GrammaChar said:Since this is a "birdie" blog, I'm voting for badminton.

What a completely charming photo! love it

Uh, oh! Looks like I started something! Well, it's good to know where everyone stands! Mom loves baseball and won free tickets to tomorrow's game so she and my dad will be enjoying that. She can scream all she wants in the stands! I don't watch a lot of TV, but my dad and brother were watching it last night and I was mostly hanging out in the living room and Mom was watching the ball game on her laptop with headphones on. Except she screams every time something good happens and so we're watching the show and all of a sudden she's like, "Ahhh! Go, go, go, run, run, RUUUUN!!!" At least her favorite pitcher is starting tomorrow. She's looking forward to that.

So I had new lenses put in my glasses today which usually takes an hour but they said it would take two today because their person was coming in late or something. Anyway, I had planned on trekking around my favorite preserve for a while, but not that long. Oh, well. I did it, anyway.

Ooh, I saw a turkey! It was odd because I kept thinking I was hearing one. I don't know many bird calls, but I know what a turkey sounds like. I finally caught a glimpse of her running away and was trying to take a pic when she totally cheated by flying. Not fair! I see turkeys quite often in that preserve. Sometimes I've even seen the babies following the mom. And once a male turkey and I scared each other by walking around a palmetto and almost into each other! That was the first time I ever saw one and it was soooo tall! They're also much faster than people give them credit for. Even when they're not flying.

I did take some photos today. I'm a little embarrassed because I saw these two birds flying around where I park and I couldn't get a good view of them. Eventually, one wandered up into a tree kind of near me, so I just zoomed in as far as I could and took the pictures. And once I downloaded them, I saw it was a Blue Jay. It was a rather large Blue Jay! And they look different from the front when you can't see all that blue!



As I was driving to the preserve, I passed no less than three Osprey nests. With Ospreys in them. I guess it's that time of year. So on the way back I decided to stop and see what kind of photo I could get. There were two nests that were within a block of each other. I parked on a side road, then walked down sidewalk parallel to the main road. It was one of those cookie-cutter developments behind a wall but they were growing a lot of Cassia so good for them. The closest nest to where I parked was the one I spotted the easiest while driving, but the bird either left or was too far down in it for me to see it when I stopped. So I walked down the sidewalk to the other one. At least you can see the bird up there. FYI, I got a new camera with a really powerful zoom so expect better pics from me in the future!



And as I was walking, this bird sitting on the power line started yelling at me. This is one of those Grackles, right? You can even see he has his mouth open yelling at me!

Melanie, great photos - you're becoming quite the expert bird photographer!

Melanie, I agree with Mika ... you are becoming a great bird photographer. Love the Jay and how lucky you are to still have Ospreys at the nest! Every nest I've seen hereabouts appears to be empty. That last gorgeous black bird may be a crow.

I agree with everyone else Melanie. Jay pictures are great! I'm with Lin on the black bird being a crow. Pretty sure anyway. Grackles are slim.

Hmm...he seemed a little small to be a crow. Speaking of crows, we've had a lot of them in the yard the last week or so. I mean, I'm used to seeing them pass through, but they've been hanging around and staying. I've been looking for a nest because that's how much time they're spending here.

Oh, I almost forgot! I went out to feed the caterpillars before I had dinner and briefly spotted the hummingbird! It was over by my passion vine. I didn't see it actually nectaring, but I've seen one at USF nectar on passion vine so I know they do it. I certainly have enough flowers on it right now, although the caterpillars should change that dynamic soon.

I zoomed in to make Melanie's photo larger and by the looks of that gold eye, it's definitely a Grackle ... Crows have black eyes!

Ooh, I learned something new! It was also very loud, but that's true for a lot of birds! Why are they always yelling at me?

a male eastern bluebird , heading back to his perch to hunt for more food , pretty sure he was feeding a baby bluebird up in the tree , but I could not find the baby again after getting my camera.




two carolina wren shots from feb.





and a bald eagle from march all were still on the camera's memory card

Kurt, Wow, Wow, Wow!! Great shots, really beautiful Bluebird in flight and I adore the Wrens!

YEH!!!! Great shots Kurt!

Fantastic sleuthing Lin. Melanie, you were right in the first place. Go with your instincts gal. You're the one who saw it in person. Trust yourself.

Excellent @krobra pics. What a shot.

plantladylin said:Kurt, Wow, Wow, Wow!! Great shots, really beautiful Bluebird in flight and I adore the Wrens!

Kurt, wonderful photos

These pictures are from a couple of years ago. I never know what I am going to see in our yard, whether it is Florida or Arkansas.
I chased this turkey across the yard in Florida to get these pictures.






Just before we left for Florida, I caught this one in our back yard in Arkansas. It was taken through the window in the sunroom so it's fuzzy.

This morning I took some photos of a male Boat-tailed Grackle at one of the feeders and a pair of males perched on the chimney cap and after downloading them to my laptop I noticed that the two on the chimney both had black eyes! I knew they were grackles because we have lots of them year round but it surprised me when I saw the black eyes! I decided to do some research because I thought all Grackles had gold eyes. I learned that there are four subspecies of Boat-tailed Grackles and although the reason isn't known, Grackles from different regions of the country have different colored eyes, some the gold-yellow and some black.

Male Boat-tailed Grackle with gold eye


A pair of black eyed male Boat-tailed Grackles on the chimney cap. I'm not sure about the behavior they are displaying unless they are trying to outdo each other and jostling for dominance.



Northern Mockingbird


And, this is off-topic of birds but this morning the dog was looking out the kitchen doors and barking so I went to investigate. I noticed a turtle on the other side of our fence in the neighbors yard. It was a female, digging a hole to deposit eggs. She was there for about 2 hours before heading back down the slope into the water. I sure hope the eggs make it and the babies hatch; unfortunately it will be after we've moved so I won't be able to watch the area to possibly see the hatchlings. I'm not certain but I think this is a Red-eared Slider:

Jean, great shots and how cool that you see wild turkeys in both your Florida and Arkansas properties! We see them occasionally meandering along the roadsides but I've never had one in my yard. I can only imagine what the dog would do if he saw a big turkey!

@plantladylin Sorry you won't be able to see the baby turtles hatch. I have never seen more than one turkey at a time in FL but in Arkansas we frequently see "families" crossing the hill behind the house. Once I saw some roosting in the trees behind our house but unfortunately no camera available. DH didn't know they roosted in trees until he saw them.

Red-eared Sliders are non-natives that out-compete our native turtles for food. People used to buy them at the mall, they'd get too big, and then people released them into the wild. I think they're illegal to sell in Florida now, but I could be wrong. We've taken in quite a few over the years for our pond exhibit at MOSI just to keep people from releasing them in the wild.

I've been playing with my new camera today, but haven't been able to get a bird picture yet. And it's soooo hot outside.

Melanie, yes the Red-eared Sliderss are non-native turtles here in Fla. Anyone who had one as a pet before 2007 is allowed to keep it without a permit but after that date no one is allowed to purchase one as a pet. It is such a shame that humans purchase little turtles and snakes etc. and then release them into the wild when they get too large or when they no longer want to care for them. We have the Red-belly turtle, Softshell turtle and Yellow-eared Slider in the water here. I wonder what the chances are for the eggs that turtle laid this morning ... we have lots of raccoons around and they like to dig and eat turtle eggs.