A Walk Through the Habitat: 9 Different Bird Types in 30 Minutes

Yesterday afternoon, I got home early enough to take some photos in full sunlight. So I took the opportunity to take a walk through the Colvin Run Habitat.
The result was the observation of nine different types of birds in 30 minutes:
>House Finch
>Carolina Wren
>American Robin
>Common Grackle
>Morning Dove
>Northern Cardinal
>Tufted titmice
>Eastern Bluebird
>Downy Woodpecker
>White-Throated Sparrow

The first photo shows the Northern cardinal (female) that is so common and numerous in the Habitat. The second photo shows the cardinal and a Carolina wren eating at the sunflower seed feeder. Note the seed in the cardinal mouth.
In the the third photo, I captured a house finch. Two years ago, the finches were nearly as common as the cardinals, but now I observe only 2-3 finches per month.
The fourth photo shows a morning dove, another bird whose numbers have decreased in the Habitat in the last year. The presence of a pair this spring is a good sign.
Number five is a poor quality photo of a common grackle.
Number six is a photo of one of the tufted titmice, one of the Habitat's birds whose numbers has slowly decreased over the last two years. Currently, the titmice numbers may be increasing.
And the last photo is an American robin - one of our birds whose numbers has increased during the last two seasons.

In the next three posts, I'll show the bluebirds, sparrows, and woodpeckers that 'played' with me as I walked the Habitat.

Red-Bellied Woodpecker Maintains Order at the Feeder

We had snow yesterday, but overnight we received about 4 inches of sleet. The result was a hard crust of ice that prevented the birds from feeding off of the ground.
The feeders, and especially the two window feeders, became busy places. At times (first photo) there were three birds feeding at the window location. Other times, two would feed there and another would hover until there was space enough to land. The starlings came and created total chaos.
The red-bellied woodpecker arrived to feed and to maintain order. She simply pecked the starling against the window. When the starling attempted to take a seed or to get out of corner, the woodpecker just pecked him back into submission. Finally, the starling gave up and flew away.

Titmice, and Chickadees, and Finches Too

The house finches came early – right after the chickadees and the titmice (first photo in this post) –to this feeder. Here is a photo of a male and female (photo two and three).
The wren also began coming to this feeder as shown in the last photo.
As this is a small feeder, it sometimes is crowded. Some birds (like the titmice) allow others at this feeder at the same time, other (like the wren) do not. The pecking order of dominance at this feeder is chickadee, titmice, wren, and lastly woodpecker or cardinal.

More Photos from Amazing Sunday

I remain simply amazed from yesterday’s observation of 19 types of birds in two hours. Previously, I showed the red-tailed hawks and the flock of starlings. Here are four other types from this past Sunday. First, we have the turkey vulture flying just about at tree top – note the bare-skinned red head (click on the photo to see an enlarged view).

Second, we have the mockingbird perched in a holly tree (with the red berries, it's beginning to look a bit like Christmas).

Then for color and in the same holly tree, we have a blue jay.

And last with subtle coloring, we have a house finch in the dogwood tree (you can see that next spring’s dogwood buds are already well formed).