Tweet and See: July 2011

Join Heather at Kingdom Arrows for more
Tweet and See fun!

Yippee!

This month, I got to go bird watching with my birding chick buddy, Heather!  That's my best birdie moment for the year.  Unfortunately, I did not get to take any pictures because I left my camera at home.  :(

Our friend, Amy, went birding with us, too!!  She was nice enough to drive around a nature center (very slowly) and pull over every few minutes so Heather and I could hop out and work on identifying what we heard.  She even put up with me playing bird and frog songs on the Identiflyer from the back seat!  Now that is a GREAT friend!  :)

The list isn't long this month since my birding time was greatly limited before the get-together and not very profitable (in terms of number of birds seen/heard) while birding with the girls (it was totally profitable in the phew-I-get-some-time-off-to-hang-out-with-my-friends-and-relax-and-be-silly way, though).

Okay, so here's the list.  It's not as long as that last hyphenated adjective!

1. Common Grackle
2. Black Vulture
3. Turkey Vulture
4. Ruby-throated Hummingbird
5. Northern Mockingbird
6. Mourning Dove
7. Red-headed Woodpecker
8. Chimney Swift
9. European Starling
10. Common Yellowthroat
11. Brown-headed Nuthatch
12. White-breasted Nuthatch
13. Carolina Chickadee
14. Louisiana Waterthrush
15. Yellow Warbler
16. Tufted Titmouse
17. American Crow

The other BEST BIRDIE MOMENT this month was that MY BOYS AND THEIR BIRDING BUDDIES WERE FEATURED ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE LOCAL NEWSPAPER!!!  They were the top story with a big, full-color picture and everything.  Our Audubon plushies were even featured with a picture of their own!

The best part is that Orville, when asked what he liked about bird watching, replied, "We get to hang out with our friends and enjoy God's creation." 

That was the caption above their picture (in large print) as well as the ending quote.

Congratulations, Orville, Wilbur, K, and C!  I am really pleased with you all!!  You are my best birding buddies!!!

Until we tweet again...
Dawn

Tweet and See: June 2011

Visit Kingdom Arrows
for more Tweet and See fun!

We had a great month of birding.  The backyard is still in disarray as my husband is completing a backyard remodel which includes the removal of a rather large magnolia tree. 

The Magnolia Tree sans Branches
The trunk is about to go soon.  :(

However, I am an English tutor who travels to the homes of my students.  While driving around town this month, I saw lots birds.  Then, on the last day of June, we went to a local state park (one of my favorite local spots) and identified 39 species.  Some were on the list already, but most were new additions.

One of the birds I saw in a student's neighborhood: the Killdeer!
My husband took this picture at the lake,
not in the subdivision, however.

Here's our list:

1. Killdeer
2. Barn Swallow
3. Carolina Wren
4. Brown Thrasher
5. Northern Mockingbird
6. American Robin
7. Eastern Bluebird
8. Blue Jay
9. Belted Kingfisher
10. Great Blue Heron
11. Red-headed Woodpecker
12. Black Vulture
13. Turkey Vulture
14. Broad-winged Hawk
15. Chipping Sparrow
16. Red-bellied Woodpecker
17. Pileated Woodpecker
18. Downy Woodpecker
19. Eastern-wood PeeWee
20. Osprey
21. Bank Swallow
22. Snow Goose
23. Fish Crow
24. American Crow
25. Tree Swallow
26. Northern Rough-winged Swallow
27. Great-crested Flycatcher
28. Common Grackle
29. Palm Warbler
30. Pine Warbler
31. Canada Goose
32. Eastern Kingbird
33. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
34. Catbird
35. Brown-headed Nuthatch
36. Cape May Warbler
37. Northern Parula
38. Eastern Phoebe
39. Mallard
40. Mourning Dove
41. Tufted Titmouse
42. House Sparrow
43. Rock Dove
44. Green Heron
45. Cowbird

Hubs took this pix during our birding outing.
This is one of his faves.
The bluebird really is looking at two
eastern kingbirds.
That's not a digital trick!

