| Author | Content |
| CMoxon Urbandale, IA Zone 5a May 8, 2008 | I just could not get good photos tonight, but I saw two new birds, I think. First is this one, which is grey, and very elusive. It was rummaging around in a pile of brush. I caught one pic in flight and one of its back from a distance. It was really jumpy.
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| CMoxon Urbandale, IA Zone 5a May 8, 2008 | Here it was stopped, briefly, with its back to me.
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| CMoxon Urbandale, IA Zone 5a May 8, 2008 | And here is the other bird I could not get a picture of. It was rummaging around in the underbrush a lot, and it was also elusive. It seemed to have a rather long tail. It had a very distinctive call, kind of a melodious squawk.
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| nanny_56 Putnam County, IN Zone 5b May 8, 2008 | I would guess the first one to be a Gray Catbird. The second one looks like a Towhee. Not sure what kind of Towhee you might have there. This message was edited May 8, 2008 11:26 PM |
| Resin Northumberland (UK) Zone 9a May 9, 2008 | Ditto to Nanny - Gray Catbird, and Eastern Towhee. Resin |
| nanny_56 Putnam County, IN Zone 5b May 9, 2008 | Well see, I have learned something!!! |
| pelletory Marlton, NJ May 9, 2008 | Way to go nanny! |
| CMoxon Urbandale, IA Zone 5a May 9, 2008 | Wow! You are all unbelievable! Despite blurry pictures and poor angles, you can still figure these out for me! Thank you so much! Both of these are new birds to me. Now I can look them up and see what they really look like, I will hopefully recognize them again when I go walking in the woods. I wonder if the towhee is nesting? She sure was poking around and fluffing about in the underbrush. Trying to photograph her was difficult, and I ended up crawling with about a dozen deer ticks that I had to quickly brush off afterwards. All worth it though! Claire |
| CMoxon Urbandale, IA Zone 5a May 9, 2008 | Now having looked them up, I think my Towhee is a male. He was definitely doing this thing that my book calls "bilateral scratching" (hopping backward with both feet raking up leaves). It says he feeds the young - maybe that's what he was doing! |
