the duck pond Archives -

Birds of 2013: Week 50

RidgetopFarm&Garden — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 09:58:41 +0000

One chilly morning I walked around one of my favorite birding places. Much of the water was ice, but there were plenty of birds hanging around. It was a good walk for seeing large birds. I saw a bald eagle, blue heron, one red-tailed hawk catch breakfast & another one getting pestered by a kestrel.

The Bald Eagle that I almost walked by without seeing.

Ring-necked Duck

A rather angry looking Wood Duck.

Bufflehead

*new bird!* Hooded Merganser

Look at that long neck.

American Wigeon walking across the ice.

Red-winged Blackbird on an icy pond.

Brewer’s Blackbird

Great Blue Heron

American Robin

The ducks found a hole in the ice.

Red-tailed Hawk

This Red-tailed Hawk &American Kestrel were having a little tiff.

12 more days until the end of the year. Can I find 4 new species to make my goal?

BIRD SPECIES SEEN IN 2013:

SEEN SO FAR = 96 of 100

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Birds of 2013: Week 9

RidgetopFarm&Garden — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 04:50:16 +0000

I went to The Duck Pond again to find this week’s birds. I saw some great birds, including what I thought was a Red-tailed Hawk, but turned out to be a Cooper’s Hawk. My favorite birds of the week, though, were 2 juvenile Great Horned Owls I saw up in a nest. I haven’t seen many owls & this was only my second time catching them on camera. They didn’t hoo-hoo or even make a peep. There was a mess on the nice, clean path so I looked up & saw the nest. I investigated more & saw the 2 owls. That totally made my day!

Also, just in case you’re keeping count – I didn’t skip week 8. I logged it as the Great Backyard Bird Count instead.

Acorn Woodpecker

Killdeer

Cooper’s Hawk

Canvasback

Green-winged Teal

Great-horned Owl

BIRD SPECIES SEEN IN 2013:

SEEN SO FAR = 42 of 100

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Birds of 2013: Week 7

RidgetopFarm&Garden — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 04:47:00 +0000

Week 7’s birds (mostly ducks) are from The Duck Pond again.

American Coot

Common Merganser

Lesser Scaup

Pied-billed Grebe

Bufflehead

Mallard

American Robin

BIRD SPECIES SEEN IN 2013:

SEEN SO FAR = 30 of 100

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Birds of 2013: Week 4

RidgetopFarm&Garden — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 04:20:14 +0000

This week I have only 1 new bird, but it is one of my favorites: the Great Blue Heron. This was, by far, my favorite Blue Heron sighting. Typically I know I better snap a pic quick because it will fly off any second. Not only did this guy not fly off right away, but he let me sit & watch him for about 20 minutes. That was awesome enough & for that he is now my favorite Blue Heron ever. The best part, though, was watching him catch & devour a field mouse. I caught it all on camera, but unfortunately it happened so fast that not all my pics are in focus. I’m posting them anyway because I thought it was so cool.

Sittin’ there all calm, cool & collected

Then something caught his attention.

And off he went.

He got down low

and stuck out his neck as he walked.

All be danged the next thing I knew he had caught a field mouse.

He headed to the water with it.

Gave the mouse a dunk

and a shake.

He swallowed it whole.

Just chillin’ after a yummy meal.

BIRD SPECIES SEEN IN 2013:

SEEN SO FAR = 18 of 100

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Birds of 2013: Week 2

RidgetopFarm&Garden — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 03:57:20 +0000

Week 2’s birds were found at one of my favorite parks. I’m guessing many of my posts this year will come from that park. My fav’s were the woodpecker & the many ducks. I {heart} ducks!

Brewer’s Blackbird

Red-breasted Sapsucker

Western Scrub Jay

American Wigeon

Ring-necked Duck

I am new to birding. A couple years ago I could only name a handful of birds. Now, I can name many. Part of this year long project is to help me identify even more. It really ticks me off when Farmer John can easily name a bird I’m stumped on. My mission is to identify a bird when he cannot. MwaHaHaHa. Back to the point – which is that I still have difficulty identifying some birds. So I’ve come up with the Tricky Bird(s) of the Week. These will be the birds I can’t positively identify. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

Tricky Bird of the Week:
Cackling Goose or Canada Goose? I’m going with Cackling Goose because my first reaction when I saw it was that it appeared small. This goose also seems to have a small bill similar to a Cackling Goose. To read more about the Cackling Goose check out allaboutbirds.org.
Cackling Goose

BIRD SPECIES SEEN IN 2013:

SEEN SO FAR = 13 of 100

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