Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in June 2017 – Birds

The dominate bird sighting on our visit to Kenilworth Gardens last week were Canadian geese. They were hard to ignore because of their size and the aggressiveness of the adults in protecting their goslings. They hiss if you are too close – and attack if you continue closer….so we gave them wide birth. We re-routed to other paths through the gardens several times!

When I saw a group on one of the ponds I thought I could get closer and they would just mill around in the water…but then I noticed that another pair with goslings were nearby. I used the zoom on my camera again.

I was disappointed that we didn’t see any herons on this visit. Previously I had photographed both Green and Great Blue Herons in the gardens. I did see a red wings black bird. It was so far away that I only was able to identify it via the zoom on my camera.

And there were cardinals that flitted about in the trees along the boardwalk toward the Anacostia River.

Previous posts about this visit: insects, water lilies.

Photographs through my Office Window – April 2017

There has been a lot of activity through my office window this month. The squirrels are feasting on the tender samaras in the maple – early in the month

And then a couple of weeks later when the leaves are unfurling.

The squirrels have a pathway around our yard via trees and fence…rarely on the ground.

The robins are around but don’t seem as numerous as previous years.

We now have two kinds of sparrows: chipping sparrows and

White throated sparrows (with the dash of yellow above their eye).

The blue jays are still frequent visitors to the bird bath.

I haven’t seen a lot of grackles but there was one that visited our yard long enough for a picture.

We have a pair of cardinals again this year – probably nesting nearby.

Mourning doves like the birdbath and the roof line of our covered deck. This one seemed to want its picture taken!

Photographs through my Office Window – February 2017

Our February has been very mild so far – some cold mornings but generally warmer than usual – and not snow. The birds frequent both our bird bath and feeder. The cardinal likes the maple or sycamore.

The chickadee comes when it can get a drink or a few seeds when the juncos are not around.

The doves are sporting a sheen to their feathers.

I don’t see flickers every day but there was one that must have been very thirsty. It arrived and kept the juncos away from the bird bath --- and I had time to take some portraits. My favorite is the last one of this sequence that shows the feathers fluffed against the cold.

The red-tailed hawk is still around. I first saw him peering from the black walnut tree through the pine. He flew to another tree where I could only see his front and the beak; can you see him in the jumble of branches?

The blue jays are around every day. They have quite an attitude! The second picture shows the varying shades of blue and note the way the feather look on the top of the head (almost like scales).

Starlings don’t come around our deck very often – and I’m glad since they usually travel in flocks. Our feeder is squirrel proof…and apparently starling proof too since it closes down if too much weight is on it (2 or more starlings!).

I observed two different types of sparrows this month…didn’t realize it until I looked more closely at the pictures. The first was a house sparrow.

And the second was a white-throated sparrow which is only in our area during the winter. Note the yellow marking between the eye and beak.

The downy woodpecker comes for very short visits to our feeder. It finds most of what it needs in the forest behind our house.

February was a good month for birdwatching through my office window!

Photographs through my Office Window – January 2017

My office window continues to be a great vantage point for photography. The heated bird bath and a usually well supplied bird feeder attract quite a few birds. Some are occasional visitors (or I don’t catch them on their rounds very frequently): Chickadees,

House finches,

Starlings (the sun was just right to catch this bird’s coloring), and

A downy wood pecker (because of the chisel-like bill….otherwise it could be a Hairy Woodpecker).

The cardinals I see more often…but they seem to be more nervous than usual (perhaps because of the red-tailed hawk frequenting the forest behind out house).

The juncos I see all the time – they are the most frequent visitors to our deck.

The mourning doves have been arriving in larger groups this month. They look very fat on cold days when they have their feathers fluffed out.

We do have a hawk that comes to the edge of the forest. The blue jays usually make a big ruckus when it is in the area…making it easier to photograph.

The jays themselves seemed to enjoy the heated bird bath more than any other bird. The stop for water and then fly off to the maple or tulip poplar.

Yesterday we woke up to a dusting of snow (this has been a warm January with less snow than usual for our area). As soon as it was light enough I took some pictures of the bird bath (no bird tracks) and the feeder (a few tracks on the nearby railing.

An hour later – it was obvious that a lot of birds were out and about!