Monday, December 27, 2010

Winter Birds: White-throated Sparrow, Nuthatch, Tufted Titmouse


White-throated Sparrow


Tufted Titmice

Tufted Titmouse
Tufted Titmice

White-breasted Nuthatch
White Breasted Nuthatch

When it snows, or when we want the birds to come up to the deck, we leave out nyjer, peanuts, and sunflower seeds for the winter birds in addition to the safflower, suet and nyjer in the feeders. The juncos prefer the nyjer and the cardinals prefer the sunflower seeds. Blue jays, red bellied woodpeckers and tufted titmice like the peanuts. The nuthatch will visit the suet and the feeders but rarely comes to the deck. The blue jays can be quite aggressive with the peanuts, but Mike got a photo of a nice pair of tufted titmice enjoying them without the blue jays interfering.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Fox News: Christmas Report



Fox Fox
Early on Christmas morning when we were looking out the windows and watching birds, Chris commented that she thought we would have a special visitor today; just a feeling. While visiting on the phone with one of our daughters and taking the turkey out of the oven, Chris practically had a fit when she saw the fox, who has been around the neighborhood a lot, drinking out of our waterfall. We sort of suspected something larger than the birds had been helping themselves to some sips, because we've had to fill it up with bucketfuls. This fox was not at all startled when Mike went out to get its picture. It even gave a little shake like a dog would to get some water off its face. Nice to know we are helping out the wildlife with our heated waterfall while the lake is not available for them.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Tufted Titmouse Balancing on a Peanut

titmouse
This was an entertaining little titmouse. Usually they land for barely a second and snatch a peanut up quickly with their beaks. This one seemed confused about how to go about acquiring the peanut. Mostly it sat around a pile of them, sometimes balancing on one, but eventually it pecked at one to make a small hole which seemed to make it easier for it to fly away with.

Flicker and Sapsucker


Northern Flicker
Northern Flicker

Yellow Bellied Sapsucker
Yellow Bellied Sapsucker

It's always a special day when the sapsucker or flicker make an apperance.

Carolina Wren:Photo by Donna



This bird was spotted on December 15th, 2010 in Bernardsville, NJ on my back deck pecking at seed from the suet. It didn't stay more than a few minutes, but it was quite a treat.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Birds of Harbour Island, Bahamas


Pink Sands Beach, Harbour Island, Bahamas



One doesn't go to Harbour Island in the Bahamas for birding. We went to avoid the cold, celebrate a birthday, walk along a stunning pink sand beach, listen to the gently rolling waves, and gaze into the turquoise ocean under a blue sky. However, just before we left, we discovered that our destination, the Pink Sands Hotel, is a bird sanctuary recognized by the Audubon Society. The hotel actually doesn't market itself as a birder's choice, does not go out of its way to attract birds, and no staff seemed overly knowledgeable about  the birds. However, there are a good number of trees on the landscaped grounds, and we saw many warblers. The quantity wasn't great, but there were a wide variety of bird species. We even saw a Cape May warbler, a bird that has eluded us in Cape May.






Prairie Warbler

Prairie Warbler
Prairie Warbler

Cape May Warbler
Cape May Warbler

Yellow throated Warbler
Yellow throated Warbler

Northern Parula

Northern Parula
Northern Parula

Palm Warbler
Palm Warbler

American Redstart
American Redstart (Female)

Ovenbird
Ovenbird

Bahama Woodstar
Bahama Woodstar

Female Painted Bunting
Female Painted Bunting


We also saw a black and white warbler, a black throated blue warbler, a yellow rumped warbler,  some catbirds and a few tropical mockingbirds but didn't photograph them all.

Harbour Island: Birds and Blooms


Northern Parula
Northern Parula
Bananaquit
Bananaquit
Bananaquit
Bahama Woodstar
DSC02765_weak
Bahama Woodstar
Prairie Warbler
Prairie Warble

Harbour Island: Pink Sands Beach Birds


Night Heron (Yellow Crowned Juvenile)
Night Heron (Yellow Crowned Juvenile)

Plover
Plover

Harbour Island: Raptors in Flight


Kestrel
Kestrel
Osprey
Osprey

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Some Favorite Bird Photos

It's been a bit too cold for us to go birding, so as 2010 comes to an end, we thought we'd post some of our favorite bird photos.



Eastern Bluebird
Eastern Bluebird

Hooded Merganser
Male Hooded Merganser

Female Common Merganser
Female Common Merganser

Cedar Waxwing
Cedar Waxwing

Friday, December 10, 2010

Red Bellied Woodpeckers

Woodpecker
Male
Female Red Bellied Woodpecker
Female
The woodpeckers are enjoying the suet we put out. The male (top) has more red on the head than the female(bottom).

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Lake Nelson's Fox



Recently a fox (or maybe two) have been seen more regularly by us and several of our neighbors. One afternoon, it startled Chris right in front of the house. This morning, while out testing a eye-fi memory card for the camera, we saw this one by the dam.

Tufted Titmouse Slide Show


I probably will grow tired of "titmouse with the peanut" photos. Time will tell.

Sharp shinned hawk looking for breakfast

Sharp shinned hawk

White Breasted Nuthatch

White Breasted Nuthatch

The nuthatches don't come to our feeders as routinely as all the other backyard birds do, and they have never come up close onto the deck railing, but they are almost always in the trees enjoying the yard with the other common birds.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Female Northern Cardinal


The male cardinal has been a frequent visitor, so we stopped photographing him. Today the female was less shy and posed for a few pictures.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Rutgers leucistic red-tailed hawk

leucistic red-tailed hawk

Here's another photo of the white hawk that has been a regular visitor to Rutgers Busch campus in Piscataway. He is often seen near the Busch entrances or exits from Rt 18.