For the Birds

fledgling robins

This place is wonderful for bird watching. I am too busy to set out to try to watch for birds. I'm not sure I really would set out to birdwatch if I had the free time, but I catch chance glimpses of birds outside of the windows of my house as I go about my daily tasks all the time. When I'm able, I grab my camera and get proof of my sighting. (I need to put the camera to good use, as it was a present from my husband. And it's motivation to keep the windows super clean- no small task with the honeydew that the yellow poplars drop, and which blows all over my windows. Yuck!)

an eastern bluebird on a tree outside the kitchen window

I'm forever telling my husband when he gets home at night, "I saw a such-and-such today!" And he nods his head and mumbles an unexcited, "mm hmmm." He's clearly not impressed, but he's glad that I'm finding things to like about our new place.

A pileated woodpecker in our side yard

As a city-bred girl, whose parents were amateur birders, I've been programmed to take notice of and to appreciate seeing birds that most don't see. In the last year, since moving here, I have seen more birds of note (and more frequently) than I have in my many years previous combined! I've seen scarlet tanagers, 

scarlet tanager in a tree across the drive in front of our house

indigo buntings, eastern bluebirds, 

eastern bluebird on the board fence behind the house

Baltimore orioles, hummingbirds, 

a female ruby throated hummer outside my dining room window

meadowlarks, wrens, brown thrashers, brown creepers, pileated woodpeckers (a pair!) 

a pair of huge pileated woodpeckers outside my bedroom window

a juvenile bald eagle, red shouldered hawks, turkeys, 

a turkey hen in the "triangle" across the drive from the side yard

red-tailed hawks, turkey vultures, goldfinches, 

a pair of goldfinches eating dandelion seeds in the back yard- outside the study window

chickadees, assorted sparrows, grackles, starlings, robins, blue jays, white breasted nuthatches, flickers, red headed woodpeckers, hairy woodpeckers, crows, ravens, warblers, swallows, 

a barn swallow in the upper barn

sandhill cranes, mockingbirds, gray catbirds, Canada geese,
birds that I'm sure I'm forgetting to mention,

a pair of Canada geese on our pond (critters got their eggs though)

and umpteen birds that are new and still unknown to me! I hear calls all the time that I can't recognize, as I know mostly meadow birds and not woodland birds. I wonder how many more I'll see this year?