Birds in my yard this morning:

Common Yellowthroat .... and Northern Cardinal:


Wood Stork:

Gorgeous! Do you have a lot of storks?

Tee: LOL, they aren't the prettiest birds on the block but they are interesting to watch. I see Wood Storks around quite often, this is a picture I took this morning of a one flying overhead:

We have a good mix of different types of birds here, song birds, water birds as well as eagles and hawks. I was outside this morning and got a few pictures.

Common Yellowthroat


Red-bellied Woodpecker:


Red-shouldered Hawk:


Double-crested Cormorant:

It must be nice to have such lovely birds so near to you! I think this is a Carolina Wren...I just love to watch them!

A Carolina Chickadee at a feeder.

Not sure about this one.

Linda: Yep, that's a Carolina Wren in your first picture ... they are great little birds! We always had them nest in the purple martin houses that I left at our other house when we moved a year ago. I'll have to remember to ask our tenants if they've noticed any birds nesting in them this year. That little Carolina Chickadee is adorable; I spotted a single one here a few years ago in October but it's the only time I've ever seen one in Florida. The bird in your third picture looks like a little Sparrow of some sort. We get lots of little Chipping Sparrows down here in the winter, usually from December through mid March and I always look forward to those cuties visiting the feeders.

I've only spotted a couple of Carolina Wren's lately ... I've been putting meal worms in the feeders to try to attract them to hang around, and hopefully build nests to raise their young.


Every so often I see a few Muscovy Ducks in the waterway behind the house. They are not a very popular duck, they are very messy and considered invasive in some areas. Yesterday morning I spotted two Muscovy Ducks at my neighbor's house. One was on the deck railing and the other in a large Elm tree eating the leaves:

What kind of camera are you using, Lin?

Tee: My camera is a Canon PowerShot SX20IS. It's a camera my husband gave me for Christmas a few years ago. I don't know a thing about cameras or photography and I seem to quite often hit one of the buttons on the back and mess up the settings and then have to wait for my husband to reset it for me. I used to keep the little knob thingy set at "Auto" but he told me to leave it set at "P" (for photo? maybe???) so that's where the setting now stays. I never know if my pictures are going to be clear, halfway clear or a complete blur until I download them to my laptop. I take many, many pictures and sometimes only have two or three out of ten that are decent but I still have fun taking pictures of my backyard birds and flowers etc. I sometimes get frustrated when I take 150 pictures and only 10 turn out but I still enjoy taking pictures.

LOL, I am very technically challenged and wish I had learned more when I was younger ... now at almost 65 I'm too set in my ways, too stubborn, or perhaps too lazy to learn about technical things. It's not just cameras, I also have a problem with the fancy new cell phones. I went out last year and bought a cheap little flip phone because I had so much trouble with the fancy cell phone my husband bought for me! He recently got himself a new phone and gave me his old one with all the bells and whistles and I still prefer my little flip phone ... the two fancy phones with all the technical features are stored in a kitchen drawer.

Thanks for the tip. Sometimes I get good pictures and sometimes not. I don't have much patience for fooling with the settings on my camera so I've kept it mostly on "Auto" unless I was outdoors. But I think I'll try "P". I have no idea what that stands for either.

It's good to know I'm not the only one that is technically-challenged. I just want a phone that makes and takes calls and the sound is good. I want a camera that is good at point-and-shoot. I want a TV with a good picture that lasts for many years. Same with a computer. And all of it KISS (keep it simple, stupid). Is this too much to ask??

Well, anyway, you get the point.

Me too. I HAVE learned a few neat little tricks with my Canon EOS T3i, but really, most of its features leave me scratching my head! I couldn't tolerate Windows 7. So now Windows 8 is out and I read that even some people that liked Windows 7 will have a lot of trouble with Windows 8. What to do, what to do? I can't stay with the old XL forever! I have a cheap cell phone my daughter pays for. She mentioned getting me a smart phone, but I don't think I could use all those techie features!

LOL, I'm so glad that I'm not alone!

Tee: I just asked my husband what the "P" is for on my camera and he said it stands for Program ... but I don't program anything.

