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Wednesday 20 May 2020

Birds of the Northeast Kingdom - specifically Sunset Drive, St J.

As I am now well into my ninth week of self-isolation, and still healthy, I thought it appropriate to once more put pen to paper, metaphorically speaking. The city library has been closed to the public for the duration, so being a quick and avid reader I have at last picked up ( and am halfway through) the 1026-page The Bear and the Dragon by Tom Clancy. Yesterday my oil paints saw the light of day for the first time in many years (nearly twenty by my calculation).

At least the weather has finally settled down to a warm Spring, with daytime temperatures in the 60s and 70s, so Liz and I have been spending some time in the garden. The ride-on mower has been taken out of winterization and put to use, and we have a load of herbs, vegetables and flowers planted. Jake very kindly came over the other day and built us a couple of planter boxes, which we have already put to good use.

 


I thought that I would use this post to talk about some of the birds that we have witnessed here in Sunset Drive. Only two species of note have been with us right through the Winter months, the Bluejay and the Cardinal.

 

The first birds to return from their migration are always American Robins, followed a few weeks later by the Goldfinch, the Crested Titmouse, and the Chickadee


 

 


The last two weeks have seen Liz and I scampering to identify species we have not witnessed before. The Purple Finch is a regular visitor to our birdfeeders


Other visitors to the yard have been the Rose-throated Grossbeak

  

and the Summer Tanager, and we have seen an Indigo-bunting a couple of times.




Last evening Liz identified a visitor as an Oriole



I have only included pictures of the more colorful visitors. There are others like the woodpeckers, starlings, crows, doves, turkey, and so on. 

Of course, birds are not the only visitors to our yard, as the following pictures will attest. We have had numerous white-tailed deer - a bunch of nine together one night


as well as a groundhog, a skunk, a fox and grey squirrels.