is back with (I believe ) his 8th mate, Octavia. If you are a birder, and you don’t know who Pale Male is, you must have been living under a rock for the last twenty years. Pale Male has a website, and a really wonderful book by Marie Winn entitled Red Tails in Love, and a movie, The Legend of Pale Male, and a Nature show.  (I am still trying to learn the details of his 24 amazing years in New York … your info and comments are welcome!)

While I was watching at about 4.30 p.m. this afternoon, Pale Male took off and flew right over my head, all the while making his I-am-going-to-get-my-dinner-now Red-tail scream. It sent shivers down my spine and gave me goose bumps all over.

Couch’s Kingbird – West Village NYC (Jan. 3, 2015)

  

This Couch’s Kingbird has been hanging out in the West Village (Manhattan NYC 10014) in my neighborhood for days. Apparently, this bird has never been seen in New York before: its normal range is Texas and Mexico. I took these photos in the Bleecker Street Playground and on Bank Street on Saturday, January 3, 2015 at about noon.

  

Here’s the Playground, and across the street was a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.

   

Central Park Red-Tailed Hawk

This bird hunts from Central Park South (CPS).I have seen him here several evenings at about 4 p.m. Looking over his shoulder at me in this photo, it is almost as if he were saying, “Yes, I know that I have to watch my back, here.” (Click on the photos to enlarge them.)

The first time I saw him, he was high in the sky over the buildings of CPS pursuing a flock of starlings. And he caught one, which he consumed while sitting on the Trump Park Hotel. This is him digesting, perched near Columbus Circle, that is at the corner of CPS and Central Park West.

It is possible that this red-tailed hawk is “Junior,” one of the offspring of Pale Male, for more about Pale Male, here’s his Wikipedia site. The story of Pale Male is very cool, and like Henry VIII, Pale Male has had eight wives.

A Christmas Star

On Friday, December 12, 2014, I received a text from my friend, Fran. She also lives in Bermuda Run (NC) and she is the best birder I know. Her text message read, “I am talking to humming bird experts this morning about what to do about this one who is hanging out here. My yard man is going to try to help me do something to keep her food from freezing. Yesterday, before I could get new out, she was trying to drink from a frozen-solid feeder.” The photo below was attached. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

What this shows is actually a humming bird feeder with a heat lamp on it.

  

Two days later (Dec. 14th), I photographed this female Rufous hummer. Fran explained that the bird was sleeping in a holly bush near the heating vent for the house and then coming back to the feeder about every 45 minutes.

On Monday, December 15th, Susan Campbell, an expert and researcher on humming birds, came to band the bird … and confirm that she was a female Rufous.

 

 They also put an orange mark on her head to indicate that she had been banded.

On Christmas Eve, I texted Fran, “What a Christmas gift she is … let us call her “Star,” like the Star of Bethlehem, okay?”

Star stayed with Fran through Christmas. Friday, December 26th at 4.45 p.m. was the last time she was seen. We believe that when the wind direction shifted from the south to the north, she flew.

Star was a very special Christmas gift for all of us who were lucky enough to see her … and for that gift, we are very grateful.

Flitter and Maude

Here are a Northern Cardinal couple that are regulars at my house in Bermuda Run (North Carolina), near Winston Salem. Here is what happened: one morning last spring (2014), I was sitting outside on my deck in Bermuda Run. In stead of hearing street noise like in New York, all I heard was birds singing. The contrast was striking.

An hour later, I went to my favorite store, ACE Hardware, and purchased a bird bath and some bird feeders …

 

Within a short time, that same morning that I put up my stuff, a beautiful Cardinal came around …

This bird flittered back and forth between two trees, with each pass never landing on the feeder. This kept up for about 45 ,minutes. An then, he sent in his wife …

Flitter and Maude have become good friends, whom I see every day that I am in Bermuda Run. It is because of them that I became an avid birder. And, they had two babies this year. Three photos of the male, Woodstock, are shown in the post below; and the gorgeous young female, Lola, is shown in the “Birds of 2104” post below that with ***

Woodstock

This is Woodstock, a just fledged Northern cardinal, baby of Flitter and Maude (in the post above). He is sort of brown and at this stage it is not clear whether he is male or female.

Here he is a few weeks later; his red plumage is starting to come in. Meanwhile, he is still not a good enough flyer to land on the feeder; so, he eats the seeds on the ground.

Here’s Woodstock two weeks later. Now more red and black, he is an almost a full-grown adolescent. At last, he has made it up to the feeder.

Sorry, the photos in this post are all slightly under- or over-exposed. Jamie

Birds of 2014

  

Carolina Wren

American Goldfinch / Gray Catbird

    

Dark-Eyed Juncos

  

Tufted Titmouse / House Wren & Tufted Titmouse

Downy Woodpecker / Brown-Headed Nuthatch

     

 House Finches  and Goldfinches

Eastern Phoebe / Eastern Bluebird

*** Young female Northern Cardinal / Mourning Dove

     

Blue Jay / House Finch

   

House Finch / Ruby-Throated Humming Bird

  

Great Egret / Great Blue Heron

All of the photos above were taken in North Carolina. The two photos below were taken in New York last spring. This mother sparrow raised babies in the support post that holds up a traffic light on the corner of my street in the West Village (corner of Bleecher and Bank Streets) in Manhattan.  The photos speak for themselves; click to enlarge to see babies.