Hummingbird Feeder

I decided to take the Hummingbird feeder down for the season as I haven't seen a hummingbird near it in a few weeks. Means that winter is coming in my book.

Downy Woodpecker

When I was out at Huntley Meadows, I stopped on the trail to look at the berries of a bush that was overhanging the trail. I heard a tapping on the tree right on the other side of the bush. I slowly stepped around the bush and was about 2 feet away from this male Downy Woodpecker. Not sure that I have ever gotten this close.

Downy Woodpecker

Huntley Meadows and Dykes Marsh

It was a beautiful Friday so of course I got struck with the Bird Flu. First I went to Huntley Meadows but basically got shut out. I drove over to Dykes Marsh and saw that the fall migration was in full swing. Out on the Potomac River, there were rafts of Geese, ducks and coots for as far as the eye could see. This picture doesn't quite do the total number justice. This was just one raft in one direction.

Raft of American Coots

While I was checking out all of the water birds, I just happened to look up and (almost too late) saw 2 Bald Eagles chasing each other. That is the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria Virginia in the background. You can see it when you look down the Potomac River from Dykes Marsh. This was made famous in Dan Brown's book "The Lost Symbol".

2 Bald Eagles playing chase

There were a lot of smaller ducks near the shore that ended up being Ruddy Ducks. The male looks like it is wearing a burglar mask and the female has a black stripe under her eye.

Male Ruddy Duck

Female Ruddy Duck 

All of them eventually lifted their tail straight up in the classic Ruddy Duck way.

Tail up

There were also Buffleheads.

Buffleheads

There was nothing earth-shattering but it was just such a nice day out!!!!

Huntley Meadows

I had the Bird Flu today so I cut work and went out to one of my favorite spots, Huntley Meadows. It is about 12 miles from my house and it took about that long for my car to warm up. It was in the 30's when I first got outside but eventually it got to around 55 degrees. 55 was perfect when I was walking outside in a light jacket. It was cool and crisp without a cloud in the sky.


Although it was Wednesday the parking lot at the visitors center was packed. There were several large groups of elementary school students that were there on a field trip. They have a nice classroom inside so they were in there studying about animals and the environment. I was pretty surprised though to see that many cars.

I walked out to the first small pond and took in the fall colors. Loved it.

Huntley Meadows

 

 

 

 

There were Mallards and Canadian Geese in the first pond so I went to the wetlands in the back to see what I might find. There was a small pool with some really bright green-headed Mallards so I stopped to take a few pictures.  Like usual, hard for me to pass up a good mallard picture.

Mallards

Something flew by on one of the pictures.

UFB- Unidentified Flying Bird

 

 

 

Then it screamed at me. I glanced over and it was a female Belted Kingfisher with a minnow in her mouth.

Female Belted Kingfisher

The Belted Kingfisher is the most common kingfisher, eats fish and spends most of the year alone.

That made sense because I did not see another one anywhere around. The Belted Kingfisher is a permanent resident to Northern VA. One more to add to the list.

I also saw a lot of female Red-winged blackbirds and some White-throated Sparrows.

Female Red-winged Blackbird

White-throated Sparrow

Where to go and what to see?

When I am not in my backyard, I have to make a choice about where to go to bird. I don't have all of the time in the world and it helps to get a head start. Also when I see a new bird, I sometimes wonder what it is. Having a small inkling in advance also helps with this. I found a link to help me with both of those in Northern VA.

When I was out surfing the internet one day I came across a link for a rare bird list. When I started to dig into it, I realized that it is put out every Tuesday and is a list of where all of the rare bird sightings are in my area. When I take a Thursday or Friday off to bird, I look over the list beforehand to see if there are any rare birds around or how the birds are trending. When I read that there are large flocks of hawks around (for example), I might look extra hard for that species.

Here is the link that I found. Click on North America to bring up a list of all of the states.

http://www.virtualbirder.com/vbirder/realbirds/rbas/VA.html

Nuthatch and Carolina Wren..ohh and a Cardinal

These are still from last weekend. I plan on being outside most of the weekend coming up to get more pictures.

Carolina Wren

White-breasted Nuthatch

Male Northern Cardinal

Fall is in the air

I spent a great deal of time in my backyard this weekend and got a ton of pictures as my reward. Throughout the day yesterday and today, I saw the following birds (both male and females):


Carolina Wren
Tufted Titmouse
Carolina Chickadee
Northern Cardinal
White-breasted Nuthatch
House Finch
American Goldfinch (which really looked like Warblers)
Downy Woodpecker
Mourning Dove
Too many Sparrows

The hardest one to get a picture of was the Tufted Titmouse as they were extremely skittish.

Tufted Titmouse

Warbler

There were several flocks of warblers down by the lake and along the pine trees away from the lake. Although these could be Yellow Warblers, I am more leaning toward Pine Warblers. Very tough call.

Warbler

Ready for Takeoff

MN part duex

There were wild Turkeys on the road. Here is some pictures of a rafter of 12 Turkeys.

Crossing the road 

Half of the twelve

Getting under the fence to safety

Birding in MN?

I spent about a week in Northern MN and just got back. I am going to post some of the many wildlife pictures (mostly birds) that I took.

It was nice to see a lot of Bald Eagles up there flying around. It seems like I saw some nearly everyday.

In 2007, it was estimated that there were 2300 nesting pairs of Bald Eagles in MN. If the trend continued, there should be about 2400 pairs in 2010. I don't ever remember seeing so many eagles in 1 week before.

Bald Eagle looking for food