I love swallows too, Margaret. They had some young birds with them too and this Tree Martin. They were under a boat shelter.

I love swallows. I think Martins are in the swallow family or maybe it's the other way around & Swallows are in the Martin family. Either way they are both lovely birds. I find them elegant looking.

Lovely Swallows and I really like that Tree Martin too. The one at the bottom of that last photo looks like juvenile wanting to be fed.

Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Had these 2 show yesterday.

The Flicker has been coming pretty regular now. Has already been here this morning.





The Pileated finally come in for a quick bite!

Claudia, nice to see the true Yellow-shafted Flicker, here they are very mixed between the red and the yellow so lots of hybrids.

Yesterday the birds had a bit of trouble with all of the snow on the trees.

Oh my, how much did you get??

Claudia, awesome shots! That Flicker is gorgeous! I wish I could entice the Pileated WP's to visit my suet feeders but for some reason they never stop by. We hear them and see them all over the neighborhood at times (usually in the Palm trees) but they've never, ever visited the feeders ... I guess they find enough to eat elsewhere.


Margaret: Lovely shots .... what is the pretty bird in your first picture? I love that large eye ring and the long bill! Wow, it looks like you've got lots of snow up your way! We still have the air conditioning on here and it's breezy outside so I've got the door open to experience the nice breeze. We did drop to the mid 40'sF here last night and our low tonight is supposed to be @ 42º but days are sunny and warm after the deluge of rain we got on Monday!

We are heading out to visit friends in a bit so .... Happy Thanksgiving everybody! I hope you have a wonderful day.

Claudia, we got 8 or 9 inches, but temperatures warmed up overnight and a lot of the snow melted, trees and street are bare.

Lin, that's the Clark's Nutcracker.

Lin, I imagine your Pleated Woodpeckers have enough food year round. When I used to feed all the time they would usually not come much during the summer. They would show the new brood where it was. They would come a few times then that would be it until cold weather showed back up. But like you we see & hear them even if they are not coming to the feeders.

The tiny Peaceful Dove.

I put our turkey breast out back yesterday. So this morning the crows are enjoying leftover turkey.

plantladylin said:Brenda, I thought fishing line was monofilament line, that they are one and the same?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...

Sorry haven't been back to the post for a while...
They can be used to refer to the same thing but the spooker uses one that is thicker and less prone to twisting or getting tangled. so I think not ALL monofiliment is fishingline, some is more for hobby use. (so all fishing line may be monofiliment but not all monofiliment may be fishing...I think...)


I had a White-throated Sparrow on Tuesday! so that was a treat.

Spent Thanksgiving weekend on the coast (Pacific ocean) and snapped a couple birds I'm trying to ID:

I think these may be western snowy plovers? Flocks of small running birds that erupt into low flight when approached.


I'm just going with a little brown bird on this one - I thought I could nail it with my Audubon app but so far nothing is a precise fit or when I think I'm close, the range is all out of whack. Then again, so many birds have regional variations, it's hard to pin them down.


And just for fun, here's a nice sunset photo at Grays Harbor.

Great shots Deb! Oh my goodness, that sunset shot is really Awesome!!

The birds in your first photo do look like Snowy Plovers: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/g...

The brown birds may be Pine Siskin's: http://www.tringa.org/gallery/...

Breathtaking sunset Deb! Just stunning.

Sunset is a stunner indeed!

Lovely!

My latest camera stopped working a couple of weeks ago; it was a refurbished camera that Canon sent as a replacement from an earlier one that I'd dropped but the refurbished camera began giving me the same exact lens error message as the other one!%#@! I'm now using a very old camera and not getting very good pictures at all. I have a new one coming tomorrow though I'm getting the Canon SX60HS and hopefully it will not have the issues I've had with the SX50. I'm still not seeing many birds at all lately ... we have a problem with feral cats and I'm afraid that's what is keeping the birds away. I did get two photos a few minutes ago ... a Warbler and a Mockingbird and within a few minutes a cat was in the yard; I should have let the dog out to chase the cat away. :)


Since it's already the first week of December maybe someone can start a December thread?

Lin, now we have 2 December threads, maybe combine them and close this one.