Robins

One night I was with my family having a weenie roast at my sister's house. Someone noticed that there were baby birds in her tree, and of course I went to investigate. I found three little robins in a nest. They were so cute! Whenever mom or dad came around with food, we could hear them peeping for all their worth.

During my observance, I got a little too close for mom's comfort and she about showed me just how much she didn't like it. I had to settle watching from afar after that.

Rexburg ponds

I took my nieces and nephews to the ponds in Rexburg. It is a place that attracts lots of birds, so I was sure to keep my camera ready and the kids quiet as we walked around. I was happy to find a few new birds.


Yellow-Headed Blackbird

Have you ever heard one of these before? That was the first thing I noticed about this bird. I heard its call through the bushes long before I ever saw it. I was so glad to find what it was, cause it was driving me crazy not knowing.  A few days later we heard one "singing" from my sister's backyard and I was so proud when my niece recognized the call!

Northern Flicker

This bird disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared. I was barely able to snap a blurry picture before it was gone again. Very elusive. I could tell right away it was a woodpecker. How fun is that??!?!!?

Black-crowned Night Heron

We first saw this one fly over and had no idea what it was. I was happy to later stumble upon it to snap the picture. Very cool.

Bullocks Oriole

I had no idea we had orioles around here. My favorite kinds of birds to discover are the colorful ones. It was fun to see this pretty yellow bird. A little difficult to discover what kind it was, but no doubt that it's a bullocks oriole

Pine Siskin

Went fishing at Warm River with my nephew and niece. My nephew spotted a bird sitting on the ground next to him. For some reason he scared it into the river (he says he was trying to scare it away from the river). We watched in nervous anticipation as the bird attempted to fly out. He once made it up to a pole, but couldn't get a grip on it and fell back into the river.

I felt so helpless for the little thing (I could tell he was still pretty young). However, as he came closer to where I was down river, I stuck my fishing pole in the water. He was able to get hold of it and I was able to pull him out to safety. We all gave a big cheer at this! He sat on my pole for several minutes as I snapped pictures. He seemed content to stay right where he was. I finally reached down, and that little thing climbed right on my finger. It was awesome! I guess he figured I wouldn't have rescued him only to hurt him. He only stayed on my finger but a moment before he flew to a nearby tree. It was a beautiful moment and I was so glad it all worked out!

Baby House Finch

Early in the summer my niece discovered a baby bird stuck in the window well. We were able to catch it and put it in a box. I wanted to help it the best I could, so I researched the internet for what to do. I discovered that it was a baby house finch in the fledgling stage (just starting to fly, but not quite there yet).

You are supposed to put these birds under the tree where their nest is. Unfortunately, there were no trees around the window let alone a nest, so I ended up just putting it under a tree in the back yard. Then, my niece and I sat on the steps and watched.

We could hear the baby peeping, and after a few minutes a pair of house finches landed on a nearby tree and started calling to the baby. Mom and Dad had found the baby! It was so cool! The mom lead the baby along the fence line to the back fence, where it crawled under the fence to the safety of the field behind the fence. It was amazing to watch this happen and I was so happy baby was safe!

Cedar Waxwing

This was a fun one for me, because I've never seen one before. At least, if I have, I never knew about it. I was again fishing on the Snake River in Idaho Falls when I noticed a couple birds land in the tree just in front of me. So, I grabbed my camera and took the best shot I could from where I was. The lighting wasn't the greatest, so I was excited when I found them again a little later in better lighting. Although that picture isn't so great, it did allow me to identify it: Cedar Waxwing.

Osprey

Okay, so this may not be the most interesting story, but I got at least one great shot from it! 

So, I'm fishing at the Snake River when I notice an Osprey just "sitting" (for lack of a better word) there....in the air.....not moving. I found that quite curious, so I opened up my camera and started to snap pictures. 

I was surprised to find that he was no longer in my view finder after the first shot, so I moved it around a bit and caught him in a dive. Way awesome!

I was super excited to capture him with his catch!

Of course, I had to finish the story with him flying off into the sunset (well, sort of).

For the birds

When I was young, a bird once flew into our house and hid in the basement. That was fun. Or, there was the time the icky starlings built a nest on the side of the house. For some reason they felt threatened by anyone who dared step foot out of the house. They would come swooping down towards our heads and we'd run, screaming, back into the house. It was especially enjoyable watching Dad shoot said starlings with the water from the hose.

It wasn't so fun when I discovered my pet finch curled up in her water dish and later having her die in my hands. That, I could do without.

Okay, so there were some random thoughts about birds, none of which have anything to do with this blog, other than the fact that they were about birds. Actually, I've recently discovered that I really, really like birds! I love watching them, listening to them, photographing them and especially discovering and identifying birds I've never noticed/seen before.

I recently purchased an application for my iPod touch that has greatly assisted me in identifying the birds I've seen; iBird. It's fabulous!! It makes bird identification soooo much easier than looking it up in a book, and there are recordings of most of the birds calls. AWE-SOME! There are many more features I love about this, but again, that's not what this blog is about.

Now that I've mentioned a couple of things this blog is not about, I suppose you want to know if I'll ever get to the point. Well, dear reader, I will. The purpose of this blog is for me to record my encounters with my Fine Feathered Friends. So far, there has been a story behind most of my sightings and I thought it would be fun to record those stories, even if they are just for me.

You know, if you've made it this far, you might as well keep going. It's gonna be fun!