Birding

I spotted the fledgling Bald Eagles this morning, there were 2 in the nest I saw. I'm told there are 2 other nests on the property all with fledglings. I didn't see the adults, except for maybe at a distance- but there are so many ospreys that at the distance I was dealing with it was very hard to tell.

I also saw a Brown Headed Cowbird:

And got some great pictures of a Great Blue Heron:

There were also some nesting Red-Bellied Woodpeckers:

I took a hike there this afternoon to look for Bald Eagles. I didn't see the eagles (thought I heard them!) but I did see a lot of other stuff! I didn't get any pictures of Ospreys, but I saw at least 6-7 of them. Here's the highlights.

The main picture of the post is a Great Crested Flycatcher. He landed on a tree like 20 feet in front of me, and was very polite as I took a couple of pictures.

Here's a Prairie Warbler doing what I'm pretty sure is a mating display:

Here's what I'm fairly certain is a female Blue Grosbeak. The pictures I got show the blue patch on her shoulder, and that yellowish streak in the wing:

I got a picture of what I thought was a tree swallow, but when I looked at it in Lightroom I realized that it was actually a Bank Swallow; I wasn't expecting to see any here but the band around its neck is clearly visible, and the spot on the belly is barely visible in the photo.

We have a LOT of cardinals around our house, here's a few pictures I got of them over the last few days.

These house finches have been visiting my feeder for a few days now. There are 5 of them, 2 adults and their young (who are now nearly adults themselves).

More pics:

I've had multiple of these little guys come to my hummingbird feeder over the last week. I only got a good picture of this one though.

I've been getting into birding recently and got some good pictures of a few different birds. This Grey Catbird has been coming by for a few days; it has a baby old enough to fly but not old enough to feed itself. I've watched her go back and forth feeding it.

More pictures:

Buffalo, NY. Tifft Nature Preserve, 2023-05-14

CC-by-SA 4.0 International

From Rio Lagartos, Yucatan.

This is delightful!

Having a species guide you have to scroll down to consult replicates precisely the experience of staring at a bird as hard as you can, memorizing as much as you can, and then turning to your bird book as soon as it flies away.

Seeing the birds from far away also helps create a sense that, well, my area's common birds are still special and particular.