Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Carolina Wren

Possum/Opussum and a Vulture

Several days ago there was a dead opossum in the road in my neighborhood. After coming back from a restaurant and PetSmart (looking at all the pet birds ♥) I stopped to move it to the side of the road. There were two huge, um, I'll call them Vultures, but I'm not sure what they were. They were huge and the wingspan was incredible. One or both were in the road when I stopped and was getting out, then they flew off to nearby poles and in the air. One circled in the air and seemed to head for the general area of the opossum and myself. Kind of scary. It ended up landed on a telephone pole nearby, looking down at the dead meal, and me. You never know what such a big, wild, hungry bird of prey will do to protect and get his meal. It ended up flying away afterwards as I was waiting back in the car to see it fly over to the dead animal, but it didn't. Hopefully, he came back and had a nice meal with his presumed mate.

I feed a wild opossum that lives in the woods. He comes over and eats the cat food. I don't mind. I actually have a picture I took some months ago of him and my outdoor cat, Mister Kitty:

Pic from Yesterday of Mourning Doves Taking Over the Feeder

The Male Red-bellied Woodpecker and a Future Wireless/Outdoor Camera

A Picture from the Internet of a male Red-bellied Woodpecker:

Probably the most striking and interesting bird I feed, with the striking mohawk-looking, reddish-orange color that goes down the center of the head and neck, to the checkered black and white pattern on the wings, it really is a unique bird to see. My first attempt at capturing the bird on video didn't turn out so well, as it's a very low-quality, built-in camera on binoculars, about equal to the quality from a cell phone video. I would upload it but it's so poor it isn't worth it. The camera is moving around a lot and it's not very clear, so a double whammy, plus it flies off after two seconds. I haven't attempted to capture it on my better Canon camera yet, due mostly to my SD card's memory being full most of the time, or the camera isn't near me when I see a rare bird and flies off soon after. This brings me to another area I've been considering for a long time, which is to get a wireless/outdoor camera. One good site I've been looking at is networkcamerareviews.com. That would be great to see and record close video of the birds, and only at the best times when there's something cool going on.

Tufted Titmouse and Carolina Chickadee at new birdfeeder location

A Little Update

Yesterday, I saw the Red-bellied Woodpecker a bit, being quite aggressive at the feeder, pecking in the direction of a Mourning Dove in the feeder, then got a few black-oil sunflower seeds.

And today, I saw my cat on my newer-location backyard/deck feeder, so I went outside and saw a bunch of feathers on the ground and everywhere. I was worried he had killed a Titmouse or Chickadee, but after looking at the feathers, it appeared to be a Mourning Dove. He must have gotten ahold of it for a short time and the bird must have gotten away, thankfully. I don't like him messing around, scaring or trying to kill the birds. He could also get hurt himself from the bill/beak.

A new bird I saw had brown/tan underparts, gray upperparts, striped head black and gray/white. (Writing for myself for the record)

And I have not been able to identify online that mysterious camouflaged bird yet...

New Species

I saw the Red-bellied Woodpecker again today, getting black-oil sunflower seeds and taking them to tree crevice and apparently breaking them open against the tree, and shortly thereafter, I saw possibly a new species of Woodpecker. It had the signature checkers on the back, black, gray and brown/tan. It was perfectly camouflaged with the bark and color of the tree, it was quite cool. Only way I was able to see it is because it seemed like he was preening while vertical on the trunk. I got my video camera but didn't see it again. Searching for the kind of species it was online proved to be harder than I thought.

I saw another new birds today, just a few minutes ago, in fact. It had gray upperparts, lighter gray underparts, black eyes, light-colored bill/beak and some white on the tail. This one was pretty easy to lookup online. It appears to be a Dark-eyed Junco. Pretty cool. After looking up info about them, they appear to be here in winter only.

The start of some cold days seem to bring a lot of new species to the feeders.

Oh, and yesterday I saw a Northern Mockingbird.

MSNBC Article About Deformed Beaks

Click here to read it. Kind of sad. I hope they find the source of the problem eventually.

Good Documentary About the Bald Eagle on PBS.org

Click here to watch this documentary. I watched it yesterday, a little in the day, then later at night I laid in bed and finished the rest of it.

I Saved and Rescued a Carolina Chickadee Today

It was horrible to see and wonder if it was going to die. I assumed I was going to have to watch a Chickadee die... It hit the same window that the Tufted Titmouse hit a month or so earlier, and died with a seed still in his bill.

Here is the full story:

I was around the window with my binoculars when I heard the window collision. My cat was sleeping outside nearby. I rushed outside and saw it laying on the porch. You could see his little heart still beating and eyes moving and looking around. I was looking at it and it suddenly flew erratically and hit a few more things before falling again to the ground, this time in the dirt. My cat ran after it, but he overshot and didn't even see where the Chickadee landed. Luckily, I did. I jumped down to the dirt where he fell, near the side of the house. He was laying on and next to a stepping stone on his back, slightly more toward the ground at about a 145 degree angle. I could see, again, his heart beating and eyes moving around. I was really worried this could be his last moments, but was hoping for the best. My cat comes back to where the bird and I am, so I rush to get the cat inside before anything happened. I didn't want to cause him much more stress. After getting the cat inside, I ponder turning him upright onto the stepping stone with my fingers, but I end up picking up a nearby, thin stick from a bush and putting it softly on his back to turn him over. When I did this he flew erratically briefly, landing on the side of the porch. After that, I run in to get the camera and this is where the video picks up. I pretty much knew he was going to be okay after seeing him fly again. So, I take the video and the memory card gets full and the video stops. I rush in to clear more space on the memory card, but while the memory is being transferred to the hard drive, I go back outside and he's gone. He lived to fly another day. I'm so happy and relieved.

White-throated Sparrow

Saw this bird today for the first time. Always surprising to see a new bird species.

Voting Against a State Constitutional Amendment for Hunting and Fishing

I don't even really get the constitutional amendment, doesn't make much sense to me, but I guess it loosens and weakens the laws somehow for hunting and fishing here, even though you still need a license, etc., so it's a tad bit confusing. One thing that doesn't confuse me, though, is that I know we don't need to make hunting or fishing more widespread. If anything, we need to limit it more. Hunting is morally wrong and I'm proud to say that I will vote against this amendment today to try to protect and respect wildlife.

So, this one's for you...