Category wild bird blog

I have been watching for a purple finch all winter.

This chunky little bird is about the size of a sparrow and brightly colored. I was very exciting to see a pair of them this afternoon.



A member of the finch family, the scientific name is Haemorhous purpureus.

This little guy is a year round resident of our Northern NY. They seem a little more rare than the house finches or redpoll we get around the property. Some of them migrate South from Canada.

This batch may be headed back north and stopped by for a meal.

They were hitting the black oil sunflower seeds and loitering in the lilacs.

We will keep our eyes peeled and ears open for this one.

Learn more about the purple finch at Cornell University

This pair of Mourning Doves had been hanging around all day in the lilacs.

I have heard these called Turtle Doves or Rain Doves but we usually refer to them as just Doves.

When they take flight their wings make a whistling swoopy sound and clicks. Other than that they make a cooing sound. They are not very timid and if careful, one can often walk right up to them.

They remind me of the pigeons I used to keep when I was young except the doves seem to be a bit smaller.

We see them feeding on the ground around the station picking up millet spilled by other birds. I personally have never seen one in a feeder. We were going to remove the millet from the feeder but it seems like the doves eat it on the ground so I don’t think it will hurt anything to continue with the seed. I think the sparrows eat millet and small seed too.

This pair has been around for about a week and I wonder if they are looking for a place for a nest. I think I will keep an eye on them. I hope they will not choose one of the soft maple tree we have tagged for removal.

From what I have learned Mourning Doves are monogamous so maybe this pair will treat us to some little ones.

Today we were headed to Oswego to photograph a lighthouse while there was still ice in the harbor but as it happens all too often we were visiting and the time flew by so we decided to postpone this particular adventure until we had more time and a better list of things to do.

Instead we headed down to Pillar Point to see if there was any ice piling up, as it does from time to time. No dice, no ice. At least the accumulation we were hoping to see.

However… we did see some water birds. They were a ways off and smallish so I pulled out the longest lens and took a few shots. Close up examination on a small camera screen is sometimes near impossible, especially when the subjects are so far away.

When we arrived home and pulled the files up on a bigger screen we confirmed they were goldeneye ducks.
It’s easy to tell why they earned that name. The eyes are brilliant yellow gold. The white cheek helps to identify them from a distance.

Even though they were quite a ways off we had fun watching them dive under the ice and appear in an other hole. This is about as close as we could get and the sun was not optimum but there will be more chances.



On a side note, these guys were really hustling and this is a hand held panning shot and fairly tight crop at that using my new 80-300 Nikon lens. I am beginning to like this lens and feel like it is a good addition to my bag.

Late this evening and early this morning a soft sticky snow fell, covering the branches and feeders. This is not unusual for this part of the country as we are liable to get snow on the 4th of July.
That said, after a particularly cold and brutal winter we are looking forward to spring weather.

The birds were busy at the feeders tanking up as the temperatures were hovering around 30 degrees F. The Downy Woodpeckers spend time at the suet feeder. Phyllis makes a cake with rendered beef suet and peanut butter the birds seem to like, especially the woodpeckers.

Female Downy Woodpeckers are about 8 inches from tip to tail and a little bit smaller than the male. The female does not have the red patch on the back of the head.
Both the male and female are timid compared to a chickadee, who will sit close by on a branch and scold us until a fresh supply of black oil sunflower seeds is delivered.

We have observed the Female Downy Woodpecker taking smaller seed but they seem to like the suet feeders best and I know they go for bugs in the wild. This time of year there are not as many bugs readily available and the suet is easy.

This year the cold has held on and much of the wetlands are still frozen and covered in ice. This heron is one of a flock who had found an area of open water. They seemed to be hunting newly emerging amphibians or maybe small fish.
Great Blue Herons nest near here but migrate during the winter as they would not be able to feed. Our neighbors koi pond is a favorite haunt of the Heron.


Earlier in the day there were a score or more herons at this spot but by the time we arrived the number had dwindled to 2 stragglers and they took flight right away.
Learn more about the Great Blue Heron.

I photographed this Great Blue Heron in 2011 near Alexandria Bay NY.
The rain was pouring down and all I had was my d40 Nikon with the 18-55mm kit lens.

Since that time I have found better lenses are key to wild life photography. And patience.

About 2 weeks ago we were awaken by squawking and scratching outside our bedroom window. By the sounds of squeaks and whistles we knew the culprits were Starlings.

It seemed they had found a small opening in the siding and were fixing to take up housekeeping in the wall of our house. We bought this old house a few years ago and have not been able to finish repairs to the siding. If there is a small opening the Starlings will find it and fill it with sticks, grass, string and baby Starlings.

The only way to deter them is to block off the opening. A simple piece of board and some galvanized nails fixed the problem. Of course we made sure there were no starlings in the wall before we blocked off the entrance.

Early the next morning the birds returned to continue the project only to find the door had been nailed shut. They hung around for a few minutes and then left. They have not returned.

Today as we were driving we noticed a large owl perched on the top of an old abandoned school house. This was one of those one room survivors that someone has maintained and it sits in an area with no trees or brush, just vacant field.

At first it looked as if it might have been one of those “fake owls” used to keep other birds away. We turned around and went back to see that it was a very large dirty white/grey with a very round head. She did not pay strict attention to us but she kept an eye on us.

Unfortunately we did not have one frame left in the camera so we were not able to get a photo. Finally she flew away and the wing spread must have been almost 4 feet. She glided to the top of a telephone pole, probably waiting to find dinner.

We will go back in a day or some with the camera and try to get a photo.

A sure sign of spring is the return of the robins. We began to notice them about a week ago and now they seem to be everywhere.

They spend winters in roots from just below Canada south to Florida. This disappearing act has given rise to the idea that they fly south for the winter.

We don’t see them at the feeders but that does not mean they don’t stop by.

It seems like the pickens are slim for robins but it is not as bad as for some other species that eat only bugs. Robins can eat fruit to tide them over in the winter when it would be a real trick to coax an earthworm from the ground.