Saturday, March 28, 2009

Mystery Birds

I'd like to focus on something other than evil dragons, mean little squirrels, and greedy greedy rats today. I still like 'em all, especially the rats, but since it's Saturday, the fiction will have to wait until next week.

It seems like lately that this must be the best time of year around here for watching birds. I've been hearing them everywhere I go! When I look for the source of the sound, I seem to find them very easily. I'm not the only one. Check out any blog that talks about nature and you'll probably see a few birds.

I talked all through last year about how I couldn't get a good shot of a bird in flight. If you'd like to read about that, do a quick search in my search section over to the right. Now it seems easy to get these type of pictures. I have so many I'm having trouble keeping up with them. I really like the one in this post.

While I was on one of my usual hiking trips recently, I got these three photos. There are several more, but I liked these the best. I happened to look up at the singing I was hearing from these birds, and I saw some odd things.

I was actually in a bad spot to see anything but shadows. I couldn't go to a better location, because the forest here is a tangled mass of small trees and bushes. There is just no way around this tree to get a better view, but this one is good enough. I still like the pictures.

What I saw was this bird standing almost upside down on this tree. It would stand like that, then fly away, and then return to do it again. It was doing this over and over, even after I left. There were several more of these little birds doing the same thing. There are actually at least two in this second photo.

I'm not really sure what kind of bird these are, but I'm guessing they're sparrows. The pictures are pretty dark, because the sun was right on the other side of the tree. This last one shows a light colored belly on the bird, so maybe that's a clue.

If anybody can tell what they are by looking at these pictures, give me your guess of what they are. I'm still not the best at identifying birds yet, but I'm getting better. These birds were small. About half the size of a robin. Do you think you know what they are?

Please keep reading! I have another post today, just below this one!


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10 comments:

  1. The walking upside down says either nuthatch or brown creeper to me. They would both be that size. The light underside makes me think white-breasted nuthatch. Were they making a noise "ank, ank, ank" that sounds something like a busy signal on a phone? That would clinch it. The shape doesn't say brown creeper to me and they are more secretive anyway.

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  2. Sharkbytes - There were so many bird sounds that I can't remember what these made. I was actually trying to memorize some of them, but now I don't know any. I do remember hearing sounds like that though. So, white-breasted nuthatch it is! Thanks.

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  3. Sometimes it makes me feeling so frustrated to name a bird due to my little knowledge. But seeing you flying bird, it still worth so.

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  4. Rainfield - I feel the same as you. I don't know much about the names of many animals, so I try to learn along the way. I love discovering these new animals, even if I don't know their names yet.

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  5. Oh, I forgot to say that I really like the picture with the outstretched wings. It is pretty neat!

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  6. Sharkbytes - That was another one that I didn't even know I had until I got home. I had the camera on automatic, hoping to get lucky.

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  7. The first picture didn't look like a sparrow to me but I'm no expert. Anyway, whatever they are, they are beautiful. I'm so glad the birds are back after their winter's absence.

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  8. Mountain Woman - I'm completely new to birds, so I didn't know what they were at all. I was just fascinated by the way they were able to stand upside down on the tree. I'm glad they're back.

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  9. Yeah I know exactly what you mean about taking pictures of birds, are they getting easier or are we getting better with the camera? I got my first good mid-flight bird photo. It happened on Lone Mountain.

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  10. Goliath0825 - The bird pictures used to seem like such a hard thing to get. Now they seem to fly right over and make it easy. I hope it's that we're getting better.

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