Year in Nature Photography – Day 70

Put some seed out and the squirrel come back. Tried raising the main feeder, so we’ll see if it’s finally out of reach. It seems to have been lady’s night at the feeders with female goldfinches and a female cardinal putting in an appearance. Also a tufted titmouse looking right at the camera.

Pair of American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis) Females

Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor)

Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis)

American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis) Female and Northern Red Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)

Pair of American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis) Females

American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis) Female

Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis)

American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis) Female

Year in Nature Photography – Day 63

I’ve been take a lot of plant pictures recently so thought I’d go back to birds for the day. A new bird appeared at the suet, what I believe to be a gray catbird, but without a clearer picture of the the distinctive reddish rump that is a key ID for the species, I’m not entirely sure. Part of the joys of learning to identify everything is that sometimes you just don’t have enough information.

White-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis)

Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) Female

I’m going to guess that this is a Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis)

Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) Male

Year in Nature Photography – Day 46

No video yet, was distracted by applying for jobs and schools 🙂 Today’s set of pictures include a house sparrow’s (Passer domesticus) nest which I removed from one of our bird houses. While this seems like a horrible thing to do, the reality is that house sparrows are invasive birds brought over from Europe that will steal native songbird’s nests. Additionally, this was a problem we as humans created and it is in part our responsibility to manage it. In this case, this was the birdhouse from which I have pictures of a male and female bluebird building a nest (Year in Nature Photography – Day 38). House sparrows are highly territorial and will actually kill other songbirds and take their nests, fortunately I haven’t found a dead bluebird, but they haven’t been back either. Check out “The trouble with house sparrows” article to learn more.

Additionally it appears that the red maple (Acer rubrum) I’ve identified in past posts may actually be a silver maple (Acer saccharinum) or a hybrid of red and silver maples. As the leaves fully mature I’ll attempt to solve this puzzle and re-label my pictures as well as make a post about identifying maples 🙂

Beyond that I have another cardinal, squirrel, dogwood flower and a new bird a white-throated sparrow for your viewing pleasure.

Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) male

White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis)

House sparrow (Passer domesticus) eggs

Gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis)

Possibly Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum) Leaves/seeds

Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida)