Somewhere under all that snow is my garden.
Posts Tagged ‘Photos’
Snowtastrophe
Posted in Photos, tagged Photos, Snow on February 2, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Weekend Birding: Red-bellied Woodpecker
Posted in Birds, Wordless Wednesday, tagged birds, Photos on November 20, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The Red-bellied Woodpecker is a year round resident in my yard. This medium-sized woodpecker can be found in the eastern half of the United States. They prefer the tall woodland trees but can be enticed to backyard feeders with offerings of suet or peanuts.
This female is often in my yard. I was potting some plants to bring in for the winter when I heard a loud yelp from the walnut tree and seconds later there she was at the feeder scolding me because it was empty. She has very distinctive calls, a cha-cha-cha or rolling kwirrr sound. Once you are familiar with it the bird is easy to find.
You can tell this is a female by the lack of red feathers on the top of her head. The male has an all red cap and juvenile birds have no color on their heads. People always want to call this bird a red-headed woodpecker, but that’s a different bird. If you look real close you can see a small patch of red feathers on her belly, which is how she got her name.
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Cross-posted on Under My Apple Tree.
White-Crowned Sparrow
Posted in Birds, Wordless Wednesday, tagged birds, Photos on November 13, 2010 | 1 Comment »
For a week or two in early autumn and early spring the White-crowned sparrow visits my suburban Chicago backyard. I look forward to his visit in spring, not so much in autumn as I know winter will soon follow.
This is a migratory native North American sparrow that spends it’s summers mainly in Canada and winters in the mid to southern United States and Mexico. Larger than the House Sparrow, it can usually be found scratching around on the ground for seeds.
I took this photo Halloween weekend, the same weekend he arrived last year. I sometimes wonder if the same birds visit every year.
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Cross-posted on Under My Apple Tree.
Wordless Wednesday: Cedar Waxwing
Posted in Birds, Garden, Photos, Wordless Wednesday, tagged birds, Photos, Wordless Wednesday on October 13, 2010 | 3 Comments »
Birds, birds everywhere at Cantigny Gardens last weekend. This Cedar tree was filled with about 50 Waxwings. This is a fairly common bird but you’ll only see them if you look up. They like to travel in flocks and can be seen eating berries in fruit trees or catching insects in mid-air.
More Wordless Wednesday.
Dinner Guest
Posted in Birds, tagged birds, hawk, Photos, Wildlife on September 24, 2010 | 1 Comment »
As I’ve said, I like to provide food for any of the birds that show up in my yard. I didn’t exactly mean I’d serve little birds to the hawks, but sometimes it happens that way.
This Cooper’s Hawk buzzed the feeders this evening and then perched on the fence for a few minutes. I looked outside when I heard all the little birds chirping. No one was eaten and the hawk went on his way. I have some grackle on the menu if he’d like to come back tomorrow.
Christmas Bird Count
Posted in Birds, Photos, Wildlife, tagged birds, Photos on December 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Saturday I participated in the Audubon Christmas Bird Count at Cantigny Gardens, part of the counting circle for the Dupage Birding Club.
The longest running Citizen Science survey in the world, Audubon’s annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC) will take place between December 14, 2009 and January 5, 2010. From Alaska to Antarctica, tens of thousands of volunteers will add a new layer to over a century of bird population information.
Scientists rely on this remarkable trend data to better understand how birds and their environment are faring, and what needs to be done to protect them. Data from Audubon’s signature Citizen Science program are at the heart of numerous peer-reviewed scientific studies.
The weather was not the best. It was cloudy with temperatures in the low 30′s and light snow most of the day. We didn’t see as many birds as we expected with a final count of 519 birds and 25 species. Not one robin was seen and house sparrows were scarce. There were a lot of geese, and no crows.
After I was done counting I spent some time near one of the feeders and took some pictures of a few of the birds:
Northern Cardinal – Male
Northern Cardinal – Female
Red-tailed Hawk
Posted in Birds, tagged birds, Photos on November 18, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Hairy Woodpecker
Posted in Birds, tagged birds, Photos on November 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Last weekend I went on a bird walk at Cantigny Gardens. We saw 26 different species, which is pretty good for Northern Illinois in November. Two of them were first time birds for me, a Hairy Woodpecker and a Belted Kingfisher. The Kingfisher flew away before I could get a picture, but the Hairy Woodpecker was in no hurry so I was able to get a just good enough photo of him.
Hairy Woodpecker
One other highlight was a young Red-tailed Hawk. While I’ve seen them many times, this one was low in the tree and I was able to get a close look.
Backyard Bird Watching
Posted in Birds, Project FeederWatch, tagged birds, Photos on November 16, 2009 | 4 Comments »
Project FeederWatch began this weekend. Armed with my tally sheet and camera I paid extra attention to the feeders to count the birds. It was not a busy weekend, probably due to the red-tailed hawk that has been scouting the area.
I counted the usual gang of house sparrows, lots of squirrels, a pair of cardinals, a pair of red-breased nuthatches, a few juncos passing through, a couple of chickadees and a lot of visits from the woodpeckers who were enjoying the suet.
Female Red-bellied Woodpecker
The females even posed for a few photos.
Female Downy Woodpecker
Chickadee Strikes a Pose
Posted in Birds, Photos, Wordless Wednesday, tagged birds, Photos, WordlessWednesday on November 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The Garden
Welcome to LadyMin's Place. Gardner, nature lover, bird watcher, citizen scientist, amateur photographer and sometimes geeky person. The garden is in a suburb of Chicago; LadyMin herself is virtually everywhere.
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