Junco's arrive in full force

I must admit that I've been a little remiss in filling the feeders outside with seed, but when all you have are territorial House Sparrows it seemed like a good idea to give it a bit of a break.

Well it paid off as this morning when I walked into the kitchen for my morning cup of coffee and what did I see hopping around but about a dozen juncos!

Add these guys to the Robin I saw last night and I'd say Spring is really on it's way! YAY!

March 29th & The Robin has returned!

Just a quick note! This evening while walking my dog I heard what could only be the call of the Robin...I crept up to the tree in question and there he was....sitting in the tree singing his heart out! Spring truly has arrived in the 'peg!

Spring is in the air!

It's official, spring has arrived early in the 'peg this year! It's St. Paddy's day and the snow has melted to the point of almost being totally gone...all that's left here are a few big piles in the front yard from winter clearance. The back yard's totally bare and bereft of life...and I love it!

We've seen the signs coming for a week now but the one sure sign I was waiting for were the geese and they are BACK! I'd seen a couple of random ones here and there for the last 4 days, but this morning I saw them back in FLOCKS! So they are here and they are ready for the glorious days of summer.

As enthusiastic as I sound I'm very well aware of the fact that this weather's unreal and that there's a distinct possibility that we'll get another dumping of snow before it's all said and done. As I said to a friend of mine from the south when she asked when we're done with snow...by June I feel like there's definitely not going to be any more snow.

Some years it's ended early other years we've had blizzards in May. All I can say is that if this really is the end of the snow and winter it will have been the mildest winter in a long time. And the shortest drought of birds in a long time.

Migration has started!!

Finally a chickadee arrived!

These last few months have proved to be longer and colder than I thought they would be. Not so much temperature wise but bird wise.

I still have the house sparrows devouring everything in sight and as the winter drawing to a close I've stopped putting out seed more than once a week and I've found that they are cleaning up the yard quite nicely.

However since I haven't been keeping it well stocked they wait until late in the afternoon until showing up. So imagine my surprise when I looked out my back door and saw a chickadee on my homemade sunflower seed feeder! I guess since the sparrows weren't in the yard the little fella decided it was safe to enter and get some chow!

A great feeling since I realized that no matter how hard I tried I would not have the diverse range through January and February that so many of my southern friends seem to. Truthfully I haven't minded not spending every penny I have on various bird treats...kinda nice.

That may seem mean, but they are just house sparrows....I've been putting out popcorn and leftover stale baked goods and surprisingly they're not in high demand right now. The seed cylinders have been very popular these last few months...they devour them so quickly!

All in all not a lot to report in the yard. There's been a ton of activity at our dog park with chickadees and nuthatches so I've got my fix there as of late. I can hardly wait for my orioles to return!

The Hairy Woodpecker

I guess I'm just not sitting around at my kitchen table enough during the week. On saturday while having coffee with my hubbie what visitor should fly up and proceed to spend 10 minutes eating suet out of the plug feeder?


The Hairy Woodpecker! I haven't seen him around since...well November I think. So it was a real treat for me! Exciting to see that I have a few birds wintering that aren't European House Sparrows!


The next day the starling came and sat on the feeding station right by the window...another first! He just sat there preening looking speckled and gorgeous...a great way to start the day! This year is going to be great!

I've never going to win a million dollars...

I'm never going to win a million dollars...


Well I thought I'd try it! I just finished complaining about how there's nothing other than house sparrows here when a couple of starlings decided to return and hang out on my Christmas lights to take in the sun.

Then I hear the undeniable call of the magpie and look out back to see him hanging out...not interested in any of the food, but hanging none the less.

I'm finding it more and more difficult to track what birds eat what when. In the fall the magpies and starlings were all over the suet and peanuts...now they won't go anywhere near them...so what do they eat in the winter?

I tried putting out a couple of frozen dinner rolls to see if bread is their calling...if it is I might just buy a few baguettes and see what happens.

ZZZZZZZZZZZ.....

Well there's not much to report in the new year here. We all survived the holiday season intact and it would appear that I'm down to house sparrows with the occasional Starling. I swear one of them had to have stopped by for a bath as the entire back door was cover with frozen water droplets the other day.

The woodpeckers have not been seen and the suet's not going down and the shelled peanuts are all still here so I think I'm done with cool birds until April. I wish I could figure out how to draw in the chickadees that are on the other side of the development but I'm guessing the sparrows have chased them off.

Ah well...the posts shall be few and far between now until the birds come back... :(