One of the reasons I started this blog was to document the birds that come and go in my backyard. The posts below detail both the rarities and the ordinary wonders with wings!
January 9, 2010 - Today we had COLDfinches in our yard! So my cousin from South Dakota heard about our cold snap this week and called to ask if we had furnaces in Florida. “Furnace”, how cute–around here they are called air conditioners, and we put them in “heat” mode for a couple of days a year! Well, cuz, […]
January 7, 2010 - We’ve been seeing the cardinals at the feeders a bit more these days. Mrs. C. has such pretty red accents at this time of year.
January 6, 2010 - Squirt was ecstatic when this mourning dove landed on the porch roof right outside the window of his room! Mieu!
January 5, 2010 - Bow Tie has been spending too much time watching Beaky! He’s started to come peck at the window over the front door, just like Beaky. Goldy and Squirt get really excited when they hear the noise and see him hopping around. Happy house cats!!
January 3, 2010 - The birds were cold today and so was I! They came out in the afternoon sun to eat and I took this picture from our upstairs window. Our goldyfinch count today was at least 7. :)
January 1, 2010 - A close-up of one of our goldfinches is a very cheerful way to start the year. Happy Mieu Year!
December 29, 2009 - While Rich and I were at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge today, these brown-headed cowbirds pigged out at home.
December 22, 2009 - We got an early Christmas present today when we saw three goldyfinches in the backyard. I even got pictures! It’s frustrating that the migration is so slow and irregular this year, but it makes the first sightings even more exciting. :)
December 11, 2009 - Squirt had a good time watching the bright red house finches! We also saw our first goldfinch of the season at the thistle feeder in the afternoon. Yay!
November 29, 2009 - I saw an eagle flying over the backyard this afternoon! He was flying really low, so I saw his head and beak in wonderful detail. Unfortunately I had just put the camera inside, or I could have gotten an amazing picture. :-p We’re excited that the eagles are back this year; we finally found their […]
November 21, 2009 - Finally! Goldy saw some birds in the backyard! The migration has been really slow this year, and we haven’t been seeing very many customers at the feeders. So we were overjoyed to see this flock of brown-headed cowbirds and red-winged blackbirds descend upon the bird feeder. Now if only the goldyfinches would follow suit…
October 17, 2009 - Uh-oh…now that the dove managed to land at the top of the bird feeder, how does he get down!?
October 4, 2009 - It’s the right time of the year to put out more feeders…but the regular migrants aren’t here yet. :( So the house finches get a banquet.
October 3, 2009 - We haven’t been seeing as many birds as usual this year. We have a few resident house finches, a couple of cardinals, and plenty of doves. Carla tells me that she’s seeing baby cardinals, too, but Rich and I haven’t seen them in our yard. So I’ll post a picture of what we see most: […]
October 2, 2009 - The days are getting shorter and the sunsets earlier. This mockingbird sang to the cats as we ate dinner tonight.
September 30, 2009 - I saw Bow Tie tonight! So now I’m sure that I’ve been hearing him for about two weeks now! (Bow Tie was our yellow-throated warbler visitor from last year. He regularly visits our front feeder after hanging out in Peter’s palm tree.) Picture coming soon… :)
September 4, 2009 - There was a hummingbird in this picture….yep, that’s right, I saw a hummingbird in the bottlebrush tree this morning!!! I was so excited, and ran to get the camera, but it wasn’t there when I came back.
August 9, 2009 - The house finches spent the afternoon singing their heads off and bathing in the fountain. They were fun to watch…Goldy and Squirt had a great time!
July 18, 2009 - Peter saw a hummer in our backyards tonight!!!! The first blooms from my new rose mini, ‘Deja Blu’, are starting to open. It’s even prettier than I imagined.
June 13, 2009 - Mr. C brought by his latest offspring to meet me this morning. The baby was so cute to watch, begging his dad for food, and then getting annoyed and lunging at his dad to grab what was in his beak. Don’t worry, Peter and Carla, I don’t think this is Beaky…both daddy and baby were […]
June 8, 2009 - With baby birds starting to venture out of the nest, there’s a lot of extra fussing in the backyard these days. This baby mockingbird was especially vocal!
June 7, 2009 - Poor doves! Sometimes they don’t even try to find shelter during our afternoon thunderstorms. At least we can say that at our house, we have all our “doves” in a row!
