I'm beginning to notice that I see more birds early in the morning and late in the evening. Especially my larger, water bird friends like the Egrets and Herons. I think maybe I'm driving by where they roost and during the day they're gone doing bird stuff.
I went outside this morning to do some gardening but first I had to fuel myself with some Starbucks. I could hear a lot of different birds and saw a few flying around so I figured I may as well try to take some pictures. This first one looked like a Dove to my naked eye and now that I see it on the computer, I still think that. It seemed small, though. The Mourning Doves I see are usually larger, but then again, I usually see them in places where people are feeding them so maybe I have a skewed sense of how big they are? Anyway, there were at least three of these. This one was on my property, and I watched it fly across the street to my neighbor's tree. But almost immediately it flew back to my tree with another Dove right behind it. And then a third one joined them. What do you guys think? Is this a Mourning Dove? I'm so used to seeing them on the ground or in the bird feeder at MOSI.
I couldn't quite tell what this one was but thought it was a female Cardinal. Now that I see it close up on the computer, I'm pretty sure.
And then I saw a Red-Bellied Woodpecker. They're the only woodpecker I ever see around here. Sometimes I've seen as many as four or five but this one seemed to be alone.
And just to give you some reference, this is the area I was seeing them in. Except the Cardinal; it was in my Black Cherry. That's my blue and white house on the right, my Ford Focus in the driveway, pine tree on the left which is mingling with the Live Oak, and that's the Red Cedar I planted next to the house.
I saw the hummingbird today but couldn't get a picture. I was looking at my neighbor's Firecracker Fern (that thing to the right of the pine tree) and I saw something flying. At first, I thought it was a butterfly but it didn't look right. Then, it straightened and I realized it was the hummingbird! Of course, it realized I was there at the same time and zoomed off over the neighbor's house. Also, I keep hearing the owl but I doubt I'll spot it. It seems to be coming from a bit of a distance.
The more, the merrier, I say.
When I think about it, I now know some of the Doves I've seen at MOSI are Eurasian Collared Doves so I may have been thinking of those. They are much bigger. At least, my book says so. 
