My neighbors say, there were no birds in
their yards before I began feeding them. This of course is not true, but they
did not notice them until my feeding stations drew and displayed them in larger
numbers. These birds now respond to the food care and attention and surround us
with a daily morning to night routine of noise called songs.
We use exclusively small black sunflower
and sometimes thistle seed and of course lots of suet - from the local A&P -
for the loads woodpeckers, nuthatches, bluebirds, catbird and wrens.
The variety of birds in Connecticut is
amazing, my guess primarily due to the Gulf stream and migration path that carry
them here.
We have seen in our Mystic backyard:
Chipping sparrow, Pine Warbler, White throated Sparrow, House wren, Cat Bird,
Cardinal, Fox Sparrow, Yellow Belly Sapsucker, Bluebird (who nested several time
in two years), Goldfinch, Junko, Titmouse, Chickadee, Nuthatch. Hairy
Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Red Belly Woodpecker, Dove, Towhee, Myrtle Warbler, Yellow Rump Warbler, Purple Finch, Brown Crested Flycatcher, Vesper
sparrow, Phoebe, PeeWee, Blue jay, Blue Gray Gnatcatcher, Brown Creeper,
Baltimore Oriole, Rose Breasted Grosbeak, Sharp shin Hawk, Cooper Hawk, Red
Shoulder Hawk, Cedar Waxwings, and growing...
6/30/2000 Mystic high Meadow
eastern phoebe, great crested flycatcher, hummingbird, white breasted nuthatch,
cowbird, chickadee, hawk, crow, titmouse, mockingbird, sparrow, cardinal, downy
woodpecker, goldfinch, blue jay, robin.
Nature and birds go hand-in-hand...Birds
they say are the left behind history of millions of years of evolution. However,
birds respect what they have been given and follow the pattern that kept them
alive. They follow routes and migrations built into their daily routine. They
collect in groups to follow an age old pattern of survival. Must be a bad trait
that our politicians follow..
The heavy tripod and Nikon D1 with 400mm
f2.8 AFS with X2 and X1.4 extender long lens, on a Gitzo 1548 graphite tripod,
Wimberley/Swiss Arca Floating Head in the Sun Room of my home allows the capture
of these humble bird and nature images. Of course we also have the Bald Eagle
migration in Essex each spring and the nesting of Osprey by the rivers..
We have seen while in Texas:......
9/21/97 Atwater Prairie
wood stork, lodger head shrike, black neck stilt, least grebe, white ibis, roseate
spoonbill, little blue heron, brown headed cowbird, scissor tailed flycatcher,
cooper hawk, rough wing swallow.
1/10/98 Atwater Prairie
pippin water, female redwing blackbird, white crowned sparrow, mallards, wood
storks, egrets, snow geese, retail hawk.
2/8/98 Anahuac
Hawk, loggerhead shrike, Lincoln or lark sparrow, yellow rumped warbler, king
fisher, red wing blackbird, kill deer, white egrets, black shouldered shrike, moorhen,
American kestrel, blue winged teal, marsh hawk, buzzard, northern
shoveler, east phoebe, great egret, snowy egret, green backed heron, little blue
heron, white ibis, reddish egret, Brown pelican, sanderling, Sabine gull.
4/25/98 San Bernard
Lesser piper yellow legs, cardinal, cattle egret, white ibis moorhen, redwing
blackbird, seaside sparrow, vulture, eastern kingbird, alligator.
5/3/98 Lakepark Austin
tropical kingbird, scissor flycatcher
9/27/98 Atwater
Scissor tail flycatcher, loggerhead shrike, am white pelican, white tail hawk,
wood duck, wood stork, great cormorant, reddish dark egret, Wilson plover, white
rumped sandpiper, long billdowitcher, killdeer.
10/10/98 East Texas Toledo Dam
hawk, blue jay, buzzards, Sabine National Forest, Logansport
10/11/98 Smith Point exit 812
sharp shinned hawk, shrike, white egret, king fisher, swallows, black buzzards, American
kestrel, scissor tail flycatcher, great blue heron, broad wing hawk,
white ibis,
10/11/98 Anahuac
great kiskadee, black necked stilt, alligator, snake, least terns, great blue
heron, boat tailed grackle, cowbirds, white pelican, moorhen, scissor tail flycatcher.
10/25/98 San Bernard
Shrike, crows, buzzard, gray kingbird, savannah sparrow, moorhen, American coot,
blackbird, black neck stilt, red wing blackbird, northern harrier hawk, scissor tail
flycatcher, American kestrel, belted kingfisher, barb swallows,
pied billed grebe
11/7/98 Atwater
broad wing hawk, king fisher, shrike, meadow lark, kestrel or falcon, cormorant,
red head duck, northern shoveler, blue winged teal, moorhens, roseate spoonbill,
great blue heron, great white heron, marsh hawk, northern pintail duck, tricolor
egret, American bittern,
12/25/98 Laguna South Padre
kestrel, shrike, yellow throat woodpecker, brown thrasher, olive sparrow, green
jay, Merlin, northern harrier, coots, lesser scaup, great tern, avocet, black
heron, rosette spoonbill, great blue heron, reddish egret, pintail duck, red
head duck, northern shoveler, willet, sander ling plover, terns gulls, pyrricula,
black neck stilt, wigend duck, aplomado falcon, Harris hawk, deer
1/31/99 Piney Point
savannah sparrow, yellow rump warble
1/16/99 Atwater
cape may warbler, northern harrier, kestrel, warbling Vero, Merlin, northern shoveler, coots, white pelican, great blue heron, killdeer, shrike
4/5/99Atwater
cooper hawk, scissor tail flycatcher, buzzard, coots, meadowlark, marsh hawk,
nutrix, turtle, double crested cormorant, snowy egret, pied billed grebe, white
crown sparrow, tri color heron, great cormorant
5/9/99 Huntsville state Park
yellow crowned night heron, palliated woodpecker, yellow crown night heron,
eastern kingbird, great blue heron, wood duck
5/16/99 Lake Texana
black belly whistling duck
5/16/99 San Bernardo
white ibis, great egret, moorhens, cinnamon teal, great blue heron, coots,
alligator, black neck stilt, snowy egret, rosette spoonbills, kingbird, purple
martins
9/12/99 Atwater Chicken reservation
yellow crested black bib yellow eye Dick Cissel, big hawks, shrike, black ibis
glossy, rosette spoonbill, crested caracara
1/15/2000 Atwater Sealy
northern harrier hawk, kestrel, shrike, savannah sparrow, meadow lark, white
tiled hawk, oven bird, common teal, cantina geese, greater white front goose.
4/30/2000 Texas Anahuac
cardinal, mockingbird, redwing blackbird, eastern kingbird, cowbird, yellow leg lesser, least bittern,
Rosetta tern, tri color heron, green backed heron,
rosette spoonbill, black neck stilt, glossy ibis, long bill dowitcher, sand linger
sandpiper, snowy egrets, blue wing teal, moorhen, orchard oriole, brown jay,
barn swallow, bronze grackle common grackle, boat tailed grackle, alligators,
yellow warbler, prairie warbler, night hawk, black bellied plover, killdeer,
meadowlark, purple martins.
5/7/2000 Atwater
vulture, meadow lark, redwing blackbird, cliff swallow, scissor tailed flycatcher,
dickcissel (m+f), green heron, Atwater prairie chicken, Lincoln sparrow, black
bellied whistling duck, American coot, anhinga, great egret, marsh hawk white
rump, marsh duck, crested caracara, blue winged teal,
