It’s mid-September, the heat has finally broke, and Female and immature Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are putting on the last few grams to get them across the Gulf of Mexico. It seems that one criteria for deciding if it is time to go is they can’t see their feet 🙂 As a bonus, this is the time […]
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Cedar Waxwings are winter resident fruit specialists here in metro-Atlanta. But because they are late nesters & can be short-haul migrants, going only as far north as the high-elevations of the North GA mountains, they will hang around gorging on spring\early summer berry crops. Native serviceberries are a favorite. Waxwings will gather in small flocks […]
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Velociraptor, or at least one of their descendants a Hermit Thrush, visiting our yard. There is consensus among many scientists that today’s birds are dinosaurs. Fossil evidence points to the theropods, a family of three-toed predators that included Velociraptor mongoliensis and Tyrannosaurus rex as the evolutionary lineage. Theropods share hinged ankles, swivel-jointed wrists, wishbones, and […]
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In field guides, this species is listed as Swainson’s Thrush, with a note that they are often called Olive-backed. And a case can be made for Salmonberry Bird, at least for the population on the NW coast of the U.S. and the coast of Canada’s Inland Passage. I’m going with Olive-backed because it could be […]
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A male Ruby-throated Hummingbird caught in the act of ‘hawking’.
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Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird feeding on a tiger lily bloom: I say feeding because she could be sipping nectar or eating insects attracted to the nectar. Hummers rely much more insects than it appears because we are spoiled by the sight of them on flowers. 60+%, depending on time of year, of their diet can be […]
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When the cold fronts start moving through the South, the birdwatching web sites light up with posts from many new birders along the lines of: “Bless their hearts, are my poor little babies going to freeze to death?” The answers back are along the lines of: One way birds stay warm is by using their […]
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I’ve seen it hundreds of times. A bird of prey that has been sitting quietly still and unnoticed deep in a tree canopy suddenly explodes into flight. Maneuvers through the branches and limbs of the treetops to take its prey. I’m awestruck every time. This Red-tailed Hawk hunting in our yard on two recent days […]
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Female Baltimore Oriole. Or maybe immature male. Males don’t molt to their bright adult orange until their second year. This bird was visiting our yard in Decatur, Georgia which is deep inside metro-Atlanta on January 29th. I had to add Baltimore Oriole to my yard’s eBird checklist. And was lucky to have photos. They are […]
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Pine Warblers live year round with us. They don’t head to the tropics in winter like their neotropical cousins. They are literally and figuratively a bright spot on drab, grey, winter days. Especially our days of ‘wintry mix’. What holds them here is their fondness for, guess what, pine nuts. Something we have a lot […]
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