Birds of May

A Carolina chickadee and a sparrow keep apparently amiable company as the breakfast from the suet , May 3.

The titmouse is an amazing bird. An agile, fast flyer, it does all sorts of aerial acrobatics. His favorite of our feeders is the peanut feeder, which he approaches by balancing on the small flexible limbs of the bush nearby. Sometimes he flies almost straight up! When he snags a peanut from the feeder, he flies to a nearby limb and holds the peanut under one claw while he pecks on it. May 3.

The trials of a mother downy woodpecker: Come on, junior, take the suet from me, and then learn to get it for yourself! Oh, my! How am I going to get this rowdy youngster settled down so I can teach him to eat for himself??

Mom finally has the youngster on the right settled down to eat for himself. May 6. At right a demure shot of a young female cardinal taken at breakfasttime, May 10.

This is an unretouched, strongly backlit image of a hungry young finch being fed. The bright morning sun is beaming in from the back left. All my Photoshop attempts couldn't improve the perspective very much. May 10.

The brilliant red of the cardinal against the oak tree green out our back window is always dramatic. May 11.

The downy woodpeckers have been regular visitors for years. It is always neat to see them feed their young. We have gone through several generations of downies. I think this is the same pair that I have pictured below on May17 , at a more advanced stage of her teaching her offspring. May 13.

We have enjoyed the catbird pair, which is with us for the third year, and often come to the suet feeders together. It is still surprising to hear a sound like a cat's meow from one of the trees! They have nested in the azaleas in the front yard, and there may be a second pair this year. May 13.

Our main focus is on the birds, but we have an abundance of squirrels this year as well. May 14.

We're always glad to see the dramatic redhead woodpecker. A pair of them has been coming to the suet regularly. May 14.

This looks like a young downy woodpecker with red feathers just beginning. Mom is teaching him the suet feeding routine. A proud looking robin at left. May 17.

The titmouse comes to the small bush to the left of the peanut feeder and hops to it. Then he carries the peanut off to a limb and holds it with one claw to eat it. May 22.

We had a very active group of cardinals this spring, and enjoyed watching this young female hanging around our butterfly bush in view of our breakfast table. May 22.

This male cardinal really stands out against the green of the background. The cardinals are very active early and late, and around sundown, their color against the green is even more dramatic. May 22.

The redheaded woodpecker is one of our favorites. Very dramatic when flying. We had a pair visiting for several years, then a couple of years seeing them up the street but not in our yard. Last year they visited regularly, and this year a pair comes together to the feeders frequently. May 28.

We had a sizable population of robins through May, which seems a little late for them. They sometimes show up in February, and we think of them as moving further north with the progression of spring. May 26.