My favorite bird photos of 2011

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, I enjoyed Christmas and a delicious dinner with my family at my sisters house. I wish everyone all the best in 2012.......HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!!

I am linking up with Mellow Yellow Monday  and Our World Tuesday and World Bird Wednesday

I had trouble choosing my favorite photos over my favorite birds. In this case of these photos are some of my better photos of some of my favorite birds all seen in 2011.

The Eastern Meadowlark is a beautiful bird and I saw this one on the same backroad as the Redhead Woodie below. It can be great to go birding on the backroads in Maryland.

In the Mosaic above I have my favorite photo of the Prothonotary Warbler I saw at Magee Marsh, Ohio. The Hooded Warbler I saw while hiking in Shenandoah, an Eastern  Meadowlark seen while driving the back roads in Maryland and a White-eye Vireo seen while hiking near my house.

My favorite juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron

In this mosaic I have my favorite photos of the juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron seen in a nearby rookery, three of the five Black Bellied Whistling Ducks that showed up in a lake in a Baltimore City park, the Clapper Rail seen at Edwin Forsythe near Atlantic City and the Virginia Rail seen during the Popular Island bird trip with my bird club.

The Black bellied Whistling Ducks are just the cutest ducks ever seen.

Above one of my better Osprey shots and a cool shot of a Chincoteague Island Bald Eagle, a closeup of a Chincoteague Pelican and a Barred Owl seen on the C& O canal bike trail, a Redhead Woodie seen while driving the back roads of Maryland and the Long-tailed Tropicbird seen in Bermuda.

Osprey seen at the Edwin Forsythe NWR

I really enjoyed watching these Long-Tailed Tropicbirds seen on Bermuda's Horseshoe Bay Beach.

Cool sighting and photo of the Barred Owl

I was happy to catch this eagle sitting in the sunshine.

The Redhead Woodie one of my favorite woodpeckers.

Thanks to Drowsey Monkey of Mellow Yellow Monday  and thanks to the hosting group at Our World Tuesday and thanks to Springman of World Bird Wednesday.  All these host have been just wonderful to support the fun memes and I really do appreciate them. I also want to thank everyone that stopped by in 2011 to see my post and for their lovely comments.

I hope everyone has a Happy and Safe New Years and  Happy Birding!!

Bermuda birds and scenery

With this post I am link up my mosiacs with Mosaic Monday and the yellow chested Great Kiskadee for  Mellow Yellow Monday and with the beautiful blue water of Horsebeach Beach and the lovely skies  for Blue Monday. I recently read that Smiling Sally is in the hospital, please say a prayer for her and wish her well.

Ruddy Turnstones seen on the Horseshoe beach

I think by now everyone knows I love to go birding and that includes birding while on vacation. During our port of call stop in Bermuda I was able to check out the birds on the Horseshoe beach. A popular beach with pretty blue water and pink sand.

Hubby was able to go snorkeling while I did my birding so we were both happy. At Horseshoe beach I saw a bird I see on the beaches at home, the Ruddy Turnstone. Other common birds I saw in Bermuda, the Eastern bluebirds, Cardinals, Mourning Doves and lots of pigeons, starlings and lots of house sparrows. I did add a lifer to my list with the white-tailed tropicbird. I will do another post on my lifer the Tropicbird.

Below we were at Tobacco Bay, known to be a great snorkeling spot. Hubby was happy seeing pretty Parrotfish while snorkeling. Here, the birds I saw were more of the Great Kiskadee with their pretty yellow chest and lots and lots of House Sparrows.

These birds below the Great Kiskadee were seen all over the island.  I watched these two Kiskadees while hubby, son and his friend were snorkeling at Tobacco Bay. They have such a pretty bright yellow belly.

Please visit these fun memes: Mary's Mosaic Monday and Drowsey Monkey's Mellow Yellow Monday and Sally's Blue Monday.  A special thanks to these great hosts:  Mary, Drowsey Monkey and Sally. Thanks for visiting my blog and my post. I hope you all have a great week.

The Rookery

I am linking up with  Mosaic Monday and Mellow Yellow Monday and World Bird Wednesday. This past week was a busy one and I was not able to do any of my blog post or visit many blogs. My husband's sister from Washington state was visiting us and we had a party celebrating my son's high school graduation. And on Wednesday evening we saw U2 in concert, they are one of my favorite bands and the concert was just fantastic.

A few weeks ago I took one of my birding friends to the nearby rookery I visit every year. This rookery has both the Black Crowned Night Herons and the Great Egrets. The nest are in trees that surround a man made lake and park in the middle of a busy city neighborhood.


Below my mosiac includes the juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron and the adult Black Crowned Night Heron.

I love this juvie Black Crowned Night Heron stretching his wings.

The adult Black Crowned Night Heron has a black crown and back, the chest is white.

The Great Egrets were also nesting in the trees along side the Black Crowned Night Herons.

Below is one of the many Great Egret nest at the rookery. How many of the big yellow bills do you see in this photo?  This momma looks like she has a lot of mouths to feed.

Besides the big yellow eyes, the Great Egret has a long yellow bill. The Great Egret  is a foot taller than the Snowy Egret and they have dark legs and feet.

