TravelingChris Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 10 hours ago, Lady Florida. said: We went to nearby wetlands the other day and saw baby a baby barred owl in the nest. We were hoping to see mom come back but it was getting late and the gate closes at 7pm so we had to leave. Barred owls are the most common owls here but most common doesn't mean we see them all the time. It was pretty cool to see a young one. We had one somewhere nearby at our old house. We'd occasionally see it in the trees but often at night we'd hear them - they're the "who cooks for you?" owls. A few years ago, we went to a wet land near us and saw baby barred owls being fed by an adult. We watched for quite a few minutes. And then we saw beautiful Pronothory Warblers building a nest. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEmama Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 9 hours ago, Rachel said: How cool! Our yard is in the territory for a Great Horned Owl but he (I assume) only visits at night and usually in the winter. The tree he goes to isn’t too far from our back door and he “barks” at us if he thinks we are getting too close. In the past couple weeks I’ve been able to witness a pair of blue jays build a nest, and now mama jay is incubating her eggs. I can see her from the living room window and have watched papa bring her worms, he alerts her, and they meet at a branch 15’ away. I’ve also seen her run off squirrels and grackles that she thought were getting too close. I got to see how she handled hail, held her beak up and stayed right on that nest. I wanted to go hold an umbrella over her but figured that would spook her. I don’t know exactly when she laid her eggs but I think it will be at least another week to 10 days before they hatch. This is the first time I’ve ever gotten to witness birds actively nesting, my kids think I’m a bit obsessed. This is a super zoomed in cell photo so not super clear, but you can see her! Oh I would be obsessed too! What an incredible thing to get to watch from up close! We've had nesting woodpeckers in close view, but I don’t think we got to see the babies in the nest. Papa woodpecker would bring pieces of suet and dried mealworms to Mama, and then later we got to watch them teach the babies to fly to the feeder. It feels like such an honor to witness the process, doesn’t it? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 3 hours ago, MEmama said: Oh I would be obsessed too! What an incredible thing to get to watch from up close! We've had nesting woodpeckers in close view, but I don’t think we got to see the babies in the nest. Papa woodpecker would bring pieces of suet and dried mealworms to Mama, and then later we got to watch them teach the babies to fly to the feeder. It feels like such an honor to witness the process, doesn’t it? It definitely feels like an honor. I hope we will be able to see the babies but who knows. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wintermom Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 18 hours ago, Rachel said: How cool! Our yard is in the territory for a Great Horned Owl but he (I assume) only visits at night and usually in the winter. The tree he goes to isn’t too far from our back door and he “barks” at us if he thinks we are getting too close. Yes! That's what the sound is like. I thought it was a dog barking until I got close enough and realized it was coming from high up in a tree. Then is was obviously not a dog. 😅 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEmama Posted April 16, 2022 Share Posted April 16, 2022 The great horned owl had a baby! We went to check on her this morning and now she’s accompanied by a snowy white ball of fur with a gigantic beak— we got a terrific view of both, but no photo. And last night on our evening walk we had a sharp shinned hawk swoop right in front of us. It’s been very exciting around here! Lol 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted April 16, 2022 Share Posted April 16, 2022 2 hours ago, MEmama said: The great horned owl had a baby! We went to check on her this morning and now she’s accompanied by a snowy white ball of fur with a gigantic beak— we got a terrific view of both, but no photo. And last night on our evening walk we had a sharp shinned hawk swoop right in front of us. It’s been very exciting around here! Lol That is so cool! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TravelingChris Posted April 16, 2022 Share Posted April 16, 2022 4 hours ago, MEmama said: The great horned owl had a baby! We went to check on her this morning and now she’s accompanied by a snowy white ball of fur with a gigantic beak— we got a terrific view of both, but no photo. And last night on our evening walk we had a sharp shinned hawk swoop right in front of us. It’s been very exciting around here! Lol I once saw a sharp shinned hawk catch a Chipmunk and drop it so the young one could catch it in our yard. The young ones always start practicing flying in our yard- they nest across the street. We love it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEmama Posted April 16, 2022 Share Posted April 16, 2022 2 hours ago, TravelingChris said: I once saw a sharp shinned hawk catch a Chipmunk and drop it so the young one could catch it in our yard. The young ones always start practicing flying in our yard- they nest across the street. We love it. That would be incredible! Horrifying, but amazing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEmama Posted April 16, 2022 Share Posted April 16, 2022 We just talked to neighbour walking around the neighbourhood with binoculars about the great horned owl (it’s become somewhat of a local celebrity lol) and he mentioned there’s been a snowy owl in the same area. We’ve only seen one one snowy here in town so I hope to get lucky with a sighting! