Birding in and around the garden and no more free gifs on Friday.

First I want to make an announcement that there will be no Free Gif Friday tomorrow. I'm not going to make gifs anymore on a weekly basis. Although I do enjoy making them, they simply take up to much time. I'll only make one if I feel really inspired.

It also distracts too much from what Gardenbsquared is all about and I want to focus more on that.

GBS is all about the garden, nature and life. It's not just about my own little garden but also our beautiful planet which can and should be a Garden of Eden.

The name Gardenbsquared has multiple meanings. The first is that I want our Garden of Eden to be squared. Meaning that I would like to see that all life on this planet flourishes.
The second one is that I would like my own garden to be squared. I hope to buy some land in the future and become more self sufficient.
The third one is that I would like to share all the B's in the garden. With B's I mean birds, bugs, butterflies, bees and nature and wildlife in general.

So that's what I'm going to focus on from now on. Lately I've been to distracted and lost my focus. That's probably the reason I haven't been posting so much lately.

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There's a difference between birding and bird-watching. The main difference is that a bird-watcher is looking at birds while a birder looks for them. A birder goes out to see as many different species as possible. Some fanatic birders will go through great lengths to see a rare bird as recently happened in New York.

On 7 November a very rare Corn Crake was spotted on Long Island, east of New York City. Birders from all over the United States hurried to see it. A couple doing a "Big Year" even parachuted in to add the bird to their list. More than a hundred birders showed up to see the Corn Crake which was last documented in 1963. It was shot in a remote rye field. This poor bird also died unfortunately because a few days later it was hit by a car. You can read the whole story here.

I'm primarily a bird watcher. I've always enjoyed watching birds. As a teenager I would go out in the fields to watch them with my binoculars which my parents gave me for my tenth birthday. I had a notebook and my bird guide but not so many birds.

Suriname, on the other hand, is a birders paradise. More than 730 species live in this small country. As an amateur bird-watcher I've only spotted a fraction of them. My lifetime list of birds in Suriname is at 52. My goal is to make that a hundred before the end of the year. That will be very difficult.

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House wren (Troglodytes aedon)

This bird is perfectly all-right. It's just having a sand bath in the sun.

Wing-barred Seedeater (Sporophila Americana)

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Last Monday I went out to spot as many species of birds in and around our garden as possible. I spotted 29 species that day including two that I've never spotted before. One is the Greyish Saltator (Saltator coerulescens).

When you're out looking for birds it's also important to use your ears. It was by sound that I discovered this one and since I recognise a lot of bird calls I was quite convinced that I haven't spotted it before. I had to wade through a field with high grass and deep vegetation to get close enough to take a picture. Which is not wise wearing flip-flops in an area where there are poisonous snakes. But another one added. Yeah.

The other bird added to my list, which was already visiting our garden regularly, is this hummingbird.

Blue-tailed Emerald (Chlorostilbon mellisugus)

I was so thrilled to take this picture but I thought it was just another Glittering-throated emerald. They look very much alike. Identifying birds can be very difficult.

This bird is less than three inches long and weighs 2,6 grams. Now let that sink in for a while. That's half a sugar cube. It's not even a teaspoon full. So much wonder packed in this little bird; wings, bill, eyes, hart, brain, longs and so much more, weighing only 2,6 grams. I find that absolutely mind boggling.

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As I said, I spotted 29 birds last Monday. It only took me a couple of hours to do so. Of course there was the Great Kiskadee.

Great Kiskadee (Pitangus sulphuratus)

This is probably their nest.

The Rudy Ground Dove is always one of the first birds that you'll see.

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All the pictures that you see were taken last Monday. I was able to photograph 22 birds that day.

Pale-breasted Thrush (Turdus leucomelas)

Blue-grey Tanager (Tangara episcopus)

Yellow Oriole (Icterus nigrogularis)

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My hope is to make a trip to the interior one day. At Raleigh Falls / Voltzberg there is a nature reserve where more than 470 species of birds have been spotted. But I have to learn more about the birds around here first. Once you know a bird it's much easier to spot. Like this Black-capped Donacobius (Donacobius atricapilla). I saw this bird for the first time a couple of weeks ago near Weg naar Zee. And since then I've seen it a couple of times close to our house.

The vultures were of course flying high in the sky. Way to far to take a decent picture.

Lesser yellow-headed vulture (Cathartes burrovianus)

There's not a day that goes by without spotting the Blue-black grassquit (Volatinia jacarina).

And of course the __Wattled Jacana (Jacana jacana) can always been seen in the canals as well.

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The birds that I didn't photograph but did see were the Green-rumped Parrotlet (Forpus passerinus), Red-breasted Blackbird (Sturnella militaris), Snail kite (Rostrhamus sociabilis), Striated Heron (Butorides striata striata), Tropical Kingbird (Tyrannus Melancholicus), Crested Oropendola (Psarocolius decumanus) and the Silver-beaked Tanager (Ramphocelus carbo).

I would like to finish this post with the remainder of the birds that I photographed last Monday.

Variegated Flycatcher (Empidonomus varius)

Purple Martin (Progne subis)

Yellow Warbler (Setophaga petechia)

Palm Tanager (Thraupis palmarum)

Tropical Mockingbird (Mimus gilvus)

Pied Water-tyrant (Fluvicola pica)

Cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis)

Smooth-billed Ani (Crotophaga ani)

White-headed marsh tyrant (Arundinicola leucocephala)

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I hope you enjoyed these birds as much as I do. Of course there's no substitute for real life. So if you love birds, why not go out there and try to spot a few yourself or just lean back in your garden and enjoy watching them.

Much love,

Gardenbsquared