Ann's Bird Blog: Birds At Feeding Station and Yard, Fall/Winter/Spring 2018-19

Saturday, October 27, 2018

Birds At Feeding Station and Yard, Fall/Winter/Spring 2018-19

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, front yard, 12/23/18

Purple Finch Female 10/27/18

Blue Jay
Bluebird
Brown Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Red-breasted Nuthatch
House Finch
Purple Finch
American Goldfinch
Northern Cardinal
Mourning Dove
Northern Junco
Pine Warbler
Orange-Crowned Warbler
Yellow-Rumped Warbler
Downy Woodpecker
Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker
Song Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
White-Throated Sparrow
Carolina Wren
Ruby-Crowned Kinglet
Sharp-Shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Eastern Phoebe
Rufous-sided towhee
Rose-breasted grosbeak

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How This Bird-Watching Happened

I'm always a little self-conscious and reticent about telling people that I like to watch birds. Somehow that hobby conjures up pictures of little old women in khaki shorts and boots, peering through binoculars at some little spot in the woods. Maybe wearing a pith helmet.

But birdwatching is something that really brought my husband and me together in the early years of our marriage. He was a huge hunter; I had never picked up a gun. We were very different. But we discovered that we were quite a team about birdwatching - I was the bookworm about them, and he had the outdoors knowledge to pick up sounds and motion in the woods. We kept lists and watched everywhere we went. I picked up some of his extensive knowledge about wildlife. And it was fascinating.

Even after our son was born, we still could keep up with this hobby somewhat. Our home had a great shelf feeder, directly out of our second-story bedroom window, that was about fifty yards from woods and stream. So we had great variety coming directly to our house.

After moving to Mike's hometown, the hobby waned. Two children, not a good location for much variety at a feeder, not as easy to take trips, either short or long ones. So it became an occasional thing rather than a main focus.

On our trip to the northwest, fourteen years ago, we put fifteen new species on our lists and got excited about it once again. And on our recent California trip, we got a few more.

Now that our children are gone, we're intent on watching birds again. It is still bringing us together. And we don't even need khaki shorts or pith helmets.