Spring Activities

2019

April 4. The cat and squirrel game. During this period, Marty's cat had the idea that when he saw a squirrel low on a tree, he might get lucky if the squirrel came around to his side. But squirrels are masters of this circle-the-tree game and use it to their advantage. After a week or so, the cat gave up the game.

April 7. The hairy woodpecker is a fairly rare visitor to our suet feeders. The smaller downy woodpecker is a daily visitor that we enjoy very much. Besides being larger, the hairy woodpecker has a proportionally longer beak, more than half the length of its head.

April 8. The cardinal is always dramatic, but particularly beautiful in contrast to these new oak leaves with their vivid green.

April 9. Oak leaves in the rain might not sound like an object of beauty, but these new leaves were vivid green in the rain. We enjoyed the beauty, but the poor soaked titmouse sitting on a limb outside our window might have had a different view of it.

The leaves were still beautiful when the sun came out. Part of our reverie of spring!

April 14. We have about four regular cardinals at our feeders, and this old platform feeder is one of their favorites. This female cardinal is a regular.

This indigo bunting, though, is definitely not a regular. At upper right, the cardinal seems to be asking, "What are you doing here!?" We did see indigo buntings last year, but I don't recall ever seeing them before that.

Sometimes something as common and ordinary as a bird sitting on a limb can be uncommonly beautiful!

April 21. Cardinal on a sunny afternoon.

April 21. Cardinals in flight on a sunny afternoon, bluejay in the shade.

Certainly one of my favorites is the yellow-bellied sapsucker, which I just refer to as the "redhead". He usually prefers the suet and is a regular visitor.

Happy Easter! April 21

We appreciated getting this photo from Jeff and family on the afternoon of Easter, taken in their front yard by the weeping willow tree.

Elyse, Jordan and Ashleigh. It was good to see that Jordan and Ashleigh had been able to come out from New Orleans for Easter Sunday with the family.

I'm not sure what was going on here, but they seem to be having fun!