Backyard Birds for cats and people to enjoy! North American birds you and your cat will love, Blue Jays, Cardinals, rare Painted Buntings, rare closeups of the Brown Thrasher (State Bird of Georgia) and more.
Osprey versus Eagle. Territorial fight between our resident Osprey and encroaching Bald Eagle high above the Backyard. Like a fighter pilot scrambling to defend its territory the Osprey is always on high alert and lords over the conservation area with nest site and the small lake full of fish - he knows an eagle is trouble - so the best defense is a good offense!
The Cardinals are having a nice quiet private meal which is unusual in the Backyard Jungle. They are getting ready to start a family - its that time of year!
Easy Hacks to replace Casio sport watch battery and most digital watch batteries fast, cheap and you wont mess up your watch - Two minutes start to finish!
Killdeer nesting and calling. This is classic windswept habitat for Killdeers - they are really hard to see against brown dirt and gravel and their nests are just depressions scraped into the ground.
Killdeer Charadrius vociferus
When not on the nest Killdeers are conspicuous and noisy,
hence, the specific name, vociferus. Like the Wilson's Plover, the broken-wing distraction display is highly developed in Killdeers and readily confirms breeding. The Killdeer breeds from Newfoundland, the south rim of Hudson Bay, and the southern Yukon and Northwest Territories south to central Mexico and the Gulf coast.
Habitat. The Killdeer inhabits both brackish and freshwater habitats and is perfectly at home in upland situations far from water. It prefers open areas with short or sparse vegetation, such as pastures, golf courses, airports, and extensive lawns. Killdeers will also nest on gravel parking lots and on rooftops. Food of the Killdeer consists of beetles and other insects and invertebrates, including arachnids, worms, snails, and crustaceans. The nest of the Killdeer is a shallow scrape, usually in bare sand or gravel, but occasionally among sparse vegetation. Four buffy eggs with black, brown, and gray markings are laid. The cryptic color of the eggs, adults and chicks enables them to avoid detection by predators. Incubation is performed by both sexes and takes 24 to 28 days. The young are precocial and leave the nest soon after hatching. They are usually accompanied by the parents until fledging at about 25 days (Ehrlich et al. 1988). Rooftop nesting can present a problem to Killdeer chicks because they must leave the roof to obtain food on the ground. Apparently they are successful at negotiating this, however, because Killdeers return to the same rooftop year after year.
Seasonal Occurrence. Most breeding occurs March through July. Fall migrants swell the Florida population Ju
through November, and spring migration occurs primarily in March and April. http://legacy.myfwc.com/bba/docs/bba_KILL.pdf
Downy Woodpeckers and Yellow Bellied Sapsuckers return to the Backyard on the same day and on the same tree during the Great Backyard Bird Count - the woodpecker miracle! In general, birding in the Backyard has been slower in the past year and the cheerful sound of the Downy Woodpecker in particular has been missing for some time. That unmistakable high-pitched call was the first thing I heard this morning! For a sample check out:
The two baby Gray Squirrel Kittens were rescued last night and are doing fine! Hard to wait three hours until after dark, but the worst thing to do is separate wild babies from their mother unnecessarily. When she was a no-show at dark it was clear she was gone. The precious kittens were really quite tiny and they had buried themselves in the box litter to keep safe and warm for the night so that was a good sign. At the wildlife hospital they were cleaned up and put in an incubator and fed voraciously as you can imagine. After a couple months of care they will be released back to the wild.
I would encourage everyone to be familiar with the nearest wildlife hospital and rescue organization in case you ever need them and also to donate generously to your local group.
Precious baby Gray Squirrel Kittens are calling Mom - she has been missing for a day and I will rescue them after dark if she doesn't show up tonight These are the cutest and most precious baby squirrels you'll probably ever see in the wild. They still have no teeth are no bigger than a little mouse and have crawled to the nest box entrance. They can barely make a sound - but they are trying to call Mom!
Wild Gray Squirrel and Cotton Rat meet for the first time nose-to-nose in the deep forest! We all know squirrels and rats are from the same Rodent family - I suspect Squirrels would be insulted if they knew this or that we call them "Tree Rats" sarcastically or affectionately sometimes.
