Holly,

Great shots of those adorable little ones having fun in the bath! They look to be sparrows of some sort but I'm not sure which ones. It seems that Pennsylvania has a lot of sparrows!! Scroll almost to the bottom of this page for the list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...

They are sparrows of some sort but without close up, stationary shots at many angles, it could be impossible to tell which ones.

I have been told they are House Sparrows, I tend to put all those types into the LBB category and leave it at that but there was something different about the way they all few in like that. Made me wonder just what they were.

I took lots of photo's this afternoon and evening ... Enjoy!

Boat-tailed Grackles


Brown Thrasher ....................................... Northern Mockingbird .............................. Northern Cardinal


Red-bellied Woodpecker, male .............................. female


This female Red-bellied seems to have taken a liking to a birdhouse that we bought when we were in Tennessee recently. She was climbing all over the house, drilled out the entrance hole, stuck her head inside and then perched on the top. I'm hoping she will raise a family here.


Ok, I saved the best for last! I probably took 100 pictures of the Hummingbirds today and got a couple of good close-ups!


Stretching and Preening:

Too funny about the woodpecker! She sure acts like she's in love with it. She almost seems to be looking around in shock saying, "Are you kidding me? No one has claimed this prize nesting spot? Seriously?"

Fantastic shots of the hummie preening Lin! Wow!

Thanks Ann! We had a very large wooden birdhouse condo (with six separate compartments) that we bought in Tn years ago while on vacation ... left it at our other house and last year the next door neighbor told me that Red-bellied WP's had moved in so maybe we'll have a family of RB babies here this year!

Re: The hummingbird preening ... I was so surprised that she sat there for so long ... with me standing only @ six feet away! I feel truly blessed to have witnessed that little cutie!

plantladylin said:
Re: The hummingbird preening ... I was so surprised that she sat there for so long ... with me standing only @ six feet away! I feel truly blessed to have witnessed that little cutie!

Wow! I would too.

Our hummers are getting used to us this year. I have 1 feeder on the front porch & we sit out there just a couple feet from it --- it hangs from the eve & we're sitting right under it almost. The hummie would fly up & say, "OOPS! humans!" & zoom off. Then it began to hover a little longer & a little longer but not sip. Then yesterday we were sitting there & she came up & actually sipped for maybe 30 seconds. We froze so as not to scare her. So they are learning us. the one outside the back porch too --- used to leave when we got up to go inside but now keeps feeding.

The lighting wasn't great when I took these photo's of Grackles but I figured I'd share anyway. There was an adult and a juvenile Boat-tailed Grackle on the rooftop this morning, the youngster screaming for food. The adult flew down to the ground and grabbed a little lizard and brought it to the baby who didn't seem to know what to do with it! It flipped it about for a minute, dropped it and pecked at it and then flew off, leaving the dead lizard on the roof. The youngster seems to have a damaged/injured leg but is flying.



Red-bellied Woodpecker .................................... Brown Thrasher


The Red-shouldered Hawk was back at the top of the same tree this morning


An Osprey flying overhead ... and a trio of Wood Storks

Lovely Lin. Makes you wonder if that Grackle juvie will make it for very long.

Thanks Ann ... yes, I was wondering too if that juvenile would survive for long. There are lots of grackle babies this year and this particular one stands out with that leg/foot issue. He was hopping on one leg but then flew off after the adult bird.

Love those wood storks.

Hello bird people! You guys know I'm a butterfly person but I was out and about in the yard today and saw these birds in my neighbor's yard so I took some pictures for your enjoyment. I think these are White Ibis but tell me if I'm wrong. There were three of them. They've been hanging out quite a bit in my neighbor's yard the past few weeks. I actually used to know a lot of birds as a kid, but I've kind of forgotten them over the years. But I did buy myself a "Birds of Florida" book so maybe I'll get better at it soon!

Melanie, yep those are White Ibises .. nice shots!

And the juveniles of them are brown so if you see brown ones you will know they are juvenile white ibises. Good shots & thanks for sharing.

Yeah, I was just talking to Dad and he said, "Did you see the babies?" I said no and he told me they were the brown ones. I Googled them to see what they look like. But I've only noticed the white ones so far.

Birds can often survive on one leg. I watch the Glossy Black Cockatoos that need their left leg to spin cones while feeding. One bird with an injured left leg would hold the cone against a branch with their right foot and use the beak to turn the cone in the toes. The stone-curlews here often get foot injuries but they can survive quite well. I often wonder how they get them though.

A pair of wood ducks are coming into the feeders at the moment. I will have to enclose the daylily fans in wire till they leave. I will get photos. This pair is incredibly tame.

Interesting info. Glen.

Glen: That's interesting to hear about the Cockatoos and Stone-curlews with foot injuries; and pretty smart of the Cockatoo to figure a way to spin cones when feeding! I figured the little grackle would be okay since it could hop along and since it was flying; the only thing that would cause it to not survive would be damaged wings. I look forward to the pictures of the wood ducks, they are such gorgeous birds!

I took the pictures below last year of White ibises in my backyard. I haven't seen Ibises in awhile and I miss them but I'm sure they'll be around again before long.

Juvenile growing into his white plumage & two adults and a juvenile

There sure has been a lot of hawk activity lately and they seem to like to perch at the top of a tall pine in the neighborhood. I keep wondering if it's always the same one who lands there. This morning I heard the Mockers raising a ruckus again so I knew a hawk was in the vicinity and sure enough there it was at the top of that same tree. There was one Mockingbird sitting right below (it's a blur but I think visible in the photo) where the hawk was perched and it just sat there while another mockingbird dive-bombed the hawk right and left. Makes me wonder if the one perched below was a juvenile.


Little Lady Cardinal at the birdbath this evening and I spotted this Brown Thrasher blending in with the Magnolia leaves:


Hummingbirds today ... the first photo was taken through the window.



This evening I spotted a male Red-bellied at the suet feeder and a baby clinging to the pole. Papa began feeding the baby and then papa flew to the cypress tree where there was another baby. The juvenile that was on the feeder pole flew up to the top of the pole and perched for a minute, then went to the feeder and began eating suet by itself ... papa came back and began pecking at the little one who flew to the fence and perched there while dad went back to eating suet before flying off. The female then came to the feeder for a few minutes but I never saw her feed either of the babies.

Here is the Australian Wood Duck that have turned up this week as promised. This is the male. I haven't seen his companion for two days. A worry - but hopefully she is sitting.



The are also called Maned Geese. You can see the mane better in this picture.