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TravelingChris Posted April 16, 2022 Share Posted April 16, 2022 1 hour ago, MEmama said: We just talked to neighbour walking around the neighbourhood with binoculars about the great horned owl (it’s become somewhat of a local celebrity lol) and he mentioned there’s been a snowy owl in the same area. We’ve only seen one one snowy here in town so I hope to get lucky with a sighting! I am jealous. I want to see a snowy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted April 21, 2022 Author Share Posted April 21, 2022 We had a woodpecker today! He moved to the bigger platform feeder which worked better for him, lol. https://www.facebook.com/katie.loeschmeyer/posts/10158955468413666 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEmama Posted April 22, 2022 Share Posted April 22, 2022 11 hours ago, ktgrok said: We had a woodpecker today! He moved to the bigger platform feeder which worked better for him, lol. https://www.facebook.com/katie.loeschmeyer/posts/10158955468413666 I don’t have FB and don’t want to click the link, but that sounds exciting! What kind of woodpeckers do you have in Florida? Also I meant to tell you that I bought a hanging platform feeder similar to the white one in one of your photos, and the birds love it! I’m giving them black oil sunflower seeds and mealworms. The goldfinches and house finches sit right in the feeder and eat to their hearts content— it’s so adorable. It’s making a terrific addition to our little birding area! 🙂 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted April 22, 2022 Author Share Posted April 22, 2022 2 hours ago, MEmama said: I don’t have FB and don’t want to click the link, but that sounds exciting! What kind of woodpeckers do you have in Florida? Also I meant to tell you that I bought a hanging platform feeder similar to the white one in one of your photos, and the birds love it! I’m giving them black oil sunflower seeds and mealworms. The goldfinches and house finches sit right in the feeder and eat to their hearts content— it’s so adorable. It’s making a terrific addition to our little birding area! 🙂 Here is a (bad) photo - it is a red bellied woodpecker I think. This link has the 8 species in Florida. https://birdfeederhub.com/woodpeckers-in-florida/ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted April 28, 2022 Share Posted April 28, 2022 On 4/12/2022 at 9:55 AM, Rachel said: It definitely feels like an honor. I hope we will be able to see the babies but who knows. The blue bird eggs have hatched! I noticed the mama was acting different yesterday but didn’t see any baby birds. This afternoon I caught dad bringing food to the nest and sure enough there are at least two babies. This week I also discovered a robin’s nest in the tree right outside a different window. It’s a Bradford pear that sprouted on its own a handful of years back. My husband has been saying he needs to cut it down because it’s way too close to the house and finally decided this is the weekend. Except now he can’t with the nest there. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pawz4me Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 Bumping this to tell you all that I saw the neatest thing this morning. In my own back yard with my own two eyes I got to see two pileated woodpeckers doing their mating dance. See the second video at this link. That's exactly what I saw. It was way cool. I was standing about 30 feet away from them, but I'm pretty sure they were oblivious to my presence. 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wintermom Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 We took down all our dead trees, so the woodpeckers left, sadly. I love watching them! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pawz4me Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 16 minutes ago, wintermom said: We took down all our dead trees, so the woodpeckers left, sadly. I love watching them! All of our dead ones are gone, too. These two were doing their dance on a very healthy tree. But our neighborhood has tons of trees, and some people don't get in a hurry to have their dead ones taken down. And there are many acres of heavily wooded land right across the street that could probably support hordes of woodpeckers. This time of the year I think they come to our yard mostly to get water from the bird baths. During the winter they'll occasionally eat from our feeders, too. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEmama Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, Pawz4me said: Bumping this to tell you all that I saw the neatest thing this morning. In my own back yard with my own two eyes I got to see two pileated woodpeckers doing their mating dance. See the second video at this link. That's exactly what I saw. It was way cool. I was standing about 30 feet away from them, but I'm pretty sure they were oblivious to my presence. How exciting! That must have been mesmerizing. A couple days ago we watched two bald eagles chasing each other, the eagles are common here but I’d never seen behavior like that before. I wondered if maybe it was a mating thing but I don’t know for sure. Edited May 5, 2022 by MEmama 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted May 10, 2022 Author Share Posted May 10, 2022 We have a whole cardinal family now! Three juveniles have joined Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal at the feeder 🙂 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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