Birds Galore!

The Uncommon Common Grackle

I think the Common Grackle is an underrated and underappreciated bird. With that unmistakable iridescence and curved black beak, it’s simply an interesting creature. I know, they will eat you out of house and home, scare off the pretty birds, and where you find one you will find four or five, but what the hell, a Grackle has to eat too, right?

Okay, I’m kind of lying to myself. The Grackles will drive me crazy by the third time I catch them at the feeder and I’ll be cursing them eating my pretty bird feed. As of right this moment I’m having an absence makes the heart grow fonder moment. I haven’t seem Grackles in Highland Park in quite some time; as a matter of fact, I could sweat it was late spring/early summer of 2009. Before that they were quite common and were a nuisance at the feeder. Suddenly, there were no Grackles to be seen. I attributed the lack of Grack to the fact I made some changes to my feeders that discourage bigger birds. The odd thing was I didn’t see any around at all. This is a subject for further investigation.

With spring lurking around the corner, so show the Grackle. Let me enjoy this little window of time before I curse the day I ever laid eyes on one of those birds.

This Might As Well Be Called A Quarterly

It's been too long in-between my posts here, so long in fact, I should change the name to the Princeton Avenue Quarterly Birdwatcher. Anyway, I'm back with a winter report on some of the great birds I have spotted so far.

The best spot this winter on Princeton Avenue has been the Yellow-rumped Warbler. Now, I'm an novice birder to say the least, and I'm not sure how common this bird is in this area during the winter months, but this was a heck of a discovery to me. The first sighting was around the second week of February in my octagon feeder. There was a female House Finch having a nice breakfast when I noticed the bird beside it was a little awkward. At first I wrote it off as another Finch, but when you have been birding for a while a flash explodes across your mind and tells you to take another peek. Sure enough, it wasn't a another female House Finch, but what what was it? As you might expect, the camera was in the car and I couldn't reach it with out scaring the bird away. As i touched the doorknob to step outside the bird was gone in an instant. Experience told me the bird would be back soon and patience would get me my picture.

It was no more than thirty minutes before the bird returned and this time I was ready. I got nearly twenty good pictures of the bird and I was thrilled. This was the first mysterious bird at the feeder since the Rose-breasted Grosbeak dropped in last summer. Now, time to get all CSI on the photos and figure out what kind of bird we had on our hands.

After a half day of scouring through that multiple bird guides it finally figured it out. It was a first year Yellow-rumped Warbler. I haven't been this excited in months. The little birdie has been hanging around for over a week now, and I hope he stays near throughout the winter. Here is a cool pic of my little pal.

Hawk Show

We had a ferocious visitor in the backyard last week - the Red Tailed Hawk. His visit came at the expense of another one of our fine avian friends. The hawk decided to dine upon one of the Mourning Doves. All that remained of the dove was a pile of feathers. We startled the hawk, and off with his meal to a bough in the pecan tree. Luckily, my camera was in the car as we pulled up on the scene and I caught a snapshot of the bird in the tree. I'll publish the pic as soon as I get back to my normal PC.

Well, aren't I just too busy to post on my little bird blog? It's good to be writing about something other than the horrible things my English instructor has assigned lately. Birds, birds, birds!

The coolest addition to the Princeton Avenue bird collection is the Red-shouldered Hawk that has been zipping through the neighborhood. I spotted a juvenile squatting in my flat feeder about a month ago, and I caught a nice glimpse of the mature Hawk on the Pecan bough in my backyard. Unfortunately, before I could scramble to my camera the ruckus scared the bird before I could take a picture. On Sunday (November 22) I caught another shot of the hawk off of Dartmouth.

Wish me luck...the Red-shouldered Hawk is my most coveted picture, and hopefully I will catch it soon.

Birds, Birds, Birds!

I hate to reference Motley Crue song lyrics while talking about birds, but I have have a ton of birds at the feeder so far this spring and I have to shout "birds, birds, birds"! To date I have counted thirty species. Now, this isn't the variety that I had hoped for (I guess I wanted 150 different kinds of birds at the feeder) but the number of regulars and now their offspring is pretty amazing.

Some of the steady feeders are blue jays, grackles and cardinals. At any point in the day one if not all of these birds are taking in a meal. Some of the smaller birds such as the Tufted Titmouse and the Carolina Chickadee pop in and out to enjoy some crushed sunflower seeds. The Carolina Wren and the White-breasted Nuthatch are harder to spot but when they are they are fun bunch - clinging to the trees and making quick decisions before grabbing some seed and flying away.

Away from the feeder while making casual observations I found some interesting characters that have made their way through the neighbourhood. A flock of Cedar Waxwings pummeled a fruit bush across from my house leaving nothing behind. The group consisted of, from my best cout, 28 birds. Their yellowish body with the sharp and intimidating black mask at the eyes, along with the blazing red wing tips and anlost neon yellow line at the tail feathers makes this on beautiful creature. I last saw them two weeks ago and I hope to catch and grab some nice photos to publish here.

Yesterday was quite a day as I performed a civilized duty to help a young Northern Flicker that had apparently fell fron it's nest . I discovered the helpless babe while I was refilling my platform feeder in the sideyard. As usual, some cardinals scampered of as I approached. I head this almost duck-like sound that was nearby. There on the ground was the tiny flicker. My neighbour supplied a box and off to the emergency vet we went. I hope all goes well for the young woodpecker; a few more minutes and it would have been cat food.

Here is a pic taken by my helpful neighbour.