May 16, 2009 - I finally got a picture of Mum-mum’s Great Crested Flycatcher! Although I usually only post pictures from my own backyard on this page, I think it’s worthy to make an exception when I finally capture a decent image of a bird Mum-mum’s been chasing for about a month. ;-) More pictures from this weekend at […]
May 3, 2009 - Today we didn’t see Zorro (our new little black-masked Common Yellowthroat!) but we did see the cardinals in full force.
May 2, 2009 - Maybe the aphids on my roses aren’t such an annoyance…they attracted this Common Yellowthroat, another first-time visitor to the backyard! After several attempts I managed to get some pictures of him. He’s much prettier in person than he ever seemed in the bird books.
April 25, 2009 - Goldy’s duckies have been hanging out in our yard every afternoon. They go back and forth between our yard and Carla and Peter’s…a drink at their fountain, a snack at our feeders, and then a nap in the shade of the oleander!
April 21, 2009 - Goldy and Squirt say thank you to Mom and Dad Yarnell for this nifty peanut feeder, which allows felines in screened porches to watch the commotion as big birds vie for the coveted center spot!
April 20, 2009 - A new bird came to visit Goldy tonight – a Cape May Warbler! These birds mostly live in Canada and are only in Florida during winter migration, but we know that a group of them nested at Oakland Nature Preserve a few years ago. So we were very surprised – and excited – to see […]
April 19, 2009 - Goldy had an exciting visitor this afternoon – three ducks! They looked like they were getting a snack from the feast underneath the feeders. Goldy was glued to the window watching.
April 18, 2009 - The score is at least 10 to 1 in the Peter-vs-Beaky saga. The fake snake has ceased to scare off the stupid cardinal, who insists on repeatedly fighting his reflection in Carla’s nice shiny window. So the latest cardinal scare tactic is a new set of screens…good luck, Peter!
April 13, 2009 - Mum-mum loves her grackles, and even though I consider them the piggies at my feeder, I must admit that this one is kinda pretty, with the sun on his feathers.
April 12, 2009 - Happy Easter! I don’t think yesterday’s picture of the Cedar Waxwings gives the scene justice…there were so many birds!! Here’s another view.
April 11, 2009 - We had an impromptu birthday party for Goldy today when about 200 of her Cedar Waxwing friends stopped by to congratulate her on turning seven!
April 9, 2009 - Here’s Peter’s favorite cardinal and his wife. Rich and I call him “Beaky” because he spends his life banging his beak against Peter and Carla’s back window! We think we saw where his nest is in a neighbor’s viburnum. Hopefully those babies will hatch soon and distract him…
April 6, 2009 - We saw our Sandhill Crane family again and the babies have grown so big already! It was just a few weeks ago that they were fluffy little guys, and now they are almost as tall as their parents. Their heads aren’t red yet, though.
April 4, 2009 - I think the goldfinches are migrating earlier this year than they did last year. I’m only seeing one or two at a time these days. This female in full breeding plumage was pigging out at our feeder. Happy Hatch Day, Pickles!!
March 26, 2009 - There were great flocks of Cedar Waxwings flying all around the neighborhood this afternoon. I was out with the camera, trying to get some pictures, but the stubborn birds seemed to be camera-shy. But this little Palm Warbler didn’t mind my presence and posed for me quite nicely.
March 23, 2009 - The yard really comes alive around this time of year! Literally hundreds of birds pass through, the roses all flush with new growth, the grass is getting green again, and Daylight Savings Time gives us an extra hour to enjoy it all!
March 22, 2009 - The songbirds love the oak pollen almost as much as Rich’s allergies dislike it! Then in the afternoon we went to visit Missy’s Diner (a.k.a. my parents’ backyard!) They’ve had a Painted Bunting visiting for at least a month – lucky!!
March 21, 2009 - Flocks of Cedar Waxwings have been passing through the neighborhood. This morning our oak tree was filled with at least 50 waxwings, all doing their shrill whistle call! But when I looked at the pictures, I realized I didn’t just have waxwings in the tree…there were a few female brown-headed cowbirds in the tree as […]
March 15, 2009 - Howietta the House Finch is looking for her husband Howie. Any sightings should be reported to Goldy!