All the News That's Fit to Share
A bona-fide member of the Fifth Estate, practicing Mobile Journalism (MoJo) every chance we get...
The rose-breasted grosbeaks and other migratory bird species are passing through the South on the way north for the summer. I managed to get a few decent shots today.
The rose-breasted grosbeak [pheucticus ludovicianus] making a stop in the backyard bird sanctuary in middle Alabama during the spring bird migration of 2012.
Click here or on the image to see more photos from Wednesday’s shoot.
A beautiful little white-throated sparrow [zonotrichia albicollis] lives in the shrubs in our yard and visits the backyard birth bath daily. But it is hard to time it just right to get his picture.
I got lucky today. Just as I set up, he showed up and didn’t fly away as I snapped away. If you click on the science link, you can also listen to its interesting little call.
Then, late in the afternoon when the light was right, he came back for more.
More photos below…
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An Eastern towhee [pipilo erythrophthalmus] taking a bath in the backyard on a beautiful Easter Sunday in Central Alabama. Notice the red eyes. No, that’s not red eye from a camera flash. These interesting birds around all year long in the South have red eyes. They rustle around in the leaves to unearth seeds and insects to eat, and they hop along the ground and sing “tow-hee, tow-hee,” and then let out a long trill.
A chipping sparrow [spizella passerina] catching an early spring bath on the first day of The Great Backyard Bird Count 2012
So much for religion and politics. Let’s talk a little science.
If you love to watch birds, please participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count, February 17-20.
I’m set up with the big lens on the back porch. Photos now (more below).
Click on the images for a larger view
A pair of Alabama yellow hammers, otherwise known as the Northern Flicker [colaptes auratus], visited the back yard to feed on Sunday. I have been trying to get pictures of this pair for years. They finally cooperated today. Maybe they were so hungry they didn’t pay me much mind.
While you can see the yellow tail feather in the shot up in the tree, where you would expect to find a woodpecker, see the shot on the ground below. According to scientists, flickers eat mainly ants and beetles, digging for them with their unusual, slightly curved bill. These seemed to be interested in the nuts all over the ground. There are so many this year the squirrels have not been able to bury them all to store up for the winter.
Out West, these woodpeckers tend to have a few partially hidden red tail feathers, thus the name red-shafted flicker. In the South, they have yellow tail feathers, which you can only see from certain angles, so they are often called yellow-shafted flickers.
These birds have a special place in state lore going all the way back to the Civil War, and it is the state bird of Alabama.
More below…
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A pair of pileated woodpeckers dryocopus pileatus hang out regularly in the vicinity of Lake Chinnabee Recreation Area in the Talladega National Forest, just down the mountain from Cheaha State Park, Alabama’s highest point. These huge birds are nearly as large as a crow and are sometimes mistaken for the ivory-billed woodpecker, believed by many experts to be extinct, making this the largest woodpecker in most of North America. Its loud ringing calls and large rectangular excavations in dead trees reveal its presence in forests across the continent, although try getting close enough to one to get a full frame sharp photograph. They are shy and elusive for the most part, and dip when they fly, making them hard to photograph in flight. I got a few frames of this one Saturday morning, from too far away, across the creek running out of Lake Chinnabee.
Click here or on the image to see a photo essay…
A yellow-rumped warbler [Dendroica coronata] stopped by the backyard birdbath on its way south Tuesday afternoon. (More on the way…)
Click here or on the image for a larger view
This red-bellied woodpecker [melanerpes carolinus], close cousin to the northern flicker, also known as the yellow-hammer, the state bird of Alabama, stopped by for a meal atop a pine tree by our campsite Saturday afternoon in Cheaha State Park in the lower Campground No. 2 near Cheaha Lake.
A pine warbler [dendroica pinus] showed up at the bird bath today on the way south during the fall bird migration of 2011.
More photos below…
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