ChiffChaff Collecting Insects
ChiffChaff collecting insects from among the cherry blossom in Spring.
Bird – Black-Capped Chickadee
Bird Identification – Black-capped chickadee The black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) is a small, nonmigratory, North American songbird that lives in deciduous and mixed forests. It is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is the state bird of both Maine and Massachusetts in the United States, and the provincial bird of New Brunswick […]
Bird – Great Blue Heron
Bird Identification – Great Blue Heron Standing motionless as the sphinx, with his neck drawn in until his crested head rests between his angular shoulders, the big, long-legged, bluish-gray heron depends upon his stillness and protective colouring to escape the notice of his prey, and of his human foes (for he has no others). In […]
Bird – Rails
Bird Identification – Rails Rails are such shy, skulking hiders among the tall marsh grasses that “every child” need never hope to know them all; but a few members of the family that are both abundant and noisy, may be readily recognised by their voices alone. All rails prefer to escape from an intruder through […]
Bird – The Swallows
Bird Identification – The Swallows If you were a bird, could you think of any way of earning a living more delightful than sailing about in the air all day, playing cross-tag on the wing with your companions, skimming low across the meadows, ponds and marshes, or rising high above them and darting hither and […]
Bird – Woodcock – Blind, Wall-eyed, Mud, Bigheaded, Wood, And Whistling Snipe – Bog-sucker – Bogbird – Timber Doodle
Bird Identification – Woodcock – Blind, Wall-eyed, Mud, Bigheaded, Wood, And Whistling Snipe – Bog-sucker – Bogbird – Timber Doodle Whenever you see little groups of clean-cut holes dotted over the earth in low, wet ground, you may know that either the woodcock or Wilson’s snipe has been there probing for worms. Not even the […]
Bird – American Goldfinch – Black-winged Yellow-bird – Thistle Bird – Lettuce Bird – Wild Canary
Bird Identification – American Goldfinch – Black-winged Yellow-bird – Thistle Bird – Lettuce Bird – Wild Canary Have you a garden gay with marigolds, sunflowers, coreopsis, zinnias, cornflowers, and gaillardias? If so, every goldfinch in your neighbourhood knows it and hastens there to feed on the seeds of these plants as fast as they form, […]
Bird – White-throated Sparrow – Peabody-bird – Canada Sparrow
Bird Identification – White-throated Sparrow – Peabody-bird – Canada Sparrow “What’s in a name?” Our English cousins over the border are quite sure they hear this sparrow sing the praises of Swee-e-et Can-a-da, Can-a-da, Can-a-da-ah, while the New Englanders think the bird distinctly says, I-I-Pea-body, Pea-bod-y, Pea-bod-y-I, extolling the name of one of their first […]
Bird – The Redstart
Bird Identification – The Redstart When this exquisite little warbler flashes his brilliant salmon flame and black feathers among the trees, darting hither and thither, fluttering, spinning about in the air after insects caught chiefly on the wing, you will surely agree that he is the most beautiful as well as the most lively bird […]
Bird – Barn Owl – Monkey-faced Owl
Bird Identification – Barn Owl – Monkey-faced Owl This is the shy, odd-looking, gray and white mottled owl with the triangular face and slim body, about a foot and a half long, that comes out of its hole at evening with a wild scream, startling timid and superstitious people into the belief that it is […]