Otters are interesting, curious creatures ... they look like huge, wet rats when they come out of the water.

Becky, that is not a Goldfinch, the bill isn't correct, it looks more like a warbler type.


I love your idea of playing the bird songs on your IPad, I have a tablet but it is kind of large, still this spring I am going to take it outside, play some songs and see what happens.

Margaret, that's a great photo of the Goldfinch! And, I can see the detail to see the difference between that and Becky's bird.

Northern Cardinal, male:

Great shots of the otter, Lin!

Thanks Margaret!

Took a few more pictures this afternoon ....

Palm Warbler seemed to enjoy the raw peanuts that I added to the seed mix:


Pied-billed Grebe's:


Red-winged Blackbird, female .................................. Sea Gulls flying overhead:

More from this afternoon ...

Red-bellied Woodpecker, female



Grackle


Palm Warbler


Brown-headed Cowbird, female ...................... Mourning Dove ..................... Northern Cardinal


Belted Kingfisher ..................... Northern Mockingbird .................................. Tufted Titmouse


Ok ... gotta go get ready, we are going to a Basketball game in an hour. Have a great evening everyone!

I want an otter!

Hey Gleni, I'll trade you an Otter for one of those cute little Curlews!

Are Firespike and Firebush the same plant? I almost bought a Firebush at the end of season (would have to winter inside) to attract Butterflies - 29 $ plant for 6 $ at Walmart. Went back a coupe times and said no. Decided to buy it - went back and....gone of course.

Yesterday, I had a wonderful surprise. A limpkin was wading in the retention pond behind the Palm Coast FL Olive Garden. Only the second one that I have ever seen. Even though I didn't have my birding camera with me, it was still worth a quick photograph.

Lin, I thought that female Red Winged Blackbirds did not have the red wing bands like the males have. All the female red wings I have seen look like a large sparrow.

https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/s...

I don't know if this link will work but it is a pic of a female redwing blackbird.

The link works but you still have to click into the picture of the bird itself.

DavidLMO said:Are Firespike and Firebush the same plant?

David, they are two different plants but both attract butterflies and hummingbirds:
Firespike (Odontonema tubaeforme)
Firebush (Hamelia patens)

@bsharf Barbara, those are wonderful shots of the Limpkin! I was seeing a lot of them in August and September, first ever sightings for me too!

@Hemlady Cynthia, you are right. I think the bird in my photo is perhaps a juvenile male Red-winged Blackbird.
These are old photos showing the differences.

Red-winged Blackbird, adult male ........... Red-winged Blackbird, adult female


Red-winged, adult male and juvenile male


Red-winged Blackbird, juvenile male

I doubt Firespike would survive in your climate, David. Perhaps Firebush would, though both of these plants are probably more hardy in warmer climates.

Love those red-winged Blackbirds, Lin! Wow! I look for those, but never see them here.

@beckygardener, I saw your picture on iNaturalist and was surprised you didn't get an id yet. I think it might be because it wasn't technically classified as a bird yet. Your title for it was bird, but if you don't select bird from the options that pop up it is just classified as a "something". I think a lot of the birders limit their search to only show birds, so maybe they aren't seeing it yet. It takes two people to make the same id to change it (aside from the initial entry). So if you select that you agree that it is a bird, then it will be classified as such and maybe make a more specific id quicker. My hunch is that it may be an immature female pine warbler, but I am not great with warblers.

Have you visited ebird.org yet? That is another good site that has a lot of bird sighting data. It is more for record keeping of known species though. It has been around longer and people don't need photos to submit sightings and checklists. A lot of birders submit there and you can get historical data for each species, time frame, location etc. Here is a link to pine warblers seen in December this year. If you zoom in far enough you can see individual locations and the birders checklist that the sighting is on. Sometimes I use that to see how likely it is that I am seeing what I think I am in a certain location and time of year.

http://ebird.org/ebird/map/pin...

I wanted to take the time to tell you how much I am enjoying the pictures and the discussion. Living in Kansas, there are many birds that are totally foreign to me – so thank you for broadening my horizons. I'm in love with the painted buntings. I just saw my first tufted titmouse the other day. Compared to some of the pictures I've seen, it was rather plain. Nonetheless, I was thrilled.

I don't have red-winged blackbirds in the yard on a regular basis anymore. This year for the first time I saw what the immature males look like, and wasn't sure what I was seeing at first. Plus it wasn't just one, there was a group of four or five and all a little different looking. I only saw them the one day though.



For a couple of years we had a mature male blackbird hang around for part of the year at the feeder. He would regularly let out the ear piercing call which absolutely terrified my poor old dog. She would run for the house and be shaking like a leaf. I finally had to stop putting out food for a while and shoo it away, because the dog was a nervous wreck.