Home, Sweet... Snowy, Home

I hope you enjoyed my birding reports from my travels to Colombia, South America.  In case you missed any of those posts, here are the links:

Intro to the trip:  To Bogota and Beyond, and Back Home
A visit to the Bogota Botanical Garden: Jardin Botanico de Bogota
Of Toucans and Woodpeckers  (obviously, about toucans and woodpeckers!)
Hummingbirds of Colombia: A Question for God
And, finally, a round-up of different birds of Colombia, and my methods for IDing them:
Name that Bird

I don't usually list links to my posts, but I put a lot of time and effort into writing those (it was definitely a learning experience for me to bird in Colombia!), so I don't want you to miss any!

Now, a little catching up with what's been happening here at home.  

Basically, it's been cold and snowy.  Still, there's no place like home and I'm glad (mostly, anyway) to be back!

The snow is hanging in there.

The dogs don't seem to mind.

No, you are not seeing double... we have a new grand-dog!

Norad (on the right) arrived just before we went to Colombia, and already he's become a regular part of the family.

Mac and Norad even share the tennis ball when they come to play with Grammy.  

Ruby still comes on Thursdays.  The snow is deeper than Ruby's legs are long, which keeps her mainly in the pathways.

Spring is coming though... my geranium is flowering nicely in the sunroom.  At least it was, until I trimmed it back to make cuttings to start new plants.  Spring IS coming!

See the geranium flowers in the window?

Ruby's mom and I enjoyed a day trip to the Philadelphia Flower Show.  Funny how one of the things we enjoyed most was the GREEN GRASS!

There was a lot of other color, too... like in the orchid aisle:

Although I typically prefer plants with non-variegated leaves, Laura took my photo with this variegated geranium because she was surprised I said I liked it!

Thanks to Laura for the flower show photos!

And you can see I picked up a feeder-bird poster from the Subaru-Cornell display.  Plants and birds... made a great day!

The bird feeders at home have been VERY active.  We have a huge flock of goldfinches, and along with them-- a bunch of Pine Siskins (it's an irruption year for them) and a few Common Redpolls have been coming since mid-January.

Pine Siskins and American Goldfinches

Pine Siskins, Common Redpolls, and Goldfinches

Even though the Goldfinches, Siskins, and Redpolls spend a lot of time squabbling, they still empty the feeders fast!  

Lately, some of the other birds actually seem to be getting along better... maybe springtime romance is in the air?

Male and female Downy Woodpeckers eating suet at the same time.

Male Red-bellied Woodpecker

Female Red-bellied says, "We don't share the feeder, but I'm keeping my eye on him!"

We only added 4 new birds to our property list during the month of February.  They were: Common Raven, Starling, Wild Turkey, and House Sparrow (# 30).  

I would probably have thought the Starling was a beautiful bird if I had seen it in Colombia, but here it's an alien and mostly an unwanted bird.  Look at those colors though!

I'm ready for some new faces.  Hopefully some of our migrant birds will brave the weather soon and rejoin us.  I guess for now, I'll have to be content with these faces.... they look like they love each other don't they?

Norad and Mac

A Somewhat Strange Week of Birding

Birders have a language all their own.  They 'pish', do a dance for joy when they get a 'life bird', look for 'vagrants' and 'rarities' and watch for bird 'irruptions'.  This week I got to do the 'lifer' dance (first ever sighting of a new species)-- right in my kitchen... for this bird:

As soon as I looked out the window and saw it, I knew it was something different.  I looked in my field guide and thought it was a Rusty Blackbird, and then confirmed it with an email photo to another birder.  I don't want to make a mistake with a 'life' bird!

That rusty color (especially when the late afternoon sun was hitting it) and yellow eye were pretty conclusive.  Also, it was the same size as a Red-winged Blackbird who was also taking advantage of our bird food.

Here's another shot of it (lower right) with a couple of Blue Jays, a Mourning Dove, and a Grackle for size comparison.

 

Rusty Blackbirds migrate thru our area, and their numbers are in decline (they are one of the most rapidly declining species of birds), so I was really excited to see it.

Another bird that is in decline are Evening Grosbeaks.  We had one of those visit this week, too!  I'm not sure if it would be called an 'irruption' (defined as "a dramatic, irregular migration of large numbers of birds to areas where they aren’t typically found, possibly at a great distance from their normal ranges") because it was only one bird. Maybe it would be a 'rarity' (that term is pretty self-explanatory).

 This female Evening Grosbeak came on the 17th, showed up again on the morning of the 18th.  She was not a life bird for me, but she was very rare for our area. The last one we had here was in April 2008.  Unfortunately, she didn't hang around long enough for another birder who came, hoping to see her to put on his 'county list'.  The first day she was here was very rainy and cold...

She gets her name, 'grosbeak' from her very large beak... a good one for cracking hard things to eat.

...then the next day was sunny so maybe she moved on with the better weather.

After that came the Rusty Blackbird (it got top billing on this post, out of chronological order, because of its 'life bird' status).  But, soon after the Rusty Blackbird came another unusual sighting.... a Killdeer in late November in North-east PA.  Now, we've had Killdeer on our property list most years, but not this year.  I had given up 'getting' one.  They nest right down the road from us in a church parking lot so we do get to see them and even their babies.  (They were featured in a previous blog post -- click here if you missed them!) 

I was not at all expecting to hear and see one on Wednesday but that's what happened.

I was outside for a few minutes in the afternoon doing something when I heard a bird 'crying' over in the swamp.  I ran inside for my camera and binoculars... sure enough, a killdeer!

I felt sorry for it-- the water was frozen almost everywhere and the poor bird kept taking short kind of 'hopping' flights and landing.  It didn't seem very happy with its circumstances!  As I stood in our driveway watching, it rose again and starting flying.... directly towards me!  It flew right over my head.  I watched it fly towards the pond behind our house.  I hope it found the open spring that feeds the pond.  That would be the only wet area left.

That seemed like enough unusual birds for one week, but the next morning when I looked out at the feeders, there was a Pine Siskin with a small flock of American Goldfinches.

Pine siskins are 'irruption' birds for us, and typically when they come, we have lots of them.  So having just one seems a bit strange.  This is the second time this fall that we've had one!  If you have goldfinches, keep an eye out for them, as they tend to look similar.  In the next photo it almost looks like the siskin and the goldfinch are checking each other out!

"Oh yes, I see you have a yellow feather on your wings and a stripy breast.... very pretty!" says the goldfinch to the siskin.

Okay, the next thing isn't really that strange but it's pretty unusual for me to look out the window and see two American Crows strutting around in our lawn.  Guess they wanted to join the rest of the birds.

That was also on the 20th.  The 21st passed without any strange or rare birds.  This morning (the 22nd) I went for a walk and didn't really expect to see anything 'special' either.  When I heard two Crows and some Blue Jays 'mobbing' something down by the swamp, I figured I'd try to see if I could see what they were so upset about.  Usually, it's an owl (which would probably be hidden from my sight in a tree, or a maybe a hawk).  Well! This time it was a mature Bald Eagle.  Even though they aren't that rare anymore, it's always a great sight to see one!

A splendid end to a great week of birds!