Woodpeckers and Squirrel Problems

I have noticed that Red-bellied Woodpeckers are just sitting on branches like a perching birds instead of climbing up trees. It just seems strange. Although there is finally a female red-belly in my yard, which i havn't seen since november.

another strange thing is that we have a racoon baffle on my feeder, but the squirrels have figured out how to leap 10 feet from the thinnest hemlock branch, and land right on the feeder.

Finches

 A different male, but with the same black and yellow.

This male goldfinch is molting into it's breeding plumage. Just look at the yellow shoulders and the black forehead.

Yellow=Spring

Yellow seems like the color of early spring in February rather than green. For instance, the goldfinches at my bird feeder have bright yellow feathers on their backs and black on their heads.

More Signs of Spring

More signs of spring are popping up. For example, the feathers at the base of the bill (the lores) are turning yellow on White-throated Sparrows. The bills on male starlings are also turning yellow. And, goldfinches are also turning more yellow, and the males are regaining their black foreheads.

 These robins were feeding on the sumac in my yard. There were at least 40 of them and a few starlings. 

 A female Eastern Bluebird was seen with her possible mate at Chartiers Creek. 

Even though these birds stay year-round where I live, they seem to say "spring is coming."

Cape May

 Shoveling Northern Shovelers.

 A pair (probably mated) of Gadwalls.

 A group of Northern Pintails.

 It's not a very good picture, but I didn't have one of those two-foot long lenses to take a photo of this Cave Swallow.

 Two Brants at Nummy Island, near Avalon. Many Yellow-rumped Warblers and at least 35 Great Egrets were seen also.

 After literally hours of arguing, it was decided that this was an American Golden Plover.

 This Bald Eagle flew right over our heads with a huge fish in it's talons. This was seen at Higbee Beach, along with the ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHER!!! Unfortunatley, I do not have pictures of it.

 Two American Wigeons. A Eurasian Wigeon was sighted also, at the lighthouse pond.

 Herring Gulls were the Perigrine Falcon's dinner.

 A Great Cormorant perched on the shipwreck off of Sunset Beach.

Nothing exciting happened today, so I'll just talk about Cape May, New Jersey. Cape May is an awesome place to see shorebirds and pelagic birds in the fall, and migrating warblers in the spring. I went to Cape May for Thanksgiving this year; that trip brought in 21 life-birds! Above is a digiscoped picture (most of these photos were digiscoped on this post) of a Canada x Snow Goose hybrid. This bird was at the CMBO (Cape May Migratory Bird Observatory).

Plain Wierd

You usually don't see turkeys sitting in trees and gracefully fly down.

Gulls!!!

Near Trax Farms, we see all the usual suspects...
Mallards, Canada Geese, Great Blue Heron, black duck, and... gull? Yes at least NINE Ring-bills and a Herring Gull at least 40 miles from were I usually see them!

Spring? Nawwwwww...

 It dosn't seem very springy with redpolls at the feeder and 8.4 inches of snow on the ground.

The good thing, though is that the bottom one may be a HOARY Redpoll.

Signs of Spring

 Just a few days ago spring was in the air (and on land). Eastern Chipmunk. Wow. Honeybee. Wower. 70 degrees. Wowest. Red-Winged Blackbird. Wowestest (quick, call Mr. Webster. I invented a new word!).    

ALBINO DEER!!!

Wait, that's not an alpaca. That's a one-in-a-million ALBINO WHITE-TAILED DEER!!!!!!!!! Apparently, there are some alpaca farms near where this was seen (Chartiers Creek).

All of the post under today were not all seen on the same day.

Here is the Lesser Black-backed Gull.

Dashields Dam

On my first visit to Dashields Dam, I was rewarded with a 4th year Bald Eagle catching a fish, and a young Lesser Black-backed Gull.