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.