Orioles 3 Titmice 2

Orchard Oriole (Male)


Baltimore Oriole (Male)


Baltimore Oriole (Female)


Tufted Titmice

We took the boat out and encountered an Orchard Oriole high in a tree. At first we thought it was a Robin but we checked with the binoculars and were happy to see this oriole.

The Baltimore Oriole nesting pair continues in our yard. The female isn't out as often as the male. We are hoping for baby orioles soon.

The family of tufted titmice continues in the yard as well.

Birdcam: Chickadee & Titmouse

 

 

Eleven Baby Ducks: Beat that Octomom

 

We are happy to see our little floating island planter getting some use.  So far, we've had just a pair of sandpipers, a lone duck or turtle on it.  At dusk today, we saw the mother and all the baby ducks on it.  It's hard to count them on the island, but all 11 were on it.  She must be a very good mother.

 

Cedar Waxwing

It's always a treat when a cedar waxwing comes to our yard.

Baby Bird Feeding

 

A pair of tufted titmice

Baby Grackle

It's baby bird time in our yard. A family of tufted titmice visit the feeder early each morning. We usually don't photograph grackles but we make an exception for baby birds.

Baltimore Oriole

In the morning, this oriole's song sounds like "I'm the prettiest bird."

Black-crowned Night Heron Chicks: Baylands Nature Preserve (California)

The highlight of the bird watching trip to Baylands Nature Preserve was seeing a nest of baby night herons. There may have been three in the nest, but two were visible most of the time. We have a black-crowned night heron or two in a tree near us but have never seen chicks before.

Snowy Egrets and Night Herons: Baylands Nature Preserve, Palo Alto CA

Snowy Egret

Mike had a meeting in Silicon Valley last week and dropped by the Baylands Nature Preserve in Palo Alto CA. It's an easy spot to find with a great map that even points to the area where the night herons nest. There were quite a few night heron nests with snowy egrets mixed in. While most of the egrets had their feathers under control, he got these pictures for Chris who likes birds with wild hairdos.

Black-crowned Night Heron

More from Baylands: Palo Alto, CA

Lesser Goldfinch (western variety)


Cliff Swallow in nest


American Avocet


Clark's Grebe with a fish


Song Sparrow


Anna's Hummingbird


A brief birdwatching trip to the Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve showed a good variety of birds. Song Sparrows were everywhere and made their presence known. The Lucy Evans Baylands Nature Interpretive Center was built to house exhibits but the area under the roof was covered with cliff swallow nests. The only disappointment was that I didn't see the rare clapper rail, but the tides and time of year weren't ideal. I may be back next winter.

Baby Black-necked Stilt: (California)

Here's a photo of a Black-necked Stilt chick. Aren't baby birds cute?

Killdeer pretending it has a broken wing (California)

While walking along a path at Coyote Point Recreation Area in San Mateo, a killdeer made a big fuss and then pretended to have a broken wing. Because I watch the Discovery Channel (or was it Zoboomafoo), I knew it was trying to distract me from its nest and perhaps its chicks. I did look around for the baby birds, but didn't find any. I did follow the killdeer to get a photo of the broken wing act so I guess it worked.

Blackpoll Warblers

We're still getting migrating birds, mostly warblers. This morning there were about 8 blackpolls. This is the first year we saw them in the yard. The male of this bird species has the black cap.

Chestnut-backed Chickadee and California Towhee

Chestnut-backed Chickadee

I stopped at Coyote Point Recreation Area in San Mateo, California on the way to the San Francisco airport. For me, the highlight was seeing a Chestnut-backed Chickadee particularly because I didn't know there were Chestnut-backed Chickadees. I also saw my first California Towhee, but I prefer the spotted or eastern towhees.

California Towhee

Magnolia Warbler

 

 

Not only was it a warbler morning, but it continued to be a very warbler day in our backyard. Chris had the good fortune of being able to watch them all day, but Mike has the birding camera on a different project so these pictures were taken with our original birding camera. The lighting got better, of course, as the day went on, so Chris kept trying for something better than the previous magnolia warbler post. The American Redstarts stayed around the whole day, and Chris also saw a female Blackburnian Warbler around 2 p.m. Overall, a great day of backyard birding!

A Warbler Morning!

 

We could hear the birds singing at 6 am, and Chris is getting better at detecting some of the warbler songs and calls. This morning, although we could not photograph them all as they move so quickly, we had the following warblers: Canada, Magnolia, Chestnut-sided, American Redstart (male and female), and a Black and White or possibly a Blackpoll. We are seeing a warbler that doesn't look quite so zebra like as the Black and White does, but it doesn't look exactly like a Blackpoll either. We also had a lovely Red-eyed Vireo stop by. For Chris, the thrill of the morning was seeing the male redstart enjoy the waterfall she found on Craig's list. The sound of the trickling water is said to attract birds that don't come to feeders, and if that's what attracted the redstart to the yard, it was worth every penny and every bruise she got lugging it home.

 

A chestnut-sided warbler singing up a storm for us.

 

This picture of the magnolia warbler is not up to our usual standards (Chris was the photographer.) We know it's blurry, but it's so amazing to us that we can find these warblers in our yard this year that we had to post. Hopefully, it will encourage others to take a look at what might be in their own backyards.

Great Crested Flycatcher

Chris got this nice photo of the Great Crested Flycatcher.

The spring migration is really in force at our house now. We also saw a blackpoll warbler (but no good photo, yet). We saw a cedar waxwing high in the trees and two thrushes in the garden.

The orioles have begun to build a nest a week earlier than last year.   The male oriole is often very territorial chasing other birds away, but he sat on the same branch about a foot away from a cedar waxwing for a good minute.

Black and White Warbler (female)

Here's a nice shot from Garret that we overlooked last week.

Catbird and Titmouse

 

A pair of gray catbirds have been frequenting our yard. They are eating the jelly we put out for the orioles and one even drank the nectar. Here one has landed on an orange. The catbird has been making a wide variety of calls. It's the bird that sounds like a crying baby at times and has a wonderful song other times. Chris has two nicknames for the catbirds, jelly heads or silly singers.

 

This tufted titmouse is enjoying the peanut feeder.

Brown-headed Cowbird

While out looking for warblers, we got this photo of a cowbird. Larger birds that stay still on the ground are much easier to photograph than small birds that fly around in the treetops.

Scarlet Tanager at Liberty State Park

Oh, happy day! Mike's goal for this May (his birthday month) has been to see and photograph a Scarlet Tanager. We got the two quick glimpses of the one in our neighborhood park, but today we had a long time to enjoy this one posing for us high in the treetops at Liberty Park in Jersey City, NJ.