Brown Thrasher
















He's outside. I'm inside.

In fact, I'm about ten feet away peeking around the corner of the oven.

Here's some perspective.
























Can you see him?

Best I can tell, he's just sunning himself and enjoying the view. Not trying to eat from the feeder. He's so large, he'd have to contort himself in order to get his beak into the cylinder.

I'm having fun watching him and learning how to improve my pictures in Photoshop.

Scarlet Tanager

Hiking along the Chattahoochee River over the weekend, I encountered a beautiful bird.








This Summer Red-Bird was singing so happily that it was impossible not to notice.


I believe it is a Scarlet Tanager as they do enjoy the southeastern US at this time of year; and his color may not have been as bright as the mature male.... because he was *immature* Here's a photo clipped from Wikipedia.











I have seen one once in my own backyard. His redness was so obvious, I couldnt not notice him. They're only around for a few months, before they head south again.

Time to clean out the feeders again.

I've been neglecting my friends.

The Brown Thrush


There's a merry brown thrush sitting up in the tree,
He's singing to me! He's singing to me!
And what does he say, little girl, little boy?
"Oh, the world's running over with joy!
Don't you hear? don't you see?
Hush! Look! In my tree,
I'm as happy as happy can be!"


And the brown thrush keeps singing, "A nest do you see,
And five eggs hid by me in the juniper tree?
Don't meddle! don't touch! little girl, little boy,
Or the world will lose some of its joy!
Now I'm glad! now I'm free!
And I always shall be,
If you never bring sorrow to me."

So the merry brown thrush sings away in the tree,
To you and to me, to you and to me;
And he sings all the day, little girl, little boy,
"Oh, the world's running over with joy;
But long it won't be,
Don't you know? don't you see?
Unless we are as good as can be!"

by Lucy Larcom
American Poet
1924 - 1893

From 1865 to 1873, she was the editor of Our Young Folks, later renamed St. Nicholas Magazine.


Be sure and watch the video in this link. A poet, photographer, blogger in Pennsylvania has captured the early morning vocalizing of one of my favorite birds.

Here's another related link to my xanga site where I review a book about a wood thrush.

Happy Mothers Day

The second Sunday in May is the Lord's Day like any other first day of the week. But 20th century culturalists label it Mother's Day. *Cringe*

When I awoke I was away from home, in a lake cottage, after a college graduation, far away from my spiritual family, and foregoing corporate worship.

Then I spied this Goose Family.

The Darkling Thrush
by Thomas Hardy

I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-gray,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings from broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.

The land's sharp features seemed to be
The Century's corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervourless as I.

At once a voice outburst among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.






So little cause for carollings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.

December 1900.



Truth in Reporting:

That's one of my photos taken last summer while I was walking through Callaway Gardens. While Hardy's poem is set in winter and this picture was taken in summer, I nevertheless thought it was a suitable illustration without borrowing from another.

Furthermore, I think it's a Catbird :/

Here's a link to Cornell's Lab, to which I refer often.

Are you a birdwatcher?

Project Feederwatch

Update....I received my packet and will be scheduling my *watches*



I need to figure out how to distinguish between pine siskins and house finches.






A public thanks to Melissa at Mentalmultivitamin, because her family's enthusiasm is infectious.

Project Feederwatch
Even though the season has begun, I signed up to participate in this project. Seemed like a natural thing to do, since I already watch from my kitchen window.



Can you make out the bird in this picture? It's a Brown Thrasher, Georgia's state bird. He's a little out of place because Brown Thrashers are ground feeders and he is obviously too large for this tube feeder platform. Usually they *thrash* about in the leaves and underbrush, looking for bugs, food, etc. Not too far from my window grows a very large Cherokee Rose bush, our State flower, where I suspect is a nest.

I'll let you know when I get my kit!

Update: My score on this test was 50%. Guess I better make some time for studying.

Addt'l Update: Washed out two feeders and filled them with fresh seeds: one thistle (niger) and one safflower.

I'm already seeing two types of woodpeckers, yellow and red finches, titmice, chickadees, cardinals, white-breasted nuthatches, rufous-sided toehees, brown thrashers, Carolina wrens, juncoes, and perhaps a pine siskin.

Carolina Wren

This bird is one of my favorites because s/he sings so loudly and so lovely. S/he perches on the railing of my desk and his whole body warbles as the song travels out of his mouth. I like the different shades of the brown and white markings on this bird.

Do you have a favorite bird in your backyard?

Photo credit www.aviary.owls.com/carolinawren

Brown Thrasher



Unusual for this bird to be at the feeder, as they are *ground feeders,* usually *thrashing* about the leaves underneath bushes. Hence, the name. At any rate, I captured just this frontal view which doesnt really do justice to the actual size of this bird. Ignore the splashes on the window panes as they are above my kitchen sink and impossible to keep pristine.

I hope to capture the Carolina wren one day. He sits on the deck railing and sings his heart out: his entire body warbling with his song.

Finally remembered to post the picture of the split pea soup over on my xanga site.

Click on the time to comment.

Spring

The finches eating at the kitchen feeder are now bright yellow: a sure sign of something.

The Finches are Back!

Well, Happy New Year! I can't believe how long it has been since I've posted!

Lately, I have been sighting goldfinches at the thistle feeder. They are barely yellow. It won't be long before they are boldly yellow. And then they will depart.

On Christmas Day outside my kitchen window on the deck, I saw the following birds feeding: cardinals, titmice, chickadees, nuthatches, Carolina wrens, white-breasted nuthatches, rufous-sided towhees, brown thrashers, a red-bellied woodpecker, and an hairy woodpecker.

What fun!

Jonquils and Goldfinches

I am tickled to report that the bulbs I planted on March 8th have poked through the soil and will bloom in the next several weeks. I am so glad I did not throw them away because it was past the "appointed" planting season. Also, while outside on the deck "surveying" the backyard, I noticed that a goldfinch had flown to the feeder and perched for a snack. I was within 2 feet of him and only when I needed a breath did he decide to move on. Isn't spring wonderful?!