I hope you enjoyed my post and photos on the rookery. To see more wonderful mosaic and photos, please visit Mosaic Monday  and Mellow Yellow Monday . To see more beautiful birds and photos please visit World Bird Wednesday.  Thanks to Mary for the mosiacs at Little Red House, Drowsey Monkey for Mellow Yellow Monday  and Springman  of Pine River Review for hosting these fun memes. I hope everyone has a great week and happy birding.

Backyard Birds and Blooms

Is it just me or are these weeks just flying by, I am linking up with Mary's Mosaic Monday and Mellow Yellow Monday.  I am lucky to even get on the internet today. Our power went off last night during a scary thunderstorm. Our electric came back on around 10am this morning and I got the internet back around 2pm. I was happy this morning to sit outside and watch my birds and check out all the flowers blooming.

                    Poppa Bluebird has been hanging around my weeping cherry tree. He looks very hot panting below.

Mooma Blue has been hanging her head out of the box, I think she is tryong to cool off too.

The Stella O'Doro lilies seem to be doing great this year. I have a big group of them growing near my blueberry bushes. I am sure the birds can not wait until the blueberries are ripe.

One of my crazy house wrens, they are very fussy birds.

I am pretty sure these are called Tiger Daylilies.

I hope you enjoy my mosaics and post and to see more great mosiacs and photos please visit Mosaic Monday and Mellow Yellow Monday..  Thanks to Mary for hosting Mosaic Monday and to Drowsey Monkey for hosting the Mellow Yellow meme. Also, thanks of course for stopping by my blog for a visit. I hope everyone has a great week.

Backyard birding

For this weeks Mosaic Monday I thought I would show some of my favorite backyard birds. The birds enjoy the feeders in the winter months especially when there is snow on the ground. They need a reliable source of food for wintertime survival. I usually try to keep foods high in fat and energy like suet, peanuts can provide protein and high calorie food like the sunflower seeds. I have a tree nearby and a tangled mess of a trumpet vine that the birds hide in for protection from predators. I also have a heated birdbath for clean drinking water.

In this mosaic are some of my favorite yardbirds.. the Cardinal, Junco, White Throated Sparrow, Pine Siskin,  Redbreasted Nuthatch, Whitebreasted Nuthatch, bottom row are the Pine Warbler, Carolina Wren and the American Goldfinch. These photos in the mosaic below were taken with my Canon Power Shot.

  The Cardinals look pretty with a snowy background and are a pretty red to show off for Ruby Tuesday.

Male Cardinal on birdcam

For this weeks Mellow Yellow Monday I have one of my favorite and colorful winter birds the Pine Warbler.

Pine Warbler on Birdcam

Birdcam captured just one of the many squirrels I have hanging on my bird feeders.

I was really happy to get a Wingscape Birdcam for a Christmas present. So now I can see my yardbirds that visit when I am at work. Below, I also made a mosaic of some of the birdcam captures.

The birds seen below on my birdcam are the RB Nuthatch, WB Nuthatch, Pine Siskins, Goldies and Pine Warbler, Cardinal, Chickadees, Titmouse and the squirrel who wanted a closeup shot for his portfolio.

Of course a lot of my birdcam photos are of squirrels and a night time visitor the raccoon.

I hope you can visit these fun memes Mary's Mosaic Monday and Drowsey Monkey's Mellow Yellow Monday and Mary's Ruby Tuesday

Thanks to these great hosts and thank you for stopping by to see my post. I hope you enjoyed my backyard birds and maybe you can help feed the birds this winter.

Have a great week!  Eileen

My favorite birds of 2010

I thought I would do a post showing my favorite bird sightings of 2010. They are not all lifers for me but just ones that I enjoyed seeing. I have to say most of the favorites were from my trip to Costa Rica. The Toucans were so cute.

Three different kind sof toucans in my mosaic are the Collared Aracari, Chestnut Mandbiled and the Keel Billed Toucan.

Parrots on the grounds at our Arenal hotel in Costal Rica

Another Costa Rica bird the Montezuma Oropendola,  very cool and different looking bird.

This Barred owl was not a lifer but it was cool sight to see it out in the open.

The Clapper Rail sighting was another favorite, I was excited to even see one out in the open they are very timid birds.

This Bombay Hook Blue Grosbeak was seen at Bombay Hook another one of my favorite birds.

The Eastern Bluebirds nesting in my yard are always a treat to see.

 This Chincoteague Egret eating a snake was an amazing and cool sight to see

One of my all time favorite sightings is of the Little Blue heron below and on my header shot.

This is another Littel Blue below.

Now I am looking forward to another great year and adding to my list of lifers. My life list is at No. 251 and my last two lifers were the Golden Crowned Sparrow seen yesterday here in Maryland and the Wilson Snipe NO.250.

I am linking up with Misty Dawn's Camera Critters  thanks Misty Dawn for hosting. I am also linking this post to Sally's Blue Monday and Drowsey Monkeys Mellow Yellow Monday and Mary's Mosaic Monday

Thanks to our host and  for stopping by to see my post.