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Gardening Forums · Aug 25, 2026

Does anybody like to watch birds?

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GardeningBoy · Gardening Forums

I love to go bird watching!
Is there anything else?

Absolutely love to watch birds here on my place especially.

I'm not into travelling distances to see birds or discover new sightings but watching absolutely.

My screen name "Meadowlark" would indicate my love for birds, and it is the name we gave our ranch when we first purchased it 1/2 century ago and observed big flocks of meadowlarks all over the ranch.

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I have bird feeders off my deck but also have ground feeders out in fields protected from the cows to feed the birds.

Yep, birds are the cat's meow. 🤠

Is that first one the pileated woodpecker? Cool bird for sure. We have pretty good numbers of them here.

They are often confused for the ivory billed woodpecker considered functionally extinct. However, there have been unconfirmed sightings close to here in Big Thicket. Just about anything can survive in the Big Thicket.

Yes first one and last one are the pileated woodpecker.
I see quite a few of them as well as the redheaded and others.
We have a wide range of birds here and I dont have to leave my house.

Absolutely love to watch birds here on my place especially.

I'm not into travelling distances to see birds or discover new sightings but watching absolutely.

My screen name "Meadowlark" would indicate my love for birds, and it is the name we gave our ranch when we first purchased it 1/2 century ago and observed big flocks of meadowlarks all over the ranch.

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I have bird feeders off my deck but also have ground feeders out in fields protected from the cows to feed the birds.

Yep, birds are the cat's meow. 🤠

Are meadowlarks your favorite kind of birds ?

I love your pictures!
Are those pet ducks or wild?

I love your pictures!
Are those pet ducks or wild?

They are wild but not native. They visit almost every year in the spring.

They are wild but not native. They visit almost every year in the spring.

That awesome!

Are meadowlarks your favorite kind of birds ?

Certainly, one of them. We have mostly the eastern meadowlark here in East Texas.

Their numbers have been in a steady decline for decades here, unfortunately. On the bright side, their numbers coming in this fall were up considerably.

We used to have several coveys of quail here but no more for several years. I have tried to re-establish them without any success.

A pair of bald eagles visits here every year to feed on the dying tilapia in my ponds (cold temps kills them). Some years they bring presumably an offspring with them. They have been coming many years now.

The one wild bird I really wish for here would be wild turkeys...but despite efforts to re-introduce them, no luck so far.

The pileated woodpecker as posted by @dirty hands is an awesome bird. I love to have them visit out pecan trees.

We have some kingfishers also that visit the ponds here taking an occasional fish. They are better fishermen than me. 🤠

Sorry to ramble on...but birds gotta love 'em.

I love birds and all wildlife really. I don't go bird watching specifically but my camera is always with me if I'm out for a walk be it countryside or coastal. One of the most infuriating and comical birds that used to visit my previous garden were pheasants. One in particular became tame enough to feed by hand and used to wait for me every morning on the back doorstep. He'd knock on the door with his beak to get my attention. That same bird became a problem with the hanging feeders for the smaller birds on a bird feeding station and he managed to work out how to get to them. I had to wind washing line around the station to thwart him but that wasn't 100% fool proof either.

In the first picture you can see the mess he created underneath the feeding station. He used to toss all the stones off the gravel patio. Such a monster! :D

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I love to go bird watching!
Is there anything else?

We're in Santa Barbara, CA. We had a terrific amount of rain Nov 13-17. When the rain slowed, only coming down moderately, the "traffic" at our back yard bird feeder really ramped up. I counted 8 different species of birds within the span of five minutes. Pretty cool: Black-head grosbeaks, Mourning doves, Oak titmouse, Dark-eyed junco, Scrub jay, etc. Nothing we haven't seen before, but it was still pretty captivating.

I ride my bike alongside a creek five mornings per week. 6:30-7:00 a.m. Yesterday, a Great egret glided past, not too far overhead.

I heard two birds calling that I haven't heard before. (My Merlin I.D. app isn't working, for some reason. Usually I record the sound and figure out later which bird was singing.)

Yes. I love birdwatching. Don't know how I got into it, but I've been doing it for decades. Keeping a bird list, but not hardcore about it. If you ever get over to Australia, the bird life there will blow your mind. (I once jogged through the bush, came around a corner, and surprised the heck out of small flock of Emus. That was fun.)

I love birds and all wildlife really. I don't go bird watching specifically but my camera is always with me if I'm out for a walk be it countryside or coastal. One of the most infuriating and comical birds that used to visit my previous garden were pheasants. One in particular became tame enough to feed by hand and used to wait for me every morning on the back doorstep. He'd knock on the door with his beak to get my attention. That same bird became a problem with the hanging feeders for the smaller birds on a bird feeding station and he managed to work out how to get to them. I had to wind washing line around the station to thwart him but that wasn't 100% fool proof either.

In the first picture you can see the mess he created underneath the feeding station. He used to toss all the stones off the gravel patio. Such a monster! :D

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He's magnificent. I'll trade you four squirrels for him. :giggle:

If you want to learn more about birds and birding, I suggest taking field trips with your local Audubon Society. Seeing birds through a spotting scope opens up a whole new world . . .

I like how the photo of birds at your feeder is all blurry. Those are the same kind of photos I take from my downstairs bathroom window (aka my bird blind), when I see "special" birds at my back yard feeder.

One of the most infuriating and comical birds that used to visit my previous garden were pheasants.

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The colors on that bird are remarkable to me. It is amazing how most of those colors in Nature really cannot be duplicated by us well, in spite of trying.

I get everything from wild turkeys to hawks, owls and everything inbetween in my back yard. They don't always get along lol. I took this from my kitchen window last January. A snowy owl caught a hawk for a snack in my back yard.

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