One of the reasons I started this blog was to document the birds that come and go in my backyard. The posts below detail both the rarities and the ordinary wonders with wings!
October 3, 2015 - I spotted my first male Painted Bunting in the backyard this morning! Let the fall birding begin! He’s about two weeks ahead of schedule. Last year I saw my first bunting on October 12, and the year before that on October 11. But this year he’s right in time for my grandfather’s 90th birthday. :) […]
July 22, 2015 - I found a tiny cardinal fledgling in our backyard in one of my bushes. He let me take a video of him as he fussed for food!
May 6, 2015 - We had two Ruby-throated Hummingbirds visit the yard in late April. They nectared on my salvia and didn't seem to mind my camera clicks
January 16, 2015 - We've had more Painted Buntings at our feeders in the past week or so. They're also fun to photograph!
January 14, 2015 - The Lesser Scaups in my backyard retention pond posed recently for my camera. I had fun trying to catch them in mid-dive.
January 6, 2015 - When the weather is gross, it's time for backyard birding. Goldfinches and Hooded Mergansers and a head shot of a Mourning Dove!
November 26, 2014 - This week's cold fronts brought some winter visitors to my backyard: a White-crowned Sparrow and Hooded Mergansers
November 14, 2014 - They're back! We had our first of fall American Goldfinches in the yard this afternoon. Yay!
November 2, 2014 - Photos from my first afternoon in my new backyard bird blind. The House Finches, Doves, and Painted Buntings were cooperative!
October 12, 2014 - I saw my first-of-fall Painted Bunting in the backyard this afternoon!!
July 21, 2014 - You can imagine my surprise when I found THREE fledgling Brown Thrashers in my backyard this weekend. Two of them took a bath together. :)
July 17, 2014 - After years of gardening to attract hummingbirds, I have at least two juvenile Ruby-throated Hummingbirds in my yard this summer!
June 29, 2014 - Our backyard cardinal pair brought us a surprise today - this year's baby cardinal! He's just out of the nest and so cute!
June 20, 2014 - A family of Sandhill Cranes, including two juveniles, showed up to inspect our recent home construction project.
April 26, 2014 - Sadly, I’ve realized in the past week or two that the American Goldfinches in my backyard have migrated home for the summer. It’s always sad to see them go. They are such cheerful little birds and their songs are so sweet. I enjoy hosting them for the winter. The video below was taken back in […]
April 6, 2014 - Sometimes it’s great to go off to exciting places to take pictures of nature. Sometimes it’s nice just to stay home and photograph the nature in your own backyard! You never know what you are missing until you spend a few hours curled up in a blind or hidden in some bushes. I know that […]
February 10, 2014 - I finally pulled out my bird blind for the first time this winter. It’s a great way to get shots of the birds in my backyard. My blind is basically a big camouflage tent. There’s room inside for me, the Beast, my tripod, even a chair. I zip myself in as Rich laughs, then I […]
January 27, 2014 - The Hooded Mergansers continue to hang out at my backyard pond, and I’ve visited them several times over the past month. They are very skittish birds. I lie down near the pond’s edge and use my groundpod to balance the Beast. The birds usually start out on the opposite side of the pond, but after […]
December 21, 2013 - Yesterday afternoon I went down to our local retention pond where a flock of Hooded Mergansers can often be found diving. I got lots of funny looks as I walked down our residential street with my big camera and lens, carrying my groundpod. (The only bad thing about the groundpod is that it is incredibly […]
December 8, 2013 - Our neighborhood Yellow-throated Warbler is back! We call him Bow Tie because his black and white colors remind me of a tuxedo, and his bright yellow tummy is his bow tie. We’ve seen him for the past couple of winters. He’s one of my regular suet customers, although my first shot of him this year […]
December 1, 2013 - We drove by our local retention pond over Thanksgiving break and found that our flock of Hooded Mergansers is back! These diving ducks are such fun to watch and photograph. They are pretty skittish, though, so you have to move carefully or the whole flock will fly off. A cold front was moving through, and […]
November 22, 2013 - Sometimes it’s great just to bird in your own backyard. Like on a gray, drizzly morning when you’re stuck at home waiting for a workman to show up. This morning I had several Painted Buntings (both males and greenies), a pair of American Goldfinches, a couple of House Finches, and an Eastern Phoebe (an occasional […]
November 17, 2013 - This was a gray icky weekend – why is it that we have bright clear skies during the work week, then cold fronts over the weekends? It’s a Florida winter pattern! So the cats and I birded from our house windows this weekend, and the pictures below were taken through the windows in the drizzle. […]
October 11, 2013 - I saw my first of fall Painted Bunting at my feeder this afternoon! I had just cleaned the feeder and refilled it with fresh millet this morning. My bird stayed for a few minutes, dining on the millet inside my bunting cage. Just as I got to the window with my camera, he flew off. […]
August 6, 2013 - Our cats were enchanted by a guest visitor to our front trees last week. A juvenile Downy Woodpecker flew in and tried to find food. You could tell from his behavior that he was a juvie – the poor little guy was wearing himself out, pecking at a live tree, trying to extract sap from […]
June 7, 2013 - Thanks to everyone who notified me today that my website was down. I upgraded the hosting service today, so it took a while for the updates to go live. Hopefully the site will be faster now! The cats and I spent a pleasant hour on the porch this afternoon while I worked on the website. […]
April 24, 2013 - I’m sorry to report that my backyard migrant birds have left. :( Last Tuesday after work I had an hour of free time, so I set up my blind (yes, my actual blind, not my bush hideaway!) I set up a pretty branch perch next to their feeder, trying to get “the pretty shot.” Unfortunately, […]
