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October 22, 2013
A Johns Island Osprey Story
Click to enlarge
We’ve caught (on camera) our first painting bunting of the 2013 season at a Johns Island bird feeder. These guys are summer visitors. They are the most colorful, the “icing on the cake” of the many beautiful songbirds here seasonally and permanently: cardinals, yellow finches, blue birds, house (red) finches, chickadees, tufted tit mouse (mice?), Carolina wrens, woodpeckers …
The Center for Birds of Prey in Awendaw will be running Painted Bunting Walks through out May. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a great website with lots of information about birds including painted buntings.
Beautiful birds. On vacation in SW Florida I saw my first bald eagle. Very exciting. Wish we lived closer so we could see more of the coastal wildlife. Yet in my backyard there is a bunch of critters. Love website and photography!
I live on Johns Island too, but in a neighborhood. Do I have any chance of spotting one? or do they only really hang out in more open areas?
Yes. Painting buntings should be all around Johns Island. They are often around the edge of wooded areas in shrubs and bushes. Especially if you live near a buffer area in a neighborhood and/or have shrubs and bushes on your property line. Of course a bird feeder helps with all types of song birds. Painting buntings tend to stay in a relatively small are once settled in for the summer. So if you see one at a bird feeder at a particular time of time, they will often reappear consistently.
Hooray! I just saw one a few days ago — I hope she(?) makes camp nearby!