A few pictures from my yard yesterday. We have Mockingbirds, Cardinals and Grackles pretty much year round but only see the cute little Palm Warblers here from @ September to April .

Boat-tailed Grackle .................................. Female Northern Cardinal:


Northern Mockingbird, two adults and a young one who sat in a feeder screaming to be fed:


Palm Warbler:

A couple of photo's from this afternoon.

A Common Grackle ................................... a little Warbler of some sort ............... and a Mourning Dove:


Male Northern Cardinal:

Great pics.
Cardinal works well in such a red flowering tree.

Thanks J. Yes I agree, I love when I can get a picture of the cardinals in the bottlebrush tree!

Great pictures! There is snow on the ground here but it is sunny and going up to about 50 degrees so it is melting quickly. I was just looking out my window and thinking that I don't see any birds around. Usually there are plenty here. But my winterberries are all stripped, berries gone and eatten for the year. So the Mockingbirds favorite berries are all gone. I have a little stand of those winterberries, about 12 shrubs all clustered close together and where I can easily see them from my home office window. Since the computer sits on the desk here, I look out that window all the time.

Yesterday I was complaining that there weren't any birds around. Not today, lots of birds out around my garden today.

Newyorkrita said:Yesterday I was complaining that there weren't any birds around. Not today, lots of birds out around my garden today.

I'm so glad you have some feathered friends visiting your garden!

I usually have lots of birds around in my garden. Them not being around was really unusual. Birds are so much fun to watch.

Well, I put out more suet as the suet feeder is almost empty today. I love to see what somes to that feeder to eat. Plus I guess birds are messy eaters so there are usually some birds on the ground under the feeder looking for crumbs that fell to the ground.

Lin,

All your pics are wonderful!

Rita: With the dang squirrels everywhere the poor birds are lucky to get a snack! The feeders in my yard empty out pretty quickly ... and if there's anything left late in the day the Raccoons will finish it off. It can get quite expensive trying to supplement the diet of our feathered friends!

Marilyn: Thank you so much; I enjoy taking photo's of my backyard birds but even more ... I love hearing their songs!

It's windy, cloudy and dreary here today and we are hoping for some much needed rain but so far only drizzles. With the weather I haven't been able to get any decent shots today. There were a few Osprey's flying about a little while ago and I wish I could have gotten some decent shots but they were all a blur with the clouds . I'm hearing distress calls from the Jay's, Cardinals etc. right now so I think there may be a hawk in the area which is not unusual. I found feathers in two different spots in the yard day before yesterday ... some little songbirds were lunch for a predator. The following pictures I took yesterday.

Downy Woodpecker, male & female:


Red-bellied Woodpecker, male:


Blue Jay looking for peanuts that I put in an empty basket and (I think) a juvenile Myrtle Warbler:


Boat-tailed Grackles, one was shelling and eating peanuts and the other was snatching suet:

Great shots! And yes, there are plenty of squirrels around here also that like to eat just like the birds do.

Someone told me to sprinkle hot pepper flakes in the seed mix ... said it would deter squirrels Ha! I've put hot pepper on top of a few container plants in hopes to keep the squirrels from digging in the soil and burying their acorns etc. Didn't work.

Birds this afternoon ...

Female Red-bellied Woodpecker:


She seemed to be eating the flowers:

Northern Mockingbird and a Mourning Dove:


And, a Grackle in the feeder:

You take such great pictures!

Aw, thank you Rita! I am really technically challenged when it comes to cameras ... I just click away and delete all the bad ones.

Well, it certainly works out well.

Lin,

What kind of tree is that with the red things in it that the Red Belied woodpecker is eating?

I had to quit using peanut butter and/or peanut suet and switch to a different suet (woodpecker suet), because all the squirrels, racoons and possoms were eating me out of house & home. I know the woodpeckers would rather have the peanut type of variety.

Love all the pics you keep posting! Got any shorebird pics and/or FL birds? I missed seeing them. We haven't been to FL since Feb. 2006.

Marilyn: That tree is a Weeping Bottlebrush (Callistemon viminalis): Weeping Bottlebrush (Callistemon viminalis)
The hummingbirds love that tree too!

During the winter (if its cool) I put out the suet that has lard/grease in it but I don't use that for long because it melts and goes rancid in warm weather. I buy this No Melt stuff at Wal-Mart and Home Depot: http://www.wildbirdsuets.com/d... and sometimes I get out a big bowl and make a mixture of peanut butter, bird seed, peanuts, raisins, fruit bits etc. and spoon it into the feeders or spread it on tree limbs for the birds and squirrels.

Ok, here are a few shorebird photo's from last year and early this year.

Great Blue Heron beneath the Bottlebrush tree last month and a raggedy looking Heron day before yesterday:


Brown Pelican photo's from last summer. We were launching our boat and there were a few hanging out hoping fishermen would throw them a snack:


Roseate Spoonbills. The first one taken at Merritt Island, Fl last year and the second is a pair in a neighbors yard this past October:


Great Egret behind my deck and another perched on a neighbor's fence last year:


American White Pelicans 1/26/13 (winter visitors) at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge; and a Green Heron behind my house last year:


From Christmas morning, Stilt Sandpiper, Ruddy Turnstone and a photo taken in January of a little shore bird called a Sanderling:


White Ibis. First photo taken at a friends house; adult bird. Next is two adults and a juvenile behind my neighbors house.


White Ibis again; juvenile behind my deck, juvenile taking off from it's perch on the power line:


Another White Ibis, across the waterway from my backyard and a Wood Stork perched on a neighbor's fence last summer: