Two Mystery Birds in a Row!

Indeed, two days in a row I've been presented with a new Mystery Bird in my back yard. Hoorah!

I think I might have this one figured out:

Mystery bird! A white crowned sparrow?

A White Crowned Sparrow, maybe?

A few European Starlings stopped by for a snack, but didn't stay long. They didn't bother the smaller birds and moved along after a few minutes. Their reputation has me nervous, but I enjoyed their visit today.


Snackin' Starling

Heck, the Starlings might even make some friends around here. This male cozied up with a Mourning Dove.

Friends!

My favorite shot of the day:

Napping Mourning Dove

The dove had his nap AFTER the visits from the hawk! There is still debate on what kind of hawk this is. One of these days, I'm going to get a good enough shot of it that there will be a definitive identification! I still tend to think it's a Cooper's Hawk, but others have suggested that he's a Sharp Shinned Hawk or a Northern Goshawk. I'm pretty sure it's between Cooper's and Sharpie, but even when I read that page describing the two side by side, I still come away conflicted!


Dear Hawk, Who are you?!

The feeders are busy and the tree is hoppin' as I get ready to head out to work. I swear I could watch birds all day!

Who needs sleep?

Sleep was neither lengthy nor restful last night. I have no idea why. If all had gone according to plan, my alarm clock would have gone off a minute ago, and I'd be snoozing right now. Instead, I've been up for 3 1/2 hours after sleeping for less than 4.

I'm not one to give up on trying to sleep. Damn it, I'll force myself to sleep if need be! Unfortunately for me (since today is the second of my "long days" at work), I had so much work I needed to get done before noon today that I couldn't stop thinking about it once I woke up.

Couple that with the fact that the hawk was back for another meal today, and ate the damn junco right beneath my bedroom window; there was no going back to sleep for me.

Why the juncos? Why not the house sparrows? Not that I dislike the sparrows, but there are like 5 house sparrows for every one junco at my feeders. And the juncos are SO adorable! Cute little white bellies.



We got our first measurable snow last night, and the birds have been INSANE at the feeders this morning.

The mystery bird was back again today, and again I couldn't get a photo of him before he left, but he was pecking on a tree when I saw him... clues... I think he's a Northern Flicker woodpecker. I can't say with certainty until I get a pic of him or see him a couple more times so I can figure out his beak shape and check out the colors of his crown and rump (ha! I said rump!) But I suspected that's what he might be when I first saw him, and now that he did some tree pecking, I think I was right. The Downy hasn't been back. He'd better hurry. The finches and juncos have figured out how to peck at the woodpecker fruit/nut seed block.

/edit - GOT A PIC of the mystery bird! Holy cow, I do NOT think this is a Flicker and I have NO clue what it is! I can't find it in any of my books. I've asked the Flickr bird ID group again...





The red winged blackbird visited briefly this morning, and the trees have been full of house sparrows, finches, and mourning doves all day.

I guess I'd better go to work now that I've spent an hour birding! I love my avian friends!

Unprepared

This afternoon, I didn't have my camera ready and missed a shot of a new bird in my back yard tree. I sketched him with my awful drawing skills but can't seem to find him in any of my guide books. He (she?) was a brown bird covered in spots - black spots everywhere! He had a long pointed beak and was a medium sized bird (bigger than a sparrow, smaller than a dove). He seemed to have some girth - not a thin bird - but he might have just been puffed out due to the cold. He was perched in the tree, and there were two of them. They only stayed for a few moments before flying away.

In other bird news, the red winged blackbirds made a visit today! I haven't seen them since the summertime. Two visited the tree and feeders, and it appeared that there was a whole flock of them in the lawn of the golf course.

A bunch of mourning doves, finches, and juncos joined the usual mob of house sparrows today. It has been a busy afternoon at the feeders!

I even spied the Cooper's hawk fly overhead - again, without my camera ready. :-/