Fall is in the Air

The birds are feeling the coolness in the Fall breezes! This little house finch looked so cute puffing up his feathers.

Birding at the Playground

I took the girls and my camera to the playground yesterday. The last few times I've been there, I haven't had my camera and I regretted it. I was able to get a few pictures of at least one bird. There may be two! I'm not sure what the bird is, but he's a cute little guy. The second picture on the right looks like a different bird to me, but I can't see the wing bars clearly.

House Finch Conjunctivitis

The house finches are really enjoying our feeders, and lately we really haven't seen many birds other than the house finches. It also seems that we've seen more and more of them with bird conjuctivitis (pink eye). From what I learned, it seems that this disease affects mostly house finches and also gold finches. Last year, I only saw two or three gold finches with the pink eye. We saw quite a few more house finches with it. I also learned that there's not much that we can do. It's heart breaking.

Have any of you seen the little finches with pink eye? Is it just localized in the north Georgia area? The little bird below has the infection in both of his eyes.

Soggy Little Birds

It's been raining here in north Georgia for what feels like a month! It has rained so much, in fact, that the Atlanta metro area was on its way to becoming a large lake. There are so many people who have lost their homes, and some have even lost their lives. We have been very blessed so far that flood waters have not been in our neighborhood. Today is the first time in about 5 days that we've seen the sun.

My four year old little girl looked out the window yesterday and asked me, "Is it ever going to stop raining?" Then she said, "It breaks my heart not to go outside." It breaks my heart, too! The girls are going stir crazy, and Mommy is running out of ideas to entertain them.

It seems like the birds were having similar feelings. We rarely see birds at the feeders when it's raining, but yesterday must have been a special day. The birds ventured out for a meal. They were so soggy it made me wish I had an umbrella out there for them.

House Finches and Song Sparrows

The house finches are hungry! We've started filling the feeders at least once a week. The gold finches have visited much less in the past few weeks, but we still see a few. Their population is diminutive compared to the house finches we've been seeing! This little one seemed to be waiting on us to take a picture.



Hunger is making them pretty aggressive, too. I was in the back yard and started to hear lots of chirping and wing flapping. When I looked up, I saw a lot of fussing going on. I was able to get this shot of two of the house finches trying to get the best spot on the feeder.

I was pleasantly surprised to see some more song sparrows in the yard. The were not serenading me, but they were very watchful. From the kitchen, I can't really tell the difference between the house finches and the song sparrows, and when I saw the stripes on this one's head, it was very exciting! I thought our entire yard had been taken over by the house finches!

Hummingbirds

The first weekend in August, I had a little time to watch the hummingbirds in our yard. I'm always surprised at how aggressive they can be with one another! The dainty little birds and the fighting just don't seem to go together. When I was standing outside watching them, I could hear them hitting each other in flight. They are fun to watch! I wish more of my pictures were in focus.

It looks like the pictures below are of a juvenile male. In the third picture, I like the way the light catches the tiny but growing red patch on the bird's throat. In the last picture, I caught one bird chasing off another one from the red cedar tree (left) in our yard.

Let Me Serenade You

When I've been out in our backyard lately, a little song sparrow has been sitting in one of our leeland trees singing. If he's not there when I get outside, he appears while I'm there. When I hear him singing, I think about the Three Dog Night Song, Let Me Serenade You. It may be the only time I evere get a serenade, but it happens quite a few times a week!

I also saw him foraging on the ground underneath our cedar trees. He was protective of "his" territory and ran a couple of house finches off. I haven't seen him at the feeders off the kitchen window very much, but I'd like to get a better picture!

When I was watching the song sparrow, I also caught a glimpse of the female cardinal that visits our yard. Last year, we had three juvenile cardinals eating from the feeders off the kitchen, but, the year, we rarely see more than one cardinal at the feeder at a time. I'd love to see more of them. The female is very shy and flies off as soon as she even thinks she hears us. She is one of the prettiest birds I see in the yard. The picture below is what I see of her most.