The Best Birdie Moments:

1. While stopped at a red light on a main thoroughfare, a red-headed woodpecker landed in front of our car, grabbed a bit of food, and flew off just as we started to move again.  
2. Killdeer have nested in the brush behind the house of one of my students.  The "dad" hops around the back porch, singing away, while I tutor.  From time-to-time the "baby" comes out to sing, too,.  VERY CUTE!
3. While driving from one student's house to another, I saw a bird perched on a wire, quickly found a place to pull over, and spotted the broad-winged hawk!
4. One of my students went with us to the state park, and we had a great time teaching him how to identify birds!  After we left the state park, I decided spur-of-the-moment to drive over to a local marina.  Sitting on the edge of a pond beside the marina was the green heron on our list.  My student got to see LOTS of interesting birds that day!  Too bad the camera batteries had died by the time we reached the marina.

Favorite Pictures

Eastern Kingbird





Canada Geese

We THINK this is a female
Brown-headed Cowbird.

She was hanging out with this male cowbird.

More Cowbirds

If you think we're right,
please let us know.
If you know we're wrong,
please help.

Red-headed woodpeckers
were common visitors this month.

I think they're just beautiful!

Another beauty...
The Great Crested Flycatcher!

Happy Tweeting!

Dawn

Tweet and See May 2011

Visit Heather where you can find
links to more birding reports.

Has it really been a month since I last wrote on this blog?!?

There hasn't been much time for blogging this month and there has been even less time for birding.  My husband is in the middle of a backyard project which involves the removal of a rather large magnolia tree.

I'm 90% happy about this project of his because it also involves the removal of a rickety old fence and a broken down picnic table.  However, as a true southern gal, it was a life-long dream of mine to have a magnolia tree in the backyard.  It is a wonderful place for hanging a variety of feeders and provides great shade for us and for the birds. 

However, our yard is very small, and the tree really is too big for our space.  I always wanted a magnolia tree in my backyard but do not want one as my back yard.  That is why it is so easy for me to be 80% happy about its removal.

Also, it drops leaves year round which creates a huge and constant mess to clean up, and we can't get any grass to grow.  Our backyard looks like a wasteland, and we think it is due to the tree.

So, please, don't hate us, but she has to go.  And really, I am 70% happy about it.

All of that is to say, the birds have not visited us much this month, and we have not had time to go looking for them either.  I think this is our smallest bird list to date, not just since the beginning of Tweet and See but since we started birding almost six years ago!

It may be small, but here it is:

1. American Robin
2. American Crow
3. House Sparrow
4. Eastern Bluebird
5. Blue Jay
6. Eastern Towhee
7. Red-bellied Woodpecker
8. Kingfisher *
9. Prairie Warbler *
10. Eastern Phoebe *

* I heard these while tutoring.  One of my student's house is near the lake, and they keep the windows open.  I can hear the birds while I teach. 

I hope you had a better month bird-wise than I did and look forward to reading your reports!  And really, don't worry about me.  I'm easily 60% happy about the backyard project.

Happy Tweeting!
Dawn

I'm a Bird Brain!

I accidentally posted my Tweet and See list for April over at my homeschool blog, Olive Plants.  You can click on over to read it.

Please forgive my faux pas.  I injured my eye last week and am still having some trouble seeing. 

Dawn

Tweet and See: February 2011

Even though March has come in (and truly like a lion), I want to share the Olive Plants' Tweet and See list for February.  Our computers all died at the end of last month, and I had to live in the dark ages without Internet access for two weeks.  Thus the delay.

