Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Backyard Birds

A low grade fever has kept me from doing much of anything, but it takes little effort to sit on the back porch and watch the birds. Yesterday was an Indian Summer type of day which was irresistible to that kind of inactivity.

This has been one of the busiest falls in the backyard in recent years, with sparrows and finches in large numbers, including some of the winter finches (subject of this week's column). Note: in the captions, I indicate relative numbers in the yard.

American Goldfinch (common) and Pine Siskin (very common)

White-crowned Sparrow - juvenile (uncommon)

Little Brown Birds (l to r): Song Sparrow (very common), Purple Finch - female (common), White-throated Sparrow (abundant). Also, Dark-eyed Junco (abundant)
I don't know if the Blue Jays are residents who raised families in the neighborhood, or irruptive migrants from the north, but the evidence suggests that many of them will be wintering in the area. Note that this jay is filling its crop with seed. In good Corvid fashion, it is probably stashing seeds somewhere for a cold winter day. Filling the crop (and emptying my feeders) is a daily occurrence with the jays.

Blue Jay - a year-round resident? or visitor from the north? (very common)

White-breasted Nuthatch  - year-round resident (common)

Tufted Titmouse - year-round resident (common)
Good birding!!

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Nice series Chris
Beautiful shots

Dan Huber said...

Nice birds Chris - hope you feel better soon

dan

Kelly said...

...a beautiful of your backyard birds. I hope you are feeling better soon. Rick is fighting the same thing and had to stay home from work.

Hilke Breder said...

Nice round-up, Chris. Your backyard is a paradise for birds. Hope you are feeling better soon.

Jen Sanford said...

Awww I love the Tufted Titmouse... I haven't seen one since I lived in CT. The photo of the nuthatch is great too!

Folkways Note Book said...

Like your photos. -- barbara

Julie G. said...

Wonderful shots! So many beauties visiting your backyard. A joy to view your blog.

Dawn Fine said...

Howdee, Sorry to hear you arent feeling well..hope you feel better soon.
Great backyard birdies! Cute too:)

Unknown said...

Very nice Images,and interesting blog enjoyed your earlier popsting showing those Hawkss.
Anthony. Anthonyswildlifephotos.blogspot.com

Chris said...

Hey that's cool to show us what you get as common and uncommon!! That's very nice to know what you get around your feeders. I've to admit you've got quite a good numbers of species and I would love to get this blue jay ;-)

Robin Robinson said...

NICE! Love the White-crowned, nice get, and the WB nuts and Titmice are darling. You really nailed the personalities with these - great job, dude!

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