Activity 1- I enjoyed exploring the wall of birds. A number of favorites are ones we see at  Lake of the Woods, and I so hope we can travel there this summer. Those are Great Blue Heron, Pelicans, Bald Eagles and Loons. I love the loons song at nite. Activity 2 - I am envious of all the birds in some peoples yards. So far I have seen Songbirds - lots of Juncos at our feeder. I am waiting for the American Goldfinch to arrive. Bluejays have been around all winter.  I have seen lots of Raptors on drives  through the Pembina Valley as their numbers are increasing now, lots of Red Tailed Hawks ( picture attached). Another Raptor I saw that was so beautiful was the American Kestral.   We have also seen swimming birds- a number of Mallard pairs on our drives. Activity 3 - one of my favourite birds we saw on a walk this evening in a creek at a local park. They come back every year. Luckily I took my binoculars with me. It was a male and female Wood Duck. Attached is a picture from another year.

I was so excited the other day to come upon a flock of cedar waxwings. I was really happy I had my binoculars. They don't stay around my area for long, and they're easy to miss. I also saw a Northern Flicker that morning as well. I recently bought a finch feeder and this really nice niger seed/sunflower chip mix. I have about 5 or 6 goldfinches that area eating me out of house and home right now, but I love it! Chickadees and robins are my favourites, though. Where I live they are very common. Robins have such cheery voices. And, the little black capped chickadees come to eat sunflower seeds at my feeder all year long. I am really hoping to get better at identifying the little brown and grey birds in the woods behind my house.

Observed today at the feeders (Charleston, SC) 1. Red-bellied woodpecker (a very large bird that has a bright red head, but also a light red belly)he likes the suet feeder and is here more often and longer since we added a new suet feeder with a tail prop) 2. Ruby-throated hummingbird has arrived.  It’s so tiny and fast that I don’t know if it’s a male or female. 3. Eastern Bluebird: 1 male, 1 female and 3 juveniles. Eating at mealworm feeder.

I learned some new things from lesson 1. I’m excited to begin my bird learning journey.  Now I want to visit those places and see those birds on the wall!  I am currently watching a family of eastern bluebirds voraciously eating mealworms at my feeder.  There is something different this year.  Three juveniles sit on the nearby perch and scream at the Parents to be fed.  The parents bring them mealworms and feed them.  Sometimes it’s just two of them (see screen grab of my video) but at one point there were 5 bluebirds all eating, screeching, and sharing.  (I’m in Charleston, SC) now I know why the mealworms were disappearing so fast.  Teenage bluebirds must eat a lot!

Greetings from Australia. I've attached a photo of a Grey Fantail taken on a birding walk not too far from my home in Melbourne. For once small bird cooperated and stayed still for a few minutes.

My wife and I have recently been enjoying visits from a barred owl. We often see it in the woods behind our house around breakfast time. It may be hunting mice around our compost bin. I got these photos from about 10 m with an extended zoom Nikon 995.

Topic 1.  I have a Barn Owl print by Mort Solberg and was curious to learn about the Barn Owl and its song.  I also like to see the Blue Heron when I go to the zoo so I was curious to hear the song of the Blue Heron.   Topic 3.  I have a hummingbird feeder in my backyard.  One hummingbird in particular is I think the Allen's hummingbird.  It is my favorite!  It has an iridescent coat with a pink throat.  The body is green in color and is slender compared with the Anna's hummingbird.  It brings me such happiness to see all of the different hummingbirds feed from the feeder!  It is such a blessing!

I really enjoyed the first lesson.  It was an unseasonably cold day and very windy so there were no birds around all afternoon. However, just now (7pm ) I just saw a bald eagle flying alongside a gull. It was hard to know which was chasing which but fun to see!

