Why Spring is my favorite season...

Tweet Because the Goldfinches turn yellow...

Molting American Goldfinch male

And some of my favorite species return...

Blue-winged Teal



Caspian Terns



Forster's Tern

Meadowlarks are everywhere proclaiming "It's the Spring of the year!"...

Eastern Meadowlark

And Blue-gray Gnatcatchers are back...

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

And love is in the air...

Blue-winged Teal pair

Canada Goose with goslings

And even the "Winter species" look cool...

Common Loon

Bonaparte's Gull

And butterflies and other insects add color to the dull landscape...

Black Swallowtail Butterfly



Six-spotted Tiger Beetle

And wildflowers are in bloom...

White Trout Lilly

Dutchman's Breeches

And first of season birds abound...

Purple Martin

Spotted Sandpiper in the setting sun

Hope everyone get outside on this Earth Day to enjoy our beautiful planet!

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Wild Birds Unlimited's Jim's Birdacious® Treats Combo Pack Review

Tweet I was asked by Wild Birds Unlimited (WBU) to review a product of my choice from their site. Since I have heard good things about this product called Jim's Birdacious® Bark Butter® , I decided to choose the Jim's Birdacious® Treats Combo Pack.

At the end of this review is a chance to win free products from WBU, so you will want to take advantage of that!

The combo pack contained one tub of Original Bark Butter, a tub of Bugberry Blend Bark Butter, a mixed nut blend (Nutty for Nuts), a chipped sunflower seed, berry and meal worm mix blend (Bugberry Blend) and a tub of suet type nuggets (Bugberry Blend Nuggets).

The first of the non-suet like products that I tried from the Combo Pack was the mixed nut blend. Now, I have put out mixed nuts that I have purchased from the grocery store before, but with only minimum results. That being said, I was very surprised at the variety of birds that the Nutty for Nuts blend brought in. This blend was very popular with Northern Cardinals, which I would not have expected. But I think I was most surprised to see Red-winged Blackbirds chowing down on it.

The Bugberry (non-seut) Blend was also very popular. I presented it in a tray feeder that would allow for the most diversity of species. The Pine Siskins loved it! Many people ask me if this species feeds on anything but Nyjer seed, well I now know that they love Jim's Birdacious® BugBerry™ Blend. The Bugberry Blend Nuggets only lasted a few hours, as the Chickadees, Downy Woodpeckers, and Tufted Titmouse cleared them out fast.

I will have to say that Jim's Birdacious® Bark Butter® lived up to its reputation. This is the product that made me choose the Combo Pack. Both varieties were very popular with the woodpeckers.

Female Red-bellied Woodpecker chowing on Bark Butter.

I usually only rarely see Pileated Woodpeckers in the yard. So imagine my surprise when I pull in the driveway to see a Pileated fly from the backyard right over the car! The Pileated Woodpecker visited for about three days and preferred that the Bark Butter be spread on the trunk of a tree.

Male Downy Woodpecker on Bark Butter.

Yummy Jim's Birdacious® Bark Butter® , need some more!

The American Robins loved the Bark Butter. This American Robin was feeding on the bits of Bark Butter that was dropped by the woodpeckers.

Here is a complete list of species that the chowed down on the Jim's Birdacious® Treats Combo Pack :

Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
Blue Jay
American Robin
Pine Siskin

None of the products in this combo pack lasted more than a few days, so I would highly recommend all of these products!

You might also want to try these other products from Wild Birds Unlimited:

• Wild Bird Seed

• Thistle Seed

• Black Oil Sunflower Seed

• Suet Feeder

• Wild Bird Feeders

• Window Bird Feeders

• Birdacious® line of products

You may want to keep up with new products as well as get bird feeding tips by subscribing to the Wild Birds Unlimited Newsletter. You can also find them on their Facebook page.

Also, for a chance to win any product of your choice of up to a $50 value from the Wild Birds Unlimited website, simply reply to this post in the comments stating what product you like or think you would like to try from WBU. This giveaway will be open till Monday, April 25th, 2011 at which time I will pick a winning commenter at random by putting all the names in a box.


***I had put all the names in a bowl with a lid and shook them up. I then had my mother pick a winning name at random.

And the Winner is...

Dawn

Thanks to all readers who participated and good birding!

