Eastern phoebe returns!

An Eastern Phoebe made a return appearance in our backyard a few days ago (June 15th) which is a welcome sight after they seemed to disappear after the babies were born. Of course, I'm not sure if it's the same one.

Eastern Phoebe

Also, I saw this Tufted Titmouse on the same day which I haven't seen before:

Tufted Titmouse

(Photos were taken through a dirty window...)

A walk at the park

My wife and I took a walk at Eagle Creek Park on Tuesday. We saw many birds and I managed to capture photos of most of them. Here's what we saw:

Great Blue Heron

Cedar Waxwing

I saw this bird flying over the water, and managed to get a
fairly clear shot of it. It looks like it's a Belted Kingfisher.

Tree swallow

Yellow Warbler

Brown-headed Cowbird (with 2 young ones?) -
this bird lays eggs in other birds nests!

It was a lot of fun to see so many interesting birds. It took forever to get a photo of the yellow warbler as it was moving so quickly without pause, but I finally found one that took a break to pose near the top of a tree.

My first ever "birding" expedition

I went on my first ever birding expedition last weekend. I brought along my binoculars and camera, obviously, and did some hiking at Eagle Creek Park. Not knowing what I'm doing, I more or less just walked around keeping my eyes and ears out for birds. In the woods I didn't see very many. I could hear them, but rarely saw them. I did manage to see one bird in the woods through the binoculars, however, it moved so quickly I didn't get a good look - all I could say is that it was grayish and sparrow-sized - I didn't notice much color. Perhaps a thrasher? I don't know and didn't have time to get a photo.

Out around the reservoir, it was easier to see them due to less foliage. I didn't take many photos, but here are a few that I took:

Female Red-winged Blackbird

I'm not sure what this next one is. It flew by while I was taking photos of the blackbird so I snapped a quick picture of it and was surprised when I looked at it later. I think it looks like an Orchard Oriole, but I'm not certain. I'm also not sure what's in his mouth.

Male Orchard Oriole?

I also saw but didn't photograph: some Cedar Waxwings (I think), and an American Coot. I saw some others, but couldn't get good enough looks at them to identify them or even describe them.

All in all, I'd say it was pretty successful and I enjoyed it and look forward to doing it again.

Eastern Phoebe & babies

This year we were blessed with a Eastern Phoebe nest on our front porch. We watched as Mom sat on the nest and finally four babies were born. Then we watched the parents continually catch bugs all day long and bring them back to the nest for the young-ins. They finally left the nest yesterday.

Eastern Phoebe

Eastern Phoebe babies in their nest.

I was hoping that they stick around and eat all of the mosquitoes, but I haven't seen them since.

Barred Owl

This Barred Owl has been a frequent visitor to our backyard the past few weeks - when the robins start chirping crazily, we know it's nearby.

Barred Owl

I have some video of it posted on my gardening blog.

Cooper's Hawk

Earlier this year, this Cooper's Hawk was working on building a nest in a tree near our house. I took these photos on March 23rd:

I'm still struggling with determining whether this is a Cooper's Hawk or Sharp-shinned Hawk. However, using these identification tips, I've been going with Cooper's Hawk because:

1. The tail feathers appear to be rounded as opposed to more square
2. The head seems fairly large as opposed to small compared to the body

Those are the most obvious things to me, however, on the contrary the legs appear to be pretty long, particularly in the second photo, which is more characteristic of the Sharp-shinned Hawk.

I did hear the bird make several a short chirps unlike any of the sound clips on allaboutbirds.com, however, this description from the site sounds accurate:

Males frequently make a kik call to tell their mates where they are; females make this call too, but less often.

It sounded very much like this recording from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Macaulay Library.

Baby Robin

I took this photo of a baby robin September 4th of last year.

Baby Robin

It was under the leafs of a large hosta plant. It must have just recently left the nest.