Thursday, December 4, 2008

Birdwatching

I love watching the birds here! it is one of my favorite things to do on the weekend mornings. I have a birdfeeder hung outside on my balcony, and I like to lay on my couch with Tesie right beside me, and we will watch the birds together.Tesie loves watching birds too. =) There are all kinds of finches, chickadees, blue-jays, doves (the doves are little piggies by the way, they hog the bird feeder) wood-peckers and cardinals. They are starting to come back to my feeder since its "winter-time" here, but here are some pics that I took last year. The trees aren't that bare yet.

This little guy is a woodpecker. I am pretty sure it is a male due to his big red mohawk. He is a very big bird, and he usually kicks whoever is on the feeder off when he wants to eat. The females are slightly smaller, darker in color and have a black head. Speaking of birds kicking each other off for food...the pecking order usually is: Woodpeckers, doves, blue jays, robins, cardinals, then chickadees and finches since they are usually the smallest. It's cute because when the big birds come, the little ones will fly away and wait on the tree branches nearby for the big birds to leave...it's like they are waiting in line. I love it!

Cardinals are my favorite. I am not really sure why...I think it has something to d0 with a lesson in fifth grade probably when we were learning about all the states, and I remember seeing a picture of a bright red cardinal on a tree trunk against white snow. I just thought that was amazing. Ever since then I have liked them, and I was so stoked the first time I saw one here. I thought they only lived back east since they are the state bird of South Carolina. (I have always had a sort of interest for the carolinas too).


This is a female cardinal. They are a more orangey-taupe sort of color...definitely muted compared to the guys. They are such cute, shy little birds. And they have a very distinctive chirping sort of noise. Sometimes I fall asleep on my couch at night and will wake up the next morning to the cardinals on my balcony. She always lets the male eat before her.
here comes the real looker...
Ok, this picture does not even do him justice. First off I am sure I am probably using a wrong setting on my camera, and I had to take the picture through my screen door so that is also contributing to the fuzziness. Furthermore, t I also had to be relatively far away because they are so shy. If they see any movement inside the apt, they fly away. This is why I am usually hiding under a blanket on my couch. This guy is pretty funny, because cardinals aren't big birds, but when he is on the bird feeder (which is shaped like a little wooden house) he wants to be on it alone. Well one time a little finch decided to fly in and eat on the opposite side of the house as the cardinal. The cardinal couldn't see the finch because the house is fairly big and the seeds fill the inside, but he must have felt the finch there. So he starts hopping around the corners trying to shoo off the finch and the little finch just kept moving opposite him. It reminded me of two little kids playing tag where there is a tree inbetween them. It was so funny to watch. Well....those are my birdies! Maybe I will be able to get some better pics soon.

1 comment:

Chanelle said...

haha you're hilarious nessa!!!
i wish we had awesome looking birds here in cali. I mean, we do have some cool ones here like the road runners, mocking birds nad what not but cardinals and blue jays are pretty sweet and i wish we had them out here. SO consider yourself lucky lil bird. ;)