Sightings This Week

After my first Bluebird sighting, I saw some Tree Swallows check out the bluebird nest box. Of course, now the house sparrows have taken it so I am waiting to empty the nest once eggs are laid. May try to put them in the fridge for future dummy eggs if I put up more bluebird boxes, I plan to so we will see...In the meantime we have been "taking care of" the house sparrows with our friend Remington.... ;-)  I would love to try a sparrow trap from sparrowtraps.net, if hubby will approve the purchase.... =/

I saw my first Flicker (at this house) a couple days ago. I have been hearing them for the past 5 years we have lived here, but have never seen one so that was exciting!

Our Cardinal pair has returned, they must have been hiding out all winter.

Today I saw our Ringneck Pheasant pair out on the edge of one of our fields, yay! I just love to watch them and when the chicks come along, it is so cute to see them following along! Beautiful birds!

I did get a few photos so I may try to post them over the weekend if I get time. =)

Today's Sightings

No photos, I just wanted to quickly note what day I spotted these birds.

Today a bluebird pair arrived. I spotted one bird in the morning and then the pair later in the day. I have a nesting box out on the back pasture fence, but I am not sure they found it as they were in the backyard. Maybe I will put up another box where they were scouting around and see if they (or another pair) return and pick one. I just figured the backyard was too close to our house.

We also had a mockingbird visit for the first time this year.

American Kestrel

Its been awhile! Not much has been going on around the farm, but I did see not one, not two, but THREE pairs of Cardinals in our yard over the winter. I was so excited, you don't even know! That is a big deal if you know much about the birds I usually attract here at our stuck-in-the-middle-of-a-corn-field farm.....ie starlings and house sparrows. I have been seeing 1 pair pretty regularly, but I haven't seen them at my feeders. I just put out some safflower yesterday, so we will see if that helps. Maybe they don't like my sunflower seed. Oh and the robins have arrived now so that is nice, gives a little more variety ;-)  I am hoping to get some bluebird nest boxes up very soon so hopefully we can attract some of the little guys. I have seen them, but I have been afraid to put of boxes because of all the starlings we have, I don't want them killing the bluebirds. But I will have to try it and see what happens and do my best to keep the bad birds away.

Now, on to the part about the Kestrel! It wasn't on our farm, but it was while I was sitting in our truck waiting for Jim at Tractor Supply. I spotted this little lovely sitting on the power lines, having a snack. Thank goodness I had my camera! Jim gave me a Nikon P100 with a 26x zoom for Christmas so the first 2 photos are from far away, using that zoom. The last photo was when we were leaving, Jim drove right up to where the Kestrel was sitting and I snapped a few photos from below.

Warning: if you don't like to see birds ripping up little critters, don't look, especially at the last, 3rd, photo. =)

Hummingbird Cam!

This is so neat, a friend posted the link on twitter today. It is a live video stream of a hummingbird nest. The mama has been sitting on it for a while now. She did leave once and I saw two eggs in the nest. Check it out!

Phoebe's Nest

My Winter Walk

I went for a walk around our property on Saturday for, oh the second time this whole winter I think! My hubby has been working a ton so I haven't been able to venture too far from the house because of my 2 year old. It was so nice to get to go down to the creek and look for some birds other than starlings and house sparrows. I didn't actually see much this time, it was a very quiet day, but I did see a pair of Mallards, a lonely Robin and a Blue Jay.

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Getting Closer... BPW #75

Ohhh, I am so excited! I got the closest I have been to my Belted Kingfisher today! Its is so shy though, its hard to get close enough for a good shot. But I did get close enough to be able to tell that its a female =)

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It's Been A While! & BPH #73

Wow, I haven't posted in a long time! Sorry! Lots has gone on and I really haven't had any interesting birds to take photos of, at least I haven't been able to get close enough to the few to get a good shot. I took a walk around our property last week when we got a beautiful heavy frost and I made my way down to the creek where there are a few trees. I saw a male and female Cardinal and was able to get an alright pic of the female even though I didn't have my zoom with me.

I am making it my goal to get the Cardinals to come to my backyard this year and I would just LOVE to get some Chickadees too, but that is a long shot as there aren't any wooded areas too close, unless they come to the area by the creek...I can hope! I am planting as many trees as our budget can allow, but it will take a while for them to grow and create any sort of cover. Ah...someday!

Oh, and I saw our resident Kingfisher the other day too, so I have another goal of getting a good pic of him or her sometime within the next couple months. I just LOVE them, they are so gorgeous! So keep an eye out for that photo and pray I get a good one!

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