Migration and hormones have really kicked in! All hell broke loose today on the wetland behind the store. Female red-winged blackbirds had landed and the males who had so far been peaceably hanging together in the cottonwoods were chasing each other like crazy. After I closed the store, I went for a walk and twice was almost rammed by a couple of male red-winged blackbirds duking it out over territory.
Sparrows are really pouring in! Saturday I had to work a booth at the MN Landscape Arboretum but before I headed out, I stopped and picked up a few things at the store. Right away I found three Harris' sparrows, a Lincoln's sparrow and Savannah sparrow under the feeders. At the Arboretum, white-throated sparrows were everywhere in the gardens.
This particular male was so accommodating I was able to digiscope him with my binoculars. He was so accommodating it made me worried--was he ill or just spying on me? Or was he just tired from a long night's journey?
The trend of exciting brown birds continued at the store this morning. As a clay-colored sparrow was mixed in with our chipping sparrows. I digi-scoped a photo of that, but it wasn't nearly as exciting since i took it through the back door window and it's VERY dirty.
That's a chipping sparrow with the rusty cap and that's a clay colored sparrow on the right. They are feeding on a combination of white millet, cracked corn, and a finch mix that has thistle, sunflower chips, flax, canary seed, canola seed and German and Siberian millets.
I'm not just favoring the brown birds, I was also excited to have Tennessee warblers, yellow warblers and one northern parula outside our apartment this morning.
My binoculars are supposed to be great a close focusing so I tested them out at the Arboretum. I guess the next thing for birders to be interested in are butterflies but I can never find frogs when they singing in spring. Now, I know why--they are teeny tiny! I sat by a pond with chirping chorus frogs and after scanning with the binos at about four feet, I found one, I even saw it's little throat bubble up. Not long after that, I heard a very tired sounding tree frog and went to look for it and sure enough I found it as well. I tried digi-scoping the frogs, but found that I wasn't as successful with the closer focus. It did manage a souvenir photo of the tree frog:
On a final note I have to say that happiness is coming home from a hard day's work and finding a freshly baked cake on the kitchen table that your husband made for you because you had been craving it like crazy for the last two days.