Winter Bird Count

 

Baltimore Orioles 

Christmas Eve became extra joyous when my grape jelly feeder in the backyard was visited throughout the holy day by a few beautiful Baltimore Orioles! 

After snapping some photos through the window, I moved upstairs and quickly and quietly opened a bathroom window that overlooks our array of feeders. 

What a color scheme has this fine feathered fellow! 

Orioles crave the jelly, so I try to it out for them, especially in the fall and winter.

The weather was very chilly on this day, in the upper 20s-low 30s. A knowledgeable friend who owns the Wild Birds Unlimited store in Mt. Pleasant, after I posted some of these photos on Facebook, said the cold temperatures make Orioles and other birds more active (and hungry I reckon). 

Female Baltimore Orioles came by too on this day. I didn’t get any photos of the lady Os. That’s a Pine Warbler in the middle of this pix. 

Here are some more of my special Christmas Eve Orioles! 

                             I was quite taken by all the yellow on the one guy’s tail feathers! 

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 

This solitary Woodpecker has been feeding for years on a few of my backyard trees. I don’t know if this is same male I have photographed for a few years now. Bit it might be. Plenty of small holes in the bark!

Yellow-rumped Warbler- AKA "Butter Butt" for the yellow patch seen in the photos after this first one. 

Bluebird- These two photos show the difference between taking a picture with the sun behind me versus shooting into the sun

Here you see a pair of Bluebirds and a little bit of a Northern Cardinal’s face in the bottom right part of the frame.

Eastern Phoebe- I need some help to ID from Facebook's "What Bird is This?" site

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

A single bird of this type has for several years been feeding on sap in so-called sapwells that this bird drills into trees in the back part of my back yard. 

Red-bellied Woodpecker (below)- This cousin of the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is a regular patron of our feeders. The lighting this morning (Sunday, Jan. 29) was ideal for these two photos. 

Mockingbird 

This bird is a bit of a bully at the feeders. It sometimes aggressively cackles and flies at other birds trying to feed. Hey, there’s plenty of food for everyone! 

Hooded Mergansers

Earlier in December, I spotted this pair of Hooded Mergansers in the pond behind my house.

This is the male who is quite distinctive. 

And here is his female mate, presumably. 

I only saw the Hoodies this one time until today, January 9, when two pair were on the pond. And today, January 11, there are five out there! 

I did not photograph that group, but am hopeful they will return in the days ahead. 

Hooded Mergansers have visited my pond in previous years. The first place I ever saw one was at Magnolia Cemetery. See more Hoodies in this 2010 post. 

Jan. 10- Took the following pond pix this morning. Some Hoodies were back, a mix of nine Great and Snowy Egrets, and a pair of Canada Geese. Wow, I haven’t seen this many birds on the pond at the same time in quite a while.

In this photo, two Hooded Mergansers are in the foreground and two Great Egrets are in the back.

 

A triangle of Hoodies! I took this picture and the one that follows on Jan. 12.

Rainy Day Hoodie! 

 White Ibis- This very distinctive bird has been visiting our pond on occasion lately.

White Ibis, three of them (above), with a Great Egret. And two Ibis (below) and a Snowy Egret. 

Belted Kingfisher 

For at least a few years a single Belted Kingfisher has been hanging around the golf course pond near my backyard. I recently learned that the female of the breed has a chestnut-colored band on her chest and the male does not. 

So the one in my photos here is a female. 

I have photographed her before perched on the sign that warns about alligators possibly being in the water, which I can confirm is the case, having seen gators numerous times. In the winter like now they hibernate so there may be one or two nestled in the mud at the bottom of the pond. 

Belted Kingfishers have one of the most distinctive cackling calls. She busily flies from sign to tree branches, swooping down to water when sighting an insect, small fish or minnow. 

Great Blue Heron

Such a big beautiful bird! 

This one has some nice coloring along it’s long neck and the reddish brown spots on its side. 

Little Blue Heron 

This smaller Heron is striking with its slate blue color and darker shade on its chest and neck. I have seen solitary Little Blues at my pond off and on for a few years now. 

I like this capture from Jan. 14 of a Little Blue Heron and Snowy Egret in close proximity to each other. 

Note how the Little Blue is perched on a branch jutting out from the bank. Note too the rich purple color of the heron’s neck. 

Snowy Egrets have black billed and yellow “slippers.”

More Snowy Egret- and no, you are not seeing double. 

The Great Egret has a yellow bill and is much larger than the Snowy Egret. 

A Great Egret comes in for a landing.

Barred Owl 

This was a very strange encounter! Coming home December 6 from Alexia’s birthday dinner downtown I did a double take seeing a large bird perched on a Carta bus stop sign. I thought at first it was a hawk. But quickly realized, no, it was a Barred Owl. 

This was on Ashley Phosphate Road near the Wendy’s off Patriot Boulevard. I parked the car in the Wendy’s lot and took several photos with my iPhone 12. 

On the way to “Hoo” or Hootville was the Owl? Maybe. 

The Barred Owl let me get fairly close as I snapped away before flying off to a nearby tree. I hope it found a less busy place to hang out. 

 Red-shouldered Hawk

In November I had another bird encounter- a beautiful Red-shouldered Hawk- in an unusual place. The roof is atop the Bank of America branch on Ashley Phosphate Road. This is my bank so a routine errand turned not so routine when I saw the hawk when I parked my car. 

What a lovely bird and a clear blue sky too. Look closely at the image below to see a bird, maybe a vulture, over the hawk’s red shoulder, 

ACE Basin New Year Outing: Hollings National Wildlife Refuge

Jan. 2, 2023 found us trekking to the ACE Basin for a positive way to begin the new year. 

I really wanted to go to the Bear Island Wildlife Management Area located even deeper in the basin but it is currently closed for hunting. Being federal property I knew the Hollings refuge never allows hunting.

Well, it turned out a big section of the Hollings’ trail was closed for unknown reasons. 

This was a shame because off in the far distance were probably thousands of migratory ducks. If the trail had been open my Canon “super zoom” camera and I could have taken much better photographs than what you see here. Shooting into the sun made quality captures tough as well. 

This was the best I could do. I’m pretty sure that’s a Northern Shoveler in the middle flapping its wings. 

And in front of the Shoveler with its back to me is, I believe, a Green-winged Teal. Note the male’s red head and green “mask.” That appears to be another Teal of this type under the jumping Shoveler’s wing facing more toward me. 

Here is the best close-up I have on the Northern Shoveler. 

Here is a clearer picture of the Northern Shoveler that I took at the Bear Island WMA in early 2013. See that post, which has LOTS of birds. 

I photographed these Green-winged Teal at Magnolia Plantation’s Audubon Swamp back in 2012 (see that post here). This teal is considered the smallest dabbling duck in North  America!  "Dabbling" refers to ducks that feed mostly on the surface of the water as opposed to diving ducks. 

Snowy Egret

American Coot

We saw several Coots. They were in waters closer to the trail, apart from the huge herd shown earlier. 

Savannah Sparrow (though possibly a Song Sparrow). 

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Eastern Phoebe- but I’m not 100 percent on this one. My go-to identifier whatbird.com and its wonderful bird ID forum is currently offline receiving a make over it seems. 

Alligators- small ones! 

Armadillo- this sighting in the wilderness was a novelty! 

We did about a three-mile walk. Would have been longer if the paths weren’t partially closed! But still, a nice nature-nurture start 2023.