Muscovy Duck - Domestic

Not a bird I can add to my life list, but an interesting bird none-the-less. There were approximately 20 of these domestic form of the Muscovy Duck on Lake Clara Meer in Atlanta, Georgia's Piedmont Park during my visit there a couple of weeks ago.
Wild Muscovy Ducks are totally black except for while patches on their wings. Domestic varieties vary from nearly all white to nearly all black. And while both wild and domestic varieties have bare skin on the face, only domestics are red. All the birds I saw were of similar color to the birds in the images above.
Though native to the tropics, a relocation program in northeastern Mexico has created a wild population in the Rio Grande area of Texas. I also read that there is a small wild population in southern Florida.
Evidently, like these ducks in Atlanta, domestic Muscovy Ducks are common in city parks across the United States, however, these are the first I can remember seeing.

Pied-billed Grebe

A Pied-billed Grebe against the autumn colored waters of Lake Clara Meer in Atlanta, Georgia's Piedmont Park. Taken on October 25, 2011.

Eastern Towhee

I made my yearly trip to Atlanta this week and was able to fit in a couple of birding sessions. Yesterday, I visited the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area - Cochran Shoals Unit like I did last year as it was quite birdie. Though this year was a little quieter, but I still saw many of the eastern birds I saw there last year, plus a few new ones. Noticeably missing were Carolina Wrens and I only saw one Tufted Titmouse, one of the birds I was looking forward to seeing again. Birds I did see were Red-bellied and Red-headed Woodpeckers, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Northern Cardinal, Carolina Chickadee, Northern Mockingbird, Brown Thrasher and Eastern Bluebird. New Georgia birds include Yellow-rumped Warbler, Common Grackle, Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted), American Goldfinch and a Red-tailed Hawk.
At this point, the only new life bird that I have identified is the Eastern Towhee shown above. I saw two and they were very shy, hiding in the bushes. I only got one shot of one in the open, but unfortunately it was somewhat distant and in the shade, however it is clearly an Eastern Towhee, looking a lot like our Spotted Towhee, but with only the lone white spot on at the base of its primaries.

Pine Warbler?

Another mystery bird from this past year.
I briefly saw this bird while walking along a trail at Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area in Atlanta, Georgia on November 19th. My best guess is a Pine Warbler. A few of the field marks that bring me to this conclusion are the following:

• general yellow coloring
• darker back and wings
• distinct wing bars
• white under tail coverts
• distinct eye ring
• pale striping on sides
• clear yellow on throat
• small dark area on the lores

Any feedback one way or the other is welcomed.

Blue Jay

A Blue Jay dining on tree seeds at Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area during my last trip to Atlanta.

Tufted Titmouse

During my first trip to Atlanta, I saw my first Tufted Titmice. I got a few pictures, but none of them turned out very well. The Titmouse is another bird that moves around a lot among the bushes and shadows foraging for food.
On my second trip, I saw many more. I also got a lot more bad pictures. The birds were either moving too fast, in the shadows, were heavily back lit or some combination. The three images above are the best of the lot. Not the best, but not too bad either.

An interesting feature is their black eye ring. Most birds have pale eye rings. This dark ring along with very dark eyes makes their eyes look proportionally much larger than most birds. I'm not sure if this is just a coincident or whether it serves some tactical advantage.

Red-headed Woodpecker

So, the bird's in the oven and the guests have not arrived yet; just enough time to post. :-)

Like the Brown Thrasher, this Red-headed Woodpecker I saw in Atlanta at Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area is a bird that I had seen as a youth, but would be extremely rare to see here in Oregon.

I was confused as to what it was as I could not recall seeing a picture of a woodpecker that looked like this bird. I assumed that it was a female of some variety and once I got a good look at the large white patches on its wings I started recalling the Red-headed Woodpecker. It wasn't until I looked it up in my Sibley field guide that I realized that it was a juvenile.
I'm not quite sure what it was up to, but it had a lot of energy and kept flying back and forth across the trail. I followed it for quite some time as it flew from tree to tree, but still found it hard to get a close, clear shot.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Not a new bird for me, but I got the best views and pictures of a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker on my last trip to Atlanta. Woodpeckers (as well as Brown Creepers) can be difficult to shoot as they are typically working their up a tree truck or branch. It hard to keep up with them and hard to get a good look at their face.
The Sapsucker in the images above is a female as it lacks red feathers on its throat.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

During my last trip to Atlanta I got a better picture of a Red-bellied Woodpecker.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

While in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago, I had three sightings of a Red-bellied Woodpecker, two of which I was able to some photos. The first was at Olmsted Park. I only got a quick glimpse of it through my camera lens, but it was enough for me to be pretty sure of its identity.
Then later I got a much better view as seen in the upper two images above. It was fairly high up in the tree and had a bright canopy of rear lit leaves in the background, but I managed to get images that allowed a positive identification.
Finally, I got some closer, less obstructed views as seen in the bottom image, but I could never get a shot of its face. I did, however, get a good shot of its back.
There are times that the only way I have been able to identify a difficult bird is via bits and pieces of it obstructed by leaves and branches in multiple images, but the sum total of all of them gives me enough information to identify the bird. That was not the case here, but the combination of images gives a more complete representation of its physical characteristics.