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Springtime Ducks

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Today was the first off day that I had in a long while that was sunny and not pouring down rain. I had to get out and do some birding. The water is still very high just about everywhere, conditions that are very favorable for good water birds.

There were many coots walking around on the grass at the beach when I arrived at the lake. There were also a good deal of people walking around with dogs, but luckily for a change they were all on leashes. The birds only seemed to pay moderate attention to them.

Scanning the large flock of coots revealed about a dozen or so Bufflehead mixed in.

Male Bufflehead

The males were displaying and chasing one another.

And the females were uninterested of course...

After watching the Buffleheads, I rescanned the flock and found my first of the year/season Blue-winged Teal!

Blue-winged Teal

One decided to start swimming towards to me!

The teal came all the way up to the shore and stared me down, as if to say "I know I am a handsome duck, so quit staring at me!"

I preceded to walk along the shore, looking for birds and rescanning the flock of coots. I noticed 3 Bald Eagles flying high above the lake. Also, my FOS Double-crested Cormorants and Bonapartes Gulls. Scoping out the lake revealed a huge raft of ducks consisting mostly of scaup and bufflehead.

A group of highschool rowers started to pile into the park, so I decided to head for the car. That is when I noticed this sad sight:

A Ring-billed Gull with a lure stuck in its neck. There really wasn't anything that I could do, as the bird spooked and starting swimming to the middle of the lake. This is why fishermen should try to prevent the snapping of line as much as possible. However, I didn't have to end the day on this sad note. As I was getting near the car, my FOS Tree Swallows came out of nowhere and were flying all around me. Spring is here!

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Book review: The Crossley ID Guide - Eastern Birds

Tweet When I was just starting out birding, I steered clear of photographic guides. Most of the guides at this time had poor quality photos and only one photo per species/sex. Most also did not include photos of immatures whatsoever. However, with the arrival of digital photography, this has all changed.

The "Crossley ID Guide" emphasizes the use of "Jizz" for ID rather than focusing on field marks, a term that many birders aren't familiar with. For a definition of what "Jizz" refers to in birding, here is the Wikipedia entry for it.

Since birds are always moving and the observer doesn't always get to see birds in ideal conditions, this is a difficult task to accomplish. That being said, in my opinion, Richard Crossley does an excellent job portraying the jizz of the species being studied. He does this by including many photos of each species in their preferred habitats, much like one would see in the field. The plates are very busy, with both close and far away photos as well as different angles and lighting situations.


The use of text is very short and limited when describing a species, instead focusing more on creating a mental image of the bird using actual photographs. Crossley also includes a text description before each group of birds.

This guide is huge, much too large to take into the field in my opinion. Rather, this is a book that I would keep in the car or on my desk to refer to later (I rarely take any field guides with me in the field while birding).

The Crossley relies heavily on the use of the alpha codes for birds. I know many birders who absolutely despise the use of them. I use them quite often myself and see them being utilized more and more all the time. With the use of cell phone technology (which I know nothing about), it is a good bet that the four letter codes aren't going anywhere soon. You can find all the birds and their four letter codes in the front of the book, a feature I find handy.


I have heard it said that this guide cannot be used for identification. I disagree. I have always suggested that a beginning birder acquire as many field guides as they can. "The Crossely ID Guide" is definitely one that both beginning and seasoned birders will want to add to their library, as it goes beyond the typical field guide in that it actively invokes the birder to hone in their observational skills.


Disclosure: I had received this book free of charge from the publisher for the purpose of reviewing. The opinions expressed are solely my own. Tweet

Spring day, winter birds

Tweet Such a beautiful day, with temps in the 50's and sunny skies, I just had to get out to do some birding. I couldn't figure out if I wanted to go to the state park or check the river. Both have water out of their banks, which usually means I see good birds. Since it was 2 in the afternoon, I decided to go to the park, since it was closer. I am glad I did!

When I first got there, I seen a couple with their scopes on something, Snow Geese! I got my scope out and put it on the birds. The couple had left as soon as they seen me coming with my scope. I wished they would have stayed, as I am pretty sure that I could see at least one Ross's Goose with the Snow Geese in the middle of the lake. The heat distortion and north winds/waves made it hard to see (I have a somewhat flimsy tripod!). The glaring afternoon sun's reflection off the water didn't help with getting pics.

