A few mornings ago, I was drawing back the curtains in the kitchen window and I discovered something was out of place. I suppose when you do the same thing everyday, you just notice these things. Anyway, I looked a little closer and I spotted a juvenile broad-winged hawk (Buteo platypterus) in the front yard. […]
Birds
This category contains all my blog posts about birds and birding. In my posts, I discuss how to attract birds to your yard, the many different species of backyard birds, bird photography, and more.
Discovering a Hairy Woodpecker Nesting Cavity in the Backyard
One morning while I was working on the computer, I heard the voice of one of our female hairy woodpeckers that comes to the bird feeders quite frequently. I had mentioned her in another post and you can read all about her here. In addition to this familiar voice, I heard a second woodpecker as […]
July in Maine: What Types of Birds Can I Expect to See?
Maine is home to a wide variety of nonmigratory and migratory species of birds. Now that it is almost the middle of July, we have been enjoying our resident species and the arrival of many new bird species for the season, as well as sightings of their offspring. In this post, I would like to […]
How to Tell the Difference Between Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers
Whether bird watchers are enjoying birds from their backyards or out in the field, many individuals are faced with the question, is that a hairy or downy woodpecker? These two species are quite common, year-round visitors in North America and once you know what to look for, it is not as difficult as one would […]
Spring Bird Watching
As the seasons change and time moves on, so have a few of the species of birds here in Maine. With seasonal migration, many birds will move from one place to another to gain more advantages of the favorable conditions of their surroundings. This is quite an exciting time for bird watchers and photographers alike, […]
The Hummingbirds are Here
There are three different areas of the property where I put my hummingbird feeders out. The old feeders I used in these areas were getting cracked and leaking, so I bought three new ones. The first feeder I bought is called the Droll Yankees Easy View Hummingbird Feeder. This is a tough plastic feeder that […]
Bird Photography with a Canon Rebel T6i Camera & 55-250mm Lens
While taking bird photographs, I felt like I wasn’t achieving the kind of images I wanted to capture. I recently upgraded from a Canon 18-135mm lens to a Canon 55-250 lens. I got by with the other lens, but I want to take my photography to the next level. I also upgraded to a Canon […]
For All of You Bird Lovers
Hairy woodpeckers (Leuconotopicus villosus) have a much longer bill than the downy woodpecker, which has a thorn-like bill. Hairy woodpeckers are black and white. The black wings are checkered with white and the head has two white stripes and a large white patch runs down the center of the black back. Males have a patch […]
Winter Birds
The following photographs are of just a few of the birds that I have visiting my backyard every year during the winter. I also provided some information about each bird. The black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) is a small, nonmigratory, North American songbird. They are the state bird of Maine and Massachusetts in the United States […]
Backyard Birds During the Early Spring
A male white-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis). A blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata) in the snow. A female yellow-bellied sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius) in a birch tree (Betula). A black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) on the trunk of a birch tree. A singing white-throated sparrow. A visiting dark-eyed junco (Junco hyemalis). A white-throated sparrow perching in an apple tree […]