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Category: Visitors in the garden | Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 5:41 pm

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The sunshine and warm temperatures have disappeared but not the birds. It provides a source of color and pleasure on these gloomy, gray days. This is my first winter of documenting the birds. I have always enjoyed watching them but didn't worry about identifying them.

This morning I was out on the deck trying to get a close up of a robin. There were a whole flock of them (about 30) on the edge of my yard, looking for worms in the rain. I did manage to get this one.


robin 2/23/10 ( photo / image / picture from gfreiherr's Garden )

Out of the corner of my eye I caught this yellow bellied sap sucker.






yellow bellied sapsucker ( photo / image / picture from gfreiherr's Garden )

I had noticed all these small holes in that tree in the spring and did not know what caused it. There are hundreds of small holes up and down the tree. Now I know who is to blame.






holes made by sapsucker ( photo / image / picture from gfreiherr's Garden )

Here a few more firsts for me this year.






red winged black bird Feb 2010 ( photo / image / picture from gfreiherr's Garden )






Eastern Towhee...Feb 2010 ( photo / image / picture from gfreiherr's Garden )






yellow rumped warbler ( photo / image / picture from gfreiherr's Garden )






yellow rumped warbler 2/10 ( photo / image / picture from gfreiherr's Garden )






Last edited: Tue Feb 23, 2010 11:44 pm

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Newfpaws wrote on Tue Feb 23, 2010 6:24 pm:

You have lots of birds already. I hear ours first. We have mostly songbirds - don't even know what they are. Should be seeing robins soon, I hope. Neat pics. Great closeups. The pic of the red winged blackbird - are those buds on that tree?

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aythya-camellia wrote on Tue Feb 23, 2010 6:56 pm:

The buds form before the last year's leaves fall, Newfpaws.

Great pictures; you have some variety--sometimes my yard is dominated by one species, but you're clearly not getting that.

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gfreiherr wrote on Tue Feb 23, 2010 8:03 pm:

Newfpaws...they are buds on my dogwood tree.
Aythya...I have been really lucky. My biggest pest is the squirrels but they are fun to watch. I have had 18 mourning doves that take over the ground and sometimes the finches crowd the feeders but I don't get alot of other pesky birds like the grakles. My neighbor had to take down her feeders for a while because of blackbirds taking over.

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Kay wrote on Tue Feb 23, 2010 8:23 pm:

What great photos! We usually look and listen for the Red- winged Blackbirds about the 1st of March, we're wondering if they may be later because its still so cold here.

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daisybeans wrote on Tue Feb 23, 2010 11:13 pm:

The Eastern Towhee looks like the bird you were trying to identify the other day -- remember the one that looked a little like a robin? Do you think so?

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gfreiherr wrote on Tue Feb 23, 2010 11:22 pm:

Mary Ann...I think it was a robin. The towhee has a dark brown face with a red eye. They do look similar at a distance.

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Sjoerd wrote on Wed Feb 24, 2010 12:36 am:

What a pleasure to see your birds. I am so surprised to see that Red-Winged Blackbird. I would have expected them later on in the spring.

The holes made by that Sapsucker look serious. Can they threaten trees?

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gfreiherr wrote on Wed Feb 24, 2010 1:35 am:

I saw the blackbird a couple times this week...just one.
They holes are not very deep, there are just lots of them. The tree appears healthy, no obvious sap.

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dooley wrote on Wed Feb 24, 2010 2:20 am:

I saw a sapsucker the other day on a cedar post. I thought it was a red headed woodpecker. Are they the same with a common name? We have robins and cardinals and sparrows and some beautiful hawks here. Also, mocking birds. I have seen the little bluebirds with the orange breasts, too. I stand at the windows and watch them but can't get close enough for a picture. I don't have a feeder.
dooley

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gfreiherr wrote on Wed Feb 24, 2010 2:33 am:

I'm not sure Dooley, there are multiple types of red-headed woodpeckers and sapsuckers, sapsuckers are in the woodpecker family.

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Jewell wrote on Wed Feb 24, 2010 3:48 am:

Wonderful collection of photos your are collecting. Someone told me that the woodpeckers go after the grubs that do more damage than the woodpeckers. He is probably helping the tree more than hurting it.

I couldn't feed the birds this winter. We had a huge flock of starlings come in and roost. What a noisy greedy bunch they were. It was probably for the best since the squirrels had also taken over. I can see four squirrel nests in the neighboring fruit trees and who knows how many more there are in the fir trees. Still seem to have lots of birds though. I hear the towhees, chickadees and song sparrows daily.

I really like the looks of the warbler. He is such a plump little guy.

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