Cool swan story Melanie, I hope you get to see them next time you go there, and hopefully get some photos for us.

I also got a laugh out of your brother DNA comment, you are a funny gal!

I agree, interesting swan story, Melanie. And you're right that in England it's still true that the Queen owns all the swans on the Thames, and it's technically treason to kill or eat one without her permission. By royal licence, the Fellows of St. John's College in Cambridge are allowed to eat swan (but I believe they don't - nor does anyone else...)
Here's a link to a brochure about Swan Upping - it's kind of similar to the 'Swan Round Up' you describe...

http://www.royalswan.co.uk/sou...

Thanks for that swan history Melanie, most interesting. I bet that swan round up is pretty funny,

wildflowers said:Good call, Mika!

Here's a lucky clover from my garden ~

Does this mean you have a whole clump of four-leaved clovers? You must be the luckiest person around!

plantladylin said:The Hummingbirds are very small but I zoom in with my camera as close as I can so they sometimes look larger in my photos than they actually are. The last two photos were taken on a rainy day and both pictures are the same bird, a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird. In the second to last photo, she was stretching; the females tail feathers are a rounded fan shape and the outer three tail feathers have white tips ... I think they are visible because of her position and the way she was stretching. The male Ruby-throated Hummingbird are pointed and dark with no white tips.

Thanks for the explanation - I can see now that she's tucked her tail feathers under her wing - almost as if to keep them out of the wet! Really cute.

Great photos! Love those hummingbird photos! Mine are still here. I expect them to be heading north for Spring soon. Painted Buntings are still here too. Pretty soon they will have all headed out on their journey to their annual breeding grounds.

I took a photo of a bird today at the feeder that I need an ID for:



A beautiful bird, but I have no idea what it is. Can someone help me?

Becky I'm pretty sure that's a red winged blackbird female.

Ann - Thank you! After looking it up on the internet, you are RIGHT!!!! Thank you. I have never seen a male or female here before, so I had absolutely no idea what bird it was! So cool! Do they migrate? Maybe it was moving through heading north for Spring? Ever since I put out the suet, I've been getting some different and interesting birds. This bird was interested in the wild finch seed though, not the suet.

All About Birds says this as far as their migration:
Resident or short-distance migrant. Red-winged Blackbirds in northern North America winter in the southern United States, as far as about 800 miles from their breeding ranges. Southern and some western populations don't migrate at all.

It's interesting, I see lots of Red-winged Blackbirds here almost year round; usually more males than females though and juveniles in late summer to autumn. These are old photos.

Male Red-winged Blackbirds
January ..................................................... April

May ....................................................... July


Female Red-winged Blackbirds
January ......................................................... April

May .............................................................. July


Juvenile Red-winged Blackbirds
July ................................................. August

August ................................................. October


Juvenile male with most of his adult coloration and Adult male

Great examples of all the stages/sexes and coloration progressions Lin!!!!

Lin - Not sure how many you'll see here in Sebastian when you relocate here. The above female in my photo is the very first one that I have ever seen. Pretty cool that it was a female, too!

Thanks Ann!

Becky, I won't really miss the Red-winged BB's so much when we move down there, and I really won't miss the Grackles because they are so loud and noisy and they constantly raid the seed and suet feeders! I'm really excited about trying to attract Buntings to my garden once we are in Sebastian!

A few Red-winged Blackbird males were in the willow yesterday, the first I have seen since fall, they didn't stay too long. I think it is because of those darn Sharp-shinned Hawks, they are so annoying. First thing this morning I had to chase one out of the yard while the other one looked on from his perch way up in an evergreen across the back, that one swoops down from his perch, through the back yard scattering the birds, he does this several times a day, so far I haven't seen him catch anything.

Discussing blackbirds reminds me are my best Red Wing Blackbird shots (7-1-12) - Quad Cities Botanical Garden, Rock Island, Il. They cultivate an area designed for birds, bees, and butterflies. All wildflowers.


Here's the area - The Ginkgo tree is just left of area,

Great photos, everyone! Lin - as usual, you are the fount of knowledge of all things relating to birds!

jmorth, really nice photos of the red wing blackbirds. We don't have them here, sadly. Are you allowed to take Plato with you when you visit the botanical garden? We have a ginkgo tree in our garden, but it's young - we only planted it about 10 years ago...

I didn't know Ginkgo trees could grow in the cold of either IL or GB.

Never tried to take Plato into a botanical garden as we've not really visited any in the last couple of years. Plato will not turn 2 tlll June. I'm sure some of the them would allow it in the parts that are outside like Van der Veer in Davenport, Iowa for we've seen dogs there. I doubt they'd allow it across the river (Mississippi) in the botanical garden where the bird pics were taken (Rock Island, Il.), it's accessible only through their conservatory.

The ginkgo above is in Zone 5.

We took the dog for a walk around a lake at a local city center park this afternoon and I took my camera along for some photos.

Port Orange, Florida city center lake; there are walkways around the entire lake with benches here and there for resting, people watching, bird watching or just sitting and enjoying the view.


American Coot ....................................... Cormorant perched in a tree


Ring-billed Gulls, one with a little fish it caught and ate


Ducks (Not sure what kind; possibly female Mallards or maybe Mottled Ducks?)


White Ibis are always out and about feeding on the grounds around the lake and city hall. There were a few juveniles in the flock; the one in the last photo shows a juvenile growing into it's white plumage


There's a pair of Red-shouldered Hawks that have been nesting in a tree by the library the past five or six years and newspaper articles and news clips on t.v. have related that when babies are in the nest, the adults dive bomb and attack people walking in the area. One time an elderly lady had large gashes in her head and had to be taken to the hospital. I read that folks were using umbrellas to protect themselves from the hawk attacks and I'd forgotten about the hawks until we walked by the building and I spotted one on the roof and then another in a tree! I immediately alerted my husband who had the dog on leash. The second one flew over to the tree with the first but I guess it isn't nesting season because they didn't try to attack thank goodness!


These photos are a bit out of focus because I took them through my kitchen window a few days ago ... some sort of Warbler, possibly Myrtle Warbler:

Wonderful photos, Lin! Port Orange, Florida city center lake is a gorgeous place! Beautiful!

Neat photo of the Hawk pair. I'd never heard about Hawks dive-bombing during nesting season. Wow! That could be downright dangerous!