Cleaning Up

I decided to do a little house cleaning on my blog today. No reason other than to clean it up and make it easier to read. I also decided to go with real titles instead of dates on each blog entry.

25 June 2010

Please feel free to leave a comment. It will help me to improve my pictures.

18 June 2010

I am finally back from my trip and birding again. The goose babies are growing up and starting to look like geese.

Hard to pass up a good Mallard picture.

Found some Common Grackle out today. They are a permanent resident bird in NOVA.

11 June 2010

There was an Eastern Kingbird sitting on the sign for the dam on our lake today. I had to decide between an Eastern Phoebe and Eastern Kingbird and this one looks black enough to be a Kingbird.

Also took a picture of a Pied Billed Grebe. I thought it was interesting that the area around the eye was light blue. Most of the pictures I have seen are with a yellow eye.

10 June 2010

When I was down by the lake today, I saw a Great Egret. This is a summer resident. Check out the black legs.

I also liked this Red-winged Blackbird picture.

5 June 2010

My wife made me a new banner. It looks great.

The grape jelly was a failure for now. It got ant infested. I need to suspend it in the air. I am working on that.

I had a lot of fun today watching 3 Downy Woodpeckers eating out of my suet feeder.

The woodpeckers would fly in and land on top of the fence.

Then the woodpecker would land on the branch above the feeder and scoot down the tree backwards.

There were 2 females and 1 male landing on the fence, going up and down the tree and eating the suet for several hours.

There was also a European Starling that decided to blow out its feathers. A European Starling is a permanent resident bird in Nova.

3 June 2010

I was trying to see how zoomed in I could make this Song Sparrow picture.

The Canadian Goose babies are getting bigger.

31 May 2010

Happy Memorial Day.

I can't believe the number of birds that continue to come into my feeders on most days. I sat outside for about 2 hours today and had a large variety of birds coming in over and over again to feed. It makes me feel good.

I decided to put out some grape jelly to see what might eat it. I'll let you know.

Took a couple of interesting pictures down by the lake. A couple of ducks starting swimming out of the shadows in front of me and my first thought was Wood Ducks. And they were.

The Great Blue Heron also decided to pose for me. It looks like there are 3 of them now on my little lake in NOVA.

29 May 2010

I had a male and female Downy Woodpecker eating out of my hanging suet feeder today. I really didn't get a great picture of either one. I will try again tomorrow.

The suet package I bought had oranges in it and the birds really seem to like it. Besides the woodpeckers, I had a lot of other birds in there eating it instead of the regular seeds I have out.


Since it looks like a favorite, seems like I will have to continue putting it out.

23 May 2010

(Answer to my last post)

I sent the following email to Wild Bird Unlimited about my unknown bird:

Hello,

I read your blog daily as it has great information even though you are in Michigan and I am in northern VA. I get a lot of transit birds through here on the way up to you. The other day I thought I was taking a picture of one of the two Green Herons that are on a lake that I walk around. When I got home and looked at the pictures, I was stumped. Is this a Least Bittern or?

Thanks,

Birding in Northern VA.

Here is the response that I got this morning. I appreciate her getting back to me so quickly.

I think your first guess was correct. It looks like an unusual pose of a Green Heron (Butorides Virescens). They are stocky birds with a greenish-black cap, a greenish back and wings, a chestnut neck with a white line down the front, grey underparts and short yellow legs.

The long neck you captured in you photograph is not usually seen. Most of the time the Green Herons perch in the shadows, near water with their head pulled in tight against their body. When they spot fish, their neck can dart out quickly to stab its prey with a long, sharp pointed bill.

The Green Heron spends its winters in the southern U.S. and further south to Venezuela, Panama, and the West Indies. However it breeds across most of the U.S including your state and mid-Michigan. You can find the birds along the shoreline of rivers, oceans, lakes, and ponds.

The Green Heron are fun to observe. The birds feed normally at dawn and dusk but those hours are extended when there are hungry young to feed. They are one of the few tool-using birds. They prefer to hunt for frogs and small fish in shallow, weedy wetlands and are often seen dropping small debris, like bugs and feathers as a form of bait to attract fish within their striking range.

The following video shows the Green Heron fishing with bread at: http://ning.it/cmhqnU

Thanks for your positive feedback. I really appreciate that. My intention is to write a short blog every day with little tidbits of information you can take away and share with others to spread the joy of birdwatching and nature. I tend to write about mid-Michigan because that is where our two Wild Birds Unlimited stores are located but everyone is welcome to ask questions or share stories and photos. Please write again anytime!

Sarah Zarka

Wild Birds Unlimited
2200 Coolidge Rd. Ste.17
East Lansing, MI 48823
ph. (517) 337-9920
fax. (517) 337-9921