A Day in the Life

 

I got home from cleaning up litter about 6:30  couple days ago, so tired I didn’t even do a little birding on the way home and was amazed that I didn’t collapse on the side of the highway with temps in the mid-seventies.

I had just enough energy to drag myself out to the front deck with a camera, iPad, and cup of lemonade, all of which I put on that cottonwood half-round that ticked off my sacroiliac earlier this month when I insisted on dragging it home.

 

 

 For the next two hours, I was thoroughly entertained.   

 Violet-green swallows did aerobatics in front of me, a female pine grosbeak landed on the cottonwood slab, looked at me with a “What have I done?” glance then hopped over to a feeder.

 

After she realizes her mistake and jumps to the feeder.

 

 

Black-capped chickadees were flitting about and carrying off the seeds I’d sprinkled on the deck rail.  Then one large one landed on the  shoe on my crossed legs,  and wanted peanuts!  No doubt about that. 

 

Black-capped chickadee

I got some shelled peanuts, gave one to the big bird and tried to entice a couple more but they flew to  the lid of a peanut butter container I have clipped to a spruce branch and where I usually put their peanuts.  Smart little things.

So, I put a few peanuts  in the lid and a few on the rail.  Shortly, I heard an unhappy chickadee and looked over to see Squirrel raiding the peanut dish.

 

Who?   Me?

 

If I’d had the energy, I would have jumped for joy when I realized a yellow-rumped warbler was at the suet feeder.

 

Yellow-rumped warbler, one of my favorite birds.

 

The male pine grosbeak landed on the rail in front of me, sang me a song and partook of the sunflower seed feast.  On top of a tree behind him, a robin was also singing that it was back.

 

Male pine grosbeak.

 

 

American Robin

 

Male and female dark-eyed juncos were looking for seeds that had spilled to the deck and, apparently, I was too big for them to see because they were almost at my feet.

 

Male junco.

 

 

Female junco.

Also joining in the fun were nuthatches, pine siskins, two Steller’s jay, a polite magpie (because he took only one peanut at a time)...

 

Black-billed magpie.  He isn't blind.  That's the nicitating membrane or third-eyelid.

 

... and an unidentified  bird that sang LOUDLY and DISTICTLY ”chimmy, chimmy, chimmy, chimmy, chee......chip, chip, chip”  that I couldn’t get a good look at.

 

Pine siskin

 

Steller's Jay

 

 

 

Pine siskins.

I should do this more often.