Roll call

I might as well begin by giving a brief survey of our regular and semi-regular yard birds, and then say a bit about some of the notable visitors we had over the spring and summer.

The Usual Suspects around here are the same that many other folks get at their feeders: Black-capped Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, White-breasted Nuthatches, Hairy and Down Woodpeckers, American Goldfinches, House Finches, Robins, Blue Jays Mourning Doves. The Goldfinches are perhaps the most numerous, with Chickadees not far behind. There are a few other visitors that are not plentiful, but that are around most of the time, such as a pair of Cardinals. Tree and Chipping Sparrows were around much of the summer, and both White-throated and White-crowned have been seasonal visitors. I'll have to go through a full winter here before seeing which of these species qualifies for year-round residency.

Thankfully we are not plagued by those species that are widely considered to be junk birds. I've never so much as seen a Starling or English Sparrow in the yard. A few Brown-headed Cowbirds were around for the summer, but only a few. There are usually a couple of Grackles around, and we were briefly invaded by a largish flock of them a week or so ago, but they seem to have moved on. There's a murder of three or four crows [look it up!] that seems to like it here, but apart from sometimes eating too much of the suet we put out, they can't be considered much of a nuisance. A raptor that I'm pretty sure is a Cooper's Hawk is an occasional visitor. I've never seen him make a kill here, or even go after much of anything, though we did see him unsuccessfully chase a Mourning Dove in the air while flying over the front lawn one day in late summer.

Over the summer we hosted at least two, possibly three, pairs of Catbirds, and enjoyed a fairly steady parade of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds at our nectar feeders. We also enjoyed the presence of at least one pair of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. They definitely nested around here somewhere as late in the summer young ones began appearing. Of course, I made no notes about when we stopped seeing them; one day I just realized that they had not been around for awhile, and I can't say if there were here into September or not. Other more-or-less regular visitors include a few Flickers and Turkeys--more on both of these in a later post.

Our house borders on some woods, and the trees that are right outside the office windows seem to be a popular spot with warblers, at least during the migrations. In early May we saw Chestnut-sided, Nashville [I think], Black-throated Green, Magnolia, and Northern Parula. Other warblers seen later in the summer and early fall include: Black and White, Yellow, Common Yellowthroat, Magnolia, and Blackburnian. We hear and see Red-eyed Vireos with a fair degree of regularity.

One of the biggest treats came back in early May. On the 10th I noted a total of 25 species in the yard in a single day. This included male and female Baltimore Orioles, male Scarlet Tanagers, male and female Cardinals, and male and female Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. The next day I noted only 21 species, but a male Indigo Bunting joined the fray, giving us five of the most colorful species we could hope to see, all at the same time!

I know I've left numerous species out of this overview. To date we have seen about 65 species of birds in the yard or in our woods, though this includes quite a few seen while on brief visits before moving here permanently.