Wow...the rain stops & new birds arrive!!!

 We have never had an American Goldfinch at our feeders before.  I didn't think we would get them without Nijer seed, but this little guy came about 4 times to the feeder with the sunflower hearts.  I wish I could have gotten a closer photo or better quality, but, even from across the yard, he was so lemony yellow as to be blindingly bright.  So beautiful!

We had such heavy rains here today, it was a roar of water for hours.  When it was all done, a lot of wet birds came out, like little Mama here.

We also had a paid of Chickadees tag-teaming back and forth to eat a single seed from the flat feeder and then hide in the tree and eat it.  I wish I could have gotten an image of his head, but he was having such a good time munching, he didn't look up.

This squirrel got rather peeved with me for interrupting his theft of seeds at the flat feeder since I was sitting in the gazebo.  So I caught his photo while he was chittering and squawking at me.  At least someone is making use of this empty birdhouse!

Killdeer? (Nope, doesn't have anything to do with the Deer itself)

 Can you believe how cute this little guy is?  Look at that pathetically gazing eye!  My daughter thought this was a little lost sea bird.  We were on the corner of the frontage road to a major highway, I-20, and waiting at the light; I saw him and could tell he was something special.  We actually circled, turned around, and did it again, to find a break in the traffic where I could take a photo without getting into a car accident; I couldn't tell what he really looked like, though, until coming home and seeing on the computer.  A "Killdeer"--what a strange name for a bird, though I read it comes from the call it makes.

 

Anyway, he was just chilling in the parking lot for T-Mobile.  Guess he just wanted a cell phone to call all his other seabird buddies down in Savannah ; )

Fewer geese this year

The kids and I had gotten used to the Springtime hatching of Canadian geese in the Spring Lakes neighborhood. in the past it was like _Make way for Ducklings_ as they would shut down our route to school in the morning while crossing the road. I hope the only reason there were fewer was because of a warmer than average winter. I'd hate to see them go.

Very active birding day today!

Well, we were all content with seeing the regular round of folks at the feeders this morning, then with seeing Geese and a Heron while walking near the Savannah River, but we were unprepared for the afternoon's events.  I left the back door open while potting plants and a Chipping Sparrow flew in and got stuck.  We had a time catching him without hurting him or giving him a heart attack around the Foozball table and Ping Pong table and exercise equipment!  Finally netted him, we all gave him a good looking over, then opened hands and let him fly away.  He zipped in 1/2 a second!

The next excitement was hearing a strange sound and my daughter spotted the Hawk in our pine tree above the gazebo.  He was there for a minute making his chirping sounds, then flew beautifully away.  After downloading the pictures we decided he was a juvenile Cooper's Hawk. Bunnies and backyard birds beware!

Finally!!! Something to write about!

The kids were bored for more than a month with our favorite birds gone away when the weather abruptly went into the '80s and '90s.  But, in the past two weeks we've seen a pair of hummingbirds, the Chickadee has returned as has the Tufted Titmouse, but mostly it was the usual round of Chipping Sparrows, Cardinals, Mourning Doves, Mockingbirds and the like.  We got a quick glimpse of the Towhee, but he was too hard to catch with the camera like all the others.  But today was different.

We had torrential rains since last night and, since we've been in drought conditions for years, it was really unusual because it lasted for 24 hours.  Well today we had a hawk (who caught what I suspect was originally a dove) leave a pile of feathers and intestines in the middle of the yard.  And, I suspect because of the rain, we had a new visitor to the back yard.  We had to look it up, but it is a Gray Catbird!  

Distractions in the window

OK, these are my short video clips of who kept interrupting me today while grading papers.  But, it was much to my children's delight, since the light was so strong outside that the birds did not notice us, even when right next to the window.

Brown-headed cowbirds, 2 females, then males...

It was funny to see how skittish they were : )

Brown-headed Cow Bird vs. Oropendola

Ok, so this is not my own video, but it captures the glistening color of what sounds like a dull bird and there are a couple places where you can hear the call. For those of you who have been to Central America, what do you think?  Does there sound like any similarity between the Cow Bird and the Oropendola?  Let me know in a comment.

Cow Bird video

Oropedola call

OK, I'm probably just wistfully thinking about this ; )