Bird Watching Club

these mudhens seem to be taking over on the ponds around here..

ducks stay all year...

these birds were really in abundance today at our nearby pond..

Maybe the rainmaker.

Teka, You probably could see birds a mile away when you were 5 and hadn't started reading yet. My 2nd GS could see a ladybug on the side of a building from about 12 feet away.

Yes, I've been totally nearsighted as long as I can remember. Until I got contact lens in college I had no idea other people saw individual leaves on trees. I drew the big green blob because that was what I saw.

I'm now nearsighted and farsighted, should get trifocals at next eye doctor visit.

SoCalLisa,  I don't think that's a mud hen looks more like a Coot.  Mud hens have that red flap between eyes and beak, American Coots  are one of my least favorite birds because they only keep one of their hatchlings alive and kill the rest.   I have these that swim all the time in my creek they follow a straight line.

Today I had this hummingbird trying to stay perfectly still on a branch while having my tea this morning, next thing a Red Wing Hawk came swooping past my deck soon as it was out of site that little hummingbird went back in the same direction they Hawk had just come from.

Teka, up North here in California I really see the difference in migrating birds this winter because less rain. I usually have flocks and even Commorants, Grebes, flocks of Mallards along with Coots, usually saw the Kingfishers early in the morning but not so much this winter.  We are going to have five day of rain they say and if it stays warm early budding of trees and bushes so that by time the migration starts going north I hope to see more.  I look forward to the swallows love to watch them fly.  The one thing we have a lot of as usual is Canadian Geese, they take over the creek and I have to wash down my patio every other day from their mess.  They actually waddle from the golf course then through my backyard along the side yard then they cross the street to the small little lake that is a run off from the large lake up above.  When it rains hard the duck will go to the top of the run off line up and slide down.  My neighbor and I will sit on her porch to watch these ducks and their games, so funny.  

Several beaches here are guarded by dogs trained to chase the geese away.

Is that normal behavior?

Coots are a favorite snack of bald eagles. Perhaps what goes around comes around, as they say.

fed my friends this morning since its only 5 degrees - i think the whole forest preserve showed up & were playing in my cherry tree

Nice. We don't have them here. 

I've only seen crows and ravens eating road kill.

Also, turkey vultures in the North Country!

)

12*F, no hummer in the North Country!

I'll also be a member of the "Any Hummingbird Watchers Out There?" thread.  

I do love birds!