What's Up?

Cardinal butt!

"Do you mind?"

Here's something I see alot of, rain, snow or sunshine - bright red spots back in a particular area of the trees (the spot at the back of the neighbor's lot, right next to ours):


A short while later, when the snow died down, I was able to get a better picture (even with a camera really not intended for this sort of shot). Sometimes we'll count six or more male and female cardinals in this area. I love watching them take flight from the tree line, and more missile-shot with their wings folded in, rather than fly, across the lawn up to the bird feeders - really gotta try to get a picture of that sometime!


We've got a handful of tufted titmice (or as Brett's mom misremembered the name, horny titmice) that come to visit. They're full of loud attitude. This little guy was scoping the yard...


...until he realized I was taking his picture. That's some serious evil-eye I'm getting there!


Gotta love how vibrant these birds are!


A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush?


The bluejays haven't been coming up to the house nearly as much as they were during the summer months - not sure what that's all about. We could easily have six up at the back of the house at the feeders, making all kinds of ruckus. Now it's very rare to even see two at a time (maybe it was a small family and they've gone their separate ways?), and for the most part they stay at the back of the lot - so I put a feeder back there for anyone too shy to come up to the house.


Black-capped chickadees were one of the first birds I started to pinpoint back at the condo, along with the goldfinches. We get quite a few here, and I love when they sing and talk amongst themselves.


The bluejays also seem to really like the compost area, but I think it's mostly because it's the highest spot to sit at the back of the yard right now.


Another black-capped chickadee. I should try to get pics of the juncos and (not-so-)goldfinches.


We had one female cardinal coming around for awhile who was missing all her tail feathers. I haven't seen her in awhile. I hope she's just grown them back and I can't distinguish her from the others. At least one of the females are a bit more vibrant in color, almost peachy... I wonder if those are younger birds? Definitely gotta get better pics to distinguish them!


Sparrow? I need to figure out what these incredibly common birds are.



Don't you hate when guests come to a party and leave such a mess?! I need to start planning to deseed this whole area before spring and come up with a better plan for those feeders!


I found a use for a clementine box - some of the birds really seem to appreciate it. I feel better about sprinkling a palmful of (incredibly stinky) dry roasted mealworm grubs into it as a treat for the birds, rather than just toss them on the ground. Those tasty treats are WAY too expensive for me to do that, altho I think the birds are finding all of them. I like to think it's giving them a little extra energy for warmth during the freezing winter months.


Incognito cardinal...


The cats really like the bird feeders out the back window, which is why I'd hate to move them further back to avoid problems with all the seeds. I'm hoping the large groups of doves (18+ at one time!), cardinals, juncos (also 18+!), finches (easily as many as the juncos), and other birds will be responsible and ensure there are no seeds left to sprout come spring time!