Melanie, it must be the time of year for White Ibises; I've been seeing a lot of them over this way lately! Great shots of the Red-bellied WP and those beautiful Eurasian Collared Doves, I really love those pretty doves! It's really interesting, I've heard stories about how Northern Cardinal's will attack car mirrors but I've never had one do it to my car. A couple of years ago we had film put on the windows and slider doors in our house and last year a young, male cardinal kept attacking it's reflection on one of the doors. I finally put more decals on the outside of the door which kept him from attacking ... I really thought he was going to knock himself out!

It's cloudy, overcast and real windy here today. The gray skies make for bad lighting but I've managed to get a couple of pictures.

Red-shouldered Hawk



White Ibises


Storks flying over ................................. Anhinga perched on a neighbors deck


Blue Jay ............................................... Downy Woodpecker


Cardinal & Finch and from yesterday Red-winged Blackbird

Lin, You always have such a great variety of birds - your house is like a bird magnet! ! Or maybe it's all the goodies you put in your feeders

mellielong said:Well, to be fair Becky, it's MOSI's birdfeeder. One of our employees who started as a volunteer is also the social media manager for Birds and Blooms magazine so she knows birds really well. I just take the pictures.

Cool. I discovered that mag in a Doctor's waiting area. It is quite good.

Lin - great pics!!

LOL @ IbisFl ... yep, the birds get a varied diet at my house and I think they tell all their family and friends.

Thanks David!

Birds & Blooms Magazine and Country Magazine are two of my all time favorites ... I've been a faithful subscriber for many years.

I've been baking cookies this afternoon and was looking out the kitchen window a few minutes ago and got these pic's.

Cool I like birds

beckygardener said:Elaine - I use the Wild Finch bird seed mix manufactured by Pennington. I use the High Energy and the Peanut Butter "no melt" suet. All are sold at my local Walmart where I shop. And I use boiled "un"salted peanuts in the shell with black oil sunflower seeds in the hanging platform feeder. Between all of that, I do attract a nice variety of birds. And it does take some time for them to find your feeders. It took almost 3 years for the hummers to find my nectar plants and hanging feeders. Be consistent and persistent!!! I agree with what Lin said about the Painted Buntings being shy. They do like lots of tall shrubs, trees, and underbrush to hide in.

Ann - Wonderful shots of the Yellow Bellied Sapsucker!

A few photos from this morning. The videos I took show a lot more variety of birds, but these were the still shots I took:

4 male Painted Buntings:



A mix of birdies:



Male and Female Painted Bunting:



Male Painted Bunting all fluffed up. It was cold and wet this morning:



A male cardinal:



Goldfinches. I had a small flock of these that hit my feeders every day. This is just two of many.:

Those are soooooo beautiful.

"Anhinga perched on a neighbors deck"......very nice shot Lin!

Claudia said:"Anhinga perched on a neighbors deck"......very nice shot Lin!

Lin takes amazing photos.

Lin, do you use a tripod or are your hands that darn steady?

Thanks, ladies! Nope, no tripod and I get that shaky hand icon in my viewfinder all the time! My right eye has a cataract and the vision in that eye is pretty poor; that's the eye I use for looking through the camera and it's all a blur so I just keep clicking away and usually get a few decent shots out of hundreds. I know a professional photographer could pick my photos apart inch by inch but I just enjoy taking pictures and feel happy that some of them come out good. I do wish that I'd studied photography and cameras when I was young but I'm too set in my ways now, very impatient .... and I really do have the attention span of a gnat.

Well, I am impressed. And my hands are not as steady as yours by a long shot.
I thought they were going to fix that cataract.?

Lin's birds are just amazing!

Incredible bird photos, ladies!

Coincidentally following up on that little flamingo jaunt, I came across this fascinating history of those plastic kitschy flamingos! Enjoy!

http://www.atlasobscura.com/ar...

Ann, yeah ... I need to get the cataracts removed at some point. I have them on both eyes but I've been told the past few years that they don't need to be removed yet. Year before last I had laser surgery on both eyes to prevent something called narrow channel glaucoma and my right eye has been so much worse since that procedure. It could very well be that the cataract on that eye is growing faster than before, but every time I've asked, the Dr. has told me I don't need them removed yet. I wore glasses/contacts for distance correction for many years and I've needed reading glasses for up close stuff for a long time now. About six years ago I noticed that my distance vision was so much better without my contact lenses or RX glasses and an Ophthalmologist at that time told me that I didn't need correction for distance. But, then I had to have that laser procedure because of the narrow channel glaucoma issue and ever since then, the vision in my right eye has been awful. I have new insurance as of this month but I'm trying to hold off on going to the eye doctor until we move in May. I could still go to the same Optometrist and Ophthalmologist that I've been going to the past few years but I figure I'll have to find a new doctor when we move anyway so I'm trying to wait.

Aww, y'all are too sweet, Thank you!

plantladylin said:Ann, yeah ... I need to get the cataracts removed at some point. I have them on both eyes but I've been told the past few years that they don't need to be removed yet. Year before last I had laser surgery on both eyes to prevent something called narrow channel glaucoma and my right eye has been so much worse since that procedure. It could very well be that the cataract on that eye is growing faster than before, but every time I've asked, the Dr. has told me I don't need them removed yet. I wore glasses/contacts for distance correction for many years and I've needed reading glasses for up close stuff for a long time now. About six years ago I noticed that my distance vision was so much better without my contact lenses or RX glasses and an Ophthalmologist at that time told me that I didn't need correction for distance. But, then I had to have that laser procedure because of the narrow channel glaucoma issue and ever since then, the vision in my right eye has been awful. I have new insurance as of this month but I'm trying to hold off on going to the eye doctor until we move in May. I could still go to the same Optometrist and Ophthalmologist that I've been going to the past few years but I figure I'll have to find a new doctor when we move anyway so I'm trying to wait.

Ah, I understand. Argggggh about the glaucoma. I think you need a top notch doc who specializes in that. My dad had glaucoma. A doc told him there was surgery for it. Dad ended up almost completely blind in that eye the doc operated on. So dad didn't get the other one done obviously. Yes, best wait till you move & get a local doc in Sebastian area.

I can certainly relate to your eye struggles Lin. I had like 7 eye surgery procedures with in the span of a year a couple of years ago. Problem was never fixed. I don't take near as many pictures as I used to. Seldom any bird pics anymore, can't really see em.
I'm thankful I get to view all of the submissions here!

to you both.

Managed to get a few bird pictures. Not the greatest. They won't stay put long enough to get a decent pic and several pics were taken through a screen. The clear ones were taken through my back door.

GOLDFINCH


BLACK SQUIRREL


HOUSE SPARROWS


DOWNY WOODPECKER


PURPLE FINCH OR HOUSE FINCH???


PURPLE FINCH & DOWNY WOODPECKER


MOURNING DOVES

COOL black squirrel!!!!!!
Cindy, I'm pretty sure that's a house finch rather than a purple finch but I could be wrong about that.
Cute downy woodpecker.