More Unique Backyard Birds

Since early October I have had several Yellow bellied Sapsuckers, a female Golden-crowned Kinglet  and a Yellow-rumped Warbler. It has been interesting observing them.
First there was a female and two juvenile Sapsuckers. One still seemed to want mom to provide food chasing her from tree to tree calling "knit-knit-knit." There is one Yellow-bellied sapsucker left now which flits from tree to tree while the Yellow-rumped Warbler follows.Occasionally the Warbler sees the Kinglet and tries to chase it out of the area, but she returns. Since all three should be migrating it is interesting that they have stayed so long in one place. We have another warmish week so I am wondering if they will head further south after the weather turns. But for now they are providing lots of viewing fun right in my own backyard.

The female Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

I think this is the female and the juvenile that was following her around

This is the remaining Sapsucker trying to catch a bug

You can see the red starting to develop on the forehead

 

You can see the Yellow-rump  



Yellow-rumped Warbler

Female Golden-crowned Kinglet

Golden -crowned Kinglet

Notice the broken eye ring. It really makes its eyes look big

Warbler Still in Breeding Plumage in Brooklyn Backyard

We were hit by quite a storm last Thursday and a tornado touched down not too far from my home. So, I was in the backyard late this afternoon looking at what still needed to be cleaned up. A tree man had come and gotten the top of my neighbor's tree out of the pool and from the branches above. Now if the cable company will come to get the wires out of the pool. Anyhow, my eye caught this flitting among the trees. The bird was so small I immediately thought warbler. He came and went and at a couple of points I saw two of them. At first all I could see was that it's belly was white and it had a black throat and it looked black above except for a white wing spot. I spotted it fly up from the ground once and got the impression that it was blue in it's upper parts. Could it be a black-throated blue warbler still in breeding plumage? I looked in my neighbor's yard and there he was foraging around; definately blue above with black face and throat. I was amazed and thrilled. The pictures are not great because it was so late in the afternoon and I had to run most of them through photo shop but I think you will agree with me that it is a Black-throated Blue Warbler. Two of them at least right here in a Brooklyn backyard. Who would have thought?



I had another small bird in the backyard as well this afternoon which I am trying to identify. I'll post the picture of that one tomorrow. I may need help figuring out its identity.



The Great BwBTC Birding Adventure

What a gorgeous, weather wise, day we had for the BwBTC outing in RI on Sat. Dan of NatureObservances http://forestal-plantedtanks.blogspot.com/ wrote a great account in detail and Larry of The Brownstone Birding Blog http://brownstonebirder.blogspot.com/ wrote a clever and very funny account. I believe we saw 70 different birds for the day.
My day started by oversleeping (of all days) and thank goodness I was already in Rhode Island and therefore only 15 minutes late.  I was the one who fell in the mud, "Baby Steps," Jeff advised afterwards, and it worked. At least it was the mud I fell in and not the water! After that the day went smoothly. Many laughs and good birding and other discussions with old and new friends. Dawn and Jeff of Dawns bloggy blog http://dawnandjeffsblog.blogspot.com/ did a fantastic job of organizing and scouting out the places we birded, Thank You!

"Don't you even think about getting near my fish; somebody already ate half of it."

Western Sandpiper

Semipalmated Sandpiper (I think)

 Fledgling Black-billed Cuckoo
When we first saw this bird that John (Birdman from Bridgewater) found, the parent was feeding it a rather large green grasshopper. It was amazing to watch. The parent held onto the grasshopper while the fledgling would grab on and chew and then let go. This went on for a good five minutes until the fledgeling got the grasshopper to a point it could swallow it.

Female Ring-necked Pheasant
This particular bird just weaved in and out of the brush and across the path as if non of us were there.

Monarch

American Painted Lady

Up, Up and Away Continued

Up, Up and Away

3,000 miles later I am home from my trip. I started out heading for Minnesota to find graves of my gg and ggg grandparents. Then I headed south to Missouri to find the grave of another gg grandmother and finally to a dear friend house in Illinois. While in IL there was a Hot-Air Balloon Festival in Centralia where my friend lives. This was the 21st year for the festival. I took alot of pictures because they were all just beautiful.

 

They inflated the balloons on Friday night and then lit them calling it "The Glow." They could not fly them Sat morning because there had been heavy rain the night before. Many people gathered to watch the event.

As they were blowing up the balloons Sunday morning I was able to catch a few with reflections in the catfish pond.

  

 

 Before long the balloon's air is heated enough and off they go into the sky. That is when they are really beautiful. They flew on Sunday morning and Sunday evening. Tomorrow I'll show you some of my favorite shots.