I'll say it again, very fun Folklore Friday! I'm already attached but looking forward to what birds and bugs I see tomorrow.

The first of the Starlings arrived in the garden yesterday,..the Robin is now a full time resident and chases other Robins and the Sparrows away.

Starling....................................................................................Robin...........................................................................Female Blackbird.

Beautiful pictures, Philip. That plump little robin does look sort of pugnacious, doesn't he?

wildflowers said:I'll say it again, very fun Folklore Friday! I'm already attached but looking forward to what birds and bugs I see tomorrow.

Nope Christine, not tomorrow. Tomorrow is the 13th not the 14th. You need to keep your eyes peeled on Sunday.

dyzzypyxxy said:Beautiful pictures, Philip. That plump little robin does look sort of pugnacious, doesn't he?

Elaine he really is protecting what he now claims as HIS territory,..they are known to be VERY territorial in particular towards other Robins,..yep pugnacious is an apt description

Ann,.. to add to the confusion its tomorrow here already we are well into the 13th it being Saturday,..though looking forward to Sunday the day after today

glengarry23 said:Ann,.. to add to the confusion its tomorrow here already we are well into the 13th it being Saturday,..though looking forward to Sunday the day after today

Join the BACKYARD BIRD COUNT with everyone around the world: http://ebird.org/content/ebird...

You can submit your sightings every day or just one day during February 12-15 (Friday-Monday). It can be any amount of time. Your bird sighting data is useful!!!

Glen, I love your little Robin, he is such a pretty bird!

I was surprised to see a Starling here a few days ago, glad he didn't hang around, they are such gluttons.

I woke up this morning to see a red winged blackbird on my thistle feeder. Could they already be coming back for spring??? I was quite surprised being it is only 4 degrees out this morning.

Thanks Ann, today is the 13th!

Becky, thank you for the link to the bird sightings. I've never done that before. My problem is, I can't positively ID very many of the birds in comparison to how many I see. Although I'm learning a lot from you all.

Yesterday the black birds were back. I tried to take pictures through the windows again... (time to wash windows!) I think you all are right, there must be more than one kind of bird in the flock. Some look like grackles, the ones with the bluish-black-sheen heads. But there must be some Rusty blackbirds because they make that squeaky wheel sound just like on this site that I had posted recently. https://www.audubon.org/field-...



I tried to zoom in for a closer look but those pics came out really lousy!

edit to post lousy close ups...

Wow Christine that's a LOT of blackbirds!!!!!

Becky, thanks for the reminder about the backyard bird count. I couldn't get your link to work though so here is another link.:
http://ebird.org/content/ebird...

Yikes, you must have something really yummy on the ground under that tree, Christine! Is it a nut tree of some kind?

They do look like mostly grackles and my grackles make the squeaky wheel sound, too. I've never seen any other black birds here, except the cowbirds who arrive in a flock and most of them have brown heads.

beckygardener said:Join the BACKYARD BIRD COUNT with everyone around the world: http://ebird.org/content/ebird...

You can submit your sightings every day or just one day during February 12-15 (Friday-Monday). It can be any amount of time. Your bird sighting data is useful!!!

On a related note, here's another reason to submit sightings this month! If you use their app to submit at least 15 complete checklists with counts this month you automatically are entered in a raffle to win a sweet $800+ pair of binoculars. http://ebird.org/content/ebird... They are trying to get more people to use the app to submit more complete data in real time.

Ann - Both my link and your link works fine from my computer.

I submitted my sightings for 2 hours of observation this morning. I got photos of all except the male Ruby-throated hummingbird. May find the time to observe later today to see if I observe anything different. Was hoping to see the Red-belled woodpeckers but they were a no-show for some reason this morning. Observed a total of at least 19 birds. 9 different species of birds. I have a very limited species amount at my feeders.

Here are the photos I submitted to ebird with my report. I always like to submit photos as proof and I think anyone checking out the ebird site enjoys seeing photos. I wished more people took photos and added them to their reports.

First time ever I saw 2 Catbirds at one time. One chased the other away from the suet feeder! Pretty cool! I didn't get a good photo of both of them together though.

Catbirds:

Catbird #1:



Same bird:



Catbird #2:



Spotted 3 different Blue Jays. Two kept coming to the Sunflower seed feeder together. I am wondering if one is an immature and the other is it's parent?



White-winged Doves with a Mourning Dove sharing the sunflower seeds:



Mourning Dove sharing sunflower seeds with a Blue Jay:



Shot of the Mourning Dove by itself:



Observed 4 Painted Buntings at once at the feeders (though I did not get a shot of all 4 of them together).

