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?

Blue is one of my favourite colours

Our first Eastern Bluebird of the year made an appearance tonight - a beautiful, bright male. He spent a very leisurely 10 or 15 minutes checking out our backyard, including the nesting boxes, clothesline, pond, and feeder holders. Hopefully he'll stick around - and bring a lady with him. :) Things could get interesting if they decide they want the same house the Tree Swallows seem to be thinking about claiming.

Last night at the dog park I got my first really good look at a Pileated Woodpecker. The ones I'd seen before were always in shadow or silhouette, but this one kept sticking his head around the tree into the sunlight. So pretty!

I need to start taking my camera to the dog park. An Osprey flew over a few times on Tuesday night, we've had a Meadowlark, some very loud cardinals... At the very least, we need to take binoculars, so we have a better chance of IDing some of the birds that don't come quite close enough to ID without help.

No hummingbirds yet, though we've got two feeders out for them. We do, however, have a ton of butterflies. Apparently there's a mass migration of Red Admirals going on, and yeah - they're everywhere. And they're so fast they keep fooling us into thinking it could be a hummer. Bah.

Winter birds

After a frustratingly slow fall bird-wise (we even only had one lowly little white-crowned sparrow pass through, and it was a juvenile that I saw once), things seem to be picking up. Yay!

This week we had our first American Tree Sparrow of the winter at our hopper feeder, the Hairy Woodpecker made a reappearance for the first time in a couple of months, and we had Yard Bird Species #52 - White-breasted Nuthatch!

We also have a Cooper's Hawk back stalking our yard. Last year I came home several times to carnage in the snow, but only a couple of times did I catch the culprits in the act - one was a Sharp-shinned Hawk happily munching away on a sparrow, and the other was a Red-Tail that took out a Mourning Dove right under our back window.

I didn't even know the Cooper's was back until the other morning. I was outside with the pup before leaving for work on Tuesday, and I was standing near the driveway, by my hubby's SUV. All of a sudden a sparrow comes screaming past the front of the barn/storage shed, followed by a Cooper's Hawk in full hunting mode. The sparrow just barely made it under Dave's truck and the Cooper's veered off just in time to avoid smacking into the bumper. I was maybe... 10 feet away from the action, and it was SO cool to be that close to a hawk on the hunt.

I saw the Cooper's again yesterday morning, as it dove after some birds at the side of our house. I just happened to look out the front door in time to see him fly up and off (talons empty and no carnage to be found in its wake).

So yes! Fun times are coming. I'm also getting a new camera soon, so I hope I'll be able to put it to good use this winter. And I'm REALLY hoping the snowy owls make it this far south again - I missed them last year!

Cuteness

Right now we've got a Papa Hairy Woodpecker feeding his daughter, and a Papa Downy Woodpecker feeding his son in our front yard. It's super, super cute.