Greensboro Birds

In March I showed you a nest cavity getting checked out by a Carolina Chickadee. The tree is alongside a path in Guilford Courthouse NMP (aka Battleground to locals, apparently). I’ve been checking on it for several weeks and thought the Dee had moved on to another hole. I was wrong. About a week ago [...]

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It was hot today. The high temp was reportedly 91 degrees, so I didn’t figure on seeing many birds around lunchtime, but, hooboy, was I wrong. Happy and I were only in the park for a minute or two before I heard tiny peepings from inside a tree. Peeking into a cavity at maybe elbow [...]

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Shortly after seeing the nesting Red-bellies, I encountered this Carolina Chickadee scolding me for walking too close to its nesting cavity. It flew in and out, trying to lure me across the path and away from the tree. This tree is only inches from the edge of the path, so the bird’ll either have to [...]

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This story is making the bird rounds. Apparently nuthatches understand the various alarm calls of chickadees. But what I find more interesting is the bit at the end. There are folks who believe the chickadee is a fair player, perhaps because of its tendency to hang out in mixed company. Not always, according to Cornell’s [...]

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Needing to escape some loud maintenance being done on our building this morning (the young Happy, you might recall, is terrified of loud things), Happy and I spent a couple early-for-us hours walking the Lake Brandt shoreline at Bur-Mil Park.
A male Eastern Bluebird guarded this nestbox by the fishing pond. And worked on being adorable.
This [...]

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Josh called this morning asking for a bird identification—about the size of a titmouse, kind of brownish with yellow on the tail and red-tipped wings, and a mask like a cardinal. Pretty thorough description, right? “Where’d you see this bird?” I ask. “Oh, it’s dead, so I’m just looking at it here.” I convince him [...]

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One of my favorite things to do as I watch the feeder is count how many different species are visiting at one time. The most I’ve counted is seven, which, considering I’m wooing birds to a little platform feeder on a semi-enclosed balcony, is pretty darn good.
This morning was quite a party. There’s a cold [...]

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Back in Brooklyn (a lot of stories begin that way) we rented a loft with a tiny backyard. A frequent visitor was “Head,” a semi-bald House Finch. Head was awesome. He’d sit in the branch above my head, and we’d sing his little finch song back and forth, like dueling finches. He always won. This [...]

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