Backyard Visitors

We’ve been blessed with a prolific number of songbirds stopping by for a "visit" with us this winter.  The nearby trees and feeders have been a virtual cornucopia of avian color and song; cardinals, chickadees, nuthatches, blue jays, woodpeckers, juncos, goldfinches, even a bluebird or two have all spent some time with us recently, and that’s only a partial list.    

As demonstrated by this young male cardinal, even birds can have "bed head".

A downy woodpecker samples the suet during last week’s snowfall.

This nuthatch just might be wondering where all the suet went that the woodpecker
told him about the previous day.

With no worms available just yet, this early robin samples a Sumac drupe.

In the winter months, the goldfinch sports feathers that are a paler shade of yellow than what we are accustomed to seeing in the spring and summer.
 

A red squirrel dines on a walnut taken from its winter food cache. Like the songbirds, the bushy tails spend most of their daylight hours foraging for food.

Though we already have a wide variety of songbirds close at hand, with the onset of spring and warm weather the number is sure to grow.  As might be expected, with such a variety of wildlife in close proximity to our home, it's only natural that we get other visitors as well – those seeking to make a meal of our feathered and furry friends alike. We’ll tell you about them next week. 

Until Next Time,

Jim & Claudia