Looks like a Ross's with Snow Geese (far away)

As I was looking at the Snow Geese in the scope, a Red-necked Grebe popped up in the foreground - a life bird! The bird looked as if it was going to fall over on its bill, as it looked to be leaning forward. I got good looks at it, but it was hard to keep track of, so I was unable to obtain a picture.

A male Bufflehead also flew in and landed right in front of me on the lake - love them!

Male Bufflehead

No sooner had the Bufflehead touched down, I heard a loud ruckus from the 100's of RB Gulls. They all took to the air and so did the Snow Geese. It took me a while to find out the cause of all the commotion, ah ha - an immature Bald Eagle flying over the lake.

Immature Bald Eagle

I was able to get distant pics of the Snow Geese in flight with the possible Ross's mixed in. (They still were very far away!)

⇧I was thinking the 5th goose from the top right might be a Ross's. The bottom 4th goose from the right also looks different to me. (Click on the photo to go to Flickr for a larger image.)⇧

Here⇧ , from a different angle, the 7th bird from the right looks like a Ross's to me (RB Gulls are also in the pic).

The geese put down back on the lake, but farther away. I decided to leave the lake and take a hike in the woods looking for other signs of Spring. There wasn't much going on in the woods, so I decided to swing back by the lake. The Snow Geese were gone, but a skunk decided to start towards me from up on the hill, so I decided that it was time to leave!

Mr. Skunk!

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2011 Great Backyard Bird Count: A summary

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I will have to say, this year's GBBC was one of the oddest I can remember, much different from last year! The mild temperatures and rain changed the usual feeder visitors. On Monday, it poured down rain (2.00") the entire day. I didn't see or hear one Carolina Wren, Dark-eyed Junco or White-throated Sparrow the whole weekend/period!!! Lots of blackbirds consisting of Common Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds. Didn't get any rusties, dang. Just a couple of days before the GBBC, I had two American Woodcocks in the backyard, but I couldn't get them for the count. They must have been just passing through, as they didn't display. Highlights include a Killdeer as well as a Barred Owl calling at dusk on Sunday. I was also able to spish in a Yellow-rumped Warbler Saturday. I have found that the Pine Siskins like the rain, as Monday, I was able to count twenty of them. Here is the complete list for the entire 2011 GBBC (not in taxonomic order) 26 species total:

Canada Goose
Red-tailed Hawk
Turkey Vulture
Barred Owl
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
American Crow
Blue Jay
American Robin
Eastern Bluebird
Northern Cardinal
Mourning Dove
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
House Finch
American Goldfinch
Pine Siskin
Killdeer
Northern Mockingbird
American Tree Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Yellow-rumped Warbler
European Starling

Red-winged Blackbird courtesy of USFWS/

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Ready for Spring!!!

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The male Cardinals have been singing, Redwing Blackbirds are calling, and the American Woodcock has just returned today to the fields behind the house.

It looks and feels a lot different from this time last year! :-)

Won't be long, and Tree Swallows will be here, followed by Brown Thrashers and the first migrant warbler, the Louisiana Waterthrush (I don't see Pine Warblers around my place)!

The thing I will miss most about winter is my winter yard birds. The Pine Siskins have dwindled down to just a few left. I will miss their constant chattering and bickering.

Another bird that I will miss, is the American Tree Sparrow. They are beautiful sparrows that just don't get enough respect. I love their sound, two-toned bill and dotted belly.

Spring is my favorite time of year, all the new life that is all around, the love that is in the air. Looking forward to hearing my first Spring Peepers, Chorus Frogs and seeing my FOS birds!

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Kumlien's Iceland Gull (another life bird!)

Tweet Another birder found and IDed this gull on the Ohio River in New Richmond, Ohio the other day. It has been hanging out for a while. I believe that I had seen this bird for a while and was passing it off as an odd Herring Gull. I am not as familiar with gulls as I would like to be!

This morning, before work, I was able to obtain these photos of the bird.

And just to add some color to the grays and whites, this male Wood Duck flew in and was preening nearby this morning.

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Ross's Goose!

Tweet I found this Ross's Goose at East Fork State Park on Friday, Feb. 11, 2011. This is a life bird! (Click on all for larger)

And there was this far away Long-tailed Duck

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