Sunday, December 6, 2009

✈ Bird Watching ✈

Birds are a special feature on our property and surrounding grasslands. We share our land with meadow larks, hawks, sparrows, burrowing owls, lark buntings, and occasionally golden and bald eagles. In the spring we also see herons migrating through. Although our lake dried up in the 2002 drought, we are planning to build a new one that birds can share with us.

With winter now set in, temperatures are cold, winds are blowing, and snow is not uncommon. Despite these conditions, a nice group of Horned Larks are outside our windows on most days.

bird larkI took a few pictures of these cute little birds this morning. The wind was blowing our fresh snow around, yet there were about 15 little birds working the ground for food.

bird larkThe second picture shows the little horns these birds are named for. It was hard to get a picture of their faces since they were so busy pecking for food.

I hope you enjoy bird watching too. Leave me some comments about what kind of birds you are seeing this time of year.

3 comments:

www.rachaelsgarden.etsy.com said...

Ohh, what great pictures and a wonderful blog!!! I LOVE birds as well and have many in my back yard as it backs up to protected wetlands. Thanks for sharing. I am following you!

Doris Sturm said...

Hi Kathryn, nice to hear from you again - I hope you're having a wonderful pre-Christmas time ;-)

Those pictures are so adorable - I'm sure you put out birdhouses and food for them too...

I must tell you that few places I have lived in the United States where I have seen more birds than here in Southern Georgia. The skies and trees are alive with all kinds of birds and the sound of birds, especially in the summer, reminds me of some kind of tropical island - now, that it's colder I don't hear as much singing, but I see all sorts of birds of prey circling the sky. I especially see a lot of red tailed and red shouldered hawks hunting and sitting close by, they are even as bold as sitting in the grass a few feet away tugging at something or another...I see tons of snowy egrets and of course, turkey vultures are a plenty. The most popular little fellas are the robins - we are loaded with them and of course the mockingbirds are everywhere. They are such tenacious little birds. They are so brave. You should see them in the spring when they have nests, they dive after our stray cats like little red barons ;-) We have lots of mourning doves and bluejays as well...I see a lot of woodpeckers right now, not sure what kind, but some of them are small. They are black and white with a red cap on ... so cute... I simlply must get a book and learn. I have binoculars and my neighbor has a bird feeding station out back that is always alive with birds, especially in the morning and my cat Middi, loves sitting at that window and watch...I also see the starlings and sparrows and many others with pretty colors that I simply must learn to identify with the help of a book. I sure love them though and, like I said, in the summer it sounds like paradise. I just never understood why with all those birds here, we still have so many mosqitoes...I thought the birds would eat them, but I guess they don't.
It's good to hear from you. Merry Christmas and I hope you and yours are doing well.
Love,
Doris :-)

Welcome said...

Wow Doris, you do have lots of interesting birds ! I wish we had wood peckers, but here in the prairie we don't have many trees for them. I miss the big blue jays we had when I lived in NJ as a child. Their cry is so unique.

Check out this site I found today:
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=1189

It has all kinds of information, and I enjoy hearing the audio of the bird calls.

I'm enjoying the pre-Christmas, except the snow we got this weekend which is slowing me down !

Thanks for your note,
Kathryn