April 16, 2013 - I’ve been enjoying watching the brightly colored birds passing through my yard in the past couple of weeks. I wrote recently about an Indigo Bunting that joined our feeder party, and he inspired me to get out in the backyard so that I could get closer to the birds. I have a blind, but I’ve […]
March 25, 2013 - Rich looked out at our bunting feeder tonight and found a new customer at our backyard bird feeder – an Indigo Bunting! He’s the first one we’ve had visit our yard. Rich stopped and said, “What’s that!? He’s different!” I grabbed my camera and Rich grabbed binoculars and we both said, “Indigo Bunting!” He’s a […]
March 7, 2013 - My backyard has been filled with American Goldfinches for the past few weeks. They empty my six-port niger feeder in just a few days, so finally I had to break down and get out the 24-port feeder! They are eating us out of house and home. It’s a good thing they are so cute and […]
March 4, 2013 - I glanced out the kitchen window yesterday afternoon to see FIVE male Painted Buntings eating at the feeder together! That’s the most I’ve seen together ever in the yard. Luckily I had the Beast nearby, and luckily my motion of putting the camera in the window didn’t scare them away. As I hit the shutter, […]
March 2, 2013 - Yesterday morning I spent some time birding in my Central Florida backyard, and I found the funniest thing: my Painted Buntings have a sweet tooth! I was observing them at my millet feeder, noting that there seemed to be more “greenies” (females and/or immature males) than there were a few weeks ago. Then I noticed […]
January 15, 2013 - I’ve had lots of time to enjoy the birds in my own backyard lately. It’s a backyard winter wonderland! All the winter migrants are here and the backyard is full of activity. It’s great! This weekend I had all these different kinds of birds: American Goldfinch Pine Siskin Painted Bunting Eastern Phoebe American Robin Cedar […]
January 8, 2013 - My favorite wintertime birds are back – the American Goldfinches! I know, you’re wondering why my favorite birds are the common goldfinches when I’m so fortunate to have Painted Buntings in my yard each winter. The Painteds are beautiful, and definitely great to have visiting, but they stay so aloof. They call to each other […]
December 16, 2012 - This is my mom’s nemesis bird – the hawk that disturbs her little birdies at their feeders! He flew up on top of this phone pole the last time I was there. I grabbed the Beast and hand-held a few shots before he flew off. We knew he was either a Cooper’s Hawk or a […]
December 10, 2012 - I love our winter bird visitors! The backyard is so active these days. We have plenty of Palm Warblers that hop through the yard, and I finally saw Bow Tie, our Yellow-Throated Warbler that seems to come back from year to year. He likes to hop up on our window and peck at the glass. […]
December 3, 2012 - Our first-of-fall American Goldfinches arrived in the backyard right before Thanksgiving. These cheerful little guys are some of my favorite wintertime birds. Their happy calls that sounds like “Potato Chip!” and “Gold-y!” are such fun. Our cat Goldilocks loves to sit out on the porch and wait for her “Goldyfinches.” I went out on Sunday […]
November 3, 2012 - My Painted Buntings are getting more active in the backyard. Starting in early October, we’d see a single male at a time. Now we see males and females together, with a high count of two males and a greenie. You can hear them calling to each other from within our viburnum hedges. They are such […]
October 30, 2012 - Whiskey Loopy was very intent on the window this weekend, and when we investigated, we saw these two little Common Ground Doves preening each other in our front tree. One of these guys was huddled on our porch during the strong winds – I guess our house offered him some shelter. The two together were […]
October 6, 2012 - Goldilocks and I had a nice morning on the porch. We had breakfast al fresco and saw lots of birds in our backyard. (Goldy also caught a lizard.) The best birds were the returning out-of-town guests. We saw our first Palm Warbler of the fall (the one who comes up to Goldy’s window is known […]
August 12, 2012 - Sometimes it’s good to just stay home and be lazy. Goldy and I were eating breakfast out on the porch when a hummingbird visited our yard! I didn’t get a very good look at the hummer, but I think it was a female or juvenile Ruby-Throated Hummingbird. It hovered over my pentas plants that surround […]
July 11, 2012 - Our resident backyard cardinal’s name is Beaky (since he goes and “beaks” at Carla’s window). He’s one of our most reliable feeder customers, but lately, he’s been branching out and acting like what my mom calls a “real bird.” I left some sunflowers to go to seed, and he discovered them. Now he sits on […]
April 18, 2012 - I glanced out the window into our backyard last weekend to see our pair of Common Ground Doves initiating a mating ritual. Rich laughed as they mated and I raced for the camera. By the time I got outside, all I got was a birdie portrait…
April 15, 2012 - I haven’t seen a male Painted Bunting in about a week. I checked my blog from last year, and the buntings left around April 15. So I took yesterday’s rainy, icky morning opportunity to photograph my little green birds while they are still here. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may…
March 31, 2012 - A few weeks ago, I took this picture of Bow Tie (our favorite little Yellow-throated Warbler) feasting on suet in our front yard. Several times a day he would stop by, and he always attracted our attention with his happy calls (and our cats’ attention with his pecks at the window!) But his place seems […]
March 7, 2012 - The American Goldfinches that are cleaning out my niger feeder on a regular basis are starting to turn yellow! On a recent rainy weekend morning, I sat in my favorite upstairs window (“bird blind”) and photographed the little finches. The finches will line up waiting for their turn at the feeder. When they change places, […]
March 6, 2012 - One of our “greenie” backyard Painted Buntings got his name today: Pinocchio! Juvenile male and female Painted Buntings look alike until their first spring, when the males molt into the beautiful red, blue, and green tones that make bird photographers go “oooh!” Pinocchio’s transformation has started – you can see tiny bits of blue starting […]
February 9, 2012 - I was going through old pictures today and came across this Sandhill Crane. It made me chuckle. Here’s looking at you!