All About Pocket Knives

Thanks Doc.

Doc B wrote:That 2nd picture is an exception one!

Ditto!

A great closeup.

I like those Buzzards, QS! I often see them soaring over our house, but perhaps fortunately they have not dropped in for a meal.

Charlie - I have seen doves nesting on the ground and in very crude nests in trees. Have the White Winged Doves made it to you part of the state yet? They seem to be displacing the Mourning Doves in my area. The White Winged Dove's call is a bit different from the Mourning Dove and is is kind of strange to hear it in my back yard instead of the old familiar Mourning Dove call.

Cool Hummer photos, Doglegg!

Thanks Steve and QS and Dinadan.

There are some really nice pictures being shown here.

Here's some I got today on my walk.

Birds, turtles, scenery looks like a great walk FRJ.

I love the Green heron and lake shot!

Thanks very much, guys.

I like where you walk, FRJ.
Some great pics. Partial to the red winged black bird. Such a pretty bird.

Thank you, Steve.
The Red Wing is beautiful. I believe it is a Thrush as is the Robin.

The handsome Red-Winged Blackbird wouldn't be a thrush as is the Robin. It belongs to a group of birds like other American blackbirds, Orioles, Meadowlarks, Bobolinks. Lot of them breeding around here. They often have several mates.

Looks like a very nice walk, Joe. That lake looks very appealing.

Thank you for the correction, Quick Steel. I should have done some research. Rarely have time for it.

Thank you Mel. Funny, the town here calls it a lake but it's actually a pond. But a nice one.
I am drawn, as many are for the same reason, to areas with water because there is so much more life there.

Just hangin' out in the backyard.

Great bird pictures guys! Joe that lake/pond where you walk is beautiful!

The Red-winged Blackbirds around here hang out with Blackbirds, Brown-headed Cowbirds and European Starlings. In late spring they show up at the feeders in mixed flocks of 20 to 100 birds and can empty a feeder quick. I sit on the back porch with an air rifle and pick off the %#@&$# Starlings and Cowbirds (I don’t shoot the Red-wings) but never can get more than a few of them before they eventually move on.

The Starlings are an invasive non-native species that compete with Bluebirds and other cavity nesters for nesting space, and Brown-headed Cowbirds are parasites (they lay their eggs in other birds’ nests) so I try to “lead poison” as many as I can.

Ken

Finally got a photo of the brown thrasher that seems to enjoy the suet basket.

Good shots homer. I have only seen the Thrashers feed on the ground. I still have some suet. Think I'll put it out and see if I can draw a Thrasher or a Wren.

As I was driving up to the house I saw a female Hummingbird depart from a feeder. This is the first one I have seen in two years. Hope she was a harbinger of Hummers to come.

QS I hope so too I have hummers out the rear, and we ain't that far apart you should get them in bunches if you have feeders out, they will really start hitting the feeders in the next couple of months. I've seen wrens on the suet baskets but I put some little suet balls and dried meal worms out in saucers for them and the bluebirds.

Got a tale for you gals and fellers, I was out filling the suet basket, was on the east side of the light pole that I hang the feeders on putting in the last cake, saw something out the corner of my eye and felt the air movement. I thought a redbellie had flew into the other side of the pole as I've had them and hairys and downys do that before, I said to him can't you wait till I get them filled ,scared him and he took off like he was on fire and scared me, it wasn't a big redbreasted but a even bigger pileated woodpecker. Those thing are huge, the photo is from a couple of years ago on a fall visit from a pair. I have an some old box elders in my yard that have dead limbs that they love to peck on. They knock out pieces of wood bigger than your two fist. Love to watch them.

BH I Iove chance encounters like that. Never a chance for a photo but boy does it wake you up. Glad you shared it with us.

Some super Barred Owl photos posted earlier on this thread. This one not as detailed or dynamic, but for me the whole composition has an Oriental art feel about it.

Taken this Winter by my brother near his home on Chebeague Island, Maine.

And the Ivory Bills were substantially bigger. Amazing.

That is a very nice photograph.
The white of the owl carries the white of the birch very well.
The open and flowing of the fir branches suggest a airy delicate feel to the picture to me.

Pretty super photo in my book. Clear shot of the owl, the limbs accent it. I like it.