Well, it’s been on my mind for a few weeks now. Ever since our curve billed thrasher started singing just before sunrise our of our back window. Then about a couple of weeks later he was joined by another song I was not familiar with. So I stalked the bird in my PJ’s until one morning it was just light enough for me to see him before he stopped singing and flew away up the hill. A Canyon Towhee! Not surprising that they are here, only that he now calls the hill in back of our house home as I have not seen them here before now. So the birdies are on the move. A bit at least. But I keep expecting more! Maybe God’s told them to enjoy a few last rays of southern sun before they left this year. But then I usually think they should be here before they are.
So, in anticipation I filled the feeders around the house and even looked up some homemade bird feeders online and made some. An easy project of oranges cut in half filled with bird seed held together by a bit of peanut butter. We’ll see how they work! One flock of red wing black birds would decimate them in about 15 minutes I am sure….So I tried to hang them away from traditional black bird visitation spots.
Now all I need are a few more humming bird feeders, a couple of thistle socks, and a few trays of peanuts that we are striving to build out of some old feed tubs and hang in trees. I have been working over the past week to think of a few spots to build a few “blinds” or places to hang feeders that you could sit at and fairly unobtrusively watch birds behind a large cottonwood that has fallen. This will be the first year I have really tried this – but gonna see if it works at all. I am more of a moving birder – but maybe with some feeders in place a few minutes in a semi-blind would be productive.
So for now my current list seen over the past few weeks includes most of my friends I have know for a couple of years now. Being a beginning I am still thrilled to be able to be able to ID voices of these familiar birds, and consider them my special friend, the ones that drew me into their world:
Red Wing Black Birds
Kesterels
Pair of Red Tailed Hawks
Dark Eyed Juncos
House Finches
Robins
Chipping Sparrows
Whie Crowned Sparrows
Pair of Canyon Towhee
Bewicks Wren
Killdeer
Meadowlarks
Says Phoebe
Great Horned Owl
Northern Flickers
Pair of Ladderback woodpeckers
Hairy Woodpecker
Mountain Bluebirds
Curve Billed Thrasher
Belted Kingfisher
Great Blue Herons
Roadrunners
Canadian Geese
Mallard Ducks
Not to mention lots of morning doves, pigeons, ravens and crows
I did see Canyon wrens and Western Scrub Jay (or as I was told a Woodhouse) in Picture Canyon at the end of February.
Happy start to your birding seasons everyone!