Pine Siskin ... Just by chance

I've generally had bad luck with Winter Finches. They these nomadic little birds have graced my presence on two prior occasions, but the previous looks were at a distance and pointed out to me by excellent birders. But today, I had the pleasure of sitting in my parent's back yard and slowly coming to realize that... hey, this isn't just a female House Finch... this is a Pine Siskin!

I think I'm going to starts a "moms house" list. I'm thinking of bringing my nyger feeder to my parent's home in hopes that her yard will be more productive for Common Redpolls than my yard.

I wonder if the Siskins are heading back north already or if this is just a chance passing-by?

Good birding!
Dwaynejava

Rough legged Hawk and Ebird Occurrence Maps v2

 

It's funny. I went to Holiday Beach almost every Friday after work during the 2010 fall raptor migration and saw pretty well every migrating raptor with the exception of the Rough Legged Hawk. Then, during the Christmas Bird Count at PPNP, I saw one fly by in the distance and finally lifered the bird at #215. The next day, I see a Dark Morph RLH along sanctuary pond... and today I finally get awesome views at PPNP on the North Dyke road. The onion fields also had several Northern Harriers flying around. I watched one fly about 1m above a ditch at a slow pace. It was probably scanning for rodents.

Small flocks of birds along the North Dyke road included:
BH Cowbirds,
E Starlings,
House and Tree Sparrows.
American Goldfinches
Blackbirds were around as well.

Sadly, I did not see any owls that were recently reported in the area.



Red Breasted Nuthatch Update

The Red Breasted Nuthatch is such cool bird, I can't help but stop by my parents house on a weekly basis and check out if it's there.

Red and White Breasted Nuthatches around on Jan 5th but I did not see the red-breasted this morning

This morning, I stopped by my parent's house because I  wanted to take some better photos of the Red Breasted Nuthatch. But... I did not see him! (*edit: I saw him again but later in the afternoon around 4pm) I heard Nuthatches several times but it/they did not come into view (*until later).  I did however hear the telltale call notes of a Carolina Wren!!!! Breeet-Breeet-Breet..... Wow... I was shocked! I snapped a few photos from 30m away and came up with the ones below.

By the way... what an incredible morning! The sun has hardly been out on a weekend for at least a month!

Shuster Trail? Nope. Mom's House...Click to view full size!

Later, I saw him again drinking water from an icicle hanging from the side of my parents shed! Again, this is from about 30 meters away. Now that's brisk baby!

*This is a follow-up to this posting. I did see the Red breasted Nuthatch in the later part of the afternoon. I seem to see it around 4pm with the most consistency.

Of course, an out-of-focus clothes line runs through this photo.

Also Seen:
Crows
Blue Jays
Cooper's Hawk

I'm blown away!!!! I basically only see this bird (the Carolina Wren) at Point Pelee, Holiday Beach or Ojibway but in Residential South Windsor? I'm pretty convinced the Red Breasted Nuthatch is overwintering near my parent's home. How awesome!


Ebird Occurrence Maps

This is the occurrence map for the Red headed Woodpecker

Using Ebird.org data from birders all over the US, Cornell University made these dynamic maps that show how various birds move from county to county during the various months. You can see how there is an explosive movement of Red headed Woodpeckers towards Ohio as May approaches. Very cool! They have such maps for about 15 other birds as well. Check out this link for occurrence maps for more birds and information.

(right click, open in new tab)
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/about/occurrence-maps/red-headed-woodpecker

Good birding,
Dwayne

Horned Lark, Lapland Longspur, Coopers Hawk and a few other Winter holdouts...

Lifer! Horned Lark and others...

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Horned Lark hanging out with a Lapland Longspur - Thanks Paul & the Ojibway group for the great afternoon!



I went with a birding group today that is hosted by the Ojibway park naturalists. This week's destination was Holiday Beach.  Even though the weather and light outside was cloudy and cold, it turned out to be a pretty good walk.

As we left the park, the group leader suggested we stop by a farmers field where a farmer had a feeder. Many Horned larks were hanging out, and even a Lapland Longspur!

 

 

At Holiday Beach, I was greeted by the group of four birders who pointed out a raptor in the distance ... An adult Bald Eagle. They joked that we may as well go home now. As we entered the park we saw three woodpeckers: A skylarking Downy, a Red Bellied and Norther Flicker Perched in distant trees. We had several distant run ins with the Northern Flicker.  At one point, Paul, our group leader Pished a Cardinal, Brown Creeper and White Breasted Nuthatch into our views. 

 

 We noticed flotillas of Canada Geese on the water. The photo below shows Fermi in the background.

Soon before we left, a second pishing session attracted a Golden Crowned Kinglet, a White Throated Sparrow and some Black Capped Chickadees. Finally, as we left, a Yellow Rumped Warbler saw us off as we were leaving. A typical winter turnout with a nice mix of birds! The Horned Lark was a lifer. The Lapland Longspur and Coopers Hawk are technically not lifers, but they are better photos then my original ones. Sharp-Shinned and Coopers Hawks are very similar in appearance so I have had a definite ID on a Coopers until today. The photo above is probably a female coopers hawk, because it was huge!

Happy Birding!

Dwayne