Linda: We only have Mac's for computers in this house. Many years ago at work we had PC/Windows systems I think but my husband has always been a Macintosh person so that's all we've ever had here at home. When it comes to windows all I know is to ... open them.

Smart Phone ... yeah, that's what they're called ... and I guess I'm not a very smart person because I can't figure them out! I detest texting and had that feature blocked on my cell phone ... and, I'd need a screen as big as a tablet to type on so I don't have internet access or gps etc. on my phone like my hubby does. Until they make a cell phone the size of a tablet, I'll just stick with my little flip phone. I don't use a cell phone much at all but I do like to have it handy in case of an emergency when I'm out and about in my car.

Ok, these are a couple of pictures I took today. Two are not the types of birds that visit the feeders but they are birds, and I love watching them all ... and taking their pictures.

Juvenile Wood Stork ......................... and a Pied-billed Grebe in the waterway behind my house:


A female Brown-headed Cowbird ....... and a pretty little Warbler (or perhaps the Common Yellowthroat?)

Great shots.
I too utilize a Canon (SX 130 IS and SX160 IS) camera and feel as some of you regarding the new smart phones however, soon I'll probably get one because I imagine that future models will get even more techno-geek. Anybody use e-readers? I plan to upgrade my original Kindle to the new Paperwhite edition.

Smiling at you, Linda.

e-readers .. I'm an old-fashioned book person ... love to hold them in my hands. But books are going the way of the dinosaur too. Although I think they'll be around a bit longer. I suppose just about anything that encourages reading is a good thing.

I still have a phone that plugs into the wall. One thing I am thinking about is OnStar.

Anyway, back to those beautiful birds. I love watching them all too, Lin. I have not used my feeders much so far this year because I got tired of watching a couple of Cooper's Hawks continually scouting them for their "bird food" (the live kind). It's Nature but I hate to watch and feel like I'm setting up some of the poor birds to get picked off by the hawks.. That's not what I put up my feeders for. So hopefully the Hawk's are going elsewhere to do their dirty work. As it gets colder, I will utilize the feeders again. Since we border woods, I have a variety of birds that come. Most enjoyable. I have quite a few anyway without putting out food since we have a huge old Norway Spruce in the backyard.

Love birds. Not too keen on high tech sometimes.

Speaking of birds, sitting here at the computer looking out this drizzly, gray morning, I noticed that the "clean-up crew" has arrived. Turkey Vultures. I can count 20-30 from here and there are more that I can't see. I don't know if it's a deer or raccoon or groundhog or? It's Alfred Hitchcock time around here.

Oooh, that's a lot of Vultures that came for breakfast! I sometimes see black vultures and turkey vultures down here too, usually fighting over roadkill of some sort!

American Black Vulture in flight:

Loving all the photos!!!!! Just now got caught up on this thread.
Those yellow headed black birds are totally COOL! Very pretty!

I have no photo to share but wanted to tell a tale. We are house hunting & were looking at a house the other day. The house is a split level with a nice covered deck off the back & a stream runs down one side & along the back --- actually it's 2 streams but I didn't have time to find where the separation between one & the other occurs. Anyway, back to the subject of birds. We were standing on this rear upper deck admiring the view & out of the woods comes a wild turkey & another & another & then another until we counted 15 of them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And there were still more in the woods! The turkeys just walked around in the back yard & I was standing there with my jaw agape. I had my camera but it was through the master & down the hall & down the stairs in the entryway & I DID NOT want to miss a second of watching these wild turkeys. They were making the noises too --- not the gobble but the hollow sounding "bark" they make. It was soooooo cool! I have never seen a wild turkey in person before so I was enthralled.

I promise next time I see a wild turkey I will get a photo!

Ann: That is so cool! I know folks who live in country settings see wild turkeys quite often but I've only seen them a few times along side the road while driving, and usually only one or two! What a thrill it must have been to see so many at once!

For anyone interested, the Cornell site has a place where you can click on sound and scroll down to hear the different sounds of wild turkeys:

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/g...

I just loved this story...such sweet little baby turkeys!
http://video.pbs.org/video/216...

Ann, that must have been an awesome experience with the wild turkeys!