Kimberly

I am glad to have a yard full of many native species and plantings that offer excellent habitat for birds and many insects. Right now I have species such as service berry, vibernum, red twig dogwood, asters, oaks, eastern red cedar and more. I am hoping to add to this collection this fall based on the suggestions from this class. My hope is to add Rhododendron periclymenoides, narrow-leaf mountain mint, wand panic grass, and either a poosum-haw or a Southern arrowwood. We also have a local arnoretum that has a native plant sale every spring and fall. I will try to aquire my plants from them. While taking this class,I have become aware of the vast bird population that visits my yard. The native plants are working even better than I realized! Hooray.

I observed birds on the Panama Fruit Eater cam. I observed 4 different bird species eating together at the feeder. One small finch like bird was at the feeder in a group of about 5 of the same species. They spent their time alternately eating and looking around. One of them acted as the sentinel for a period of time. In general they flew in one at a time, but flew away together. The different species did not seem to mind each other, although the smaller birds would move over to make room for bigger birds.   Listening to bird sounds outside my house- I can identify four specific birds by sound now. In my yard cardinals, carolina wrens, wood thrush and a yellow billed cuckoo are very common.

Five birds that I did not know passed through our area the Cackling Goose, the Yellow Billed Cuckoo, a Chick Wills Widow, and Eastern Wood Peewee and a Wood Thrush. Yesterday on my bird walk, I heard both the Wood Thrush and the Yellow Billed Cuckoo. Turns out I have been hearing them in my yard for years. I just didn't know what they were. Very fun to learn. This picture is of the yellow billed cuckoo. I also heard many Carolina Wrens and Cardinals while out walking. I love the Merlin's tool for listening to bird calls. I have always felt my hearing was not discerning enough to differentiate bird calls, but I am learning! It is very fun.

I also heard an Alder Flycatcher... Cool!

This is a bluebird that is nesting on my porch- a full nest of babies. I live on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in a rural community. I am surrounded by farmland, forest and marsh and birds love it here. We see bluebirds on this neck often, but I have never had them nesting in my yard. I am very excited about this because if all goes well they will come back next year too. I will also be looking for the Carolina Wren that I read about on the wall of birds. I believe these are common here. and now that I can connect the song to the bird I will be looking. We also have turkeys and Blue Heron. There is a Blue Heron rookery just down river from us. I will be visiting their this afternoon to take some pictures. My bluebird family is part of the songbird group. The blue heron is part of the wading birds group and the turkeys are part of the chicken-like group. I look forward to getting more details about the birds I see here.