These are the birds in my neighborhood

[eimarra]

I honestly hadn’t expected to post pictures again so soon, but the birds have been so very active today, I couldn’t resist. (I’m going to have to add “Birding” as a category, I think.)

First, I had a flock (a murmuration?) of starlings.

Starlings on the ground

Starlings taking flight

A whole flock of starlings on the lawn across the street

Then the female cardinal came along, and I had to grab a picture for Margaret. And about then, I saw a new woodpecker. Judging by the pictures in Sibley’s Field Guide, he’s a red-bellied woodpecker.

Female cardinal and male red-bellied woodpecker

We have quite a flock of mourning doves in the neighborhood, too. (I was tempted to see about squab for dinner, but there are a few problems: hunting season ended January 1, you can’t use snares, and using any sort of bait is illegal. So they shall just continue to fatten themselves on the seeds on the ground.)

Mourning doves in the tree (along with a hairy woodpecker)

Mourning doves clustered on the ground

A blue jay’s been hopping about, too, for the first time in weeks, but he was a bit camera shy, so my picture of him isn’t nearly as good.

Blue jay at the feeder

Originally published at Erin M. Hartshorn. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

That is a serious group of mourning doves. We never have big groups here!

[eimarra]

A few years ago, there were two in the neighborhood. I'd see them everywhere; they were inseparable. I must assume they did what birds and bees do.