The Joys of Bird Watching

Hello all!  Are you having a good week?  We're staying pretty busy, but we're ready for some cooler weather.  In spite of the heat, we've gotten good rain this summer, for which we're extremely grateful, as we have all those baby trees that really need water.      One thing that we've done every day this summer, I believe, is watched the birds in our backyard.  I can't tell you how much we've enjoyed that, as it has been way too hot to spend any time outdoors since early June.  We probably spend too much money on bird seed, but we sure get a lot of pleasure out of our birdwatching.      

   

   

Last week, we had the Indigo Bunting here at our feeders.  This is the male in the picture above.  The female bunting showed up at the feeders a few weeks after we took these pics of the male.  She's very unique looking -- light brown all over with blue edging on the wings and tail feathers.  I thought she was very pretty!  However, the male is obviously the standout, as with most of the wild birds.  Hal took these pictures from inside the kitchen; he had to shoot through two sets of screens, hence the somewhat blurry look of the pictures.   

It doesn't really show in these pictures, but the male has a purplish-blue spot on the very top of this head, what I think of as more of an indigo color.     

Here you can get a better look at his wings and tail feathers.  Where his are black, the female's are the same shade of blue as the male.    

Above is a picture of the female Indigo Bunting.  I've seen the female bunting in previous years, and I love the combination of brown and blue in her coloring.  We think this was a young female, maybe a fledgling, because of all the white spots she was sporting.     

Isn't she a cutie?  😉  You can really see those blue tailfeathers in this picture.  We had Indigo Buntings last summer, too, and we're always glad to see them.  According to the Cornell University website, All About Birds, these little charmers are pretty populace in the eastern part of the U.S., and they have lovely, cheerful songs.  

   

Back at the end of January this year, our bird cam captured a video of a female Baltimore Oriole.  We were also able to watch her from the kitchen window for a good little while.  We never got a glimpse of the male, which would have been a sight to behold, for sure.  The female is in the far left of the screen eating from a suet cake.  She has a rather bright, orange breast, and after looking online for a while, we were able to identify her.  She's somewhat similar to a male goldfinch, but much bigger with a longer, sharper-looking beak.    

         

      These are three, very short videos (only about ten seconds each) of the Baltimore Oriole eating from the suet cake on the far left of the screen.  If you'll choose the full-screen view in the bottom right corner, you can get a good look at her.              

   
This last video also captured an Eastern Bluebird sitting on the metal "limb" above the Baltimore Oriole.  When he takes off in flight, the suet cake spins around and the Oriole looks a bit put out.       We truly enjoy feeding and watching the wild birds.  After a while, you start to notice their interesting and quirky habits.  :)  We've noticed many times that certain birds like to sit on the metal arms of the feeding station and look out at the world, as if they're just contemplating life.  😀  This summer, we've had house finches, lots of goldfinches, lots of cardinals including some adolescents, eastern bluebirds, indigo buntings, mourning doves, woodpeckers, tufted titmice, Carolina wrens, Carolina chickadees, eastern towhees, hummingbirds, and our crow buddies.  We only have three crows in our yard, but they love the peanuts we put out for them.         Do you like to feed the wild birds?  What kind of birds do you see in your area?  Thank you so much for your visit today.  I hope you're looking forward to a good week wherever you are.  Have a great day!