Female Red Bellied WP

Dipu took this shot of a female red-bellied woodpecker in his backyard just minutes ago.

Sharp shinned Hawk and Owl Pellet exploded!

Was moving a water bucket along the side of the house when I heard a song bird in the Juniper. I looked up just in time to see an explosion of wings and noise to match as a hawk came out of the tree about 12 feet from me and flew under the branches and up to the peak of the neighbors roof. It sat there looking at me, so I could get a good look at it. It's wings were grey, belly was pale and it had a small head. And it was relatively small. It had been skulking about the feeder trying to take an unsuspecting songbird.

Was gone by the time i retrieved my camera, but judging by the descriptions, I think it was a Sharp-Shinned Hawk. Could have been a Coopers, but I think it was smaller. I've been seeing lots of Red-tail action in the'hood too, but they seem to prefer doves and Jays, while this hawk wasn't much bigger than Doves or jays.

Also pulled apart the owl pellet. Looks like he ate a dark grey bird. Found feathers and a whole foot along with hollow bones.

Pictures to come.

Great Horned Owl and More

Just a few nights ago, I was awakened at about 4:15 a.m. by loud hooting in my backyard. @nd time in a week I'd heard an Great Horned Owl back there. Today, I was transplanting a few shrubs when I came across a 3.5 inch long owl pellet that I'm assuming came from a Great Horned Owl. See Pix below:






A pellet is what the Owl regurgitates after eating a meal whole. It contains the indigestibles-bones, featers and such. What's cool about them, is by picking them apart, you can discover what the meal was. I did that before on a smaller pellet and posted the result on this blog. Stay tuned, I'll pick this one apart as well and let you know what I got!

Oh and I saw another Ruby-Crowned Kinglet a couple of days ago in the back yard Pecan tree.

Back from too long a layoff....

Wow. Didn't mean to away so long.

Got busy with a DVD project, Thanksgiving and then Xmas and my brother 50th brithday that was combined with New Year's celebration.

This is a bit of a down time in the backyard as mostly the year round birds dominate and aren't to interesting to blog about. Lots of flocks of grackles and starlings in their blander winter garb, and the occasional white wing dove and house sparrow.

I have had daily visits from Carolina wrens looking for insects on the front porch every morning. And I hear Carolina Chickadess in the juniper trees almost everyday.

And I've seen Redtail hawks more frequently including a close fly by a few days ago as we drove downtown.

As for visitors, the ruby-crowned Kinglet has been back since Dec. 3 (my first sighting anyway) checking the bark of Pecan trees for insects. And today, I heard a single note call I didn't recognize. It was high-pitched and sharp. After looking around for a while, I found it in the bare Pecan tree in my neighbors back yard.

He didn't look familiar either, so I grabbed my binocs and camera and sure enough, he was a new sighting!

A Northern Flicker, a fairly large bird in the woodpecker family.

Here's some snaps.