Bay Photos by Donna

Due to time constraints, I’m actually still overwhelmed with several of my ‘regular’ bird species’ photos that I really want to share; but as all birders know, new photo captures are more exciting to share because they’re exciting to the birder to add to their ‘count’ of species.  🙂  When I started this blog, it was dedicated to chronicling the life of our osprey pair located 150 feet from my balcony.  But with our Oliver & Olivia a no-show this season (so disappointing!), my daily ‘osprey’ time has diminished, allowing my eyes to open wider to the other birds and wildlife that live during the osprey season around our Oyster Cove community.

With the world of blogging, I’ve ‘met’ many birder bloggers who track their species & have awesome counts, ranging from annual lists, to lifer lists, to specific area lists, and more!  These great birders have piqued my curiosity and have me wondering just how many have I sighted and captured?  Obviously, no where near my friends, but I’ve got to start somewhere, right?  So I’ve decided to jump on the bird bandwagon to create two lists, one for my captures within Oyster Cove, and another one for my lifer list.  Soon I’ll post those numbers with a photo page to show my pathetic count, which will make me work harder to sight new ones and increase those numbers!   😉

First, if I have identified a bird incorrectly, please PLEASE correct me!  I’ll be the first to thank you!  I am indeed a beginning amateur with birds and rely heavily on books, the web, and fellow bloggers’ photos and postings; so I do try my best, but know I can and will make mistakes.

So back to new birds for my lists!  In the last couple weeks, I’ve captured four species within Oyster Cove that I’ve not photographed before.  The first one is a Grey Catbird who was perched over by the marina early one morning during my ‘loop’.

Grey Catbird

Also by the marina but during the evening of another day, I had a  Rock Dove fly by me and land on power lines above, with an eye still on me.

Rock Dove

Rock Dove

Rock Dove

My third is of the Cooper’s Hawk, who flew out in front of me from over the roof while I was on my balcony.  I was actually photographing an eagle off to my left (later post!) when the hawk appeared.  He was being chased & harassed by a black bird.  I only got three quick shots, with my next ‘best’ one not so great, and minus the blackbird.  But it counts, right?!!

Cooper’s Hawk

My fourth is the American Goldfinch, which I also captured from my balcony early Saturday morning.  Two males and a female flew towards me from CBEC across the water and landed just below me.  I’ll admit my first dozen shots were terrible because I was so excited and was shooting hand-held so they were blurry-city!  I tried to settle down and did manage to get a few goods ones.  The first shot is a male who was the ‘outsider’ in the threesome.

American Goldfinch (male) – the ‘outsider’

American Goldfinches (two males, one female) – Far left male is the ‘outsider’

American Goldfinches – the male ‘outsider’ decides to try & impress the female, which doesn’t work, so he flies off.

American Goldfinches (female & male ) – the love birds

Finally, not a bird photo but I thought cute to share.  I’ve watched this gal and her dog jet-ski many times last summer around Marshy Creek from my balcony, and this past weekend they were out for the beginning of another season of fun.  The dog really does seem to enjoy it, and I get a kick out of watching them.  You should see them do circles!!  And for the record, I’ve never seen them fall off, the girl does not get crazy as some jet-skiers do.

Jet-Skiing Dog and buddy

So those were four new birds for my lists.  I hope you enjoyed them and the jet-skiing dog, and as always thanks for stopping by!   🙂