So without further ado, here's what we saw or heard last month:

1. American Crow
2. Fish Crow
3. Brown-headed Nuthatch
4. Tufted Titmouse
5. Belted Kingfisher
6. Eastern Bluebird
7. Great Blue Heron
8. Red-tailed Hawk
9. Eastern Towhee
10. Carolina Chickadee
11. Pine Warbler
12. Downy Woodpecker
13. Muscovy Duck
14. Mallard Duck
15. Snow Goose
16. Ring-billed Gull
17. Song Sparrow
18. American Robin
19. Rock Pigeon
20. Field Sparrow
21. Pileated Woodpecker
22. Blue Jay
23. Northern Cardinal
24. Yellow-rumped Warbler
25. Northern Mockingbird
26. Mourning Dove
27. Red-winged Blackbird
28. Worm-eating Warbler
29. Common Grackle
30. European Starling
31. Brown Thrasher
32. Cedar Waxwing
33. Black Vulture
34. Turkey Vulture
35. House Finch
36. Tennessee Warbler
37. Chipping Sparrow
38. Canada Goose
39. House Sparrow
40. Carolina Wren
41. Red-bellied Woodpecker
42. Red-headed Woodpecker
43. Bald Eagle
44. Red-shouldered Hawk
45. Killdeer
46. White-breasted Nuthatch
47. Eastern Phoebe
48. Eastern Meadowlark
49. American Coot
50. Double-crested Cormorant

What a fun month!  I hope you saw lots of beautiful birds, too!!  Join Heather on the last day of each month to link in your list.

Now that I am back in the 21st Century, I am working on my next Birding 101 post about Birding by Ear.  I hope you'll fly back over soon! 

Please give a little tweet in the comments and let me know you visited, too.  I would love to meet you and visit your blog.  You can subscribe to Birders for Life, too, so that all the posts we write here will fly directly to your inbox.  Heather and I would love to have you on the B4L team!

Happy Birding!
Dawn

Tweet and See, December and January

Visit Kingdom Arrows to join in the bird watching fun!

I am so excited that my friend, Heather of Kingdom Arrows, has started a meme all about the birds we identify.  I have been wanting to launch this new blog for several months.  I claimed the domain name about a year ago but haven't felt compelled to get things going until now.  Thanks, Heather, for the motivation!

Heather has asked those of us who participate to keep a list of the birds we see in one month and then, at the end of the month, post that list to our blogs and link back to her.  She has the linky available here and you can read more about how to participate here. 

This month, I am going to report for December and January.  In December, we traveled to Tennessee to visit family and saw several interesting birds which I must tell you about!  Our birds were all spotted in Central Georgia, North Georgia, Middle Tennessee or Northern Alabama.  They were seen in a variety of habitats, from lake-side forests to the median of I-24, just outside Nashville.

Here's the list (and a couple stories, too):

• Belted Kingfisher
• Killdeer
• Golden-crowned Kinglet (new to our life list)
• Tufted Titmouse
• Blue Jay
• Pine warbler
• American Crow
• Fish Crow
• Chipping Sparrow
• Great Blue Heron
• Mourning Dove
• Northern Mockingbird
• Snow Goose
• Mallard
• Muscovy Duck
• American Robin
• American Coot (saw dozens of these, maybe more than 100 in the Tennessee River)
• Ring-billed gull
• American Kestrel (We were sitting on I-24, stuck behind a wreck for about an hour.  This bird was flying back and forth over the median and then perched in a tree right beside our car!  Amazing view!)
• Red-tailed Hawk
• Black Vulture
• Turkey Vulture
• Eastern Meadowlark
• Rock Pigeon
• Starling
• Red-winged Blackbird
• Eastern Bluebird
• Eastern Towhee
• Yellow-rumped Warbler
• Three unspecified birds of prey
• Sharp-shinned Hawk  (This bird was perched on a wire directly in front of us while we were waiting at the drive-thru window at Wendy's.  After we got our food, I quickly pulled into a parking place and we walked to the front lawn of the restaurant where we got a long and close-up view of the bird.  It seemed odd to see an uncommon bird -for our area in winter- at Wendy's, but we saw details on this one and feel pretty confident.)

The Wendy's bird of prey looked exactly like this.
It was even in the same pose.
photo credit

So what did you see?  I can't wait to read!

Happy Tweetin'!
Dawn, for the Olive Plants