More of my favorite things---Birds

Today I am going to start out by writing about something we were able to see develop over a few days.  There was this Chipped Sparrow and a baby.  I always thought the baby looked too large to be a baby, but it certainly acted like one.  I took pictures of the two of them when the baby was twice as large as the mother.  I sent it around on email asking people to help me with this.  One of my friends that knows a lot about birds told me that a Brown Headed Cowbird had pushed the sparrows eggs out of the nest and laid hers there for the sparrow to take care of.  That is what the cowbirds do.  Here is the picture. That sparrow must have worked all day to keep that baby fed!!!!

I really like Pelicans.  It must be because they just seem so graceful.  They are not the most attractive birds.  As a mater of fact some people may say they are quite funny looking.  When we lived in South Dakota we had many of the American White Pelicans.  The White Pelicans scoop fish up while swimming.  The Brown Pelicans dive into the water to get their fish.  The picture of the American White was taken in Brown County in South Dakota.  The picture of the Brown Pelican was taken at the Children's Beach in La Jolla, California.

I love the next picture.  I need to send it into "Birds and Bloom."  I got this shot while in Mishawaka, IN.  So you suppose that duck shops there????

One of my favorite pictures is of this Blue Jay taking a bath.  He really got into it.  I am not sure how long it went on, but it was a hot day and he seemed to be enjoying it.

Another favorite bathing picture of mine is this one of a Mallard Duck.  Mallards seem to be everywhere.  I love seeing that green head of the male shining in the sunlight.  They are beautiful birds.

The next bird is another of those that are not everyone's favorite.  They were generally sea birds, but they have moved inland to lakes and rivers.  They are the Cormorants.  They are quite the divers and some have been known to dive into the water to a depth of  45 meters.  I found a lot of these birds in South Dakota.  I am not sure how long they have been there.  I don't remember them at all until about 20 years ago.  But their population has grown rapidly.  Here is a picture of one that I took in Marshall County, SD.

Here is a picture I took in Spink County, SD. this could be the front of a Halloween Card.

The Yellow Headed Blackbird is very striking in appearance. It has a loud call. It places its nest over water, attached to cattails and reeds.They use a lot of the same habitat as the Red Winged Blackbird.  The Yellow Headed Blackbirds are larger and more aggressive than the Red winged one are, so they chase them out of the area where they are at.  This picture was taken in Spink county, SD.

I am going to end with a couple pictures of the Bald Eagle.  They are my favorite birds to photograph.  I was lucky enough to be able to see many while visiting Alaska in both Eagle River and Homer.

I hope you have enjoyed my pictures and commentary on some more birds.  I tried to chose some pictures that were different from those you see everyday.