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Trying again

My dad used to feed the various birds in the area {including pretty and mean Blue Jays} by placing birdseed on the railing of his deck....

....my sister said he was feeding the cat.

A pair of Aussie beauties.
As they are king parrots a mate gave his local pair the nicknames Charles and Camilla, so I call these two Felipe and Letizia.

From this morning: the photo that almost was: in the background is an egret (maybe 3 feet tall when stretched out) and in the foreground should have been a rufus hummingbird (3 inches tall), but the H-bird flew away just as I lifted my phone. Egrets are uncommon around here, but we have hummingbirds year-round.

ORIGINAL: Panjack

From this morning: the photo that almost was: in the background is an egret (maybe 3 feet tall when stretched out) and in the foreground should have been a rufus hummingbird (3 inches tall), but the H-bird flew away just as I lifted my phone. Egrets are uncommon around here, but we have hummingbirds year-round.

To your great egret, the hummingbird flew away?

[&o]

ORIGINAL: rockmedic109

My dad used to feed the various birds in the area {including pretty and mean Blue Jays} by placing birdseed on the railing of his deck....

....my sister said he was feeding the cat.

I'm mostly feeding the hawks that way.

ORIGINAL: jdsrae

A pair of Aussie beauties.
As they are king parrots a mate gave his local pair the nicknames Charles and Camilla, so I call these two Felipe and Letizia.

And such stunning beauties.

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

ORIGINAL: rockmedic109

My dad used to feed the various birds in the area {including pretty and mean Blue Jays} by placing birdseed on the railing of his deck....

....my sister said he was feeding the cat.

I'm mostly feeding the hawks that way.

Hawks are also birds...

Is this a bird? Not my pic and it's on Crete.

ORIGINAL: dcpollay

ORIGINAL: Orm




Something I have been pondering on for some time.

This isn't a bird, Orm. It's a pre-bird.

PRE-BIRD??!!

Gave me a great laugh. Nice job!

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

Is this a bird? Not my pic and it's on Crete.

A Chinese duck. Part of their efforts to make nations dependent on them... [;)]

Spring is in the air. Although the nights remain cold.

Here birds are busy building nests. Have you seen any migrating birds return yet?

Nope - no spring in the air here. Minus 12C or so for a daytime high, -20sC at night. We did have a few days with temperatures near melting recently, but not enough to start melting the snow that has accumulated near record levels. We are hoping for a slow melt to keep flooding to a minimum ... and no more snow please!

Orm wrote: Wed Mar 09, 2022 7:46 am Have you seen any migrating birds return yet?

A couple of weeks ago went and visited the snow geese migration....saw 36,000 wheeling thru the sky over the lake

https://uncoveringpa.com/middle-creek-s ... -migration

At home, saw my first Bluebird over the weekend.

Okay, Orm, here you go. An American kestrel just took a mouse from under my bird feeders. It flew it up to a telephone pole and I just managed to get 3 pics. Wish I had more time to focus. One of the most beautiful birds you'll ever see. (showing in reverse order)

Last fall I watched a kestrel being chased by 5 crows all around the neighbourhood. But once a pair of crows split off to stay in their own zone, the kestrel turned on the other three and harried them until they retreated to their own favourite tree and took cover in the leafless branches. The kestrel came back to the first pair and chased them off their high perch to shelter in another tree with lots of branches. Sometimes the kestrel would get close to behind the head of a crow in flight and the crow would have to flip over to use its talons and beak to defend itself. The kestrel just broke off with that one and went after another crow. No wonder the kestrel is part of the group called "harriers".

EDIT to add: I often hear the kree-kree-kree of a kestrel before I ever see it in summer. The colour scheme blends pretty good with the trees in the area.

He came back a little later. From these pics I can tell it's a male. Got some nice video of him too.

more kestrel

Below his perch here mice can often be seen