Monday, March 03, 2014

Our Yardbirds

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Now that winter is nearing its end, the number of birds in our yards is starting to taper off. Of course, all our permanent residents are still around. So our male and female Downy Woodpeckers visit constantly.



Northern Cardinals, Northern Mockingbirds, Carolina Chickadees and House Sparrows continue to turn up daily, as do our Carolina Wrens.






The Tufted Titmice that moved in last year seemed to have decided to stay and join the ranks of our residents.






Our single Ruby-crowned Kinglet is one of the most loyal of all our winter residents. 



Other winter residents that are still coming to our feeders include American Goldfinch, Orange-crowned Warblers, Pine Warblers and Yellow-rumped Warblers (below). However, these birds are now turning up in much smaller numbers than a couple of weeks ago.



One nice surprise this weekend was to see an Eastern Phoebe sitting on our fence and fly-catching from our trees. Although I sometimes hear Phoebes in our neighborhood, I think this is the first one I have ever actually seen in our yards.






I'm always sad when our winter residents decide to leave us and head north. So I'm hoping that, like in previous years, our winter residents will stay with us for at least another five or six weeks.
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