Hummer (105)

Finally I have seen the Ruby-throated Hummingbird that my wife spotted about two weeks ago in the back yard. Better late then never. The photo is from last year . i cannot seem to find the really nice pictures of this fellow and the truth be told, our visiting hummingbird is actually a female.

Other birds I have seen this week

I would like to note that I have seen three very striking birds near my office. A Cattle Egret, a Little Blue Heron and a Glossy Ibis. Here are the pix of all three. They were exciting to come across. I actually saw all three in about an hour on Friday June 13th.

Little Blue Heron - top





Cattle Egret - middle





Glossy Ibis - bottom

A first for Howard County

It has been some time since I last posted. But today I responded to a rare bird alert for a Eurasian Collared Dove (102). This is not a rare bird per say, just in our neck of the woods. So I was up at 5:30 am and off to Lisbon Maryland to meet at a beautiful working farm in western Howard County.

We were very fortunate to find the bird as soon as we stepped out of the car. We then proceeded to wander around for the next hour chasing the the thing to get different views as the EC Dove seem to realize we were staring at it and would move from tree to tree, seeming to say,
" Pleasssssssse, stop staring at me".

After that highlight we went in search of anything thing else we could find. For an early weekday morning with not a lot of time we were very successful. Here is a short list of the most colorful and impressive fowl.

Great Blue Heron, perched in the tree tops, Baltimore Oriole, Kestrel, Eastern Bluebirds, Jays, Goldfinches, Meadow larks (I did not see these, drat), Redheaded Woodpeckers (first for me in HC) (103) Grasshopper Sparrows (heard but not seen another life list first)(104) and of course all the other usual suspects. Also a pair of red foxes working their way along a fence line.

ttfn