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Saturday, April 2, 2011

The One About the Birds

As you may or may not know, I live out in the sticks.
As a result of being out here, we get all kinds of animals coming around.

The glorious, but somewhat stinky, skunk.
The beautiful, but pissy, mink.
Cute, wittle bunnies and big beautiful deer.
We've even found tracks of coyotes in the yard.

Sometimes we are lucky enough to get some pictures of the animals we see.

I thought I would share some of the bird shots we have gotten.


Here is a sea gull just hanging out in the backyard.


Here is an bald eagle taking a break in one of the trees out back. I took this from our bathroom window.


Bobolink out in the pasture.

These are a couple wood ducks that decided to pass some time in the tree right next to the back door.


Close as I can tell, this is a tufted titmouse.
Not too up on my birds, but I looked it up and it looked pretty close.
There were a bunch of these right in the frontyard.


We used to have barn swallows build a nest on our front porch every year.
Than they just quit.
Either something happened to them or they were displeased when the porch got painted green.

That's OK.
Nice to see babies hatch,
On the other hand, no big piles of bird shit on my porch.

We used to have a pair of barn owls in the trees.
They didn't live here- just came at night to hunt.
They haven't been here in a while.

One day there was even a turkey buzzard in the backyard.
Those things are HUGE.
Alas, that was before my digital camera so no photos.

One year we had a dove that loved to strut to music.
Put on the rock tunes in the garage and he'd come out of the tree and go back and forth across the driveway bobbing his head to the music.

We've had so many kinds of birds, I couldn't name them all.

Hope you enjoy the photos.

20 comments:

  1. Your Tufted Titmouse is not that,it is some kind of sparrow, but cannot tell for sure which one from the photo. I think it is wonderful to have all that wildlife around your home. I used to have more, but houses were built all around us, and much of the wildlife is gone, except the birds, and I do love the birds.

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  2. Great post! I enjoyed your photography and your writing. Birds are certainly fascinating, though Alfred Hitchcock's tale still terrifies me.

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  3. Yvonne, I figured someone would know. Thank you.
    We do have song sparrows but those are bigger than these. So, I really had no clue.
    Honeyman took a few more close ups but they didn't turn out too good.

    Thanks, Matthew. When the birds have babies and you walk too close to the nest it is like being in that movie. They just dive at you til you get far enough away.
    Thanks for stopping by.

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  4. Cool pics, you can't be too far from water if you have sea gulls, right?
    I kind of live in the sticks too, desert sticks that is, so my encounters with nature are limited to coyotes, rabbits and other rodents and snakes.

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  5. Looking forward to your A to Z posts!

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  6. I'm a new follower.

    Living in the sticks has much to be said for it. I've been there myself though now I'm a city dweller which also has advantages.

    Enjoyed the photos and the look into your life.

    Contrary to my usual practice of subscribing to comments, to save time during challenge I will not be doing so during April. If you want to respond to my comment , please email me directly from your email notification for the comment.
    Thanks.

    Lee
    Tossing It Out
    Twitter hashtag: #atozchallenge

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  7. I love observing nature; Fun to see. I love seeing all the different kinds of birds, that live in the south.
    Beautiful~

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  8. Alex 1, there is a big reservoir about 10 miles from me and there is also a couple rivers near.
    We have all those animals too.
    I really hate when all the coyotes get to yipping.

    Alex 2, thank you.
    I just wing my stuff so I don't even know what all I'm going to post about.

    Ella, Thanks for stopping by.
    It is nice seeing all kinds of birds.

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  9. Dropping in from the A-Z Challenge, I love the simplicity and homey feeling of your blog. I clicked on your profile to read a bit more and discovered that you are a midwesterner, familiar to me as I was born and raised in South Dakota before I grew up and eventually relocated to warmer places. I'll be back for more, there's plenty of good reading here!
    ~Josie Two Shoes~
    Two Shoes In Texas 
    Monday Memories
    Write A Letter Wednesday
    Words In Motion

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  10. Ooo, I love birds. Thank you for the pictures, especially of the bald eagle!

    ~ that rebel, Olivia

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  11. Thanks, Josie.

    Olivia, since you like eagles you might be interested in this http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles
    It's an eagle sitting in a nest and one of the babies hatched this morning.

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  12. Wow! So cool to see that many birds in your garden! I live in a town, but have a small canal behind the house. So I get ducks, swans, blackbirds, sparrows, and magpies for instance. Always love to watch those from my window. Seeing a bald eagle from yours is so much cooler!

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  13. Sylvia, for me it's rare to see a swan.

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  14. I think Bobolink is the perfect B word! I once had a hawk in the backyard, snacking on a squirrel--not what I expected when I looked outside the window of my rowhouse.

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  15. What a great post! I wish I could have seen the bird dancing in the driveway. :)

    I'm new but I'll be back. :)

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  16. Oh and--you're right. We are neighbors! I know the Monroe area well, I am from southern Iowa, moved to Des Moines three years ago. :)

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  17. ooo birds

    I do like the photos. They really add something to the post for the days topic. Well done.

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  18. Margaret, that's the first Bobolink I had ever seen. It looks like it has an angel on its wings. :)
    Poor squirrel.

    Jamie, it was so funny seeing it do that. I wish I had video of it.

    Thank you, Dawn.

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  19. Bobolink? That's a catchy name. Fun pictures, and your narrative is always amusing.
    xoRobyn

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Thanks for commenting.