Atlanta birds in the cold - My World Tuesday

Woodpecker and friend sharing the feeder.

American robins were everywhere.

Not sure what the birds are with the stripe on their wings. I don't think they are red winged blackbirds. I didn't see any red. There were some grackles mixed in.

Sparrow was waiting to get to the feeder.

Female cardinal at the feeder.

People say there are robins in Florida in the winter but I have never seen one here. I've only seen them in Atlanta. I forget about them until I visit the in-laws. On my Christmas eve walk around my in-law's neighborhood I found a handful of birds in the cold. One house had a bird feeder that had quite a few visitors. I was glad I had brought my 300mm lens with me. I almost didn't thinking it would be too cold to be outside (for me and the birds) but both myself and birds were out a good bit.

Go and check out more MyWorld images at the MyWorld Site!  http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/

Also,check out more birds at World Bird Wednesday below.

Nasty weather at Lettuce Lake

I think both the above and below pictures are an eastern phoebe. I've seen them there before.

Warbler?

 

Red bellied woodpecker. You can see it was not a nice day.

Female cardinal.

 

This looks like a downy woodpecker or is it a female yellow bellied sapsucker? They look almost alike.

The weekend before Christmas was really yucky. It rained all day on Saturday. It drizzled Sunday morning. It stopped by lunchtime but still looked like the end could come at anytime. I had cabin fever so I headed out to Lettuce Lake. It's not too far and there's a boardwalk along the lake so it wouldn't be too muddy. It felt cold in the wind without the sun out. Most of the bigger water birds were on the other side of the lake but there were a few smaller birds along the boardwalk. It was worth bundling up and getting out of the house.

Merry Christmas from Atlanta

I'm spending Christmas weekend in Atlanta with the in-laws. I managed to sneak out for a few hours on Christmas eve to walk around the neighborhood and found a few birds hanging around in the cold. Lots of cardinals up here. I also saw my first cedar waxwing, but more on that after the holidays.

I want to thank everyone who stopped by this past year and hope you stop by again in the next year. I've got more pictures to come. Have a great Christmas!

Georgia birds and a chipmunk

Red bellied woodpecker  Yellow bellied sapsucker up in my in-laws' tree.

There were tons of these little birds high up in the trees. I think it's a type of warbler. It's almost impossible to get pictures of them. They don't stay still for a second.

Female cardinal.

Blue jay high up in the pine tree.

Chipmunk with a cheek full on my in-laws' back deck.

Hubby & I spent Halloween weekend in Atlanta with his family.  He was turning 50 and wanted to spend it with them. We got to Atlanta early Friday afternoon and as soon as I got out of the car I heard birds calling from everywhere. His parents have a large yard with old growth pine trees all around. After unloading the car, I spent an hour walking around the yard looking for birds with his mom. She said the woodpeckers have been annoying lately. They've been banging on the side of the house.  They're going to need to keep an eye on that so they don't get any real damage from them. My goal for this trip was to get a some shots of chipmunks. I only got the one above. I've never seen them in central Florida. My other goal was to get some shots of fall leaves. I have those to post later.

Birds at Largo Botanical Gardens

A flash of gray goes by me. It's a tufted titmouse making a quick stop on a tree.

I'm starting to see cardinals everywhere.

Red bellied woodpecker.

Blue grey gnatcatcher.  This has to be the tiniest bird there.

This woodpecker looked slightly different than the first one. It was smaller and did not have the red on it's head. It could be a different woodpecker or an immature red bellied, although his beak looks different as well. I searched through the over 200 different species of woodpeckers and decided my head would explode before guessing this one.

A great egret doing his duty. Yes, the whole world is a toilet.

I made a recent stop to the Florida Botanical Gardens (in Largo). The morning started out cloudy and I thought I would get rained out but later the sun came out (and so did the mosquitoes and humidity). There was a good variety of birds there but I did not find any of the little migrating birds such as warblers. I also did not see a single alligator although I know there are several there. I think it's still warm and they are hiding in the water. 

Little birds at Chesnut Park

Male cardinal keeping an eye on me.

 

Female cardinal posing.

I'm guessing the above is a yellow throated warbler. I looked it up but all of these tiny birds are starting to look alike.

Caroline Wren

Tufted titmouse.

Blue jay was about to eat a bug.

The recent trip to John Chesnut park in north Pinellas county provided some small migrating birds. There were tons of little birds there but it's so hard to catch them on camera. I got a lot more little bird pictures but they were a blurry mess. Those little guys don't sit long and pose like big water birds do. Plus I was getting a neck cramp after looking up high in the trees with my camera. My goal this trip was to find a few new small birds to capture. The warbler and wren were firsts for me. I've only gotten one picture of a titmouse from earlier this spring but this one was a little better. Migrating season is still going on so I'll keep trying.

Cardinals outside my window

Sunday morning my hubby yells "I just saw a flash of red flying in front of the window". I looked outside and there was a cardinal family on the ground looking for food in our backyard. I grabbed my camera and was able to get a couple of snaps before they moved on. They did not stay very long. The first picture is of a baby just learning to fly. It looked pretty scrawny and it's beak is still a dark color. Based on the dark red coming out on the head and the sides it may be a male. The second is the mom. She's got the orange/red beak and red tail. The last is of the dad with a snack in his beak. Some sort of bug. Again, why does the male bird always look prettier than the female bird???

Florida Botanical Gardens

Osprey with a big nest in some kind of utility tower.

Female cardinal hiding in a tree.

Tufted titmouse. My first picture of this bird. He was hard to get hiding in the trees.

Anhinga drying off in the bushes.

Northern mockingbird.

Lots of birds out at the Botanical Gardens in Largo. It was a sunny day and starting to get hot. I knew we would go right from winter to summer. Not much of a spring this year. This was my first trip to the gardens where I did not see a single alligator. I know they are there but they must have all been hiding under the water.

Cardinal on my car

This weekend I stopped by the Florida Botanical Gardens to walk around. I had not been there since before all of the freezes that we had this winter. It looks like the gardens had a tough winter. There were a handful of volunteers there pulling up dead plants and trying to clean up. The beautiful black orchids that were along the fence at the back of the butterfly garden are completely dead. Just a handful of dead sticks on the ground now. What a shame. On a fun note, when I walked off the trail back to the parking lot I noticed the above guy sitting on my side view mirror. He kept flying down in front of the mirror to look at himself. Then he hopped on the front hood and was looking at his reflection in the windshield. I guess he finally realized there wasn't another bird there and took off. Luckily I hadn't put my camera in my backpack yet and was able to get a few shots before he took off.