On that last picture, it looks like it is some private secluded yard. But the trees in view are in my neighbors yard, his driveway is right there. I just screened it with lots of shrubs.

Beautiful bird habitat, Rita! Well, there's a bird that's been around at least a few days, I've called it the "dark stranger", but because it only came to the wildlife feeding area out there and flies off if it sees me, it's been difficult to really see it, much less take a picture! Now, I have a pic of it, but looking at it cropped, I'm hoping it's not what I think it is! If so, I certainly wouldn't wish any females of that species a happy mother's day today! Kind of a pretty bird, in any case.

It is a brown cowbird.

Newyorkrita said:It is a brown cowbird.

I have them here also. They do have the most lovely call. It sounds just like a bell.

Rita: Your planning has resulted in a beautiful garden! I wish I could be so coordinated, but alas I am so flighty that I buy plants for a specific area and then they sit around for a few weeks (or in some cases months!) until I end up just planting them in the first spot I find. I have a very small yard and a very eclectic garden; a mishmash of this and that.

Linda: I agree ... that's a male Brown-headed Cowbird! We get them here from December/January - March; I saw more this year than ever before. They are such pretty birds but are not popular with many folks ... they are brood parisites: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B... and lay their eggs in other birds nests which can be detrimental to the hosts eggs/chicks.

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/g...

Male Brown-headed Cowbird (center) Male Red-winged Blackbirds and a Female Cowbird:


Female Brown-headed Cowbird and an immature Male:

Thanks! I have to plan. I find it is the only thing that works for my garden.

I took a few photo's this afternoon.

Mourning Doves are in abundance around here and I never get tired of listening to their coos or seeing them in the yard or at the feeders:


Northern Mockingbird (another common one around here) and .............. Tufted Titmouse:


A Green Heron must be nesting in the shrubbery across the water from me. I see it fly into those bushes every day and I hear it making clucking noises and it sometimes perches on the outside of the shrubbery:


This is a Wood Stork flying overhead in the clouds:

Thanks! That's what I thought it was, but I had hoped that it wasn't that one!

Newyorkrita said:Maralyn, I love my House Wrens also and always happy when they return each spring.

Lin

Excellent pics! Of course the Mockingbird is common in FL! It's your state bird!

Rita

Your gardens are so beautiful, serene and enjoyable!

I have a couple of bird photo's to share today. I volunteer at our little Botanical Gardens and will be giving a powerpoint presentation on the gardens at an Assisted Living Home here in the county on Wednesday so I needed to go out to the gardens to get additional photo's for the program. While walking one of the trails I spotted Carolina Wrens and managed to get a shot of one on an old tree stump and later got a photo of a Mourning Dove walking down a shell pathway. While taking pictures of a large Bird of Paradise plant, a juvenile Red-bellied Woodpecker landed up on the flowers:

So pretty! Great shots.

Thanks Rita!

Nice Lin, very nice!

Thanks so much Ann .. I really do enjoy watching and photographing the birds around here. We're hoping to get out on the water in the morning in our little boat, so I'll only be seeing Pelicans, Seagulls and such tomorrow.

Not anywhere near the quality of what Lin takes but I finally got a photo of one of our red shouldered hawks today. Shooting through the dirty window with afternoon glare on it at a long distance zoom shot.

They have been doing a lot of hunting lately. Their chick or chicks have fledged & are HUNGRY. We hear them calling all the time. We get short glimpses of ?# of chick(s) as they fly & then land in a tree to loudly DEMAND a meal.

So much bird and wildlife at your new home Ann!

Lin, those are very nice photos, love the little wren, and the way the camera captured the iridescence on the dove.