Tag: birds

Image #172 — Seasonal Bounty

White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)
White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)

Frequent followers will recall the recent post of a Tufted Titmouse with a mouthful of seed.  Here is a White-breasted Nuthatch with a similar bounty.  The nuthatch and titmouse are often in the company of one another and have similar feeding habits. Our friends at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology enlighten us more on this pleasant bird.

White-breasted Nuthatches are active, agile little birds with an appetite for insects and large, meaty seeds. They get their common name from their habit of jamming large nuts and acorns into tree bark, then whacking them with their sharp bill to “hatch” out the seed from the inside. White-breasted Nuthatches may be small but their voices are loud, and often their insistent nasal yammering will lead you right to them.

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Image #171 – Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescents)

Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescents)
Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescents)

The Downy Woodpecker  (Picoides pubescents) always seems so studious to me.  It will invariably go straight to the suet as opposed to the Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) who will often swing awkwardly from one of the feeders, flinging out seeds until it finds just what it wants. The Downy knows exactly what it wants.

The Downy and the Hairy Woodpeckers are very similar in appearance with the Hairy Woodpecker the larger of the two. So far I am fairly certain I have only seen the Downy here on Fawn Hill. I have seen the Hairy Woodpecker in the past and it is significantly larger.  None of the black and white woodpeckers that I have seen this summer have been that large.

Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopis pilestus). Taken in Florida in 2006.
Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopis pilestus). Taken in Florida in 2006.

Of course there is the largest of the black and white WPs, the Pileated Woodpeckers and I have to admit I was surprised to see them here in North Carolina. I have often seen the Pileated in Florida and in my head I thought of the Pileated WP as exclusively Floridian.  Silly, I know. I think it has to do with their pre-historic look.  They seem perfectly at home in the scrub and swamps of Florida. Catching sight of them in the woods around my home here on Fawn Hill was a pleasant surprise. ❧

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Image #170 – Um, You May Want to Rethink that Bite

Tufted Titmouse (Parus bicolor)
Tufted Titmouse (Parus bicolor)

It seems this Tufted titmouse (Parus bicolor) may have over-judged his ability to swallow but with a prize that large you can understand his inclination.  The Cornell Lab of Ornithology offers this helpful insight:

  • Tufted Titmice hoard food in fall and winter, a behavior they share with many of their relatives, including the chickadees and tits. Titmice take advantage of a bird feeder’s bounty by storing many of the seeds they get. Usually, the storage sites are within 130 feet of the feeder. The birds take only one seed per trip and usually shell the seeds before hiding them.

After reading this helpful tip I watched the birds more closely and, sure enough, they grab a seed (or a nut) and fly quickly away to store the prize and they are back. One enterprising titmouse has begun to stash the bounty in the nooks and crevices of the deck thereby saving time and energy.  I have a Turkey Oak nearby that is, no doubt, one of the primary storage spots for the birds. The gnarly bark offers perfect hiding spots although I suspect the squirrels may be finding many of the stash sites.  ❧

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Image #169 – Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)

Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)
Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)

This pretty little dove makes me think of a ballerina–it’s the lovely arch in the neck.  Mourning doves are present throughout the United States and in summer months they even migrate into Canada.  It’s a wonder they survive at all. They build nests that are impossibly flimsy and often in very public places. I recall a retirement home in Florida where a dove had built her nest directly above the door leading to the patio area. She would sit there all day, not moving a muscle as people by the dozens came and went.   The residents of the home were delighted to have the nest so visible and I have no doubt their collective karma guaranteed the successful fledge. ❧

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Image #168 – Female Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)

Female Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinals)
Female Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)

The flock of Northern Cardinals continues to populate my feeders and they are a joy to see.  I am accustomed to seeing Cardinals as couples and I was surprised to learn that flocks are common in the winter months.  With four males and three (maybe four) females they certainly bring some lovely color to an increasingly bleak landscape.  

This female has beautiful color in her wings. At first I wasn’t sure if she was a juvenile or an adult. Image #168(a)It is the crest that tells the difference and she obligingly shook her head revealing a crest of a delightfully punkish orange.  On a juvenile there would be no color and a brownish crown as opposed to a crest.  So, I would say she is a young adult. ❧

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Image #165 – Nine Turkeys Trotting

