Bird Journal

Spring has definitely sprung and the new bird sightings are proof.

We get a lot of birds where we live, even during the winter, because even though we're in the suburbs, we live on a ravine with a creek and attract much wildlife that you usually don't see so close to housing areas (besides the normal squirrels, bunnies, chipmunks, moles, opossums and occasional raccoons, we have a muskrat that we frequently see).



These are two we see for much of the winter, along with the:

Mourning Dove
Field Sparrow
European Starling
Chimney Swift
House Finch
Barred Owl
Blue Heron
American Crow
Carolina Wren
Common Grackle
a variety of sparrows including this guy
Hairy Woodpecker
Cooper's Hawk
Pileated Woodpecker
Ivory billed Woodpecker
Rosebreasted Grosbeak
Mallard Ducks
and we even have some American Robins for the whole winter.

And those are just the ones we've bothered to identify.

But in the spring, summer and fall, we generally see a whole new bunch of birds.

Yesterday we were surprised to see these Turkey vultures land in our big oak tree. It's fairly creepy to have them flying overhead. I guess we watch too many movies.


Then later we caught the flight of this Blue Heron. His wing span is so huge he actually causes the ground to become shaded when he flies in. He is gorgeous and we usually see him fishing in the creek, walking along like an old man. But this time he flew in and landed in the same oak tree.