2 male Painted Buntings, a green Painted Bunting, and a brown female Indigo Bunting all sharing the Millet seed feeder:



Pine Warbler at suet feeder:



This same bird moved over to the Millet seed feeder for dessert:



Sharing the Millet seed with a male Painted Bunting:



Spotted at least 2 Northern Cardinals this morning:

Female:



Male:



Male Cardinal sharing the Millet seeds with 2 Painted Bunting while an American Goldfinch looks on:



Spotted at least 2 Indigo Buntings:

Female (not a very good photo):



Molting male Indigo Bunting:



Molting male Indigo Bunting with a male Painted Bunting and an American Goldfinch:



And last but not least, I saw several American Goldfinches at the feeders, but this is one who was at the jelly feeder. I finally gave up trying to attract any sugar birds and just filled the glass bowl with Wild Finch seed mix:

Christine - Believe it or not .... those numbers of your blackbirds are what I see with Robins here in early Winter. They are everywhere! So cool to see so many birds!!!

Ann, I could only get a portion of them in the photo, there were about five times more than shown!

Thanks Elaine, I was just wondering if grackles make that sound too. Now I know. Most of the trees in the background are oaks, and many of them dropped huge amounts of acorns this year. Acorns are all over the ground. Maybe the grackles are eating them up! Or maybe they are finding little bugs. Either way is great!!

Great photos, Becky - I bet your report was well worth reading with such a variety of birds

Fantastic shots, Becky. Well done.

Hey, how big are the gaps in your cage feeder? I bought one and put it out a few days ago, but not one bird has been seen using it ( and the seed tube is still full ). I'm wondering if the gaps in the cage are too small. Thinking possibly the only birds that could get through those gaps are the Carolina wrens, but they like the seed cake.


Finally got shots of the male red-bellied wp. You can even see a little bit of his red belly!

Elaine, the buntings would be able to get through there.


I need you guys to do me a favor please.
Would you look in your bird books (not online) & look up Great Crested Flycatcher & see when it says they are in FL -- my location is 35 miles south of the GA state line. Here:
Look at the map:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Then if you would please, look up Ash Throated Flycatcher & see if it indicates those are in FL at all at any time.

I had this problem during last years bird count & it's making me a bit peeved. I ID'd a Great Crested Flycatcher & this is what I got in an email from them:
***************************************************************
Thank you for your submission to the Great Backyard Bird Count. I've looked at your comments on the Great Crested Flycatcher sighting, but they didn't include a physical description of the bird itself. In general, the earliest Great Crested Flycatchers arrive in northern Florida at the end of March or the beginning of April and they've left by the second half of September. So it would be unusual to see one here in mid-February. If you were able to get a photograph of the bird, that would be ideal, but if a photo isn't possible, then could you describe the field marks that led you to your identification?

Thanks very much,

Rex Rowan
GBBC Regional Reviewer
**********************************************************************
To which I replied:

Unfortunately I do not have a photo at present. It never hangs around in close vision too awfully long. You know how it goes, the moment you don't have the camera in your hand.... and by the time you get it...... I will keep trying to get a photo though. I do have 4 pair of binoculars stationed around ~ 1 pair being on the back porch & 1 pair in the bay window in the kitchen, both places where I most often see this bird.
I've spent hours on this bird because I could not believe it was here when it is not supposed to be. According to every resource I checked the GC Flycatcher should not be here in the winter ~ but it is. I have ruled out everything else it could be. It has a gray/brown with a hint of olive colored head & the crest on it is certainly there but not "smack you in your face" prominent like a Northern Cardinal. This crest is more subtle than that lending it an overall sort of silly appearance. It appears to be slightly shorter in length than a Northern Mockingbird. It's back is gray/brown, it's tail is sort of red/brown & is long. It's throat & chest are gray/brown. It has a yellow belly but the color is not bright yellow ~ certainly not like a canary yellow ~ it is more muted than that, almost like it has a slight tint of olive. It's wings are brownish/rust/gray with white wing bars. It has a black bill.
Oddly enough, the other day when I saw it, it was checking out a bluebird nest box we have up. I was really surprised at that because I would not think it would nest that close to the ground (this box is about 7' high) but it didn't linger long so perhaps it was just being curious.

Regards,
Ann



And then he replied this:

Hi, Ann -

Interesting. It might be a Great Crested, but in winter some western lookalikes like Ash-throated Flycatcher and Brown-crested Flycatcher will show up in Florida. A photo would help quite a bit.

Here's some additional information on Ash-throated: http://www.birdfellow.com/bird...

And here's a gallery of photos: http://www.birdfellow.com/bird...
***************************************************************************************************
I have never seen anything indicating the Ash Throated shows up in my area of the country excepting a vague reference in that link he posted (which will not load for me today).
And it seems to me that the Great Crested is more likely to be here NOW. My gosh!!!! It's ONLY TWO WEEKS earlier than he says they show up here.

So if you guys could help me by looking those up in your books I would very much appreciate it. I saw the bird 2 days ago & then again today while I was bird watching for the bird count but I did not report it this year because of all the guff I got about it last year. I am sure I will see it again before the count is over but I don't know that I'll be able to get a photo or one good enough to ID it by.


EDIT:
Gee, I realized it's actually 6 weeks earlier than he says they show up here. (blush - embarrassed)