Image #165

This picture of wild turkeys was taken last year at Myakka River State Park. There was a time at Myakka when wild turkeys were nearly extinct.  They were aggressively hunted in Myakka Park and  a part of me can understand why. The meat of these turkeys would not be anything like the Butterball that some of you cooked last week for Thanksgiving. But I feel certain it was satisfying never the less.  And wild turkeys have beautiful feathers that no doubt pulled down a nice chunk of change in the early decades of the 20th century when women’s hats were elaborately adorned with feathers.  Living here in North Carolina, where poverty is a very real thing, I find myself thinking about all of this in a different way. It takes me back to my very early days in New England when I recall many classmates who were malnourished and poorly clothed, but once we moved to the gleaming Gulf coast of Florida it seemed poverty went into my rearview mirror. I suppose that was the goal. Still, these “pockets” of poverty are with us and extend to our urban areas as well. Any one who has watched the news in recent days has probably heard about the battle for a higher minimum wage. The current requirement of $7.25 an hour is a pittance and can barely sustain a single individual much less a family. If you want a concise essay on that battle I suggest the article by Richard Trumka and Christine Owens on CNN.

We’ve managed to protect the turkeys in Myakka and they are flourishing. Can we find a way to help our fellow human beings? ❧

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Image #163 – Angry Birds anyone?

Image #163 (1)
Northern Cardinal  (Cardinalis cardinalis)

Anyone who has ever played “Angry Birds” knows that look!  Northern Cardinals are endlessly enchanting. I seem to be over-run with them these days. I counted seven at the feeder today– 3 males and 4 females. So stay tuned for more Cardinal pictures. ❧

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Image #155 – Dark-eyed Junco

Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis)
Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis)

I’ve been waiting for this guy. He’s a Junco, a Slate-colored Junco.  For some reason I am very fond of these little birds and shortly after I moved to Fawn Hill I asked my neighbor if there were Juncos. “Sometimes,” she said, “In the winter.”  And that squared with my memory of Juncos.  I first became acquainted with them in Washington, D.C.  For a period of time we had an apartment with a lovely deck just off the living room and in winter the Juncos would come and hop around searching for food.  We traveled a lot in those days and somehow never got into the bird feeder thing even though there were many varieties of birds there in downtown Washington, DC, including numerous raptors. The Juncos were only around in the winter and they charmed me with their white breast and pinkish beak.  It didn’t take long to figure out that when the Juncos arrived it was going to be cold and it came as no surprise to me that they summer in the Arctic Circle.  Forecast for Franklin this weekend?  An “arctic blast” arrives on Sunday.  ❧

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Image #151 – Red-headed birds

Image #152

If you think this is a Red-headed Woodpecker you are wrong…but you are not alone.  Thinking this is a Red-headed Woodpecker is one of the most common birding ID mistakes.  While I couldn’t find an absolute statistic my bet would be that 90% of the people who see this bird think “Red-headed Woodpecker.”   Actually he is a Red-bellied Woodpecker although none of my field guides indicate an actual red-belly.  Such are the problems of birding ID’s.

This is an actual Red-headed Woodpecker and they are not nearly as common as their colorful cousins.   Image #151 (1)This particular Red-head was a resident at the Carlton Preserve in Venice, Florida and for several years you could count on seeing him at the entrance to the preserve in a grove of decaying trees. I told an honest-to-God ornithologist (bird expert) about the Red-headed Woodpecker at Carlton Preserve and he poo-pooed the possibility, insisting I was actually seeing a Red-bellied Woodpecker.  So I suggested we go to Carlton Preserve together and he agreed.  We had walked just a few feet into the entrance when this handsome Red-headed Woodpecker flew to the same tree in this photo.  My ornithologist friend was so surprised that he dropped his camera. He spent the rest of the day expressing awe that it really was a Red-headed Woodpecker and that I was right!   I can’t recall if I ever saw the ornithologist again but the Red-headed Woodpecker was great entertainment for several more years. They are still at Carlton Preserve but the ones that foraged near the entrance seem to have moved on.  My guess is they grew weary of too many ornithologists making fools of themselves. ❧

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Image #150 – The Pool Has Closed for the Season

Image #150 (1)

That’s my backyard bird bath this morning.  It was chilly here, actually downright cold. When I awoke it was 15º F.   The birds are flocking to my feeders in great numbers and who can blame them? I can barely comprehend how they manage to survive in such weather but clearly good nutrition is a part of it.  Just yesterday I was talking with my neighbor about bird bath heaters.  She was talking about the need to get her’s in place and I was marveling that such an item existed. It never occurred to this Florida girl but I’ve already been to Amazon.com to check it out and this morning certainly confirms the need for such a device.  There are some technical issues to resolve, however. So, for the next few days at least, my feathered-friends will have to try skating.  Thankfully the weather is forecast to moderate and by the weekend we will be back in the 60s. ❧

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