Birds In My Backyard
A week or two ago I spotted a Rose-breasted Grosbeak in my backyard and reported it on eBird. Birding Buddy Bonnie commented that I was lucky to get it as yard-bird. One of the many benefits of using eBird is that, if done right, it keeps track of how many species you have seen in your own yard – I currently stand at 68. To do it right, when you submit a checklist from your yard you can name the location (I named mine Valley View, because that’s the subdivision I live in). If eBird picks the location automatically it could list your actual address, which I didn’t want. Now, every time I submit a checklist of birds seen in my yard I select Valley View as the location and eBird tallies all the species I’ve seen here.
Getting back to my original story, I told Birding Buddy Bonnie that in the past I’ve had 4-6 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks at my feeders at the same time! That got me thinking about other birds I’ve seen here and taken pictures of, so today I feature Birds in My Backyard.
We start of with the birds that started this whole conversation. Rose-breasted Grosbeaks gathered together in a small group to eat the Safflower I put in the platform feeder:
It was unusual to see both a Scarlet Tanager and a Rose-breasted Grosbeak at the Oriole Feeder. I had seen the Scarlet Tanager there before but the Grosbeak was usually feeding at the platform feeder.
Turn about is fair play – we put out an Oriole feeder each spring, stocked with high-end grape jelly and fresh oranges. So where did this Baltimore Oriole feed at – the tube seed feeder! There’s no accounting for taste.
This female Mallard was scrounging for food beneath one of my feeders after a mid-April snow storm. A pair of Mallards had been in a neighbor’s backyard all winter, swimming around in the water collected in their above-ground pool cover.
We don’t get many warblers in our backyard. The most common – Yellow-rumped and Palm – have been seen most migration seasons, but few others. Karen shouted out for my attention just last week when she spotted this Black-throated Green Warbler at our birdbath. I took a few pictures through the sliding glass door as it bathed but the glass distorted the image. When it flew up into the tree behind the birdbath I slid open the door just enough to snap a few shots.
Just one more – as I was entering these pics I noticed that Rebeca Bowater just shared some birds at a feeder, too. However this one was from someone’s backyard – in Australia! A Long-billed Corella. Now I have feeder-envy!
Stay Safe. Go Birding. Take Pics. Share Here. Repeat.
Mike
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