Birds of a feather

[buzzsaw]

The backyard is a busy scene these days as everything is back, here are a few from recently.

Goldfinch

White Throated Sparrow

Robin

Brown Thrasher

Sparrow (not sure what type, too lazy to look right now)

Not a good p[icture on a rainy day, a Warbler I think... not sure which one.. feel free to tell me.

Another try at the Tree Swallow, this time with some sunlight, not a flash and NO saturation.

Not back yard birds, just parents.

One more Woodie, I need to carry that tripod around I guess.

[Tom Wilson]

Mike,

The Goldfinch shot is great. Nice Job.

Tom

[Andrew Erickson]

WOAH! I love the blue one!

[Dbl]

Ditto on the goldfinch. Nice pictures.

Dan

[Steve Foss]

Nice work Buzz! Those first few especially have rich light. The one lower down you thought might be a warbler is a sparrow, I believe. It looks like a sharp-tailed sparrow, but I don't have my field guide here with me at the lake cabin, so I can't be sure.

[buzzsaw]

The first three pics were taken last night at between 6 - 6:30 and it was perfect light. The one I can't identify was really pretty yellow in color... so if anybody can I.D. it I would be thankful. I just got back from watching tree swallows going back and forth with blue birds in a field and it was pretty neat... the swallows would land on the bluebirds home/box and the bluebirds would come and dive bomb them and I was like ten feet away... pretty cool... came back to dump those pics on my computer so I can head out to Hastings for some Raptor action.

[Tom Wilson]

I just left him an reply on another site about this, but if it depends on whether or not he took that here or if he took that in Florida last month. I agree Steve, it looks very much like a SaltMarsh Sharp Tailed, but that would only be if he shot it in Florida. If he shot it here, then it would have to be a LeConte's Sparrow, or a very, very rare sighting.

Tom

[buzzsaw]

Murphy Hanrehan Park three days ago.

[Steve Foss]

Tom, according to the birding guide I have here at the cabin (the somewhat lame Golden guide) and some online verification just now, sharp-tailed sparrows nest in North Dakota and migrate through the whole eastern half of the U.S. That would be the Nelson's sharp-tailed, not the salt marsh species. I agree that, if it's not a sharp-tailed, it's a LeConte's.

[Steve Foss]

I'm home now, surrounded by the library.

Nelson's sharp-tailed migrates through a lot of Minnesota and nests in extreme NW Minn into ND and the Prairie pothole region of Canada, and so could easily be seen during migration by Buzz. But the field marks from Buzz' image strongly match LeConte's, and that's my guess.

[jonny_redhorse]

I pulled my feeders.....city of Hibbing passed a law a couple weeks ago that if you're caught feeding pigeons....automatic 50.00 fine.......

[note from admin: Jonny gets his own thread on this topic in bird watching board. Go there for more.]