I'm going to post, at the end of each month, the birds that I have seen on the property. Unless otherwise stated, the photos are from the Audubon website. I don't have a fancy camera with a nice zoom lens (and I'm okay with that) so I can't get good bird pictures for you. Brett says that I look like the admiral of a ship, standing at the window with my binoculars, and looking out into the garden.
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| We have many California Quail here on the property but we don't see them as often anymore as we did when we first moved in. Quail are shy birds and they primarily live in the blackberry bushes surrounding the property. When the big tree fell, we started seeing lots of quail as they took up residence in the twigs and twisted limbs covering the ground. |
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| This is a picture of Canada geese in our pasture. Last winter, they took up permanent residence there. This year, they only land sporadically. |
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| But I hear them honking overhead, every morning. |
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| Eurasian-Collared dove -- these doves are frequent visitors to the garden. Before chicken wire covered the chicken run, there were almost always a couple in there helping themselves to the chicken scratch on the ground. |
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| After I set up the bird feeder in the garden, these guys took over. They are constantly scratching and hopping around in the leaves and bark underneath the feeder. Yellow crowned sparrow. |
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| I put a couple bird feeders in the garden. This one is for sparrows and other similar sized birds. I filled it with black sunflower seeds. |
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| House sparrow -- not as numerous as the Golden Crowned sparrows but so pretty with their streak of reddish brown on their neck. |
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| Mourning Dove: we have a few of these in the garden as well as the Euroasian collared doves. |
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| Purple Finch: This was a new bird for me. I was so excited when I saw one at the feeder -- grabbed my binoculars and my field book and went to town. They are very similar to a house finch so it took a lot of back and forth with the binoculars and book before I was sure. Thank goodness, it was a hungry bird and stayed a while. |
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| Spotted Towhee: We have lots of these, throughout the year. They are stunning with their black heads, red bodies and spotted backs. They are one of my favorite birds up here. |
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| Dark-eyed Junco. The black head is a great contrast with the buff body (not really shown here). |
I feed the birds every morning and can watch them out the kitchen window. We have the doves too and red cardinals. There are lots of crows and other assorted birds I can't name. Lots of bluebirds too. We do have a few squirrels who also visit the feeder they only eat the sunflower seeds and not the birdseed do they all get along. Except everyone leaves when the crows arrive,nobody messes with them. They're kind of big bullies.
ReplyDeleteWe don't have ravens or crows very often (knock on wood). In the spring we will have bluebirds but they just stop by on their migratory route to somewhere else. I wish they stayed longer. We don't have cardinals eitehr -- at least, I've never seen one. I wish we did!
ReplyDeleteJust FYI, the old "geezer" couple from Canada came back today to visit with the donkeys.
ReplyDeleteSadly the cats have driven the songbirds away from my feeders. This time of year there are lots of yellow shafted northern flickers. We also have a few chuck will's widows in the neighborhood - a kind of whippoorwill. Weird name for a weird bird. You only ever see them at dusk. Their eyes glow orange and their mouths are gigantic.
ReplyDeleteThose chuck will's widows sound like a very cool bird! -- we don't have anything like that!
DeleteI love the birds. We fed a family of black-capped chickadees all winter, but when we went to San Diego last week, they disappeared. Two were back today, so maybe they just found another house and are coming back now. We also have a couple of finches eating near the chickadees. We usually have quail--lots of them, and killdeer in spring. I love the Canada Geese most of all. When I was going through the hardest time in my life, whenever they'd fly over I'd stop and listen to them and watch them and it gave me a precious relief. Even today, if I hear them honking, I will drop what I'm doing and run outside to stand underneath them. I LOVE birds.
ReplyDeleteThere is something about birds that just makes the heart happy. I'm glad I'm not the only one who loves to watch birds. And, I understand your feeling about the Canada geese.
DeleteI don't think I've ever commented on your blog before but I am a loyal follower. Love seeing your bird report. I used to spend many hours bird watching with my dad when I was a child. My favorites were the Red-winged Blackbirds that nested in the fields behind our property. That purple finch is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment - and welcome (even though you've been visiting for a long time). I love red-winged blackbirds. We don't have them here, but I've seen them in open fields at lower elevations. That flash of red on their wings is so striking. And the purple finch -- I love the flash of reddish purple amongst all the brown at the feeder.
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