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Cardinals, finches of various types, nuthatches, woodpeckers, chickadees, sparrows, blue jays, morning doves, and tufted titmice are the most common feathered friends at this time of year.  A red tailed hawk also visits from time to time. 

 

What a wonderful variety you have!

 

I am so emotionally attached to the little ones, I sometimes worry when I don't see them for a day or two.

 

A large portion of the regulars we enjoy throughout the warmer months of the year have migrated, however, we have a couple of Nuthatches along with Mountain Chickadees that reside in and around our home (year round), and what entertainment they supply.

 

We refer to the Mountain Chickadees as the masked-bandits, because they are forever stealing pine nuts from the main feeding dish, which of course sparks rivalry between them and the Nuthatches.

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I don't get a wide variety of birds in our backyard here in Guadalajara.  They're mostly starlings and sparrows, but we do get many, many hummingbirds.  And I can't remember the name of the red-headed bird I see.

 

In Charlottesville, Virginia, I'd see yellow-bellied sapsuckers, blue jays, red-bellied woodpeckers, juncos, and cardinals.

 

In Tokmok, Kyrgyzstan, I'd see great tits, hoopoes (they're the best), rooks, mynas, masked wagtails (love these), cuckoos, red-headed buntings, and chaffinches.

 

In Seattle, where I really started paying attention to birds, I lived next to a huge bird sanctuary and would see trumpeter swans, northern pintails, meadowlarks, bald eagles, hooded mergansers, western grebes, northern shrikes, wood ducks, buffleheads (I always looked forward to their return in the fall), cinnamon teals, lesser scaups, coots, wigeons, green herons, hawks, great blue herons and lots more.

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I'm a birding wannabe, I'm still learning and really need someone more experienced to help me identify some of the birds. This morning I saw some cardinals, starlings, and chickadees. There was also a new grayish bird I didn't recognize. We have a great horned owl that frequently visits. I heard but didn't see a screech owl in the past couple months. We also get lots of robins, bluejays, crows, red winged black birds, sparrows, and morning doves. This past summer I saw an indigo bunting.

 

There are red tailed hawks, finches, and a great blue heron that live in the neighborhood. Last spring a couple Canada geese had a nest on a nearby pond too, that was fun to observe.

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I'm a bird biologist so I'm always birding, even if more often than not only in my mind while planning better bird habitat. 

 

I participated in the Christmas Bird Count last weekend in Blacksburg, VA where I live. It was a slow, quiet snowy day. Best birds for my group (of 2 people) were Pine Siskins, Purple Finch, Wilson's Snipe, Brown Thrasher, Hermit Thrush, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and Red-shouldered Hawk. We don't get a lot of diversity in the winter up here in the mountains.

 

I'm looking forward to a trip to South Padre Island, TX in a few weeks!

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Sandhill cranes, blue herons, white and glossy ibis, tri-colored herons, green herons, great horned owls, hawks, bald eagles, limpkins, and ravens just to name a few. We do not see many small birds, though.

 

A favourite thing my husband and I do, is go out and observe wildlife. We love watching the Eagles (in the Spring) sitting at the frozen edge of lakes and ponds, waiting for a meal. Springtime is also a time where we get to enjoy watching the cute little ducklings and goslings trailing behind their mothers. So sweet.

 

Once Spring arrives, our excitement builds to a crescendo over the return of our favourites... the Dark Eyed Junco, the House Finch, and the Black-capped Chickadee, and of course with the arrival of Spring comes the opening of windows and doors, and what joyous songs the birds sing.

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I don't get a wide variety of birds in our backyard here in Guadalajara.  They're mostly starlings and sparrows, but we do get many, many hummingbirds.  And I can't remember the name of the red-headed bird I see.

 

In Charlottesville, Virginia, I'd see yellow-bellied sapsuckers, blue jays, red-bellied woodpeckers, juncos, and cardinals.

 

In Tokmok, Kyrgyzstan, I'd see great tits, hoopoes (they're the best), rooks, mynas, masked wagtails (love these), cuckoos, red-headed buntings, and chaffinches.

 

In Seattle, where I really started paying attention to birds, I lived next to a huge bird sanctuary and would see trumpeter swans, northern pintails, meadowlarks, bald eagles, hooded mergansers, western grebes, northern shrikes, wood ducks, buffleheads (I always looked forward to their return in the fall), cinnamon teals, lesser scaups, coots, wigeons, green herons, hawks, great blue herons and lots more.

 

Just reading your post makes me long for Spring. Our winters are so long here.

 

Yes, we enjoy the likes of a variety of Hummingbirds, too.

