For The Birds...Literally

[Emer Dreamer]

 Who here enjoys  our fine feathered friends?   This is your chance to rave about everything from sparrows to penguins. The sky's the limit. Haha!   

[Emer Dreamer]

  My mom enjoys tracking the progress of the Baltimore orioles as they migrate up from South and Central America. It came as no surprise to me that she already knew that they arrived in southern Minnesota on May 2. A question for my European friends.....what are the habits of the orioles in your neck of the woods? Are they even present in Europe? That's how little I know. Just wonderin' 

[TheWhite~Rose]

I love hummingbirds!! They're so pretty!  I bought a feeder for them last spring and ended up attracting quite a few of them.  I just put it out again last week--I'm hoping they'll come back.

I also had a feeder by my porch that attracted a lot of songbirds, but it got destroyed in a storm.

[Emer Dreamer]

  Here's an interesting  trivia fact about our friends the hummingbirds...Not surprisingly, hummers  have the strongest pectoral muscles relative to their size than any other creature in the animal kingdom!       I have a lot of respect for our little friends. 

[Emer Dreamer]

 I do see the eggs, but they do blend in nicely. One of mother nature's ways for species survival no doubt. I remember studying these interesting birds way back in advanced biology class. I can still remember the teacher  describing the call of the killdeer-so named because of their call. Onomatopoeia eh...   I'm just curious- either you have developed an unusually fine rapport with mama killdeer or you are using a zoom lens.  Fine pics either way. 

[Hubert]

I love the mockingbirds.  We have a lot of them around here and they are very entertaining.

[Emer Dreamer]

 They are pretty neat aren't they!    I live in the city , so the only time I get to encounter one is if I go out of town a ways.

[Kevin R.I.]

I shoo the bluejays away...they eat the food I put out for my squirrels.

[TheWhite~Rose]

I shoo the bluejays away...they eat the food I put out for my squirrels.

Back when I still had my bird feeder, they always scared the other birds away.  They'll even swoop down onto my dogs every now and then.  They're pretty to look at, but man can they be annoying.

[Kevin R.I.]

I shoo the bluejays away...they eat the food I put out for my squirrels.

Back when I still had my bird feeder, they always scared the other birds away.  They'll even swoop down onto my dogs every now and then.  They're pretty to look at, but man can they be annoying.

I clap my hands to make noise to shoo the bluejays away...the food is for my " babies"...a.k.a. the squirrels. In the early evening , the cardinals come...the cleanup crew as I call them and I let them eat the leftover crumbs.

[Emer Dreamer]

 Cardinals are very nice to look at. Besides sparrows, the most common kind of bird I see around my area is the much maligned pigeon.  I feel sorry for them because very few people like them. I think they're cute.  A couple days ago outside my mom's apartment building, there was a mama duck with her six little ducklings. I refrained from yelling..."AFLAC!! " as I usually do upon seeing a duck.

[TheWhite~Rose]

I'm just curious- either you have developed an unusually fine rapport with mama killdeer or you are using a zoom lens.  Fine pics either way. 

I may have used a little bit of zoom but I was able to get very close. BTW I don't know enough about Killdeers to know if this is the mum or the da! 

We get a lot of raptors in our valley during the winter/early spring. Bald Eagles (one pictured), Northern Harriers, Vultures, various Falcons and Hawks, etc.
Although we are at 5000' elevation they spend the winter here because the weather is a bit more manageable for them
but mainly they are here for the afterbirth from the calving and lambing.
Image by me.

Fantastic picture!! And the scenery is so pretty!
There used to be a pesticide used here that drove most of the eagles away back then because it made their eggs too soft--they'd break when they sat on them.   However, the farmers started using a "greener" alternative, so the eagles are coming back. Last summer when I went sailing on the reservoir, we saw three of them. They're gorgeous!

[Emer Dreamer]

 I agree...that is a GREAT shot of that eagle.  I've noticed you take a lot of good pictures.  And what beautiful scenery in the background!  I guess I was just assuming that that was the mom. Not sure though.   In nature it is usually the female of the species is the protector of the young...but not always ,of course.  Again...LOVE your pictures. 

[LISAFAN4EVER]

I love to watch birds. I have nesting bluebirds. The crows are the ones who are most troublesome. They'll eat all of the food! The bluejays are well mannered. Even wild turkeys come to visit.

[Kevin R.I.]

I used to feed snow geese at a place nearby called Prescott Farm, not an actual farm but a site with Revolutionary War era buildings. The geese  had blue eyes and stood about 3 feet tall. When they saw me, they`d come running , honking all the way. They LOVED Sunhine brand oyster crackers but if I gave them Nabisco, they didn`t like them as much and would waddle off. It IS possible to spoil a goose , it seems