Thursday, September 05, 2013

In Our Yards

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The Brown-headed Nuthatches that moved into our yards in January now seem to have left us. It's a great shame because they are such pretty little birds. However, their presence persuaded me to start feeding peanuts and the latter have proved to be a hit with many of our residents.

Our Carolina Chickadees just can't get enough of the peanuts.


Incidentally, this is making it much easier for us to watch the Chickadees. When using seed feeders, Chickadees almost always fly in, grab a seed and fly off again as fast as they can. With peanut feeders, however, they cling to the feeders for ages while they chip away at the peanuts inside.


An Uncommon Bird

The other day I was surprised to see an Inca Dove perched on our back fence, because it's almost exactly two years since we've seen one of these little birds here. It stayed just long enough for me to snap a photo.


Inca Doves used to visit our yards fairly often but, like our Mourning Doves, they seem to have been displaced by the much bigger and more aggressive White-winged Doves.

A Sad Sight

Our feeders continue to attract several pairs of Northern Cardinals. Unfortunately, one of the males has lost a foot. So far, though, he seems to be coping well with this disability and we're hoping that this will continue to be the case.


Given that our flowers - and particularly our porter weed and esperanza - have been attracting lots of bugs for weeks, I've been disappointed not to see many butterflies. This changed the other day with a visit from a gorgeous Pipevine Swallowtail 

3 comments:

  1. Those look like the birds that fly in my yard. I think we had some Carolina Chickadees, in May, or June. We don't get that many doves and some Red Cardinals. I've been seeing alot of small humming birds lately.

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  2. I still see Brown-headed Nuthatches in my yard although not so often at the feeders now. They are most often at my feeders in winter. They are always welcome guests.

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