Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Traffic at the bird feeder

Cardinals, woodpeckers, gold finches, juncos, and more at the bird feeder.

After a skiff of snow overnight, the bird feeder was busy this morning as a colorful variety of our feathered friends stopped by to enjoy the smorgasboard of goodies. They caught my attention as I sat at my computer, watching eight or ten cardinals, male and female, flit from nearby branches to the feeder and back.

The cardinals were joined by bluejays, juncos, titmouse, a red-headed woodpecker as well as a little downy woodpecker, and gold finches, some beginning to change back to their summer yellow coloring from the drab olive winter coat ... and doves strutted on the ground picking at seeds that had dropped from above.

The feeder had been raided in recent days by flocks of black starlings that run off the other birds ... but they were nowhere in sight this morning. Sometimes a mockingbird will take over and stand guard, running off any birds that try to land and feed, but none were around today.

Today it was peaceful as I watched the resident birds come and go in these final weeks before spring makes it easier for them to find food in the surrounding woods and fields.

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