ID Update

Since I first posted all the birds I have identified, I have photographed several new birds- See those in the table in purple! Credit to the Facebook Group: Whats this Bird for helping with identification of several!

Species	Scientific/Latin name
American Crow	Corvus brachyrhynchos
American Robin	Turdus migratorius
Blue Jay	Cyanocitta cristata
Brown-headed Cowbird	Molothrus ater
Canada Goose*	Branta canadensis
Ceder Waxwing	Bombycilla cedrorum
Chipping Sparrow	Spizella passerina
Common Grackle	Quiscalus quiscula
Common Yellowthroat Warbler	Geothlypis trichas
Eastern Towhee	Pipilo erythrophthalmus
Grey Catbird	Dumetella carolinsis
Hairy Woodpecker	leuconotopicus villosus
House Finch	Haemorhous mexicanus
House Wren	Troglodytes aedon
House Sparrow	Passer domesticus
Mourning Dove	Zenaida macroura
Northern Cardinal	Cardinalis cardinalis
Northern Mockingbird	Mimus polyglottos
Red-bellied Woodpecker	Melanerpes carolinus
Song Sparrow	Melospiza melodia
Veery	Catharus fuscenscens
White-throated Sparrow	Zonotrichia albicollis
*Not in my yard

 The geese and catbird can be seen in previous posts.

Below you can see proof of the others!

A whole flock of Ceder Waxwings were perched in the branches of a tree behind my house

Unfortunately the pictures at this distance do not capture their beautiful color, but hopefully I will spot them again!

I see Common Grackles frequently (they are, as it turns out, common) but here are some I photographed:

This one, I believe, is a male

I have been attempting to make friends with the crows by giving them peanuts. I'll make a whole post about this soon. The grackles, among other birds, also appreciate my efforts.

Common Yellowthroat Warbler- I have only seen this a couple of times, and it's tough to photograph because it's very fast! This one I could not have identified without help from the internet.

Since I got suet, I have been seeing this Hairy Woodpecker now and then-

UPDATE: Siting here with my laptop by the window I see all my feeders in the tree. My camera is close, but I can't always catch everything! I just saw two (I believe) Hairy woodpeckers in the tree interacting together. They were towards the top of the tree behind branches, and a group of people came walking by loudly on the sidewalk disturbing them. I hope to capture them together, but I can confirm there are two woodpeckers who have visited my yard!

I believe this House Wren may be working on (or at least considering) building a nest in my wooden bird house, which is very exciting!

I don't think it wants to be photographed right now?

Searching for food in the backyard

 Working on that nest, I hope!

This one is from today!

I first spotted a Northern Mockingbird in another neighborhood, walking to the pond where I found geese previously-

Today though, I found a Northern Mockingbird, checking out my new block of suet in my yard!

Finally, the Whats this Bird facebook group struggled with me to identify this Veery. Initially several members of the group thought it was a Swainson's Warbler, however, more photographs from different angles confirmed the Veery ID.

Before I finish, I also wanted to update my American Crow and Mourning Dove identification pictures, as I have gotten much better shots than I used for those initial identification shots! As I said previously though, I will be making a post in the near future all about crows. Spoilers: Crows are cool! But first, a lovely dove:

And a crow-

But don't worry, more will come!

Thanks!

Pond (behold creatures: not just birds!)

It's been a while, so I have made some exciting advancements! To start with I want to share some pictures from a small pond I found with my husband quite near our house.

Several weeks ago we spotted a Canadian Goose on a nest:

We later walked around and found what must be it's mate: 

We visited again and found them both by the pond:

More recently when we visited, however, the nest was covered in fluff. The geese remained nearby, and seemed nervous and were behaving protectively, but there was no obvious sign of any babies.

On our most recent visit, they continued to react protectively, even calling to each other. 

They both ended up walking together away from the pond and through a field, eventually flying off together. We concluded that there most likely were no surviving goslings, however we don't know what happened to them.

We found a few other interesting animals in and around the pond that I wanted to share here (even though, as you might notice, they are not birds)

A frog

With a good look at the frogs legs

Frog with a neat reflection

A couple tadpoles

Another tadpole shot

A turtle just poking out of the water.

Finally, what I concluded was most likely a Northern Water Snake:

We hope to continue checking this pond, and will see what other friends we make there!

Thanks!

Finch me, I'm dreaming!

Well, I put out my finch sack, and lo and behold, finches appeared. I had already seen the occasional house finch:

But the Nyjer (Also called Thistle) seeds attracted at least 1 beautiful gold finch:

The new seed in the white/green feeder seemed to attract more birds, a house finch particularly seems to have been enjoying it.

Below are more pictures of these lovely finches.

Thanks!

The Grey Catbird

For a while recently, I have been seeing this dark grey bird I could not identify. I took picture after picture, trying to get a good shot. Now that I have figured it out, I feel silly that it took so long. Here are some of the pictures I took trying to figure out its identity...

(The Catbird is in the background, the red one is a cardinal... I don't tend to mix those two up...)

I got a really good close up on this one

And of course, if I'm going to post about the catbird, I don't want to hurt Triscuit's feelings.

Thanks!