Thursday, April 09, 2009

watching for spring birds

white throated sparrow

They are finally arriving! Last year I saw bluebirds in the meadow by the gardens on April 11, so I'm watching for flashes of blue.

The birds I saw yesterday include a few spring migrants and a lot of NE residents: white-crowned sparrow, eastern phoebe, red-winged blackbirds, lots of American robins, one lonely cold tree swallow, chickadees, nuthatch, downy woodpecker, ring-necked pheasant (no visual), starlings, and blue jays.

The fields and woods are still bare and brown. But if you look close, small grass shoots are coming up, leaf buds are ready to pop. As I wrote a few weeks later last year, "Once it starts, spring comes fast". Today will be 60*F! and I bet this will move things along.

white throated sparrow 2 skippy inthe woods
april field

garden birds (Hortus Aves)

3 comments:

Blossom said...

Beautiful birds! I love birds. I wish there are many different kinds of birds in my garden but there are only a few. I love their chirpping sounds.

Kristy said...

Beautiful bird pictures. Do you know of any good resources on making a "bird garden" one that is alluring to birds?????

Laura said...

Skippy looks like he's thinking,"Come on, Mom, quit taking pictures and catch up!"

Nice pictures!