Tuesday is not Friday, I know, but I forgot to post this last week.

So here is my Skywatch Friday post. I haven’t been able to take many photos lately. School is busy and there has been a lot of snow. Happy Skywatch!

Is it a hawk? an eagle? or a really cool illusion?

I was tagged for a top five meme to list my top five birds that I would most like to add to my life list by Richie at An Arkies Musings.

That is a very tough question to answer! There are so many I would like to see.

1. Northern Gannet
2. Brown Pelican
3. Road Runner
4. Acorn Woodpecker
5. Stellers Jay

So now I have to pass the tag along to five others and I pick:Your Top Five Dream Birding Locations

I tag - Birdchick
I tag - 10000Birds
I tag - The Zen Birdfeeder
I tag - Wrenaissance Reflections
I tag - Iowa Voice

Good birding everyone!

Horse-drawn Wagon - Photo by Birdfreak

Yesterday we went to Williams Tree Farm to find the perfect Christmas tree. All the family rode on a “two-horse open wagon” out to where the trees were. The farm has many trees but also has eleven golden retreivers that live there! We got a Colorado Blue Spruce and will be decorating it on Friday. I cannot wait!

One of Eleven Golden Retrievers - Photo by Birdfreak

While we were out there we saw a Rough-legged Hawk and a bunch of Dark-eyed Juncos and American Tree Sparrows. We also looked for a reported Snowy Owl but did not find one. We did see Horned Larks and Snow Buntings along the road.

Yesterday we went to Severson Dells Forest Preserve on a field trip with the NCIOS bird club. There are feeders outside of the education center building and we watched the many birds there.

Here are some of the birds we saw:

1. White-breasted Nuthatch
2. Tufted Titmouse
3. Downy Woodpecker
4. Brown Creeper
5. Purple Finch
6. House Finch
7. American Goldfinch
8. Dark-eyed Junco
9. Black-capped Chickadee
10. Red-bellied Woodpecker
11. White-throated Sparrow
12. Fox Sparrow
13. Oregon Junco - LIFE BIRD!!!

The Oregon Junco is found in the west usually but they have been seen at Severson Dells before. This is my first time ever seeing one AND I got it with the camera too! The male has a slaty to blackish hood, rufous brown to buffy brown back and sides and the female has a duller hood color. It is neat to see such a rare bird.

Photo Life List

1. Wild Turkey
2. Ring-necked Pheasant
3. Turkey Vulture
4. Green Heron
5. Pileated Woodpecker
6. Common Loon
7. Yellow Warbler
8. Yellow-breasted Chat
9. American Robin
10. Mississippi Kite
11. Tennessee Warbler
12. Oregon Junco

Monday, I read a post on Birdfreak about Cedar Waxwings. Rick Wright, who writes Aimopila Adventures added a comment with a link to an ABA article called Tricks Exotic Shrubs Do - When Baltimore Orioles Stop Being Orange by Tom Flinn, Jocelyn Hudon and Dan Derbyshire. The article is from Birding Magazine in the September/October of 2007 issue. This post is about the article.

Balimore Oriole - Photo by birdfreak.com

In Toronto,Ontario there is a research station for birds. In 2005 a Baltimore Oriole that was banded had red feathers instead of orange or yellow. In 2006 more red Baltimore Orioles were found. They didn’t know why this was.

They had a theory it was because of their diet. There are yellow and red pigments found in plants called carotenoid pigments when birds eat certain foods it can change colors of there feathers. In the 1980s a red carotenoid called rhodoxanthin was found to be what made some Cedar Waxwings yellow tail tips turned orange.

Berries of introduced bushes were found to have this carotenoid. The birds have to eat this during the time there growing feathers to turn different colors. The introduced honey suckles were thought to be good wild life habitats in 2005 there was a lot of these berries around. Another bird that had orange pigment were ther should have been yellow. Birders should report different colored birds to there local bird club or state birding association to help track if it’s spreading.

Cedar Waxwing - photo by Birdfreak

I got some new photos of a Tennessee Warbler last weekend. This is my 11th bird on my photo life list. I also added this post to the Bird Photography Weekly.

Tennessee Warbler

Tennessee Warbler - Preening

Check out Bird Photography Weekly and add your bird photo!

Photo Life List

1. Wild Turkey
2. Ring-necked Pheasant
3. Turkey Vulture
4. Green Heron
5. Pileated Woodpecker
6. Common Loon
7. Yellow Warbler
8. Yellow-breasted Chat
9. American Robin
10. Mississippi Kite
11. Tennessee Warbler

Here is my Skywatch Friday photo of the sun coming through at Rock Cut State Park in Illinois.

Last Saturday’s field trip was cancelled because of rainy gross weather. So I finally got to go birding today and it was so fun. I also posted about this on my local bird club’s website NCIOS.org. It is so cool that all the bird club members can write about their bird sightings on it.

We hiked at Rock Cut State Park. We got there around seven. Five birders went, including me. The five of us saw quite a few warblers and Dark-eyed Juncos(!).

It was kind of chilly but got warmer near the end of the hike and it was sunny. I had a great time.

Bird List

1. Blackburnian Warbler
2. Black-and-white Warbler
3. American Redstart
4. Black-throated Green Warbler
5. Tennessee Warbler
6. Nashville Warbler
7. Common Yellowthroat
8. Magnolia Warbler
9. Blue-headed Vireo
10. Red-eyed Vireo
11. Dark-eyed Junco
12. Northern Cardinal
13. White-throated Sparrow
14. Field Sparrow
15. Song Sparrow
16. Chipping Sparrow
17. American Goldfinch
18. American Robin
19. Swainson’s Thrush
20. Eastern Bluebird
21. Turkey Vulture
22. Great Blue Heron
23. Mallard
24. Canada Goose
25. Double-crested Cormorant
26. Belted Kingfisher
27. Pied-billed Grebe
28. Eastern Phoebe
29. Eastern Towhee
30. Ring-necked Pheasant
31. Black-capped Chickadee
32. House Wren
33. European Starling
34. Mourning Dove
35. Downy Woodpecker
36. Red-bellied Woodpecker</liL
37. American Crow
38. Blue Jay
39. Common Grackle
40. Cedar Waxwing