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Hello! I'm back after not being on here for a few years. We just bought our house from my Aunt & Uncle. They've fed birds for years, so I have an existing bird community that I am hoping to build on. Our home is the last house on a dead end street, with about 50 acres of woods next to it. We have 1/2 an acre. In the 6 months that we've lived here, we've amassed quite a yard bird list! And many photos, too! The most exciting new bird for us is the Brown Creeper that has been visiting the yard for the past 2 months. He's tough to photograph, but we got a decent pic this weekend.
#1 - Brown Creeper
#2 - House Sparrow on the wind chime
#3 - Wild Turkeys on the fence
#4 - What the BF calls Birdtopia
#5 - Male Downy WP on Suet. (Up-side Downy)
Hi Shan, welcome back! Congratulation on the house. Sounds like a great place. Love your turkeys, very neat. And you have a great bird station setup there. Looking forward to what you have to share.
The newest sighting in our yard this weekend was a pair of Wood Ducks. Did not expect that! The male was clinging to a tree like a woodpecker. BF only got one picture of the female at the top of a tree.
Does anyone keep a calendar of when birds show up to their yards each year? I want to be prepared next year.
What a wonderful yard you have. We've been feeding the birds for awhile now, but started from scratch. Congratulations on the Wood Ducks. We saw a pair early one morning, who looked like they roosted in our tree overnight. The light was poor because it was just dawning, so we did a double take because we first thought, how'd our ducks get up there? We have two Khaki Campbells (and a Pekin), but then we saw the lighter markings of Wood Ducks.
About a calendar, we don't keep one. A good idea though. We only began our life list last spring, but are using that to have an idea of when the birds should be coming here. This year we are doing our first year list and marking down in my daytime book the first of the seasons we see. This winter did throw things off a bit, as we had birds we normally would not see until spring. Robins, Red-winged Blackbirds, etc.
I don't have a calendar so much as a photo diary. I try to take a picture of the first sighting and then log it. You should probably just start a diary for your yard regardless if you find a local calendar. I like to keep a bloom guide too.
Our Missouri Department of Conservation puts out a yearly calendar of natural events:
arrival of different migratory birds
Mating of different animals
birth of different animals
blooming times of wild flowers and trees
When different fish spawn
And much more! It's amazing how accurate the dates usually are.
Plus, the pictures are beautiful! I give the calendars as Christmas presents.
