Backyard Birding III

[SoTier]

More interesting bird sightings in my yard this weekend:

• I think I have catbirds nesting in  the arborvitaes that line the north side of my yard.  Last week I heard one calling from my arborvitaes.  Then Saturday I saw one in a lilac bush near the arborvitaes.  Today I heard one several times.  Gray catbirds have  a distinctive call.  It's supposed to sound like a cat (hence the name) but it sounds like a very sick cat or maybe a squirrel to me.  Previous years, the catbirds only showed up when the choke cherries fruited.
• The bluejays have competition for the peanuts.  Except for an occasional cardinal, they've pretty much had the peanuts to themselves.  A few days ago, a hairy woodpecker was working on getting peanuts out of the feeder.  I'm not sure if he liked the peanuts, but he's back to the sunflower seeds in the wire tube feeder.   A grackle has also been visiting the peanut feeder.  Unlike the jays who take the whole peanut and fly off to parts unknown, the grackle takes his peanuts over to the driveway and uses the hard surface to help crack the shells so he can eat right there in the driveway. 
• I also spotted a red breasted woodpecker at the sunflower tube feeder.

[Gugny]

https://m.facebook.com/100064322187148/posts/25081572288131262/?
 

[Sweats]

If by backyard "birding", you mean stand on your back porch and wave your junk at your neighbors?

 

Yes, i have been known to occasionally do some backyard "birding". 

 

[Augie]

2 hours ago, Sweats said:

If by backyard "birding", you mean stand on your back porch and wave your junk at your neighbors?

 

Yes, i have been known to occasionally do some backyard "birding". 

 

 

Seen any Wild Turkey lately? 

[SoTier]

Not exactly in my "backyard" but while driving back to Jtown from our family camp in the Town of Persia in northern Cattaraugus County, I spotted a bald eagle in the Town of Conewango.  He flew overhead and landed in a pasture.  He was really impressive.   While not exactly "common" like robins, cardinals or bluejays, bald eagles are numerous in Cattaraugus and Chautauqua Counties.   There are numerous nests in these counties including some right around Jamestown.

 

It wasn't always that way.  Bald eagles in the lower 48 states were almost extinct (along with other top level raptors like ospreys and peregrine falcons) in the 1960s when the insecticide DDT was banned.  In the 1990s, the first bald eagles were raised and fledged in NYS from eggs brought from Alaska, including a group that was raised and released in the Montezuma Wildlife Refuge between Rochester and Syracuse.  

[Bob Lamb]

On 11/16/2025 at 6:20 PM, SoTier said:

Not exactly in my "backyard" but while driving back to Jtown from our family camp in the Town of Persia in northern Cattaraugus County, I spotted a bald eagle in the Town of Conewango.  He flew overhead and landed in a pasture.  He was really impressive.   While not exactly "common" like robins, cardinals or bluejays, bald eagles are numerous in Cattaraugus and Chautauqua Counties.   There are numerous nests in these counties including some right around Jamestown.

 

It wasn't always that way.  Bald eagles in the lower 48 states were almost extinct (along with other top level raptors like ospreys and peregrine falcons) in the 1960s when the insecticide DDT was banned.  In the 1990s, the first bald eagles were raised and fledged in NYS from eggs brought from Alaska, including a group that was raised and released in the Montezuma Wildlife Refuge between Rochester and Syracuse.  

 

Bald eagles are now found in all 49 states. Not sure about Hawaii?  We watch the Eagle Cam at Big Bear Lake in California. There is a successful breeding pair caught on high def cameras. 

I live on Grand Island, NY now between Lake Erie & Ontario - lots of water and lots of woodlands.  We have nesting pairs of bald eagles and more hawks/ospreys than you can shake a stick at.  My personal backward count is 47 different now. Also around are trumpeter swans, herons, cormorants and there was even a pelican on Lake Erie last year. Wild turkeys abound. 

Bird watching is FUN!

 

Bob