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I'm a birding wannabe, I'm still learning and really need someone more experienced to help me identify some of the birds. This morning I saw some cardinals, starlings, and chickadees. There was also a new grayish bird I didn't recognize. We have a great horned owl that frequently visits. I heard but didn't see a screech owl in the past couple months. We also get lots of robins, bluejays, crows, red winged black birds, sparrows, and morning doves. This past summer I saw an indigo bunting.

 

There are red tailed hawks, finches, and a great blue heron that live in the neighborhood. Last spring a couple Canada geese had a nest on a nearby pond too, that was fun to observe.

 

Visit Amazon, under Birding Books, and you will find a superb selection of books under the name, Sibley's. There are also Birding Books under the name, Peterson. You cannot go wrong with either, but be sure to select the one that's right for your specific area.

 

These books make birding so much fun. They make identification easy and simple, and you get to read about the birds habits and ways. I highly recommend it.

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I'm a bird biologist so I'm always birding, even if more often than not only in my mind while planning better bird habitat. 

 

I participated in the Christmas Bird Count last weekend in Blacksburg, VA where I live. It was a slow, quiet snowy day. Best birds for my group (of 2 people) were Pine Siskins, Purple Finch, Wilson's Snipe, Brown Thrasher, Hermit Thrush, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and Red-shouldered Hawk. We don't get a lot of diversity in the winter up here in the mountains.

 

I'm looking forward to a trip to South Padre Island, TX in a few weeks!

 

I had plans on attending this years Christmas Bird Count, but was under the weather so missed it, but there's plenty of time to make the many scheduled counts slated for the start of next year (and throughout the year).

 

Nice to know about your background. Maybe through chat threads like this I can learn more through those like yourself, as well as others like those who posted today.

 

Thank you everyone! So nice to hear from you.

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We are a birding family and have created a bird friendly habitat in our yard. At this time of year, we have cardinals, bluejays, mockingbirds, eastern towhees, tufted titmice, a ruby crowned kinglet, carolina wren, carolina chickadees, downy woodpeckers, redbellied woodpeckers, yellow bellied sapsuckers, house sparrows, white throated sparrows, dark eyed juncos, mourning doves, a sharp shinned hawk, and a red shouldered hawk. We are still waiting for the fox sparrows to show up this year. Occassionally, we still receive a visit from a brown thrasher or a robin in the colder months. We saw a golden eagle fly over the yard about a month ago, but that is not a normal sighting for us. It must have just been passing through.

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I love my wild birds...when we first moved to this house the subdivision was new and we still had a lot of meadow birds. Meadowlarks, kildees, scissortails, and one night bird I can't remember the name of....  These days most of those birds have moved on. We have mockingbirds, cardinals, a variety of sparrows, doves and more at the feeders every day.

 

Red shouldered and red tail hawks glide past regularly. There's a bluejay living in the trees behind my house...I don't see him often.

 

We have hummers from spring til early fall.

 

I've seen a great horned owl (wow, big!) and a smaller grayish owl before. We get egrets and herons flying through from time to time. During the late winter we get migrating finches

 

We have some small wrens and chickadee types at the feeders these days. I must get out my books and ID them properly.

 

One of my favorite birds was a colorful bunting during the summer months. It seems if I let the grassy weeds grow in a certain area of the yard, I get fleeting colorful visitors.

 

We've planted lots of shelter--trees, shrubs, flowers and more--evergreen and berry producing. I love late winter when the cedar waxwings come gorge on all the holly berries. :)

 

I used to keep a master list of all the birds I'd seen, but I abandoned that idea a few years ago. Perhaps I need to have a page in my bullet journal for a bird list.

 

 

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I'm a minor league birder, but I have made friends with a 17yo young man who is obsesssed with birds and with photography.  We go out photo-shooting and it is amazing what I learn from him...HOW to see birds, hear them, look for them by habitat.  My brain doesn't retain the info the way it used to, but he is a delight, and he is an excellent photogrpaher, so I learn about that, too.  :0)

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What a wonderful variety you have!

 

I am so emotionally attached to the little ones, I sometimes worry when I don't see them for a day or two.

 

A large portion of the regulars we enjoy throughout the warmer months of the year have migrated, however, we have a couple of Nuthatches along with Mountain Chickadees that reside in and around our home (year round), and what entertainment they supply.

 

We refer to the Mountain Chickadees as the masked-bandits, because they are forever stealing pine nuts from the main feeding dish, which of course sparks rivalry between them and the Nuthatches.

 

If the feeder has seeds and I don’t see the songbirds, I know the hawk is nearby.

 

I love to watch the nuthatches walk down the trees.  

