the BITBO project

Happy Holidays! We have made it to the end of the year. I hope that you have have a wonderful Christmas and seen and photographed lots of beautiful birds and interesting gardens and wildlife. We had a rainy few days (Rocket went up)  so I didn't take a whole lot of pictures. I have been delighted to see that on the warmer days, say one yesterday Dec 26th,  even in this late stage of Dec, a hummingbird is still frequenting or firecracker bush. Of course they appear when I don't have camera in hand.Lol I have trimmed down the firebush since it was growing cold and was still quite large and the squirrels and a possum were using it to climb on to get to the feeders. Trimming it back meant a lot of the blossoms that the hummingbirds were using disappeared. I thought they would be gone in October but this is Florida and one day is 40 degrees and the next 80 degrees...so I guess a few stayed around. I pulled the hummingbird feeders because yellow jackets were taking over t...

After a trip to the doctor's office, I come home to see that a flock of birds  descended upon the feeders in the backyard. I believe they are sparrows. I watch them for a few minutes before deciding to see if I can video them. You can see the video on my twitter page @thebitboproject So much activity happens outside of the POV of the pvc feeder camera and hummingbird bush feeder camera. Its amusing to see that even with all of the food available the sparrows and what looks like a Carolina Chickadee, still squawk and fight. The mourning doves land regularly on the camera. As you can see in the video the difference in the firebush area is markedly different. the current feeding area is being moved over a few feet which caused some loss of plant life and a small bout of sadness as I was unable to replant the very thriving bushes to other parts of the yard. The gardener and plant supplier had mentioned a successful transplant was a tremendous undertaking once the p...

We have more than one feeding station for the various birds, squirrels, hummingbirds, butterflies and bees. We also have frogs, lizards, possums, armadillos, raccoons the occasional black snake, and coral snake and some cats who have been instrumental in keeping the mice away. We have two adopted male cats Sammy and Midnight who you may see in some of the clips. Our backyard habitat and feeding stations: 1.  H ummingbird habitat and bird feeding station This area was developed first. It has changed over the years from a single feeder pole  to what it is now.  It consists of a single pole with four hangers. It usually has at least one or more hummingbird feeders, a swing, a water dish, and a caged feeder for the small birds along with firebush, butterfly plants, and amaryllis plants. We have a small camera to view the bird activity. We are able to capture some clips of the activity in this area but live feed is not yet available. After being over run with yell...

Now that I have a better lens I am able to see what looks like expressions and possibly personality of the birds and some of them are hilarious. Please bring a sense of humor. Episode One of If Birds Could Talk A female cardinal is enjoying a few moments of undisturbed eating until.... photo by ©SL Thomson if I had to imagine what I think the birds are talking about~~~~'~~~~ Frame 1 : Titmouse: Hey can I join you up there? Cardinal- What? No! Go away! Frame2 : cardinal goes back to eating, ignoring titmouse Titmouse: rude bird Biyatch! titmouse flies over to wild wings platform feeder Frame 3 : Titmouse-I will just get my grub on at the platform feeder...all to myself. More seeds for me. Enjoy the squirrel leftovers cardi! Frame 4 : Cardinal-as she watches the titmouse carry a hefty peanut to the shade and security of the neighbor's lime tree:  Resting Cardinal Face: F'king Tits Photographing the titmouse can be tricky, they fly really fas...

The usual suspects are some of the birds (and other creatures) you can expect to see in and around the feeding stations, along the fence, in the hedges, scurrying and flitting about the yard. The birds we see in our Orlando backyard are some of the usual Florida suspects: American Goldfinch Blue Jay Carolina Chickadee Carolina Wren Mourning Dove Northern Cardinal Northern Mockingbird Red-bellied Woodpecker Ruby-throated Hummingbird Tufted Titmouse Brown-Headed Cowbirds Red Winged Black birds Grackles added to the list are   hummingbirds butterflies dragonflies bumble bees yellow jackets wasps hawks buzzards moths lovebugs  the occasional ducks Shameless cat sharing .... Midnight and Sammy have their own instagram page if you want to follow them this is Midnight our finicky, skittish black cat and first adopted pet, he is harder to photograph  and usually just looks per...