Busy, Busy, Busy

.

Work finally eased up at the end of the week and I was able to start keeping an eye on our yards again. I didn't expect them to be very busy with birds but I was wrong. All of our resident birds have been visiting the feeders, most of them in numbers that I haven't seen for weeks.


We've had several male and female Northern Cardinals, the males' bright red adding a welcome touch of color to our currently drab yards.

More red has been added by the males among our resident group of 7-8 House Finches.

We rarely see American Robins in our yards but one turned up the other day to add another touch of color.

Our male Downy Woodpecker has visited regularly through the winter.

Yesterday I was happy to see that he was joined by his mate.

 
Inevitably, all the bird action at our feeders attracted the attention of White-winged Doves. When I looked out of our front windows yesterday morning, there were over 40 Doves hunting for dropped seeds on the ground.

Since Doves are fairy adaptable birds, there were even a few balancing on the feeders.

A week or so ago I assumed that most of our winter visitors had left, because the only ones I had seen recently were 2-3 Yellow-rumped Warblers.

However, yesterday an Orange-crowned Warbler and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet were taking turns coming to one of our suet feeders. Even more surprising, I spotted a Chipping Sparrow exploring our flower beds.

In previous winters we've regularly had flocks of 20+ Chipping Sparrows but this year we haven't had more than two of these dainty little birds at any one time.

Well, that's all about our yards for the moment. I have to go and get ready for our first real birding trip for ages. Dee and I are heading down to Anahuac, one of our favorite sites until it was devastated by Hurricane Ike. On our last trip there, we saw very few birds but we're hoping that this visit will be more productive.

.