Bird Blog:  March 27 - April 2, 2005

A time of real transition!  Yellow-rumped Warbler numbers are dwindling, and in general visitors to the birdfeeders are coming far less often.  But the Tufted Titmice are still coming (to the new birdfeeders as well) and the Carolina Chickadees are more numerous that ever.  The White-throated Sparrows are still numerous, seen scratching on the ground in the woods.  But the male American Goldfinches are already mostly yellow.  So the birds are given us mixed messages about our progress toward summer. 

April 2

Song Sparrow, Duke Gardens, Durham	Same bird, looking away and doing something that looks like pointing (even though that's probably not it)	At last!  A view of the yellow rump of a Yellow-rumped Warbler (at Duke Gardens)	Common Grackle, Duke Gardens	Tufted Titmouse out front near the new birdfeeder in the front yard.  Somehow I'm not surprised it was a bird of this species!	Another Northern Cardinal in the woods	Finally a Carolina Wren is showing up again.  This species is resident in this area, so I don't know why they stayed away.

Another Yellow-rumped Warbler, this time on the deck	American Goldfinches at the rear birdfeeders	White-throated Sparrow on the deck	A beautiful Asian duck at Duke Gardens.

April 1

This American Goldfinch's head was spinning when the wild photographer struck on this dark, gloomy afternoon.	This is the worst really high-resolution photo I've ever taken, so you can hardly see the huge seed this Carolina Chickadee has in its beak, making it look like a little fat bearded man smoking a cigar.	According to this Yellow-rumped Warbler, winter is apparently still here (but it's definitely in the minority!)

March 31

Today I just looked out the window.  These birds all came within a minute or two of one another.

Male Northern Cardinal	Male and female Northern Cardinals	Male Downy Woodpecker	Carolina Chickadee

March 30

Fewer birds come to the original (deck) birdfeeder these days, but there are lots out there in the neighborhood, especially early in the morning.  Tufted Titmice and Carolina Chickadees are found everywhere.   Even though the TTs still flee when I surprise them (usually when they've surprised me first, actually), they now regularly go to the fake branch of the birdfeeder to crack open their seeds instead of back into the trees.  The new front yard birdfeeders haven't brought any birds, however.

Female Northern Cardinal	Carolina Chickadee on the suet holder	Another chickadee in the woods	Female (below) and male (above) Northern Flickers	Same birds	Tufted Titmouse, high in a tree in the neighborhood	Mourning Dove

Carolina Chickadee cracking open a seed	Tufted Titmouse doing the same (and keeping an eye on me)

March 29

Took a 5-mile walk around the neighborhood, walking around a lake.  Installed a new birdfeeder structure in front of the house but no results yet.

Female Northern Cardinal, near lake in neighborhood.	Canada Goose in same general area.	American Crow in general neighborhood	Carolina Chickadee in back yard, working on cracking a seed open	Tufted Titmouse also working on a seed on the fake branch of the birdfeeder structure.  How in-your-face!	American Robin in the neighborhood

Male Northern Cardinal	Same bird	White-breasted Nuthatch in my neighborhood	Northern Mockingbird in a tree in the same general area

March 28

Felt very discouraged about the effort needed to maintain the bird blog, took a break.

Mourning Dove

March 27

Problems with attracting songbirds to the birdfeeders really came to a head today.  Most birds (most notably White-throated Sparrows and Mourning Doves) now go under the deck where the seeds fall, and a Sharp-shinned Hawk started hanging around today.  Clearly the birdfeeders have to be moved to the front yard, where there is some open space and squirrels don't have easy access to them, nor do hawks feel able to hide. 

Red-breasted Nuthatch at the suet early.	American Robin in the grass near the shopping center	Same American Robin moved forward some to study me.	Male Eastern Bluebird at a birdhouse outside Wild Birds Unlimited®	Mourning Dove which came out from under the deck

Juvenile Red-shouldered  Hawk, Durham, 3/27/05, a visitor to the birdfeeder area in my back yard.  I've also seen one hanging around White-Throated Sparrows in the woods.  ID thanks to Bill Clark of Harlingen, TX.

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