Winter on Lake Nelson

Cormorant on the Ice


Red-bellied Woodpecker at the Birdbath


It's rare to find the red-bellied woodpecker at the birdbath. However, our heated birdbath is the only water that isn't frozen. The cormorant is still hanging around, but we wonder what he's eating.

Back in Jersey: Winter Birds

 

Northern Mockingbird

 

Red Bellied Woodpecker


Well we've been back from Africa for a week now and are slowly getting back on schedule. We haven't been out birding in NJ yet, but are enjoying our backyard birds. The mockingbirds are in our neighborhood all year but only come to our house in the winters. The red bellied woodpecker is year-round resident.

Red bellied woodpecker in jelly feeder

Red bellied woodpecker in jelly feeder

Sibling Rivalry: Red Bellied Woodpeckers

The baby red-bellied woodpeckers are growing up. They still visit with the father who feeds them, but they are also eating jelly on their own.

More Baby Woodpecker Feeding

We haven't been out birding much this month, but we are enjoying the daily woodpecker visits.

Red Bellied Woodpeckers

Red Bellied Woodpeckers

This type of platform feeder works well for jelly too. We have a rectangular plastic lid from a food container in the base to hold the jelly, and the birds put their beaks throgh the grate on top to get the jelly. The little one actuallly can do it but he seems to prefer having mom or dad still feed them. We're going through a lot of grape jelly around here; filling every morning!

Baby Red Bellied Woodpecker

Baby Red Bellied WoodpeckerThey grow quickly so please excuse us if we post too many photos of the baby woodpeckers.

Red Bellied Woodpecker Feeding

Well, no visible nests this spring, but we had a lot of woodpeckers and other birds coming and going with food. We could see them flying across the lake, and we hoped that eventually they would bring their young to us for all the good feed we offer. In this photo we have a male red bellied woodpecker feeding grape jelly to its young.

Red Bellied Woodpecker Eating an Orange

Red Bellied Woodpecker Eating an Orange


We're still getting a few orioles coming by, but it doesn't look like we'll have an oriole nest. It could be because all the other birds have found the food we put out for the orioles. Here a red bellied woodpecker is at the orange and even the orange half filled with jelly. They also are switching back and forth from the peanut flavored suet to the jelly for a good old fashioned pb&j!

Later in the day, a male oriole returned, but we haven't seen a female yet in our yard.

NJ BIrds: Blog Post Number One Thousand

Wow, since Our First Blog Post on Feb 16, 2008, we've made 999 posts making this post #1000. We really didn't intend to take on this task and we really weren't birders when we started. It was the red-bellied woodpecker, who we used to call "Mr. Spectacular," that fascinated us first with his brillant red head. We bought our first good camera to photograph him and created the blog to share with friends and family because the photos were too large for some email systems at the time.


Soon a small migratory duck, the hooded merganser, became our obsession. He is only on our lake a few weeks a year and usually in bad weather. We'll often look for him in late fall, winter and early spring.

The cormorants can be great fun to watch, both fishing and drying their wings while perched.

Eventually, we started to venture out, birding around New Jersey at the Meadowlands, Cape May, and Duke Farms where a bluebird posed for us.

Although most of the posts are of birds in New Jersey, we've been lucky enough to be able to go birding in California, Florida, Arizona, The Caribbean, and most recently Trinidad and Tobago.

We aren't sure how much longer we can keep this up, but it has been fun learning about birds and sharing our experiences with others.
-Chris and Mike

Red Bellied Woodpeckers

Male

Female

The woodpeckers are enjoying the suet we put out. The male (top) has more red on the head than the female(bottom).

Thanksgiving Visitors: Northern Cardinal and Red Bellied Woodpecker

Some sunflower seeds brought the cardinal and red-bellied woodpecker to the deck.

Oh, and another titmouse.

Juvenile Red Bellied Woodpecker

Red Bellied Woodpecker at the suet feeder

This juvenile Red Bellied Woodpecker is just turning red.

Baldy, the juvenile red-bellied woodpecker

We've seen this juvenile red-bellied woodpecker a few time this past week. We nickname juveniles "baldy" because we think they are funny looking until the head gets some red color.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Here's a beautiful red bellied woodpecker. We can hardly wait to see this spring's baby woodpeckers. We've ordered their favorite insect suet.

Snow Birds

Carolina Wren

White-throated Sparrow

Red Bellied Woodpecker

Some birds head south for the winter; others adapt to the New Jersey winter with the cold and snow. We do make sure we have plenty of food out for the birds. In the top photo, a Carolina wren takes refuge in the duck house we put up (that no duck has ever used). In the middle, a sparrow digs through the snow for some seed. We did clear the railing and leave some seed, but it quickly got covered. In the bottom photo, a red bellied woodpecker enjoys a peanut.

Hungry Woodpeckers

Today was a pretty active morning at the bird feeders. There were plenty of woodpeckers including a hairy woodpecker (lower photo) who hasn't been around that often. In the upper photo, a red-bellied woodpecker is taking a peanut.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

The brilliant red head of this bird brightens a winter day in NJ.

Winter Backyard Birds

Dark-eyed Junco

Northern Cardinals

Red Bellied Woodpecker

Although no one eats the cranberries, one adds some color to the Junco picture. The red bellied woodpecker and male cardinal bring their own color.