Backyard Wildlife

Male goldfinch in his spring finest.



The robins' eggs have hatched. I saw bald little heads with closed eyes and wide open mouths peeking out for a second today. They can't be more than a day or two old. I took these a couple days ago. Dad is on the fence, mom is on the nest. The male does not like the bluejays that visit the feeder near his tree. He sits on the fence and then chases them away when they approach.

I was so excited about having a nesting pair of chickadees this spring. I was really hoping to get some pictures of fuzzy little chickadee babies. I waited patiently but it didn't pay off. I think they all fledged while we were at Danielle's scrimmage tonight! I saw the mom and dad go in and out with food all afternoon. Then, after being gone for a couple hours this evening, the nesting box & tree were quiet tonight! I put more mealworms out just to be sure, and sure enough - mom and dad came for the worms and flew off. I don't imagine they've gone too far, and mom and dad will still be feeding them for a few more days, so maybe they'll be back.

I haven't seen our chipmunk friend for a couple days. The other day he and I had a stand off over a handful of peanuts. He wanted the peanuts, I wanted a couple close up pictures. I won. He was curious enough to pop his head out and look around, but he just wasn't brave enough to come all the way out of his hole. After I got a few pictures, I left him alone with his nuts.

And I forgot to mention a couple weeks ago that the hummingbirds are back. I had my first hummingbird of the season on April 30. That's just a couple days later than last year. They are still getting used to us and are rather skittish. Before long they will ignore us and the dog as long as they can get to the sugar water!