Tag: Birds

Great Backyard Bird Count 2025

Do you like to participate in citizen science programs? There’s a great opportunity happening this weekend. Join the Great Backyard Bird Count on February 14-17, 2025. This is a global project! In 2024, over 600,000 people participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count. Your count will help scientists gather data about bird populations before they… Continue reading Great Backyard Bird Count 2025

Hooded Mergansers

Have you seen the hooded merganser ducks that overwinter in North Carolina? Sometimes you can see them in the retention ponds. They seem to be very shy, though. As soon as they notice a person, they tend to go to the far side of the pond, if not fly away. The male’s head is black… Continue reading Hooded Mergansers

Killdeer Crossing

I was watching a pair of killdeer in the retention pond at the corner of Town Hall Drive and Harris Mill Road. At some point, one bird flew away while the other stayed in the pond. I finished taking my pictures of the bird in the pond, and started to walk to the other side… Continue reading Killdeer Crossing

National Bird Day

January 5, 2025 is National Bird Day. Take some time today to notice the birds outside. What are they doing? Are they looking for food? Are they singing? How many different kinds of birds do you see or hear? How many can you identify?

Nice Catch!

I always enjoy watching the Great Blue Herons in the retention ponds. They are such beautiful birds! Yesterday, I stopped to watch a heron standing along the edge of one of the ponds. It was still for quite a while, and then it jumped! I thought it was about to fly away, but it stuck… Continue reading Nice Catch!

Surprise on the Trail

I came around a bend in the Shiloh Greenway yesterday and was surprised to see a group (a gaggle) of six geese walking up the trail toward me. Of course, the geese are very common around here, and I often see them on the Indian Creek Greenway at the trailhead by the water. When I… Continue reading Surprise on the Trail

Welcome Little Ones

Do you seen anything? Look carefully. The mallard duck family welcomed TWELVE new ducklings to the family last week!

What’s That? February 10, 2025

What’s that? Who made those methodical carvings in the bark of a consumption weed bush? These are one type of hole made by a yellow-bellied sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius). The bird will lick sap from these shallow holes. Yellow-bellied sapsuckers also make neat rows of round, deep holes to find some sap. You might hear the… Continue reading What’s That? February 10, 2025