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I am a birder wannabe, too. I even made a bird feeder and put it in view of my chair at the table, but have a hard time keeping it filled. I know we have hummingbirds now (still) and sparrows and house finches. There are others that I don't know their names. We don't have a lot of migratory birds. They tend to stay all year.

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I'm a birding wannabe, I'm still learning and really need someone more experienced to help me identify some of the birds. This morning I saw some cardinals, starlings, and chickadees. There was also a new grayish bird I didn't recognize. We have a great horned owl that frequently visits. I heard but didn't see a screech owl in the past couple months. We also get lots of robins, bluejays, crows, red winged black birds, sparrows, and morning doves. This past summer I saw an indigo bunting.

 

There are red tailed hawks, finches, and a great blue heron that live in the neighborhood. Last spring a couple Canada geese had a nest on a nearby pond too, that was fun to observe.

 

If you are in the States, see if your state department of natural resources publishes a bird guide.  These guides help you focus on the birds you are most likely to see.   

 

One of my sons loves the songbird aviary at the zoo.  He loves to sit and watch the birds.  He can identify many of them by their calls.  I only recognize a few.

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We are casual bird watchers, but really enjoying it. This time of year our feeder routinely draws chickadees, juncos, cardinals, blue jays, finches, tufted titmouse, hairy woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, red bellied woodpeckers, sparrows, mourning doves and occasional starlings or cow-birds. Very occasionally we get a pileated woodpecker.

In our yard but not at the feeder we have mockingbirds and robins.

My favorite is the carolina wren.

Around town in other places we see hawks, sharp shinned and red-tailed most commonly, crows, vultures and even some bald eagles. Near larger creeks we see blue herons and kingfishers. Mallards and canada geese are ubiquitous around landaping ponds.

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I need to put my feeders out again.  Birds used to love to congregate around our big maple but the roots started to crack our foundation and we had to cut it down.  (Boo hoo.)  Some of my favorites:  Towhees, nuthatches, chickadees.  We have a chicken hawk that has a nest across the street in our neighbor's big Douglas Fir.  

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Ok, this thread inspired me to put seeds in my feeder (large plastic saucer, attached to the top of a tree prop, completely out of reach of all cats, much to their dismay) and I have successfully identified a male house sparrow and a white crowned sparrow. I am so thrilled.

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Hey, would y'all like to do a Big Year? I was planning to do one myself. Maybe I could start a social group if several of you are interested.

 

We get all sorts of visitors here. Time to restock feeders, it's on my to-do list.

 

Do you mean a bird year?

 

Sure! But why not have it right here? The effort saved can be directed towards a thread dedicated to birds and everything related.

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Do you mean a bird year?

 

Sure! But why not have it right here? The effort saved can be directed towards a thread dedicated to birds and everything related.

A "Big Year" for birders. I would suggest using it not as a competition, and not limiting the geographical area, but just a fun year-long count of individual species each of us sees in 2015.

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Suggestion: get a bird book and start keeping track of the birds you spot.  Note the date, the location.  It is a wonderful memory book to build over the years.  I recommend one for each active birder, as it can be a lifetime book.

 

Note:  I want everyone here to know that one day when my son and I were out with the Audubon Society (an activity I recommend), we saw an albino red-winged blackbird.  Talk about a Life Bird!!  :0)

 

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We are a birding family and have created a bird friendly habitat in our yard. At this time of year, we have cardinals, bluejays, mockingbirds, eastern towhees, tufted titmice, a ruby crowned kinglet, carolina wren, carolina chickadees, downy woodpeckers, redbellied woodpeckers, yellow bellied sapsuckers, house sparrows, white throated sparrows, dark eyed juncos, mourning doves, a sharp shinned hawk, and a red shouldered hawk. We are still waiting for the fox sparrows to show up this year. Occassionally, we still receive a visit from a brown thrasher or a robin in the colder months. We saw a golden eagle fly over the yard about a month ago, but that is not a normal sighting for us. It must have just been passing through.

 

Oh, wow! What an extensive variety you have.

 

My weakness resides with the little ones, because they're so darned cute and playful. I really miss our Dark Eyed Juncos (3 or 4 varieties), and House Sparrows, along with a few others, but I know they'll all be back once Spring arrives, and how exciting it will be to hear them singing once again! So pretty their songs and calls are.

 

As for Blue Jays, we have those, too, but I don't much care for their bully-like ways.

 

We also have hawks, which of course I do not like, because I'm worrying over the little ones, but according to a really interesting article I read, success rate among the little ones feathered predators is less than 10%, which came as a big relief to me when I read that.