Birds bring me into the moment, forget about covid 19 and help me feel connected to nature. I always enjoy the song of the house finch, meadowlark and catching a glimpse of a goldfinch. Swimming birds are very challenging for me but love seeing wood ducks. The avocet is probably my favorite wading bird- very elegant. Barn owls have faces like cats and I hear them outside my window at night. I had my first spring visit by a hummingbird today!

We saw a juvenile bald eagle in our yard. He flew in large circles, and then swooped down and caught a large fish from the river. He took a few seconds to secure it, and then flew away. We could hear the flapping of his strong wings. Magnificent (but of course no camera near by!) My favorite birds are the small little birds that brighten my day ... white breasted nuthatches and goldfinches. There are many birds on our property, and I am looking forward to identifying them! Excited about this course.

Even though it’s one of the most commonly seen birds in my neighborhood, I never get tired of seeing a Northern Cardinal.

Northern Cardinal hanging around my back yard.

• I took a hike today at a local nature center. I think I identified a prothonotary warbler near a bird blind and some swallows flying around a lake. I am working on identifying the type of swallows.

These Little guys on my front porch!  Robins I think!

• The Golden Crowned Kinglet is my favourite bird in the spring. It is such a small and fast bird to catch in the moment. On this male you can see a touch of yellow on his head about the eye and his red swatch further back on his head. 

• • The red tailed hawk is a favorite of mine as he surveys his world from atop a high electrical tower or soars gracefully above the spring grasses growing underneath the towers. One day he surprised me as he looked at me from the tall grass beside the walking path. I was able to get a photo of him with my iPhone.

I was on Maui this past winter (back in the good old days when we were allowed to fly in airplanes and travel the world, before the current pandemic isolated us at home in Michigan).  My favorite bird on Maui is the Cattle Egret.  Egrets are "wading birds" but I always saw them in the bushes or grass along the ocean shoreline.

My favorite bird in my neighborhood is the Northern Mockingbird. There are several that come to my porch every day and I love to hear them sing on my chimney. My sister's favorite bird is the Great Blue Heron. They fly over our house almost every day and they look really graceful and elegant.

We live on a lake and my favorite bird to watch right outside of our house is the Ruddy Ducks. It is a waterfowl. What I think is great about them is how vibrant blue the male's bills are. It's really cool to see that color blue in contrast to their redish/brown body. There are also a pair of Mute swans that live on the lake that are great to look at. The white of their bodies is brilliant and it is interesting to watch such a pretty bird be territorial towards other birds in their bay.

1.  The Lilac-breasted Roller is absolutely beautiful--it blends into the sky's colors!  Saw one in Africa this fall. 2. The American Goldfinch, Red Bellied Woodpecker and Tufted Titmouse come to my feeder almost everday and bring so much joy. 3.When the Osprey come back in March, you know spring has arrived and summer is not far off.  They can't be missed in the sky with their white head and dark wide wing span.  They dive down to catch fish and are successful more than 50% of the time.  They carry the fish off in their talons.  Remarkable!

We have enjoyed seeing an Eastern Towhee spend some time in our yard.  So he/she would be part of the sparrows.  There is a Barred Owl in the park near our house- so he is a raptor.  About a week ago we saw a pileated woodpecker which was a first for us and obviously part of the woodpecker group.

Gila Woodpecker visits my agave bloom multiple times a day.  He noisily announces his presence.  Phoenix, AZ

NYC, Central Park. Red winged Black Bird.  Crow family? NYC, Central Park. One of about a million Red Robin's sharing their Springtime joy in the Park.  You cant miss them, they're all over the place.

Activity 2 Sandhill Cranes and Whooping Crane in Alabama -- Family: Gruidae Pair of House Finches in Alabama -- Family: Fringillidae Cedar Waxwing in Alabama -- Family: Bombycillidae

Glaucus-winged gull made an appearance on my deck while I watched song birds at the feeders. Couldn't figure out what he was after - bird seed? suet? He was quite silly and stumbled over his webbed feet as he walked along the rail :)