Birding around home -- 5/4/2010

Today has been fine for birding!  A Red-tailed Hawk sighting, a kestrel sighting, a Brown Thrasher sighting, 2 Blue Jay sightings, a male goldfinch sighting, several Cardinal, Chickadee, and Nuthatch sightings, A Northern Flicker sighting, 2 Red-bellied Woodpecker sightings, a Pileated Woodpecker sighting, Mallard sighting, a sighting (I think it was a crow, not a Grackle, and I think it was a Fish Crow, not an American Crow), as well as my 'regulars', such as starlings, grackles, house sparrows, crows, swallows etc.   The Red-tailed Hawk was in a bare tree off a country road about 30 yards.  Papa thought it was a crow or raven,  but I could see details.  The kestrel was a female and she flew off a wire, and across a field.  The mallards were flying over, and landing on a very small stream (draft) near my house.  The Northern Flicker is the one woodpecker that commonly feeds on the ground.  It was in my yard for a good while, I watched it, as it perched on  a tree, and fed on the ground (see photo of the flicker perched in the tree, upper photo, and see video of it feeding on the ground, below).  Brown Thrashers are medium-large sized songbirds, with a brown-red color.  About the size of a mockingbird.  Long-tailed, and a fairly long, 

curved bill.  A Tree Swallow pair has been using my nest box.  Within the last few weeks, they have checked it out, and within the last week they have started to nest build.  (see photo above left: one of the adult Tree Swallows is looking out of the nest box).  I also took a photo of a Barn Swallow near our house (above right).  I've also uploaded a photo of a male House Sparrow near my house (above, center, 2nd to furthest top photo).