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April - June 2010 Archive
Articles Archived from Main Backyard Birdscapes Page
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May 13, 2010 -
Today we were very fortunate to see a wonderful
bird. The Veery is named for its mysterious,
sweet voice that spirals downward making a veeer
sound. His odd name, of course, comes from an
imitation of his sweet voice. Mostly found on
the forest floor, he is considered the secretive
thrush.
...
veery info and photos
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April 25, 2010 -
This was an outstanding day! We saw and
photographed two new-to-us birds. I thought I
was taking a picture of a chipping sparrow at
one of the seed feeders. After viewing the day's
photos, I realized this bird was something else.
Research in our personal bird library indicated
we had a field sparrow visitor. He has a
baby-like innocence to his coloring. Usually
seen foraging on the ground, he managed to find
a rare alone-moment on a feeder. This little
sparrow is declining in its range, so we feel
doubly lucky to have corrected our
identification of this summer bird. We'll be
keeping our eye out for more activity. More of
his personal information to come. |
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April 25,2010 - The really
astonishing visitor today was one who doesn't migrate
and is not found (according to current reference
material) north of Long Island, NY. But here was
unmistakably a male northern bobwhite. He spent the
afternoon and early evening grazing under our feeders.
Old bird books from the 1950's and 60's indicate that
bobwhites could easily be found in this area and as far
north as Maine. More on that topic later.
more info and photos...
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April 22, 2010 -
While waiting in the driveway for the plumber,
we spotted several tree swallows making swooping
inspection of the yard and the potential bird
houses - no time to get the camera. We had
better luck on April 30th for pictures, but a
male swallow was not as fortunate in the luck
department. After inspecting a birdhouse that
was used two summers ago by tree swallows (maybe
even this bird), he apparently was startled and
flew into Food Guy's office door. He was stunned
but didn't lose consciousness. After several of
his friends came over to look and probably
encourage him, he flew away, maybe to reconsider
his house hunting tactics.
...more photos and info |
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On April 23, 2010,
we heard the unmistakable singing of a house
wren. Last year after what Food Guy called
William the Wren, had successfully had a
wonderful little family in one of our close bird
houses, we saw very little of him and them. Soon
another male appeared. This one had white
feathers on his right wing edge. Even though he
too sang his little heart out and restuffed
William's bird houses with new sticks, I don't
think he ever found his true love. This year Mr.
White Wing wren is back in full song and filling
every box he can find with twigs large and
small. By May1st he found a female who surveyed
his crude nesting attempts and quickly picked
the one with the best potential and started
redecorating.
...more photos and info |
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Since the spring
has been so warm, I was surprised that we still
had juncos in our yard until April 24th. In
looking over last year's records, it turns out
the little gray guys were our guests until April
23, 2009. Juncos could stay in our area
year-round and I know of some that do about 20
miles from here. I guess ours prefer to travel
to the honeymoon capital of Niagara Falls and
beyond. See ya' in the fall.
more photos and info
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April 1, 2010 - We occasionally have seen two American
tree sparrows at once, but often actually have only one
come to a feeder at a time. In January we were excited
to see four distinct birds. By April 1st we were visited
by three American tree sparrows, while they ate at the
feeders for what became a last fill-up before
migration. Back to the tundra of northern-North America
to have babies. |
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