What is a Chukar?

This morning I received an email from the Central Illinois Birding and a Heyworth member took a picture of a very unusual bird in his neighbors yard. Immediately 3-4 members of the group identified the bird. I thought viewers would like to see this unusual bird and here how it might have appeared in Illinois.

It's a chukar. Sibley says they are occasionally seen in many locations in
Eastern North America near where they have been released for sport-shooting
but that there are no established wild populations. Is there a hunt club
near you? If so, that might explain the bird's presence.

You would think it was the middle of Summer

While it is always fun to see a new bird arrive in the back yard those times seem to be few and far between. In the mean time the squirrels are always entertaining. We have a bungee cord that has two screws which we can attach ears of corn. Depending on how we attach the cord to the fence we can control the height of the corn from the ground. It is amazing what the squirrels will do to get to the corn! I saw one of them leap up and grab hold of the corn and franticly bite a grain off the cob before dropping to the ground to finish eating the corn.

We have one squirrel that defies all means of protecting the bird feeders from squirrels. We have yet to find a method of detouring this squirrel, but we will keep working on the idea. Then when we get used to all of the chasing and leaping and activity we are entertained by the couch potato squirrel.









This is one of the Fox Sparrows that have been gleaning food from our yard the last few weeks.

Funks Grove Trip

Yesterday we traveled down to Funks Grove area first visiting the Sugar Creek Nature Center where we observed various kinds of wood peckers and a few other birds. I was able to get a few pictures of the wood peckers and a yellow bellied sap sucker. The off to the church and cemetery area where we were able to see a couple of hawks sailing over head and then gently into the tall pine trees to a nest. While we were at the grove we observed hundreds of cans attached to the maple trees waiting for the sap to drain into the cans to be used in making maple syrup. In all the years we have been to Funks Grove this is the first time we have seen the actual cans used to collect the sugary sap.

As we drove back home on old route 66 I spoted this huge black bird up in a tree and quickly turned the car around to take a few pictures of my first view of a Turkey Vulture.

The pictures above are a few of those taken yesterday.

Turkey Strutting its stuff

My sister from Indiana sent me a picture this week of a resident Wild Turkey that struts its stuff in Danville, Indiana. A young man from their church was able to capture the above picture in the school yard of a public school.

With Spring coming the birds are once again appearing at the feeders. The squirrels are here year round and one is a rather pesky creature that loves to annoy the dog and myself. Only one squirrel can reach the bird feeder know as "Dad's Feeder" because the feeder use to sit in Dad's back yard. This pesky squirrel will climb the milk jugs and pole with out hesitation and then either the dog or I have to go out and chase him off. He comes down rather quickly, but only goes to the picnic table to turn and watch are next steps. Almost like a challenge to come and chase him.

Have you ever watched a squirrel during rain, cold or wind and noticed that they flip their tale up over their body to cover themselves from the elements. How about the Gold Finch that during the winter months is almost colorless but when Spring arrives the yellow color begins to return and by summer they are bright yellow.

Life is full of surprises like Peter Rabbit

This is our fierce worm eating cat Spook that thinks she is a robin.




One of the ducks from Lake Evergreen



Blue Heron at Lake Evergreen when I drove up it was posed very nicely then by the time I had gotten my camera it had flown over to a more reclusive spot.



This cow has a face that only a mother could like.



House Finch



Canadian Geese



Another duck at Lake Evergreen


It has been a while since I have posted. Seems life is too busy at times. The back yard has had more activity the last week as the birds seem to be hitting the feeders in more abundance. On any given day we have had 8-12 Juncos, various sparrows, Cardinals, Blue Jays, Doves, Starlings, Crows, Wood Peckers, both House and Gold Finches plenty of squirrels and a first yesterday, a rather large rabbit.

Took a drive out to Lake Evergreen yesterday and got a couple pictures but didn't see much wild life, well at least when my camera was ready. Saw a muskrat a swimming in the water, many Canadian Geese, 8-10 gulls, a couple of Hawks and two Blue Herons. The Robins were everywhere, haven't seen any in the backyard yet. The pictures above are from yesterday's trip and of our rare visitor.

Finally the Sun

Cedar Waxwing taken Fall 2006



Gold Finch taken Fall 2006


No clouds in the sky and the sun is out! Most of the snow is gone with the exception being the piles left by snow plows. Maybe Spring is coming. Our Hawk was spotted Monday evening perched in a tree out back, so it must still be checking in for a meal or two.

The birds have been very active which is a good sign. The Fox Sparrows are still hanging around. They are fun to watch as they peck away for dropped seeds. They don't seem to stay in any one place too long. They kind of skip around the yard even if only a foot or two at a time. They are a very pretty bird.

This morning about 4:30am I was greeted with the local Northern Cardinal cheerfully greeting morning. Later the Crows had their turn except it was less cheerful, more annoying to be blunt!

Many reports of Fox Sparrows around Bloomington-Normal as well as other migrating birds being spotted around the area. Spring surely is coming and I await the arrival of some of the migrating birds.

On another note the middle son is once again spending time with his new dog in a land that is chaotic at best. He recently graduated from an intensive dog trainer class and now is certified to train both explosive detection dogs and drug detection dogs. We have received word that he arrived safe and sound.

Finally the week end! More snow but only flurries

We are back to the cold and blowing snow again. Just a dusting, but still cold and still enough to cover the ground again. The birds were out in force today and we had a few first timers to our humble back yard.

Besides the doves, starlings, crows a plenty, squirrels, juncos and my favorite downys our new visitors were Fox Sparrows. I received an email from another birder stating that he too has spotted multiply Fox Sparrows in Normal. We had 3-5 Fox Sparrows moving about the yard and eating up a storm today.

Below are a few of the better pictures taken today.

I learned that by clicking on any picture on this blow you can enlarge the view. In most cases the view is too big for the screen but you can use the cursor to move the view left, right, up and down. Check out the second picture of my Downys. The female is on the left and the male is on the right, note the red patch on the top of the males head.