I thought I had posted about this, but apparently I forgot to (from a post to the FWC forum):
On December 8 a bunch of birds made an appearance ("bunch" is not nearly what you are envisioning in your head). Some titmice were on the suet feeder when a larger bird landed underneath. "WTH is that?" Not big enough to be a Robin, but too big to be a chickadee. Then it moved out of the shade and I could just make out some blue on its wings, with a reddish breast. All I could think was, "OMG, it's a bluebird!" I haven't seen one for a long time. Then a female landed next to it and I got to watch them for a little bit. Made my day!
Just before seeing the bluebirds, I'd been watching a young cardinal couple - I guessing one was the offspring of an older couple that hung around all summer. Several titmice have been regulars a few chickadees, some house finches and a pair of downy woodpeckers, but they don't make it a regular past-time to be at the feeders just a quick stop by for lunch apparently. A lot of the time the birds ignore the seeds and suet and are all over the tree hydrangea's dried flowers. Guessing there are seeds there and on warmer days perhaps moths and other bugs are hanging out.
And now to yesterday's sightings:
I've seen the bluebirds most every day this week, even though we've had a couple of mornings in the lower teens, so they may have decided to stick around for the winter. Note that bluebirds do overwinter in the eastern part of the state, where temps are usually a bit milder than where I live. The main shock was seeing bluebirds at all as they usually don't make an appearance at my place even in summer (December 2020 was the last time I noted such a sighting here or on FB).
I hadn't seen the cardinals for 10-14 days, but yesterday I heard one then a little while later I saw both. Then as the pair of downy woodpeckers were on the suet feeder hanging off the crabapple, a hairy woodpecker made an appearance and they both vacated. A few minutes later I saw his mate. This is my first sighting of the Hair woodpeckers this season. Don't feel bad for the downies, they alit upon a mealworm/seed cake feeder I have over by the picket fence.
Comments