A Good Father

I was delighted to see these downy woodpeckers in the tree in my backyard this afternoon. The fledgling waited patiently for Dad to find some food while I took her picture.

The Hummers Have Arrived

Finally! More than a month after hanging the hummingbird feeder I finally had my first hummer of the season. It was a male ruby-throated hummingbird and he was teeny tiny! I'm surprised the wind didn't blow him away! I'm looking forward to watching them flit around the yard this summer.

Here are a couple mute swans I saw last week at one of the local metroparks. They are not native to this area but are appearing here more frequently.

I also saw an osprey looking for his dinner and a rose-breasted grosbeak while out earlier this week.

At the Park

I saw my first Baltimore Oriole today. They are very pretty birds, although my picture is not the sharpest. Ron made me an oriole feeder from these plans. I hung it yesterday and am hoping we'll soon have our own orange & black visitors.

Who Are You Lookin' At?!

At the Park

I went on my first "official" bird watching outing yesterday. I am not very good at finding the birds, and when I do find them, I can only recognize a handful, but it is still a lot of fun. I didn't know ahead of time, but the place I went is home to a great horned owl. There were two great horned owl "babies" that were quite visible.

At the Park

I spent some time this morning watching the birds at a freshly filled feeder at a local metropark. I saw lots of red-wing blackbirds, several brown-headed cowbirds, a pair of goldfinches, cardinals, bluejays, eastern bluebirds, and a red bellied woodpecker. I also saw a tufted titmouse for the first time. It was a cute little bird.




I also revisited the park from my previous post and saw several pairs of tree swallows. The mommy killeer was still sitting on her nest.

At the Park

We went to the park today, where we saw this killdeer and her little speckled eggs. We also saw (and heard) a large male red bellied woodpecker and an Eastern bluebird. Considering how noisy we were, I felt lucky to see much at all!