Monday, November 03, 2008

Home Sweet Home


Having had a hectic work and social schedule last week, I was glad to have a lazy day at home yesterday. The weather was perfect and it was wonderful to have time to sit on the front porch and spend a couple of hours seeing what birds we're currently getting at our feeders.
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Most of our normal residents were very much in evidence: Carolina Chickadees, Blue Jays, Northern Mockingbirds, House Finches, White-winged Doves, Red-bellied Woodpeckers and Downy Woodpeckers.

One of 4-5 male House Finches at our feeders

I was very surprised not to see any Northern Cardinals, since they are normally one of the most frequent visitors to our feeders. No Carolina Wrens turned up either; however, they tend to prefer our backyard, where there are plant containers and hanging baskets to forage in and a fence from which to sing.

We had several visits by three winter visitors. A Yellow-rumped Warbler dropped in for a little time, while Ruby-crowned Kinglets made several visits. Don't ask to see photos, because none of them came out! However, I was more successful with a female Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. As you can see below, the female has the same beautiful red crown as the male but lacks the latter's red throat.


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7 comments:

  1. Dorothy Borders5:28 PM

    Beautiful pictures! Yes, sometimes there is nothing like birding in our own backyard.

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  2. Jeff3:12 PM

    The only real problem with birding in our yards is that the front yard is often full of children and the back one full of cats!

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  3. Isaac5:37 AM

    I can't wait until my backyard actually attracts these critters. I'm envious of yours.

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  4. Jeff6:40 AM

    It shouldn't take long if you put out plenty of food. We hang a suet feeder and a woodpecker block in our front yard. In front we also keep two tube feeders and a platform feeder filled with sunflower seeds. (We've tried lots of other seeds but sunflower works best.) We'll add a niger thistle sock soon, for American Goldfinch.

    In back we have two small sunflower seed feeders. What brings most birds there, though, is putting blobs of peanut butter on our fence.

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  5. Kyle2:20 PM

    Gorgeous photos, Jeff! Your Sunday birding sounds a lot like my lunchtime excursion yesterday, with the jays, woodpeckers and kinglets. I managed to get a couple of recognizable if blurry shots of the Ruby-crowned Kinglets, although I didn't know what they were at the time. Luckily a couple of readers were quick to jump in and help with the identification!

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  6. Jeff6:14 AM

    Hi, Kyle.
    Those kinglets sure are hard to photograph, aren't they? They just never stay still.

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  7. Isaac12:35 PM

    I've got 4 feeders with sunflower seeds. Peanut butter, huh? I've never tried that. I think I'll try a sock feeder this winter.

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