 

We also get Downy Woodpeckers, too. So darling and cute they are. Little sweeties.

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I love my wild birds...when we first moved to this house the subdivision was new and we still had a lot of meadow birds. Meadowlarks, kildees, scissortails, and one night bird I can't remember the name of....  These days most of those birds have moved on. We have mockingbirds, cardinals, a variety of sparrows, doves and more at the feeders every day.

 

Red shouldered and red tail hawks glide past regularly. There's a bluejay living in the trees behind my house...I don't see him often.

 

We have hummers from spring til early fall.

 

I've seen a great horned owl (wow, big!) and a smaller grayish owl before. We get egrets and herons flying through from time to time. During the late winter we get migrating finches

 

We have some small wrens and chickadee types at the feeders these days. I must get out my books and ID them properly.

 

One of my favorite birds was a colorful bunting during the summer months. It seems if I let the grassy weeds grow in a certain area of the yard, I get fleeting colorful visitors.

 

We've planted lots of shelter--trees, shrubs, flowers and more--evergreen and berry producing. I love late winter when the cedar waxwings come gorge on all the holly berries. :)

 

I used to keep a master list of all the birds I'd seen, but I abandoned that idea a few years ago. Perhaps I need to have a page in my bullet journal for a bird list.

 

So lovely reading your post! I can hear all the birds singing already. LOL! Not hard to tell I'm a birder at heart.

 

Oh, yes... Cedar Waxwings. We get them every Fall, in the hundreds, as they search out the last of the berry trees and gorge themselves before migrating. At times they resemble a fast moving dark cloud as they dive into our trees, then as fast as they land, they dart out again, gather into another large swarm, then beeline their way back into the trees again. This usually lasts for a few days, then as fast as they arrived, they're gone. I wish I could fly.

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I'm a minor league birder, but I have made friends with a 17yo young man who is obsesssed with birds and with photography.  We go out photo-shooting and it is amazing what I learn from him...HOW to see birds, hear them, look for them by habitat.  My brain doesn't retain the info the way it used to, but he is a delight, and he is an excellent photogrpaher, so I learn about that, too.  :0)

 

Lucky you! being in the company of someone with experience and knowledge makes for such an enjoyable time.

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I love the Bush Tits.  I counted 18 of then on our suet feeder one day.  My dh describes them as bird lollipops.  

 

I also like nuthatches that walk upside down and have sticking-up tails.

 

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Lucky you! being in the company of someone with experience and knowledge makes for such an enjoyable time.

 

The hilarious part is that I thought I was doing HIM the favor, and his mom, being a chauffeur before he could drive.  Now I have a new friend, and a new interest, and a new talent.  

 

Silly me. 

 

He is the nicest person, great sense of humor and super intelligent and intentional in his faith.  He has overcome more than is my position to share, and has come through as a shining person,  

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I'm a bird nerd, but not a full-fledged (;)) birder, i.e., I haven't taken a vacation to coincide with some rare migration. I have a finch feeder, a hummingbird feeder (summer), and two other general feeders, plus I put out suet cakes. We get tons of woodpeckers. Mostly Downy, Hairy, and Red-Bellied Woodpeckers. We see a Piliated now and then; they are awesome. A Red-Headed from time to time. Tons of creepers and tits, Cardinals, Blue Jays. The finch feeder mostly gets Goldfinches and a few tanagers. We get sparrows and wrens; they nest in my porch baskets every year. Oh! I also keep two Bluebird houses, so we see them plenty in the summer. We also have a serious population of Red-Tailed and Red-Shouldered hawks. There are owls, too, but I hear them more often than I see them. One morning, while I ate breakfast, a Great Horned Owl landed in the tree outside my window! That was amazing!

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If the feeder has seeds and I don’t see the songbirds, I know the hawk is nearby.

 

I love to watch the nuthatches walk down the trees.  

 

Oh, how I love our little Red-Breasted Nuthatches! So sweet and full of energy they are! IMO they are the next fastest and most agile bird next to the Hummingbird. Gosh can ever go! And so comical they are to watch, upside down, sideways, in and out of the trees, and when they take a bath under the sprinkler, my heart melts.

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So how does the Big Bird Year work?  Do you count every single sparrow you see?  Or just the first sparrow that year?  Or the first sparrow ever?  I love birds but I think I now need to hand in my birder license for not knowing basic birder stuff.   :leaving:

Well the FIRST thing you have to learn is that there are about 4 trillion kinds of sparrows so you have to be more specific than "sparrow!"

 

The only thing more PITB-ish is gulls, who interbreed and make a mess of their markings (and your car). 

