Category Archives: Birds

Blueberry Scacrecrow 2024-05-24

This scarecrow in the blueberries seems to be working. We’re actually getting some blueberries before the birds do.

[Scarecrow and scaresnake in the blueberries]
Scarecrow and scaresnake in the blueberries

And here’s a better view of the scaresnake. It has since disappeared. Didn’t seem to blow off, since it would be nearby, and it isn’t. We guess a buzzard thought it would be a treat. Continue reading

Cattle egrets 2023-06-04

These cattle egrets showed up as soon as I started mowing with the tractor.

[Walking, flying, group, cattle egrets, OPF 2023-06-04]
Walking, flying, group, cattle egrets, OPF 2023-06-04

They followed me around, eventually getting within two feet of the tractor, jockeying to snatch up bugs.

This is the best writeup I’ve found on the origin of Bubulcus ibis, which it now lives on six continents and is sometimes found in Antarctica.

Judy Lehmberg, CBS News, June 15, 2017, Nature up close: Cattle egrets, masters of emigration, Continue reading

Wild Azalea and Wood Storks 2023-01-31

An early spring sight, and something more unusual.

[Wood Storks and Wild Azalea, OPF 2023-01-31]
Wood Storks and Wild Azalea, OPF 2023-01-31

We’re used to wild azaleas, Rhododendron canescens, blooming around now. Plenty of buds promise more flowers after this first one.

But the other sight was more unusual. Continue reading

Split-tailed kites 2022-05-15

A flock of split-tailed kites wheeling above where I just cultivated the okra.

[Split-tailed kites]
Split-tailed kites

Here’s a movie of these Elanoides forficatus, also known as swallow-tail kites: Continue reading

Pileated 2020-07-20

I heard a thwacking sound, looked up from the porch desk, and two pileated woodpeckers were on two, then one, pine tree.

[Two pileated woodpeckers on a pine tree]
Two pileated woodpeckers on a pine tree

The crosshatching is the porch screen wire.

These Dryocopus pileatus hang around here all the time, but they don’t usually come that close. That pine tree stob is about twenty feet outside the screen, or thirty (ten meters) from where I was sitting.

Eventually they flew off laughing, like they do.

Pileated woodpeckers mate for life, which would explain why this pair has been here a long time.

Don’t know if it’s always been the same pair, since we’ve been seeing them more than a decade, and apparently the oldest know was less than thirteen years old.

A pair of pileateds wants more than a hundred acres of territory, so they should be very happy here.

-jsq

Turkey Eggs 2021-07-14

Below the longleaf pines, in a thicket: ten turkey eggs. Mama turkey flew up in a tree. Turkeys lay one egg a day, so it took her ten days to deposit those.

[Landscape]
Landscape

The dogs found them. Honeybun made off with another egg in her mouth. Blondie covered the getaway. Continue reading