Sunday, July 4, 2010

A Rainblow of Birds at Nola's House

Friday after seeing Marcia and Priscilla seemed like the perfect time to try to get out to Red Creek and visit my friend Nola who has all the birds at her house. Priscilla took me on a wonderful set of back roads through towns I had never heard of to get me there as she lives about five miles from Nola!

After tallying the birds, I realized that the whole rainbow was present (1) red in the Rose Breasted Grosbeaks and Cardinals, (2) orange in the Baltimore Orioles, (3) yellow in the Goldfinches, (4) bright green in the iridescent Ruby Throated Hummingbirds, (5) in the Bluebird mom, and (6) Purple and House Finches (okay, cheating a little as they really look red to me) and (7) all the neutrals in the Mourning Dove, White Breasted Nuthatches, Hairy Woodpeckers, female and male Red Winged Blackbirds and the female Purple Finches. I took all these photos in less than an hour I might add!

This is my favorite of the photos I took over just about an hour! Featured are a male Goldfinch in full summer color and a Rose Breasted Grosbeak playing like a Hummingbird!


Here is a female Red Winged Black bird to the left and a Mourning Dove to the right eating the leavings of the other birds.


There were fatter and more chipmonks than I have seen also around the bird feeders. Surprisingly, I didn't see one grey squirrel though!!


This is a closeup of the Red Breasted Grosbeak. They were everpresent.






Here a Hairy Woodpecker is sharing the feeder with the Rose Breasted Grosbeak.


Nola uses grape jelly to entice the Baltimore Orioles who frequent the backyard. Today only the females were at the feeder. They are the duller of the two sexes but even they are wonderfully bright!





Here one of the goldfinches shares the feeder with the Hairy Woodpecker female and a White Breasted Nuthatch.



I was able to get very close to some of the birds including this male Goldfinch.




This was the Ruby Throated Hummingbird, a frequent visitor to our area. He was in the shade.


Here the Goldfinch is again sharing the feeder with the femail Hairy Woodpecker.





Here is the House Finch at the feeder.


Mama Bluebird pictured here was watching over her three day old babies in t his bird box.


The Purple Finches were bright and frequent visitors to the feeder. They are more colorful than the Houses Finches which we see so frequently at home and the beach.





A White Breasted Nuthatch posing for me.
I should add that coming up to Nola's house is like coming through the dense forests of yesteryear. Beautiful canopy of trees on their acreage along with the resident wildflowers and beavers building an ever growing pond.
They have also had nesting Wood Ducks and Golden Eagles out here. The pond is very difficult to get to see but I imagine I would find a myriad of ducks here as well.

1 comment:

Vicki W said...

Oh my gosh, those are fabulous photos! We only get the Rose-breasted Grosbeak for a week or so each Spring and Fall.