Just awesome!

Wonderful shots, Becky. That baby is just so fuzzy and funny!

I got a few of the usual suspects at the feeders today, red-bellied woodpeckers come and go at great speed, all day long.



blue jays hang around,


and the titmouse shared with a little Carolina wren (hiding behind the pole) at the seed cake then came back to the dish for dessert.

Wonderful photos everyone!

It seems that today Florida is THE place to see an astonishing range of beautiful birds - wonderful! The tiny wren is so adorable, and prettier than the English equivalent as ours don't have that lovely marking/eye-makeup that shows so clearly in your photo, Lin. Woodpeckers, hawks, buntings, cranes, owls, bluejays, mockingbirds... and I love birds with a tuft on their head! Is the plural of titmouse 'titmice'? Keep the photos coming, I'm so enjoying them!
Ann, I'll have a try with your photo, but don't think it will make a huge difference - I think the goldfinches are probably just well camouflaged in that setting. How nice to see so many together!

Elaine - I adore those little titmouse!

Question:

I just realized that the hawk I photographed is not a red-shouldered hawk (which is the only species I've seen in my backyard). Is it a Cooper's Hawk? http://garden.org/thread/view_...

Great pics!

Becky, I think you are right - look at the pattern on the tail feathers:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/...

But better wait for Lin to be sure!

Whatever kind of hawk he is, he's mighty handsome (English person trying to sound American!) and your photos are wonderful!

Love the owl pics

Mika - I noticed the tail feathers, too, as well as the gray back feathers. Definitely NOT a Red-shouldered Hawk which I have seen numerous times over the years in my backyard.

Even though these are predator birds, I love seeing a species, I've never seen close-up, come to my yard. My list of sighted birds in my backyard is growing! I'm kinda excited.

I also killed another roof rat on my porch. I've tried conventional traps, but they don't work for me. I spent a few more $$s for a shock trap. It's battery operated. When the rat steps on the metal plate to eat the food at the end of the trap, they get electrocuted. Quick death that doesn't make the rats suffer but for a split second. I accidentally got zapped by it at one point and it does give off a nice little jolt. Enough to stop the heart of a rat. That is the second rat I've killed in it. I have it on my screened porch because the rats had chewed a hole in my screen. So now they come and go on my porch. Add food to the electro trap and check each morning. It is also good that it is not outside in the yard as I have other critters that I do NOT want to kill with that trap that are out and about in my yard. Only want to kill the rats!

I believe that it was a rat that the Coopers (?) Hawk was seeing in my yard yesterday. It totally ignored the squirrels and other birds and kept looking at the ground. I have no idea how many rats might be living around my property. My neighbor BBQs on a grill all the time and I know the dripping grease on the ground attracts rats, too, along with bird seed. (Though I keep the bird seed collecting on the ground to a limit every day.) Score 2 for the electro-trap. A great trap!

Becky, I'm really critter friendly, but I make a huge exception for rats - they carry so many diseases! Nasty, nasty... My niece had a pet rat that was cute, but he was vaccinated and rather entertaining. She called him Darling (!) and was devastated when Darling died...

I've never seen an electro trap - sounds like a humane solution to a problem that none of us need! Is a roof rat different from an ordinary rat?

all for the thumbs and acorns for the owl pictures. Last week we went to the Black Point Wildlife Refuge last week and although we didn't see the tons of birds like we do sometimes, here are some I did get.





We didn't see "George" our favorite alligator in his usual place. There was a lot more water where he hangs out.

Ann, Wow ... lots of Goldfinches visiting your area! I've only seen one or two at a time and not often. I'd love to have more of those pretty yellow finches visit my garden!

Becky, great shots of those beauties; I sure hope once we move there that I'll be able to attract the buntings! That Hawk is awesome! LOL, I am not always good at trying to identify birds (same goes with plants) but after googling and looking at lots of photos, I too think that is a Cooper's Hawk with that long tail with the dark bands. I saw what I think was a Cooper's land on our roof a few days ago when I took the dog out into the yard. I think it may have been after a squirrel ... I've seen some small squirrels at the feeders lately. This Audubon page has good descriptions and photos showing the difference between the Cooper's and Sharp-shinned Hawks: http://www.audubon.org/news/a-...

I love the Sandhill Cranes, especially that adorable, fuzzy baby!! I've seen young ones before but never close up like that. Nice!

Elaine, nice shots! It looks like you are getting a variety of birds at your feeders too. I hear the Red-bellied Woodpeckers around here lately but haven't seen them come to the suet feeders in awhile. I see that you have both a female and male Red-bellied! I love the cute little Tufted Titmouse but it seems they have moved on from my yard. Blue Jays are so common and numerous here in Florida but they've always been a favorite of mine with that vivid blue shade of color and their repertoire of songs.

