Kingfisher, Nighthawk and more

Arthur helps with the bird watching:



Last night we saw what we think is a juvenile/baby White-Breasted Nuthatch at the feeders. It didn't have full feathers and it's feathers were bright and new-looking. I only got a few quick pics of it before it flew away.




We took Arthur and Lola back down to the creek and heard all kinds of birds. Unfortunately we are not at the level where we can identify birds by sound yet (some, but not enough to know a new bird by sound).





As we were walking down the hill, what I thought was a blue jay perched in the branches of a tree just about at my eye level. Unfortunately I was slow with the camera b/c I assumed it was a jay. By the time I realized I was wrong, it flew off. It was a Kingfisher- and so big and beautiful!! It was being quite noisy and worked it's way down the creek. Here's a very blurred shot I took and I'm going to post one from another site to give a better view. It's our first sighting of this bird for this year.
image below from: http://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/slideshow/display.php?img=/site/resizedImages/20070521113133_kingfisher.jpg


From: www.kiroastro.com


We saw many swallows again- likely the rough-winged swallows. Also many indigo buntings again throughout our walk. Their songs are so pretty.

A new addition to our list after last night is the Nighthawk. These are very interesting looking birds and I thought we would never see one since they are so well camouflaged. The following image is from http://www.flickr.com/photos/36424218@N00/514137836/




Two were flying overhead. I got some pics and if you zoom in, you can see the white bands on the wings that are a good ID marker.