Yard Birds

.The constant rain over the past few days has meant that most of my birdwatching at home has been carried out from indoors, through rain-streaked windows.

Our seed feeders have continued to attract up to a score of Chipping Sparrows every day. We're certainly going to miss these beautiful little birds when they finally decide to head north again.

Unfortunately, the seed feeders have also been attracting increasing numbers of House Sparrows. Yesterday I counted 8 on or near the feeders.

Downy Woodpeckers come to the suet feeders throughout the day but they aren't the only birds to snack on the suet. The latter is a favorite of our Northern Mockingbirds.

Even our White-winged Doves have learned to perch on the suet cages.

I get so irritated by the numbers of White-winged Doves that often flock to our yards that I tend to forget just how beautiful these birds are. I can think of very few other birds with such lovely eyes.

By contrast, I don't think that anyone can ever see a male Northern Cardinal without being impressed.

The female Cardinal has less dramatically colored plumage but she, too, is certainly always worth looking at.

Away
When you read this, we'll be away spending a couple of days in the Texas hill country. We're going to do some birding around Uvalde and Concan. It's a little early for warbler migration but we still expect to see some interesting birds. I'll start blogging about our trip on Thursday.
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