I love the weather this time of year.

Perfect for getting outside and doing some gardening or clean-up before Winter!

No photos, but on our walk this morning the winterberry bushes were loaded with Cedar Waxwings eating berries and I spotted either a Junco or some sort of sparrow. Could not get a clear view but was junco size.

Beautiful Autumn day here too!

Claudia, I bet that was a beautiful sight!

I bet it was great seeing that Claudia.

The Cedar Waxwings are beautiful birds!

Not my pictures but pictures I found in the Public Domain on Wikipedia awhile back.

We only see the Cedar Waxwings here in the winter, usually January, February timeframe. This picture is on a dreary February day in 2014


Today has been a glorious day here in my part of Florida ... clear, sunny skies with wonderful temp's in the low to mid 70's! I spotted a Cardinal high in an oak tree a few minutes ago and I hear a Hawk calling right now so I'm going back out to see if he perches somewhere so that I can get a couple of pictures.

From late this afternoon:

Dove in the Oak tree ...... and I can't remember which one this is


Female Red-bellied Woodpecker

Today's garden guests

Lin - Is that a Warbler in your second photo? Great shots of all those birds!

GChar - Love that Roadrunner photo!

I saw a first today! I have never seen a Downy Woodpecker before. It appears to be a male with that red cap on it's head. It was on a dead branch of a Brugmansia tree in my backyard. It hung around for quite a while, so I even took some video of it! What a cute little woodpecker! I love seeing something new that I have never seen before.

Male Downy Woodpecker:


Male Painted Bunting (showing his color bands):


And the littlest birdie - a male Ruby-throated Hummingbird:


Sorry that the first 3 photos are a little blurry. They were taken through a window early in the morning using my zoom lens. The zoom lens only gets good shots when it is brighter outside. (Too much shade first thing in the morning.) The hummer was much closer with sunlight shining on him, so that photo is much better than the others.

How nice, Becky, for you to see a new bird. The others are very nice too!

Char, how neat that you were able to get a picture of the roadrunner!

GrammaChar, Love, Love, Love the Roadrunner ...Oooh, I want one!

Becky, Yes it looks to be a Warbler of some type. It may the Myrtle Warbler (formerly called the Yellow-rumped Warbler) but I'm not sure; haven't found my bird books yet to check it out. on the sighting of the pretty little male Downy WP, we used to have tons of them in Daytona Beach but I've only spotted one twice since living in Sebastian. I sooo want to see Painted Buntings and the Hummers ... that male Ruby-throated sure is tiny and oh so pretty! Do you know if we get other hummingbirds in this part of Florida besides the Ruby-throated?

Well ... off to visit friends this afternoon so have a great day everyone!

Lin - Your bird may be a pine warbler, possibly? Or the Myrtle Warbler as you believe. Why did they change the name of that species?

I have actually seen a Rufous in the past at my feeder, but they never stay in or near my yard .... always heading somewhere else. On the Florida West Coast, they get a number of different species of hummingbirds, many come from Mexico or even Cuba. It's amazing how many hummers over-Winter in someone's yard on the opposite side of Florida!

White Breasted Nuthatch and sparrow



and our newest guest - fairly rare for this area - a black squirrel

Nice photos, everyone! I've been seeing the usual suspects around here, but I haven't been out much. Too tired, but I did my B-12 shot yesterday so hopefully that will help.

Meanwhile, Mom keeps telling me the "Red-Headed Woodpecker" is on the feeder and I keep yelling back, "It's a Red-Bellied Woodpecker!" I haven't been able to completely teach her butterflies, I don't know that I even want to get in to birds with her.

Beautiful photos from all of you! Lin, we used to live near a wildlife refuge in NM where the sandhills came in every year. They were fun to watch!
https://www.fws.gov/refuge/bos...

Now where we live in NM we do have roadrunners, but ours has not be easy to photograph. He comes through regularly -always when I don't have a camera in hand! We also have wild turkeys and they are the same way. I only have blurry pics of them.

Kurt - Love your visitors! I've never seen a black squirrel in real life. Nor have I ever seen a White Breasted Nuthatch.

Well, for that matter .....I never see Sparrows here either.

The Masked Lapwing father tolerates me very well while I try to photograph his young. The parents, however, have only managed to raise three of the four young this far. I visited the wildlife carer yesterday with an road injured young Australian Wood Duck. He had a baby lapwing that had been hit by a car but it was younger than mine.

Here, the male watches from the shadows.


Meanwhile, his young stride and poke around eating.

Love the face mask, Glen! Did the injured birds survive?