Saturday, May 9, 2009

Backyard Bird List Hits 50

Yesterday afternoon was a wonderful time for bird watching in the Miles backyard. The pine siskins hung out all afternoon, mixing it up with the house finches. I counted 7 siskins at one point. One of our favorite sparrows, White-Crowned, put in an appearance for the first time this spring, a black-capped chickadee came by to visit, the first we've seen in months. And, most fun of all, a white-breasted nuthatch chose to visit our peanut feeder when I was sitting about 8 feet away reading a book. I didn't have the camera so I couldn't get a picture but it is the first white-breasted nuthatch we've seen in our yard. And that brings our backyard bird list to 50. Here is a picture I took yesterday of a white-crowned sparrow.


Our first Peony blossom opened this morning. We have nine large peony bushes in our front yard, a mixture of white, pink, and a reddish-purple. We'll have huge peony bouquets for the next few weeks and our house will be redolent with their fragrance.

3 comments:

Cedarwaxwing said...

Wonderful! Birds and blossoms...

I saw my first White-crowned sparrow last year -- we never get black-capped chickadees (only Carolina) but I remember them from my life in the Midwest.

I love peonies. My octogenarian neighbor gave me a few peony a few years ago, and it is finally going to give me a bloom this year. I have a couple other peonies in my yard, but Bob's is my favorite.

Ours won't bloom for a few weeks.

Fiske said...

Waxwing:

It's always fun to see a new species and be able to identify it. Congrats on the white-crowned sparrow. They are among my favorites. We had a pair hanging around the yard yesterday.

Our peonies are on the side of our front yard. It faces the south, which they seem to love. Our neighbor's peonies are already in full bloom. I think they must be a different variety. We also saw what looks like a small peony "tree" in another neighbor's yard. We think it must be some sort of shrub peony variety.

Fiske

Lori said...

Our peonies lasted about 24 hours before this darn rain beat the heck out of them. Send waterwings!!!