What A Weekend!!!

This weekend was probably the best so far for me on the birding front. I spent Saturday morning out a Lake Monticello again. The bird activity most definitely picked up since last weekend. It was bright sunny day and was perfect for bird watching!


There were two Flickers that were spending time feeding on the ground out by the lake when I first got there. I then noticed this Loggerhead Shrike on the pavilion and seemed to be watching the Flickers. Check out Aunt B's Backyard for some great shots of a Northern Flicker.





As I was leaving the lake, I noticed a Belted Kingfisher perched on this dead tree. He was 'posing' and I got as many pics as I could! As I was watching, he just took off and dove straight into the water. I was shocked but then he re-emerged and took his perch again. I guess he either saw a fish or needed to cool off!




Check back later this week to hear about the trips that we took to Cane Creek State Park near Star City. I'm still going through the pics and all of my field notes. It was a great trip. My little 'birding buddy' went with us on Sunday. She loved it!

Good Birding and God Bless!

Dance of the Flickers!

We went out to dinner tonight and got back to the house about 7pm. As usual, I checked our backyard for bird activity. Late in the day toward evening, the birds come out to eat dinner. Tonight, I noticed two birds out in the back of the yard on the ground.

They were two Northern Flickers, bobbing and weaving around. I thought that it was a male and a female at first, but upon closer inspection, they were both males. Notice the black moustaches!

After thinking about what was going on, it must have been a show of dominance between these two males. I watched these two and it went on for at least 2o minutes. The moved their display up on a fence and continued doing their dance.

I've included a short video of some of the 'dancing' that was going on between the two Northern Flickers.

Northern Flickers!

I've been watching a pair of Northern Flickers in an oak tree nearby. They have been working on their nest. Hopefully, I'll have a some nice pictures of a few baby flickers soon.

These flickers are the yellow-shafted variety. They (both male and female) have distinct red nape patch where the red-shafted variety does not have the red nape patch. The yellow-shafted male has a black mustache. The red-shafted male Northern Flicker has a red mustache.



The yellow-shafted male (above picture) also has a yellow underwing and yellow tail, normally only visible in flight, but I happened to catch the male displaying his plumage in the above picture. You can also see it's black mustache. The female (right) is very similar to the male but without the distinct black mustache.

Northern flickers have very distinct markings. They have a black bib on their breast. The black spots on their belly and black bars on their backs help to easily identifiy this woodpecker from others.

I spent Saturday and Sunday on Brush Mountain with my brother-in-law Kevin and Summer. Check back later in the week for some cool pictures on several new birds I have not seen before. I'm still fairly new to birding and photography so my checklist is growing very quickly!