Birds

Anyone here know much about birds?

There's a tree right outside my window and I get a variety of birds. Today two beutiful birds showed up. The first one had a white breast, light blue feathers with white and black. His head had a peak, kind of like a cardinal. He was a big fellow, longer body than most I see. Anyone know what kind of a bird that is?

Was it a Blue Jay?

That's it! It was beutiful. I once saw a wild parakeet, a red cardinal, and many more. I really ought to get a book of birds, just hanging out here in my living room they come to me.

Those are really pretty. I have a bird feeder and see many varieties I know nothing about. Red birds are commonplace here, and I see a bluejay once in a while. I have humming birds too.

I did some googling and found out the blue jay is the state bird here, Texas. Funny I haven't seen more of them, but maybe I just wasn't looking. It's quite nice to just watch all the birds. I need to do more of that.

Blue jays. They are a bit common where I live & therefore are not appreciated, but, I can see their beauty. Just too bad that they have to hog the feeders and discourage the songbirds from visiting.

I like blue jays.

Oh I love bird watching....always have even from my Calif days & my Kansas summer vacations....but really LOVE the birds here on my farm.

Blue Jay's definitely HOG the food & chase away all the other birds.....we have the gorgeous cardinals.....they have a different song here then they have in Kansas....here they have a song that sounds like "Pretty, Pretty, Pretty, Pretty".....or they have this little twit twit twit when they are around the feeder.

I remember as a kid, I was home sick from school & my parents had a bottle brush bush right by the front window...I was looking out & saw a scarlet Tanenger totally unusual for the California area & definitely different from the plain little brown sparrows that were about all we saw.....I was so excited about it...back then there was nothing like internet....so had to look it up in the encyclopedia....but did find out what it was.

Here we have the meadow lark, wood peckers...& in the wood pecker family this bird that keeps trying to get bugs out of my roof....wake up to it hammering away on my roof every morning in the spring....at first I had no idea where the noise was coming from so I snuck out my front door & wandered around the house until I found the culprit. We have bob whites. I really enjoyed a walk they did at Shaker Village that was bird watching & song recognition.....that was an awesome experience....Shaker Village is about 5 minutes away from my farm.

We also have birds like the turkey vultures that clean up road kill...just wish they would stop leaving the bones in my fields. Love seeing the little yellow birds hanging onto the beautiful pink thistle flowers. My favorite have to be the wrens.....they love people & had one fly into my house. Managed to get it out but it was a challenge....my least favorite bird is probably the starling. I have an adorable picture of the birds when it snowed here....there was a foot of snow & the birds couldn't get food so I spread bird seed all over the planters & on my front porch deck....there was this adorable little white bellied bird with black feathers over the rest of him......really adorable.

They are having a feast right now....the June bugs are out early this year & I keep my front porch lights on continually.....they swarm to the light at night & the birds have a feast in the morning.....anything to keep my birdies happy...LOL.

Oh yes, we also have hawks & owls that come out in the evenings & no bats aren't birds....but we have them also. I love living in the country.

I lead birdwalks in my area. It can be very peaceful and rewarding. I saw a great horned owl last weekend.

Birdwatching is a great hobby. You have to be careful using binoculars from the house though. How was I to know that the lady across the way had just come out the bath. My case comes up next month.

It's amazing some birds are so tiny but so capable.

Bluejays are beautiful. I love them. They're aggressive birds and will dive at cats and dogs whom they see as threats. I had a Sheltie dog who used to run around a tree in my back yard and the bluejays made a habit of diving at her as she barked! I've seen the same done to my "Yellow Kitty."
My neighbors have numerous bird feeders in their back yard, and the variety of birds there is amazing and beautiful to watch. I haven't installed bird feeders because of my cat, who would love to catch them. The same neighbors had a bird feeder in their front yard dogwood tree, and my cat would stand on the bannister and leap to catch the birds. (They removed that bird feeder!) In their back yard, the birds are safe, because their Rhodesian Ridgeback dog guards them!

I'm not too fond of the birds around here. The white-wing doves are loud and will fly into my window because they're too big to fit on the ledge, the grackles will randomly drop stolen dog food in the yard where it attracts ants, and the mockingbirds are super destructive and just rip up the yard.