Sunday, April 20, 2008

A Few of my Favorite Backyard Birds

The word Spring is a perfumed word. It means youth,
love, song and all that is beautiful in life.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

And although I'm all for 'Longfellow' don't kid yourself...
Spring with it's grass a growing, leaves unfurling, buds bursting,
and the leavings of winter on the ground also means work!
I spent all week end in my yard and have many more days
until I will be happy with the results of my labors.
While out there it was a perfect opportunity to see a few
of my favorite friends..... birds.


The White-throated Sparrow looked pretty perched on the
newly sprouted leaves of a bush in my yard.

And in this close up he is rather beautiful, if I must
say so myself.


I saw no activity from the wrens in building the nest
in the tank out back, but they were claiming there
right to the new feeder I put out.


King of the log!

Singing his little heart out.

Red-belly was eating up the suet. A BIG ole mouth-full!

Not sure what this White-breasted Nuthatch was doing, but it
looked like he was screaming at me!
Not a bird, but what would a day be without a 'tree rat'
At one point I looked up into the Oak tree and caught this
young squirrel eating the newly sprouted buds. In the Spring
food is hard for them to find, the nuts they hid are sprouting
and other sources are not available yet, so they eat buds of trees.


He actually came from the vicinity of this nest, although
I can't believe it is a baby from this year...

Two Eastern Towhees have been hanging around. I managed
to get some close up shots and you can see the red eye of the male.


Lots of Robins were around. I love this 'listening' pose when
they are hunting for worms.



I thought this was a female with what looked like white eyeliner
above her pretty little eye!

The Flickers were loudly calling to each other, and I
caught a glimpse of this female high up in a tree.

I will tell you it's hard carrying around a camera with a rake
in one hand and a shovel in the other!!
But worth every minute of it!

7 comments:

Stacey Olson said...

Looks like your world is alive with bird song. Bet you don't sleep in much anymore.. LOL thanks for sharing, Great guilty look on the squirrls face by the way.

jalynn01 said...

Hi Stacy,
Nope. no sleeping in once Spring arrives. I do most of my gardening in early morning before going to work at 11:30, so I'm up and out often. Thanks for stopping by!!

Kathie Brown said...

JaLynn, you can really see the yellow lores on that white-throated sparrow. Great shots! Nice post! I think the squirrel is cute!

Marsha said...

These are all great shots. Don't you just love these beautiful backyard visitors? I enjoy seeing them through your lens.

Jotter Jan said...

Great backyard bird series Jane!!!
A nice assortment of birds too!!!

jalynn01 said...

Thank you all for your kind words. Sharing posts is lots of fun with fellow bloggers!!

The Birdlady said...

Ah, Jalynn, what a wonderful post. I love the hawk all puffed up (the "ruffled feathers" images are always my favorites), but the white throat in the forsythia was stunning - loved them all.

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