[sweetliberty]

"I'll just wander around, looking at the pretty birds."

There are lots. We are having fun expanding our birding horizons and sharing our experiences.

Y'all welcome BykrBayb to the thread.

By the way, I saw an awesome purplelish colored bird at the feeder this morning. I think it was an Indigo Bunting, but I wouldn't swear to it. The color was right...a dark indigo, not the brighter blue you see in some of the pictures. I don't know of anything else that color.

I also saw another new kind of bird today (2 actually) in the area, although not in the yard. I saw what appeared to be a Pelican flying overhead right near the turn to my house. And then, I saw these funny little birds when I was driving home this evening. They were pretty small, their bodies about the sisze of a Mockingbird, maybe smaller. They had black and white rings around their necks and long legs. Underneath their wings was white. They were running instead of flying, although they could fly. Made a cute little noise too. I'm going to see if I can find a picture and figure out what they were...then I'll see if I can get some to my yard.

[BykrBayb]

Except for the size, that sounds like a killdeer. Does it look something like this?

[MamaTexan]

I don't know of anything else that color.

Hmm. The only birds around here that color are barn swallows and the Purple Martins. If you find out what they are, let us know!

They were running instead of flying, although they could fly.

That sounds a lot like a shore bird around here. I've always called them terns, but that's probably not their proper name. We see those often at the lake, and occasionally at the house. They make a sound like a non-stop peep, for lack of a better description.

Well, there are now 2 ruby-throated hummers here, and yesterday, I finally saw a female! Probably a ruby throat, but I'm lousy at identifying females because they all look so similar.

I did have an interesting experience the other day. I was driving into town, and saw what I though was a buzzard in the middle of the road. Now, I'm always very careful when approaching an animal in the road, particularly buzzards since they
1. wait till the last minute to take off
2. It takes a lot of room for a bird with a 6 to 8 ft wingspan to take off, and
3. a friend hit one and had to have his car totaled because they couldn't get the stench out.

Well, It WASN'T a buzzard, it was a very BIG tom Turkey....and the bugger wouldn't move. I got right up to him and came to a complete stop. Then, he raised up and looked OVER the hood of my car at me. I do have a fairly small car, but I mean his head had to be at least 4 feet off the ground!

He gave me a "Humpf" look, and slowly sauntered off the side of the road, like I had just really interrupted his day!

ROFL!

[GodBlessUSA]

Good Morning Sweetliberty
I'm moving to where you are! LOL! You are having great bird sightings. :) Kildear looks cute. Indingo Bunting too! Awesome!