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Oh, yes... Cedar Waxwings. We get them every Fall, in the hundreds, as they search out the last of the berry trees and gorge themselves before migrating.

 

Yes, here too!  A flock stops by our yard and finishes off the berries on some shrubs that line our driveway.  We LOVE seeing them every year!

 

Some bird friends we see:  Cardinals, White-Breasted Nuthatches, Tufted Titmice, House Finches, Purple Finches (less often), Carolina Wrens, Gray Catbirds (perhaps this is the gray bird seen by a poster above?), Chickadees, Downy Woodpeckers, Red-Bellied Woodpeckers, Pileated Woodpeckers, Northern Flickers,  Mourning Doves, Dark-Eyed Juncoes, Starlings and Grackles, American Goldfinches, Blue Jays and Killdeer.  Out away from home we see Turkey Vultures (Buzzards!), Red-Tailed Hawks and some kind of Kestrals, a Great Blue Heron that spends each summer in a nearby pond, other waterfowl, Red-Winged Blackbirds, and we saw a beautiful blue and black bird species last year on a nature walk whose name I can't remember!

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Well the FIRST thing you have to learn is that there are about 4 trillion kinds of sparrows so you have to be more specific than "sparrow!"

 

The only thing more PITB-ish is gulls, who interbreed and make a mess of their markings (and your car).

Oh yeah, sparrows and gulls! They are challenging.

 

The way it works is that you are making a list of and counting the number of species you see. You may see 300 juncos next year but that only goes on your list once.

 

It's honor system, self reporting.

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I am a birder wannabe, too. I even made a bird feeder and put it in view of my chair at the table, but have a hard time keeping it filled. I know we have hummingbirds now (still) and sparrows and house finches. There are others that I don't know their names. We don't have a lot of migratory birds. They tend to stay all year.

 

That's the only part of migration I don't like... knowing we're loosing our little feathered friends for a handful of months.

 

Did you know that Dark Eyed Juncos have an amazing spatial memory that allows them the ability to return to both their breeding and wintering grounds (each year), right down the exact same yard they visited the year prior to? That is so amazing to me, because some travel (fly) hundreds and even thousands of miles during each voyage, yet to be able to pin-point their return down to a specific yard or place is truly magnificent.

 

I envy you so much to be able to enjoy your little ones year-round.

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I don't know much either. It's actually DS who's into birding and I've learned all this stuff incidentally through him. 

 

We had a feeder outside our window when we were homeschooling.  I cannot tell you the number of times it provided complete distraction from the HS task at hand.  And I'm not sorry.  My dh and ds ended up taking birding trips together.  

 

The young man I bird with was homeschooled in his early years, but he was born in love with birds.  It hasn't mattered one bit to him that he has gone to public school.  He is in love with birds.  He has no idea how special he is for his accomplishments in biology, geography, nature, photography because of this consuming interest.  He still hangs out with me, a plain, middle-aged lady, and acts like it is a normal thing to do.  God bless him.  

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Oh and Amira just reminded me of the hummingbird that was stuck in our garage last spring. That's the only one I've ever seen here but my grandma used to have a lot in Texas.

This happened to me, too. I netted it with a butterfly net to release it. It kept flying above the garage door and I was worried my cats would get her.

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If you are in the States, see if your state department of natural resources publishes a bird guide.  These guides help you focus on the birds you are most likely to see.   

 

One of my sons loves the songbird aviary at the zoo.  He loves to sit and watch the birds.  He can identify many of them by their calls.  I only recognize a few.

 

Oh, how I would love to visit a songbird aviary one day!

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Oh yeah, sparrows and gulls! They are challenging.

 

The way it works is that you are making a list of and counting the number of species you see. You may see 300 juncos next year but that only goes on your list once.

 

It's honor system, self reporting.

Got it.  

 

 

So no one will blink an eye when I report that Dodo I saw?  

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We are casual bird watchers, but really enjoying it. This time of year our feeder routinely draws chickadees, juncos, cardinals, blue jays, finches, tufted titmouse, hairy woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, red bellied woodpeckers, sparrows, mourning doves and occasional starlings or cow-birds. Very occasionally we get a pileated woodpecker.

In our yard but not at the feeder we have mockingbirds and robins.

My favorite is the carolina wren.

Around town in other places we see hawks, sharp shinned and red-tailed most commonly, crows, vultures and even some bald eagles. Near larger creeks we see blue herons and kingfishers. Mallards and canada geese are ubiquitous around landaping ponds.

 

Wonderful, absolutely wonderful!

 

Interesting fact to share with you re: Cow Birds. Dark Eyed Juncos are readily known to adopt baby Cow Birds. Now how neat is that!

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