First hummer and oriole

We had two new arrivals today - a gorgeous male Baltimore Oriole and a female hummingbird. I guess that means summer's really on its way! :)

First hummingbird of 2013

Finally - FINALLY - had our first hummer of the year show up at the feeders this morning. It was a gorgeous little male, and he visited the Oriole feeder for a while before finding one of the feeders actually meant for him. This is 5 days later than last year, so I was starting to get a little worried.

In 2012, our first Baltimore Oriole showed up on May 2, and the hummers on May 3. We had our first Oriole on May 5 this year. So yeah, they all seem a bit delayed, but they're finally here! :)

Finally, some pictures!

Friday night I was able to spend half an hour shooting out my living room window (which is where I take a lot of my yard bird photos). Two female hummingbirds were semi-cooperative, and a male Baltimore Oriole posed all pretty-like just long enough for me to snap a couple of shots. Here are the results:

Fledglings everywhere

Work has been keeping me beyond busy the past month and a bit, so I haven't had much - or any - time to focus on taking pictures. Any spare time I have been spent trying to finish up the garden, and that's about it. That said, we've had a lot of bird activity lately.

• Lots of fledglings being fed in our yard: robins, starlings, grackles, sparrows, and house finches.
• Our tree swallows must have hatched their eggs, because the activity level has been crazy. One is always inside the nesting box, and the other goes off and comes back a few minutes later with food. Then they'll switch off. Lather, rinse, repeat, from dawn 'til dusk.
• We suspect there's a Killdeer nest not far off our driveway in the wheat field. We have a lot of them in the fields adjacent to our property, but they're usually pretty far out. (Except the last two weeks, when they've actually been bathing in our pond.) Anyway, there's an adult Killdeer in the same spot every time we come or go, and we figure it can't be coincidence. That has to be its designated guarding-the-nest spot. I want to try to find the little cuties (seriously, baby Killdeer are so freakin' cute it should be illegal), but I don't want to stress out the parents.
• Baltimore Orioles are our new summer bird of plenty. Yesterday there were three adult males frolicking in our pond. Yes, at the same time. It was really odd, since they're usually so territorial towards each other.
• Hummingbird activity is depressingly bad. We've got maybe two males and two females, and they don't stick around for long. They also don't seem to have developed any kind of behavioral pattern that would let me get any decent shots. Very frustrating. Hopefully activity will pick up in August again. *fingers crossed*

Bird boom

It seems like the spring & summer birds have arrived in droves as of last Wednesday. Now we've got our Orioles, hummers, and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks back. And the White-crowned Sparrows have taken over the yard. From a single bird on Wednesday, we've now got more than a dozen at any given time.

I haven't seen the little female hummer that showed up Thursday morning, but we've had a couple of males posturing with each other the past couple of days. They were even sitting about a foot away from each other in the lilac tree yesterday, without putting up a fuss. Very odd behavior, if you ask me. Haven't been able to get a decent shot of them yet, though. In the meantime, here are a few of my non-hummingbird yard bird photos from the weekend:

 White-crowned Sparrow

American Goldfinch

Chipping Sparrow

Colours of Spring

Man, our yard was a colourful - and busy - place tonight. At one point, we had a Cardinal, Baltimore Oriole, Tree Swallows, a Barn Swallow, Bluebirds, Goldfinches, and House Finches, plus the usual suspects, like Downy Woodpeckers, White-breasted Nuthatch, Grackles, Red-winged Blackbirds, and five species of sparrows. This collection included three first-of-the-season arrivals: Oriole (soooo happy to see this guy), White-crowned Sparrow, and Savannah Sparrow. Now all we're missing is Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and Hummingbirds. Today was Dave's day in the "When will we see our first hummer?" pool. It's getting dark, now, so I think it's safe to say he didn't win. My guess is tomorrow, so we'll see what happens. ;-) Anybody else have any Spring migrants moving through?

Yard visitors

Some of our more amusing yard birds over the past couple of days: the Indigo Bunting intermingling with some Godlfinches, and a male Baltimore Oriole playing hummingbird at a feeder that's most definitely intended for smaller, hovering-type birds.