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Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Eastern Kingbirds

There has been a mysterious kind of bird I keep seeing. Every time I see them they are flying away from me. I kept thinking they might be Robins, but these mostly dark birds had a white fringe along the edge of their tails. I thought maybe it was just something about the robins that I never noticed before, but I've been very skeptical.

Then this last time I saw the same birds, I noticed them flying towards the meadow area of Carpenter Lake Park. I quickly followed them hoping I could find out their identity. At first I saw nothing, but then I saw birds of all different types darting around. One of these types was the kind I was looking for!

I just happened to notice one of these mystery birds of mine fly onto a high up branch of a tree on the edge of the meadow. While I was watching it and trying to focus my camera, I noticed it wasn't alone. There were two of these birds sitting side by side. They were sitting high in the tree, so I wasn't sure if I could get a decent shot. As you can see, I ended up doing alright.

These birds obviously turned out not to be robins, since they don't have that characteristic red breast that all American Robins have. These birds breasts were all white, while the rest of the birds were a very dark color, maybe black. So the question for me was what kind of birds were they?

Well, it took a little bit of research for me. And since I'm new to identifying birds, I'm not sure if I'm right. But these birds appear to be Eastern Kingbirds. All of the information I found matches up with these birds. They seem to be kind of aggressive towards other birds, but that's a story I'll tell you another time.

I was able to move to a few different locations to get these pictures. I learned from these birds to stand a little farther back in the field away from the trees. I get a better view of the birds and they don't get scared of me quite so easily when I'm standing back a little bit.

The other benefit is that I get to study the plants, especially the flowers, of the meadow a little bit closer. So I learned some good things by chasing birds. The benefits are that I will have plenty of other fresh new discoveries to write about now! That's always a good thing!

14 comments:

  1. They are a good couple sitting up there, posing for the pictures.

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  2. Great photo of the birds! I enjoyed this post and a good variety of wild life that you enjoy. You have very enjoyable visits with nature.

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  3. They look peaceful and in love..It's always so nice to discover new things to write about..

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  4. Lovely Kingbirds Ratty, you managed to shoot them side by side, lovely pose! :)

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  5. yes, they look enjoying each others company greatly and in love. lovely shots, so nice to caught them really sweet together.

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  6. Great pictures. They look so sweet sitting there side by side like that

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  7. Nice shots of the birds. I can't wait until we have the opportunity to travel more.

    Her's a story for you. 3 evenings ago while sitting on my sofa I heard this beautiful, but completely different song bird.

    So i grabbed my camera and as quiet as a mouse went out on the porch.

    Now I chase birds all the time. So I know I need to stay there as still and quiet as possible and just wait.

    While I was in the house they sounded so close I just the bird had to be in one of the 2 trees that shade our covered porch.

    Well I waited and waited and zilch..nada! So back in the house I went and there was the singing again.

    Now this went on for about 3 hours and I made several trips out side during this time with no luck.

    Then I stepped on my cat's new toy by accident and guess what I heard?

    None other than the lovely and mysterious song of my bird. Mystery solved and I felt just a tad stupid!

    But, I think the cats had fun!!:-)

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  8. I love that you chase birds and bring your stories to us. These birds seem content right where they are surveying their surroundings.

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  9. Nice little feature on kingbirds, I was wondering if your area has a lot of these or are there relatively few?

    bill;www.wildramblings.com

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  10. Rainfield - They liked it up there so much that they didn't even know I was there taking their picture.
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    Mike - Thanks. I'm trying to get a good geocaching story to write soon too. I'm getting better at it now.
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    Icy BC - These birds only had eyes for each other. They were oblivious to my presence below.
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    VanillaSeven - It was easy to get the pictures of them up there. They stayed for a very long time.
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    Betchai - They were still sitting there when I left. They never noticed me watching them.
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    Ann - It was fascinating watching them there.
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    Shinade - That's a great story! You should take the toy outside and put it on a tree branch and then take a picture. You could write a hilarious post about it.
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    Poetic Shutterbug - They were very happy. They knew that place belonged to them and I was only a momentary visitor.
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    Bill - I'm relatively new to identifying birds, so I'm not really sure. I can tell you that I've been seeing very many of these recently though, especially at that place.

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  11. i love reading your adventures ratty. the pics of the birds turned out pretty good. you give me new things to look up when i am wanting something to do. thanks for the stories.

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  12. Those were good shots...how lucky to see two at once, side by side. I will be interested to hear more....
    you are getting better and better with your camera, too!

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  13. What a lovely little pair of birds, nice photo. I have never heard of the Kingbird so I learned something new today.

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  14. PJ - Thanks. It is good to know that you enjoy my writing and that it's helpful sometimes. That's the best thing I could know.
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    The Retired One - The birds made it easy for me to get them. I've been extremely lucky with birds lately. I have so much more to show.
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    SquirrelQueen - I learned about them only recently myself. Most of these creatures have been new to me.

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