Posted in Birdwatching

Wow, three posts in one day. I must have too much time on my hands tonight. LOL. Well as soon as I finish this I will fold that load of laundry that has been in the dryer since the first post of the day . It has been so nice hanging the clothes out on the line. Today it rained all day pretty much so I had to use that money hungry dryer. No really, I do thank God for my dryer. I just prefer to try and save some $$ by hanging the clothes out on the line. Plus it gets me out of the house into the sunshine. We all can use a little bit of that in our lives right?? Well on to the post.
We are having such a good time with the bird unit from Apologia Science Zoology 1. I never realized how much we in this family enjoy the outdoors and right now the birds are everywhere!
So far our checklist is like this

1. American Robin-Turdus migratorius (our yard was filled with them on Feb 15th) pics take. This day with a yard full of these birds started us off on a new "spot that bird" quest. We are loving it. Everywhere we go we take our Bird watching guide and the camera. Once we see a bird we all want to look it up. We take the pics then write it down after we get home.
2. Eastern Bluebird-Sialia sialia ( Yakistan my 11 yr old ds spotted this and snappped a great pic of it) this was in our yard
3. Red Bellied Woodpecker-Melanerpes carolinus (again spotted and photographed by Yakistan) There are two of these that visit our pecan tree regularly. We have snapped a few good pics of them.
4. Ring-billed Gull - Larus delawareensis (spotted in the city in a large parking lot)pics taken
   
5. Laughing Gull- Larus atricilla (spotted at the beach on the coast)pics taken
   
6. Killdeer (there are many of these that visit our yard daily right now)pics taken alot of them also by Yakistan
7. Mallard -Anas platyrhynchos(spotted at the mall close to the road)pic taken
   
8. Great Egret- Ardea alba (spotted in Honey Island Swamp)pic taken
9. White Heron- Egretta alba modesta ( spotted in Hiney Island swamp) All Herons were spotted in the same spot at the swamp.
   
10. Great Blue Heron- Ardea herodias (spotted in Honey Island Swamp)pics taken
    
11. Brown Pelican- Pelecanus occidentalis ( spotted on while at the beach with my brother and family) pics taken
    
12. Sanderling-Calidris alba (spotted also on the beach-coast-while there with Brother and family)pics taken
    
13. Morning Dove-Zenaida macroura- (spotted and pointed out to me by Yakistan in our yard and in town)no pics yet
14. Rock Pigeon- Columba livia ( Wal-Mart parking lot) I tried to take a pic...no memory card!!!
15. Northern Cardinal- Cardinalis cardinalis (tree in our yard, tree at my mothers-photograhed by Yakistan-Honey Island swamp)
16. American Goldfinch- Carduelis tristis ( near my mothers house next to a small bridge) no pic :(
17. Chipping Sparrow- Spizella passerina (spotted and photographed by Yakistan...again)

So this is it so far. These listed are the ones we have identified. We did get to watch a mama bird as she was warning others with her call to stay away from her freshly laid eggs. She picked a terrible spot in our yard to do this. Did I mention we have three dogs? One thinks she is a bird dog... Well you can pretty much figure out what happened to the eggs as soon as we stopped guarding them.  Here is a link about the  Killdeer.
We also spotted in our pool filter where the water heads into the hose to be filtered, an American Robin's nest with eggs still in it.  Here is a site you can read a little about the American Robin .
Here are a few pictures of those sweet little finds.
Mama killdeer warning us "Stay Away" she is telling us and other birds by fluffing her tail feathers this way that she is upset we are getting too close for comfort here..
Watching too see if we have left yet. As she was doing this she was making loud calls to warn us and almost sounded like she was screaming at us! The kids really enjoyed watching
Killdeer Eggs


  American Robin Eggs

Below are the eggs inside the filter without the filter cropped out


Also here are a few more pictures of some of the bird listed above




This Friday hubby is going to be making birdhouses and bird feeders with us. He is getting most of the material from his brother..which means it is free. That is always a plus. The bird I would like most to see, watch and get some good shots of would be the Belted Kingfisher. When my dad was down here he said he saw one out by my mothers house on the river. I didn't see it. Now I am on a quest to find it! Here is a link with a little info on the Belted Kingfisher
So there you have it. Updates on our Birding. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. I am not the best at photographs, still I love to snap away .
Be blessed,
Stacy