Good morning everyone,
I hope this finds you all fit and well, and managing to keep a smile on your faces. Our returning birds are certainly managing to do just that, in our household, despite the change from beautiful sunshine to the cooler rainy days that we are now experiencing. My initial enthusiasm at the first sightings of the Blue birds and Tree Swallows, has been slightly dampened by the fact that they all seem to have been just passing by! They also took with them the last members of our winter flock of Redpolls. However, all is not lost, since we still have our resident flock of Rock Pigeons showing off their colorful Spring plumage, as are all the other birds too, such as the Red and White-breasted Nuthatches, (Slate Grey) Dark Eyed Juncos, Cowbirds, Grackles, Red-winged Blackbirds, Song Sparrows and our familiar Robins and Cardinals. The latter two are also filling the air with their prolonged loud singing too, as they perch very high up in the tallest trees and regale us, to brighten our days, but mainly, – of course, to attract a female! It’s amazing that a bird so brightly colored can only be seen with great difficulty, when high in a tree. Look very carefully and you will see one too. I got a couple of pictures of a male Cowbird, at a feeder, along with a striated female and red epauletted male Red-winged Blackbird. The Cowbirds, being either very clever, or just plain lazy, lay their eggs in another birds nest, having first removed the owner’s egg(s), and leaves the upbringing of its offspring to an unwitting surrogate mother! Stay safe and well and keep on smiling,
Cheers,
John Baldwin