Eastern Phoebe

I'm always a bit unsure when it comes to Flycatchers, but after researching this one for a few days, I'm pretty sure it is an Eastern Phoebe. The thing that concerns me is that I did not notice either of the birds I saw bobbing its tail as is described in just about every discussion on its behavior. Nonetheless, an Eastern Phoebe does seem to be the best fit in all other categories.
The bird in the top two images was the first bird I photographed on my birding outing in Atlanta. There was a nice clearing as I entered Olmsted Park and the Phoebe was sitting on a branch as if to welcome me to the park.
I saw another one in Fernbank Forest at the small pond. It spent a lot of time fly catching over the pond from the fence it is perched on in the bottom image.

Eastern Gray Squirrel

I mentioned in a recent post that there were a lot of squirrels in Atlanta. Evidently they are a bit of a pest as when I Googled "squirrels in Atlanta", it returned a lot of removal services. One mentioned that both the Eastern Gray Squirrel and the Flying Squirrel were problems and that their natural predators had been reduced in numbers.

Pileated Woodpecker

I have seen a Pileated Woodpecker once before in my lifetime. The Pileated, for me, is one of those glamor birds; big, beautiful and elusive. So, when I had my first sighting, it was a trill. Still, it wasn't fully satisfying as I saw the bird at the Portland Audubon Society's suet feeder from inside the visitor center. A legitimate sighting, but kinda like fishing at a fish farm.
Sighting number two.
As I mentioned on Thursday, I had intended on spending the morning at Fernbank Forest in Atlanta, but was turned away when I got there since access was closed to the public until after 2:00 PM. So I hiked about four or five blocks away and spent some time at Olmsted Park.
Olmsted was quite an active park. After about an hour or so, I heard a loud bird flying into the park. I looked up and saw a large black bird through the branches as it flew above the tree tops. It swooped down and landed on the side of a the trunk of a large tree not far from me. It was obvious that it was a Pileated Woodpecker.
The lighting was difficult as the sun was behind the bird and the bright sky streaming through the leaves served as the background. As I took pictures the best I could, I noticed a couple of interesting behaviors. First, it bobbed back and forth, swinging its large head from side to side. I'm not sure what this behavior accomplished. Second, it stuck its head down upward facing knot holes in two different trees. I assume it was either looking for food or drinking water. Heavy thunder storms had passed through the day before dropping a lot of rain, so the holes could have had water in them.
Another thing I noticed after looking at the photos on my computer was the large hole in the side of the tree not much higher than where the Pileated had landed. I wonder if it was the bird's nest?
All-in-all, quite an exciting sighting.

Downy Woodpecker

A Downy Woodpecker landed in a tree right in front of me as I walked along the edge of Olmsted Park in Atlanta, Georgia.

Carolina Wren

Another business trip. At first I didn't think I would be able to fit in a birding outing, but then an additional meeting came up causing me to stay an extra day, leaving Thursday open. I took the opportunity to visit two parks near the Georgia Tech Hotel where I was staying; Fernbank Forest and Recreation Center and Olmsted Park.
Olmsted Park was a unintended stop. The local Audubon Society highly recommended Fernbank Forest and Recreation Center, but it turned out that it didn't open to the public until 2:00 PM on weekdays because it is used in conjunction with the local elementary school.
As it turned out, I wasn't quite sure where the Taxi should drop me off to enter Fernbank Forest so I decided to be dropped off at the Fernbank Museum. Turns out it was about a 1.5 mile walk from there. Along the way I happened to notice Olmsted Park. I'm glad I did as it turned out to be more active than Fernbank Forest.
One bird that was quite plentiful at both sites was the Carolina Wren seen above. The two images are from Fernbank Forest. Their behavior was similar to Wrens I see in the Portland metro area; spending a lot of time low to the ground in bushes and quite active.
This one posed in the open for me for a bit and a shaft of light through the trees hit it nicely. Only thing I should have done differently is to lower the exposure just a bit as the birds face blew out just a bit.