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Sheesh! It's taken me three days to get this put together. My brain is mush. I don't think I could fight my way out of a paper bag if I had to. But that's another story.

This makes me happy. :-)


The bird feeders have been pretty much deserted lately. Monday's ice and snow brought what seemed like hundreds of birds to our seed and suet feeders. I spent a good few hours watching in fascination. I had to bang at the frozen feeders to get them opened for filling and took out hot water to unfreeze the bird baths. That's some of the waiting crowd in the tree up above. Click on the photo and you may even be able to spot the Bluebirds!



I saw lots of familiar feathers and had fun flipping through my Peterson Guide and added a few new names to my life list. I'll bet I missed a few too! There are some mystery birds in my photos. And once again The Poor Tramp had to listen to me wax enthusiastic about the possibility of a telephoto lens...with fresh gushing about setting up a tripod at my new living room window. :-D

So here's the day's roster as I saw it. Some photos give good detail if you click on them, some just get blurrier. It depends which camera I was using. Ah well! :-)

Goldfinches. Masses of them. They're just starting to turn back to summer yellow.



A lone male Downy Woodpecker. Yesterday I saw the female.


A Brown Thrasher...or two. I have seen two together. Maybe there are more? Hard to tell when they come one at a time though, they look so alike. They are new to me since we moved to North Carolina. Difficult to tell from the photos but they are big birds. And they sing (the males I guess) like crazy in the summer, sounding much like the Mockingbirds. They hang out right over my head and serenade me while I garden. (click on the photo to see that yellow eye!)

And this morning.


Pine Warblers. A new one for the list! They go for the suet. I'm not sure exactly how many are hanging around. They were hard to identify at first but Dad just bought me a new book, "The North Carolina Birding Trail: Piedmont Trail Guide", which helped me figure out which one of the many little yellow warblers are local.


Lots of sharing going on. A Bluebird, Pine Warbler and a Yellow-Rumped Warbler with Goldfinch in the background.


Tufted Titmouse. (mice?) They generally dive bomb the feeders with a long whistle and take a sunflower seed away and sit with it held between their feet and chip at it to open it.




Northern Cardinals. There were lots of them last summer. I watched a whole crowd of them grow up. Not so many during the winter. I hope they all come back.



House Finch. It was awful watching so many of them succumb to eye infections last summer so I'm pleased to see at least one come back. Of course the only photo I got on Monday was this one! LOL

This morning. :-)

Bluebirds. Swoon! Four of them. Three males and a female. I never get tired of seeing them. I had never seen any, in the feather, so to speak, before last year!




Yellow-Rumped Warbler. Another one new to me. There have been quite a few at the suet and I think the seed too.



Mockingbirds. They are often greedy and drive the other birds away. But not this week.


Drinking from the garden teacup this morning. :-)


White-Throated Sparrows. I wasn't quick enough for a photo in the snow. They stick to the ground and dart away under the bushes when I move. So these blurry ones are from this morning.


Ouch! Very blurry. But the white throat really shows up. And the yellow eye spots.


Dark-Eyed Junco (Snow Birds). They've been here all winter. They also stick to the ground and I missed the snowy photo op but managed one this morning.


Mourning Doves. They suddenly showed up late in the day, after I put the camera away of course. So also from this morning.


Pine Siskins. Another newbie for my list. A click on the photo will show the tell tale bit of yellow on the edge of the wing.


A Carolina Wren showed up again this morning as well. Love me some Wrens. :-)


There were Chipping Sparrows too. And a Carolina Chickadee which didn't show up until yesterday and didn't stay for a photo...sigh.

So that's all. Now I have to go bond with my paint brush. At least I'm painting window trim and can see the bird feeders from there!