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Wednesday, January 14, 2015

End of March birding - continued

Reading about another blogger saying that she had posts in her drafts, I decided to go look at mine! I found this one!

As promised yesterday I am continuing with the weekend's birds we saw on our three outings.

We drove through the boom gate on Sunday morning and the first thing I saw was a Striped Kingfisher on the overhead lines.

Striped Kingfisher

The Striped Kingfisher is a small, dry-land kingfisher which feeds on insects, grasshoppers and lizards. It has a dark streaky head; red and black bill and a buffy-white collar. This is the first photo I have taken of the Striped Kingfisher where the azure blue rump and tail are visible! 

On the haul road, we passed a number of rollers and bee-eaters which I have featured here before. Grant stopped for a regular bird, but which always makes such a beautiful image.
Southern Red Bishop

At the explosives magazine, we stopped to watch the sunbirds which never disappoint.
Beautiful Sunbird

Hunter's Sunbird

Around the next corner, while I photographed a Purple Heron in a pond near the road, Grant spotted a very large bird standing at the top of a dry tree. Not an ordinary bird, but a duck-like bird. It was a Spur-winged Goose which was nothing new to us; yet what was strange, was that this goose was perched on top of a branch (I wondered how? with its webbed feet!)

Spur-winged Goose high on top of a dead tree! 


I'm linking this late - or is that early - post to Wild Bird Wednesday which you can visit by clicking here



13 comments:

  1. Such beautifully colored birds. How do they stand on branches with webbed feet? Guess the feet have knuckles like other feet.

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  2. like the fingfisher but the goose is the surprise one

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  3. Ho Jo I am so jealous of all thee fantastic birds. Now I have never seen a Spur -winged Goose with 3 legs!!! Ha! Ha! Hope all is going well

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  4. Spur Winged Goose and others all new to me, and how beautiful they all are~

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  5. Wow...mighty excellent. Each and every one of your bird sightings Jo!!!

    That Bishop is seen here in South Texas....but I'm thinking they're bought and released....not native to our country.

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  6. Wow, Jo! Great variety of birds and photos.. I love the cute Kingfisher and the beautiful sunbirds..The Southern Red Bishop is a beauty too. And cool sighting of the goose at the top of the tree. Awesome post, have a happy day!

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  7. Hello Joe!:) Lovely captures! The Sunbirds and the Southern Red Bishops, are gorgeous.

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  8. i actually found myself smiling as i red this post. these birds are amazing to me.. love that first sunbirds colors

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  9. the goose thinks he's a whistling duck! :)

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  10. Great photo of the kingfisher! Beautiful birds, all of them.

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  11. Wonderful birds! The sunbirds are my favorites! Beautiful shots!

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  12. The Southern Red Bishop looks like a cute stuffed animal.

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  13. There are some Canada Geese couple that nest on downtown balconies here ... they land on the railings before hopping down onto the cement balconies... crazy..but, they've been doing it for years. The only time I ever saw one I didn't have a camera... darn it...

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Thank you for visiting my blog and taking the time to leave a comment. I appreciate your feedback. Jo