Mike - Roof rats have the ability to climb up. I've seen them climb up the exterior brick walls of my house. Straight up! So they can climb to just about anything. Mostly they live outside, but can get into attics and your roof. They can breed multiple times a year and can have as many as 8 babies at a time. They breed and multiply rather rapidly if not kept in check. My problem is my fenced backyard. They feel safe from most predators inside my fence which is a 6' tall vinyl privacy fence. Not too many predators can scale that fence except for raccoons and hawks/owls can fly in. I am always looking around my yard for nests. They make a nest usually off the ground in shrubs or trees. Looks like a huge bird's nest without the indention at the top where a bird and it's babies would sit. They are a real pain to get rid of.

Two rats down, no idea how many are left.

Here is a link to the Victor Electronic Rat Trap. Scroll down and you will see the photos.:
http://www.productscoop.com/vi...

Roof Rats:
http://www.floridapest.com/pes...

Wished the owls and hawks were more efficient. Even with my trap, I am only killing one every so often. Maybe 1 a month. That is not good. I may have to put the trap out into the yard, but with batteries, it can be easily ruined from the dampness outside from ground humidity. Rats are a pain. They are in the same category as fire ants to me. A total nuisance!

Wow, Jean, wonderful photos - what on earth is the first one? It looks like a cross between a flamingo and a platypus...

Jean, Great shots! Is that by chance the Black Point Drive at Merritt Island Nat'l Wildlife Refuge? That's one of my favorite places for bird watching ... some awesome species of birds can be seen there, along with Manatees and of course Gators! I love the Tricolored Heron and that's a really beautiful shot of the Roseate Spoonbill! I see your third photo shows Pied-billed Grebes which I've seen here a few times, they are fun to watch because when they see me out on my deck they immediately dive beneath the water and pop back up a little ways away.

These are some old photos from 2013 of Gators and Manatees at the wildlife refuge area. The Manatees were at the Haulover Canal. The big gator on land may be the one you call George! I remember the first time we were riding along Black Point Drive, I thought it was fake but my husband assured me that he was a real gator that is well known at the refuge.

Mika, that's a Roseate Spoonbill! I know that one! They are gorgeous!!!

Lin - Thanks for your vote that my ID of the hawk is a Cooper's Hawk. I also looked at some juvenile red-shouldered hawk photos, and I was stumped. I do believe what I saw was a Cooper's instead of a young Red-shouldered, but I could be wrong. It has all the markings of a Cooper's. So .... I'm going to go with Cooper's unless someone comes along and proves me wrong with photo links and info.

I, too, love the bluejays! A large family of them live near me and are always in my backyard. The bird songs in my yard and around me are awesome all day long! I feel like I live out in the woods, not in a neighborhood!

I have a zoom lens on my camera, which is why I was able to get so many close-up shots of birds. Though the Sandhill Crane parents were VERY wary of me. They are very protective of their babies. So it is not safe to get too close to them. They have been known to chase off anything they perceive as a threat.

The saddest thing I came across was at the beginning of this school year. We have a mating Sandhill Crane pair that lives much of the time on our school property. No one knows what happened, but the PE teacher came out to the covered hardcourt area to set up before school started and found a dead juvenile sandhill crane. The parents were nearby just having a fit. There was blood everywhere. The baby was curled up (dead) and the parents were still very close by trying to protect it and wake it up. So sad. The baby's body was removed by a wildlife expert and they could not determine what attacked and killed it. The parents continued to come back to the spot constantly for over a month. And even now, 7 months later, they still can be seen walking near the spot the baby died as if looking for it. They mate for life and are such amazingly smart birds. Their family unit is the most important thing to them and they will fight to protect it.

Thanks, Melanie! Almost mythically gorgeous!

Lin, your photos remind me of when we visited the Everglades (long time ago) and came across a notice suggesting to tourists that if an alligator came towards them with its mouth open, we should back off!!

Lin - Oh I love the Manatees!! Great shots. Did you know they are being taken off the endangered list. SO STUPID!!! There are only about 6,000 of them left here in Florida. I wonder who made that darn decision!!! Grrrrr ..... A lot of wildlife folks and the general public think that is a HUGE mistake. I think the slowing of boats will be removed and more manatees will be injured and killed once again by boat motors. With only 6,000 left ... it won't take long to wipe them out. This boils my blood!

We see the Roseate Spoonbills here on occasion too, late summer into autum.

August 2010 ............................................. October 2012 .................................... November 2015