Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Our flock of American Tree Sparrows is growing...

Over the past two weeks, our small flock of American Tree Sparrows has gone from 3 to 12+. Late yesterday afternoon, I cracked my kitchen window so I could listen to their twittering. They sounded louder than usual and more animated, so I looked out to see what was going on. Three happy tree sparrows is a fine sight, but 12+ is comical with all of the dipping, chipping and hopping around. I was happy to see so many new additions to the flock…and it was really exciting to see them all in one place. The continued snow is driving them to our feeders.

Sitting outside my kitchen window, this fellow 
looks soft and sweet. I photographed him 
through the screen and glass, so he is hazy.

When I took this shot, I was lying in the 
snow under a bush hoping I was invisible. 
As you can see, I wasn’t. He’s looking right 
into my lens, no doubt laughing. I’m surprised 
he’s not sticking out his little tongue. 


Larry caught this tree sparrow in flight…totally cool.

…as an aside. Today, as I was trying to photograph the birds, a flock of about 300 Canada Geese flew over. For our neighborhood, that is pretty unusual and totally cool!!

9 comments:

  1. Excellent shots on the Tree Sparrows. Yeah, I can imagine the wet/white weather over most of the country right now is keeping all the birds close to regular food sources.

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  2. Love the tree sparrow photos. The one in flight is so cool! I have had 1 visit my yard a month ago and have not seen any of them since. I would love for them to visit at least one more time so I can get a photo.

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  3. Loved seeing all your tree sparrow photos - they are very active little things!!

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  4. Thanks, guys! I took a little video of the sparrows feeding this afternoon and am experimenting with compression and Vimeo trying to learn how to embed it. Hope I can figure it out and post something later.

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  5. Kelly, you might want to check back to my blog. I've been awarded the Premio Dardos Award, and one of the requirements is that I bestow it on others. You are definitely one of my picks, so please come by and pick up your handsome trophy!

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  6. Kelly, Thanks for your visit to my blog..always great to meet new people. Welcome to the world of blogging. Great photos of the Sparrows.. It always amazes me how many of these little winter birds we get in the flocks.. the more for protection I guess, but right now my railing is paying the price..lol..Great photos.. thanks for sharing.

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  7. Hi Stacy, I know what you mean! Our railing isn't looking its best either!

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  8. I've noticed an increase in Tree Sparrows in our yard over the past weekend, too, but certainly not to the extent that you have. I've also noticed greatly increased numbers of Towhees and White-throated Sparrows on the ground under our feeders. By contrast, our Juncos have all but disappeared! I think it's fascinating the way the flock sizes fluctuate.

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  9. ...interesting! We have had no towhees this year. I was actually going to blog on that. We definitely have a decent number of White-throated Sparrows too. Our juncos are hanging strong. Their numbers have not diminished at all...thank goodness, because they are so cute!

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