Off topic but.. what the heck?

[The Dougster]

I will soon be 65 and have spent an incredible amount of time outdoors and have only seen one of these in my lifetime... last week, we had one show up at a feeder at the ranch several days in a row... Beautiful birds!

http://www.greglasley.net/Images/Painted-Bunting-0092.jpg

 

[NSBound]

Beautiful bird and an equally beautiful photo but I'm guessing that's not your photo from the background?

 

[weldingisfun]

The Painted Bunting is my favorite too. I have seen more this year than any other. They sure are pretty.

 

[Tdog]

Doug - - Nice pic of a painted bunting - - I've never seen one. We have sometimes see an indigo bunting - - it's pretty, but not the show-off that the painted guy is.

I see you are in Lampassas. I grew up in Gatesville - - good BBQ country!

Jack

 

[20 20]

Very pretty

 

[The Dougster]

Nope, it wasn't a photo I took... I "borrowed " it from the internet...

Yes indeed, good BBQ country... a wonderful part of the State indeed...

 

[Western]

We have a pair that come to our feeder, they are a shy bird.

I used to see them while hunting our place, they prefer the "thick" stuff so my wife never saw one till we moved out. I have noticed that, in this heat, they seem to come in later in the evening around 7:30.

 

[jinman]

We have had quite a variety of birds at our feeders this year. We have the normal cardinals, chickadees, sparrows, and titmouses, but the unusual birds have shown up quite frequently. Those would be painted buntings, goldfinches, house finches, and redwinged blackbirds. Just two days ago, my wife and I were sitting under our deck and saw several painted buntings and a noisy redwinged blackbird making regular rounds to the feeder full of sunflower seeds. Here are a few pictures from our yard. We haven't snapped a picture of the red-winged blackbird yet.

The 1st is a grouping: painted bunting pair (male and female), goldfinch female, and housefinch (red head and chest). The second picture is the painted bunting male alone, and the third picture is the bright yellow male goldfinch and the subdued colored female.

 

[The Dougster]

Wow... you do have a wide variety... Hopefully Da Warden will retire soon and we can live in Lampasas on a full time basis and see more birds.... Thanks for the photos...

 

[Bird]

Here in town, we have plenty of sparrows, chickadees, mockingbirds, and titmouses, but a couple of different kinds of dove pretty frequently. The grackles seem to come and go; sometimes we have quite a few and other times almost none. Robins seem pretty scarce. We do have cardinals and blud jays occasionally, but I've not seen any of the finches or buntings.

It's odd how things can change from year to year. Down in Navarro County, in January, 1995, we had lots of robins. One day I counted 54 just in the front yard at the same time. We had some robins every year, but never in the large numbers we had that first month we were there. We also had a few goldfinches every year, but just one year we had them by the dozens around the birdfeeder.

But Jim, I think you have more pretty brightly colored birds than we do, and you (or is it Kathy?) are a better photographer than I.

 

[jimmyj]

Great looking bird! Almost neon or tropical with those colors.

We just got some evening grosbeaks back today. We've started keeping a list of the birds we've seen at our place. So far, we've seen (over the years):

-Indigo bunting
-Black Capped Chickadee
-Blue Jay
-Grackles
-Red Winged Blackbird
-Merganser
-Mallard
-Wood duck
-Canada Goose
-Marsh rail
-Grouse
-Downy woodpecker
-Hairy woodpecker
-Brown tree creeper
-White breasted nuthatch
-Yellow bellied sap sucker
-Northern flicker
-House finch
-Redpoll
-American Goldfinch
-Pine siskin
-Red breasted nuthatch
-Pileated woodpecker
-Cormorant
-Belted Kingfisher
-Great crested flycather
-Eastern Phoebe
-Golden crowned kinglet
-Lots of hawks, I have trouble telling them apart but including Red Tailed Hawk, sparrow hawk
-Barred Owl
-Great Horned Owl
-Snowy Owl
-Cedar Waxwing
-Cardinal
-Pine Grosbeak
-Evening Grosbeak
-European starling
-Various sparrows
-Crow

We do what we can to attract them and our property is a mix of habitats so it's ideal. Very fun.

 

[jinman]

But Jim, I think you have more pretty brightly colored birds than we do, and you (or is it Kathy?) are a better photographer than I.

The beauty of digital photography is that you can take a 100 pictures, and if 1 or 2 turn out good, you're happy. I think Kathy took the one of the goldfinches over the feeder, and I took the ones of the painted bunting. I even made a short movie of the birds on the ground, but as I tried to move closer, they all flew away.

We see robins every year during their early spring migration. One year, a big cedar tree of mine had hundreds of them. I did some research and found out they winter over in southern cedar bogs. I guess they felt comfortable in that cedar tree.

jimmyj: That's quite a list. Ours would be long, but not that long. It would be darn nice to have a photo catalogue of all those birds and make calendars using the photos. Unfortunately, that's a lot more work than I've wanted to do since I retired. After years and years of working with thousands of aircraft pictures, I decided I need to rest. Maybe I'll start my calendar next year.

 

[NSBound]

We just got some evening grosbeaks back today.

Speaking of Grosbeaks, Jimmy, these guys were both in my yard on the same day. Not as colourful as painted buntings, but beautiful birds nonetheless!

 

[jimmyj]

More nice pics.

NSBound, do you find that evening grosbeaks come in a flock, eat for a while and then take off for the season? Around here they'll stay until one day I let the feeders run empty and then gone. Fair weather (fair feather) friends!

 

[NSBound]

More nice pics.

NSBound, do you find that evening grosbeaks come in a flock, eat for a while and then take off for the season?

Jimmy, I hear they used to be around here in large flocks, but they're generally only here now in pairs - most I had this summer was 2 pair at the same time, and just occasionally. The rose-breasted ones are about the same frequency - occasionally, but they seem to be in the general area all year. I keep the feeder stocked all year but right now I'm doing battle with starlings and grackles, trying to make way for my "birds of preference"!

 

[jimmyj]

Same here actually. We used to get big flocks of them for about a month. Now one or two. The bird population (migratory) is sadly nothing near what it used to be.

Sorry all, not trying to hijack.

I am a bit color blind and the OP's picture is so beautiful as I can see all the colors brilliantly.

 

[jinman]

Every morning I put out our bird feeders before going to the garden. We have to take them in at ngiht to keep the raccoons out of them. After going to the garden, I come back to the house and sit in the shade of my deck and watch birds at the feeder. My wife joined me a couple of days ago and we took pictures of the painted buntings that come daily to our feeder. Here are a couple of great shots Kathy got with her Canon PowerShot S5 IS camera from over 35 feet away. I'd say that's pretty good for an under $400 digital camera.

 

[Bird]

Yep, nice shots. I wonder why we've never seen any of those painted buntings here. I like to watch the birds, but I'm not a serious birder as a good friend who, along with his wife, is flying to Seattle Sunday to spend a week looking for birds that aren't found in this area. He says there are about 50 varieties there that are not seen here and they hope to see and identify 20.

 

[two_bit_score]

Doug - -

I see you are in Lampassas. I grew up in Gatesville - - good BBQ country!

Jack

I think the Coryell co. courthouse is one of the nicest looking courthouses in Texas.

 

[tallyho8]

Jimmy, I hear they used to be around here in large flocks, but they're generally only here now in pairs - most I had this summer was 2 pair at the same time, and just occasionally.

There would be a lot more around if they didn't taste so darn good.