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?

Goldfinch eating lilac buds

Goldfinch eating lilac buds, a photo by Jen St. Louis on Flickr.

Our yard is overrun by these little guys, right now. We maintain a healthy population of them all year 'round, but over the past month, their numbers have increased fairly dramatically. We've been watching the males challenge each other, chasing each other around the yard, spinning together and falling towards the ground, only to part and fly upward at the last minute. They're so pretty, and so entertaining... I just wish they wouldn't eat the lilac buds.