Birdwatching

One of my biggest backyard pleasures is feeding and watching the birds all year round. As you can imagine, we don't have many varieties winter-over here in the Heartland, but the ones that do stay provide quite a show!

Let me tell you, when there is snow on the ground, those feeders have to be filled daily. Right now, for food, I'm only using black oil sunflower seeds. I usually have a thistle feeder or two for the finches, but have you seen the price of thistle seed lately?! Ouch. All the birds we have now will eat the sunflower seeds, though. (I do not buy "mixes" since they pick out the sunflower seeds and leave the milo to sprout in my yard in the springtime!)

Tuesday morning we had dozens and dozens of birdies at the two feeders. They were mostly sparrows, house finches, goldfinches, and dark-eyed juncos. That's the usual "menu" of birds in my backyard in the winter, with the exception of the nasty starlings, and the occasional cardinal, bluejay, and nuthatch. I got a few photos through the window - the sky was cloudy early in the day, so the pictures look a little bleak, but we ended up with a beautiful, sunny, warm winter day. tree full of birdies - mostly American Goldfinches

female house finch - blurry photo because the feeder was swinging back and forth in the wind...

The feeders can be seen easily from the south-facing windows of the sunroom, and my kitty-boy Tucker parks himself there every morning to watch and cry. He starts out pawing the window, then resigns himself to the fact that he's only a spectator. Poor boy.

American Goldfinch - one of my favorite birds

What kinds of backyard birds do you have in the winter?