Last Easter

Last Easter (2010) some wild turkeys went wandering through the back yard. Not so strange considering there are tons of turkeys around here, just none in my yard. Then, with the amount of rain we had in the big flood of March 2010, some ducks came through. Guess they were looking for a pond.

Singing to myself

I should mention that in watching birds from a car, I only look for large birds--raptors, turkey vultures--those kinds of birds. With the type of weather we've been having there haven't been too many sightings. Except the usual which I don't even remark upon but will mention anyway: cardinals, crows, seagulls, grackles, wrens, chickadees, flickers. But I did enjoy this link to a slideshow of osprey (and some other birds) photos. My soundtrack today has included Uncle Tupelo and Guided by Voices so I can sing along loudly and distract myself from the lack of birds.

the nest

I've given up. The little carolina wrens are welcome to the space above the screen. I forgot to finish screening the porch couple of years ago. So please, no pooping on my head. Thanks!

no work, no birds

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Since it's Saturday and I don't have to work, there will be little bird watching from the car today. Maybe later if we decide to go looking for scratch and dent refrigerators. So I thought I would post my empty nest photos from the other day. Except that little bird keeps invading my breezeway to add more to its nest necessitating the closing of the back door. Which of course annoys the crap out of me every time I go to let one of the dogs out. Maybe a dog door would be a good idea.

Return of the osprey

Finally! After taking pictures of empty nests yesterday morning and lamenting the late arrival of the ospreys this year I got to see an osprey chowing on a fish last night on my way home from work. And 2 this morning on my way in hovering over the pond. And several at lunch time. Couldn't get a picture of the one flying directly above my windshield though. It was too quick and there were too many other cars around me. And a turkey vulture was eating on the median again this afternoon. Missed my opportunity to photograph it again. Some day I will get these photos up.

How it all began

I seem to do a lot of bird watching. But I usually do this from the comfort of the driver's seat in my car. Or out my kitchen window. So why not record it? I decided to take my inexpensive digital camera along in order to take pictures of any of the interesting birds I see in my short commute to work. This didn't work too well as the red-tailed hawk I saw on the top of a tree flew away as soon as I stopped. But I will continue anyway.