#i've. never actually seen a woodpecker before

[knifegremliin]

! it's woodpecker!!

[justabirdy]

From the Feeder 5/10 - 5/16

It's been a busy week for both me and the birds. While I've been at work, the spring migration has been well underway. With that means some of our regular visitors have largely moved on while other new visitors are coming around. 

One of this week's newest visitors that I was able to photograph was a Brown Thrasher. This is a bird I've never seen before, so it was an exciting visit for me at least!

Brown Thrasher

Of course we had other new visitors to the feeder, finally had a House Finch, though I wasn't able to photograph it before it flew away. We also had a wild turkey stop by on its trot over to the woods past my house. That I actually caught on film! Maybe next time it will come all the way up to the feeder or birdbath itself. 

And of course we had some of our regulars! I'll add those to the bottom of this post. 

It's hard to imagine it has only been 3 weeks since starting this project. It's already come a long way and I've really enjoyed spending the time putting it all together and making things work. We've even managed to maker the stream interactive, allowing people to zoom in or even pull up audio ID features which is still amazing to me!

Where we started: 4/23/24

Where we are now: 5/16/24

I'm thrilled to keep working on this project and I'm hoping to keep developing improvements and creative ideas in the coming weeks and months. Even though I only have a small following, I'm still thrilled you are all here, and I hope you will stick around to watch, learn, and maybe even support this project financially or just by sharing your own ideas. Someone recently called this "Twitch Plays Birdwatching" and you know what, I'm here for it, lets watch birds together and lets make it fun to do!

- Birdy

White-breasted Nuthatch

Common Grackle

American Crow

White-crowned Sparrow

Downy Woodpecker

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Indigo Bunting

Red-winged Blackbird

Baltimore Oriole

American Goldfinch

Northern Cardinal

[corvus-coraxiom]

I've been thinking a lot about that one post that's like "deer are smaller than you think otters are bigger than you think" etc. And while there are Some birds that are talked about in the reblogs I feel like it'd kinda be fun to make a bird version bc I'm in an Infodumping mood. So:

If You've Never Seen One Before...

- Eagles are bigger than you think

- So are geese

- You were right about ducks. Mostly

- Crows are smaller than you think. If it's bigger, that's a raven

- Turkey vultures are bigger than you think. Black vultures are smaller

- Hawks are smaller than you think but you were pretty close

- Falcons are also smaller than you think but a LOT deadlier

- Owls are either a lot smaller or a lot bigger than you think depending on the species there's not really an in-between there.

- Great blue herons are MUCH bigger than you think. You were probably right about the size of green herons tho

- Wild turkeys are smaller than you think until they start flying (yes they can in fact fly and are actually pretty good at it)

- Most woodpeckers are smaller than you think except for That One Kind which is a lot bigger.

- Doves are smaller than you think

- You were right about pigeons

- You were also probably right about most songbirds except for bluejays. They're bigger than you think and also a LOT meaner (said with love 🩷)

- Seagulls are about the size you were thinking until they're up in your face trying to steal your food and suddenly they're MUCH bigger.

[trashmammal69]

Just saw a Red Bellied Woodpecker and THREE FUCKING BLUE JAYS outside rn, all of which are species I've never seen irl before. I'm so fucking happy! They're not there anymore, and I doubt you'd be able to see em anyway with my phone's shitty camera quality, but this is where I spotted them. It was actually so fucking pretty.

[legaciestold]

august 16th, 2000 somewhere in virginia one of the hottest days of the year @everythingheard (leon)

for as intelligent as claire understood them both to be, they clearly hadn't thought this through. alright, perhaps that was a bit of a fib. they had, to a point. the backpack that leon was wearing was filled with hydration packs that had extra boosters in them made for hikers. it held snacks too, especially all of sherry's favorites but not ones that would be high in sugars to dehydrate them. high protein. claire had been prepared, she'd packed the bag the night before, sherry rattling on in her excitement over the fact she was going to get to see leon when she hadn't for nearly four months. at least not in person. funny how they could all live so close, relatively speaking, and yet actually making time to spend time together could be so far apart.

leon was busy, claire understood this even if she hadn't always understood why he'd followed the path he'd chosen. then again, maybe in some way it was the cop in him. he had to serve and protect now that their lives were back on track in some form-- no more running around with a band of fugitives for them-- and knowing what was out there? the horrors that the government covered up and so much of the public wasn't aware of? well, maybe this was his way of stopping it within the only path available. even if his employers, one could say, were also part of the problem too.

it was one of the things they didn't talk about, a touchy subject and for now claire accepted that. she had to.

it wasn't as if she hadn't had her hands full too. helping the terrasave start up and trying to maintain some level of normalcy for sherry when the girl couldn't exactly attend school like normal children, having tutors come to the house that simmons had arraigned for. god, claire was barely old enough to drink and she was raising a teenager. a young teenager, but a teenager nonetheless. was this how chris felt with her?

of course, all this was to say that for as smart as the government agent and ngo worker were, they'd been fairly idiotic in their choice of days to decide it'd be fun to take a kid hiking in the woods. woods where they didn't have to worry about zombies or the threats that might still lurk out there seeking to grab sherry or claire for that matter (she knew umbrella had a file on her after the shit she'd reaped on them, and wesker had some kind of vendetta too). woods where maybe leon wouldn't have to worry about whatever missions he'd been starting to go on either, claire thinks. maybe they'd barely seen each other in the last year with this training, not in person at least, but she hated seeing him stressed more than he needed to be.

it was hot, the sun high in the sky and trees giving only partial cover. little swarms of bugs congregated in the air in clouds and a woodpecker sounded off somewhere in the distance. but it was HOT and it almost made claire wish for that desert cold she'd endured in utah as she sat on a log and sweat through her shirt. grey-blue eyes watch sherry inspecting a walking stick on the side of a tree for a moment before looking over at leon who'd sat next to her.

"i think you have an unfair advantage here, mr. mission impossible. you have all that special training behind you, keeping you in tip-top shape. i feel like i haven't had to run around since... well.. you know." claire trails off, not needing to voice it. they had done a fair amount of running around in raccoon. in maine and utah and paris and all the places in-between. she didn't have to run around anymore, at least until terrasave had her go into the field and that wouldn't be for some time; it was still working to get off the ground. leon, however, well, he'd never really stopped, had he?

her gaze moves back to sherry who was now holding the bug and then back to leon again. "how much you wanna bet she's gonna ask to take it home as a pet? i've been avoiding the puppy question like the plague."