We were on hole 16 at the Spring Creek Golf Course when I stopped to admire a beautiful water garden in someone’s back yard. There was a series of pools cascading down the hill, bordered by rocks and adorned with flowers. There was a small American flag at the bottom. While I was observing, a male bluebird flew down and landed on the tip-top of the flag. What grace, I thought, and how amazing that … [Read more...]

  I saw what appeared to be a weed along the side of the road. But the flowers were beautiful, a vivid orange. I marveled at the plant as I drove past almost daily, then decided I had to stop for a closer look. It was growing wild at the edge of a parking lot. I took a picture, then wondered if I could identify this beauty. I think it is a Butterfly Weed. Not a Butterfly Bush, we … [Read more...]

One of the highlights of our three-day jaunt to Nags Head occurred every day from the balcony of our room. There was a purple martin colony not 20 feet away. There were 18 nests and the beautiful birds were all in process of feeding and tending to their young. I have seen purple martins from a distance, but never really knew much about them, other than they were quite social and formed … [Read more...]

For Father’s Day I received either what will be one of the neatest backyard birding accessories  I own, or it will be relegated to my shed full of unwanted and useless paraphernalia. I hope the former. My daughter, Angelin, knowing my love for birds and extreme fondness for hummingbirds, gave me a genuine Humm-Bug, a hummingbird feeder. Here's what the package says: “No need to buy food! … [Read more...]

  They showed up in our lily pond about two weeks ago. Hundreds of microscopic tadpoles. We saw them last year, too. And we were clueless as to what exactly they were and how they may have arrived. Annually, Nancy and I either catch or buy a few bullfrog tadpoles, which lose their tails and evolve into frogs later that summer. But the bullfrog ‘poles are much larger than these tiny … [Read more...]

Drive along most any road or street in town and you’ll see one or more. They will be perched on a mailbox, a utility pole, a tall shrub or a tree limb, and ready to swoop down and nail an unsuspecting insect. They are mockingbirds, one of the most interesting of all backyard birds and one of the best singers on the planet. This time of year, mocking birds stake out their territories, most … [Read more...]

I have a white-tailed blackbird in my yard. You don’t see many of those, and I wish I didn’t see mine. She’s a grackle, a big thieving grackle that eats my expensive sunflower hearts and she has lots of friends. We noticed this bird a few weeks ago. When she’s pecking around on the ground, it looks like she has just one or two white tail feathers, but when she flies and fans out her tail, half … [Read more...]

I now have grand birds – lots of grand birds. In the last two weeks we have had three nests of cardinals to fledge, a nest of bluebirds, 2 nests of robins, a nest of sparrows and I don’t know how many batches of house finches. There are baby birds flying in all directions and fluttering their wings as they beg for food. Naturally, as a good grandparent, I am readily supplying my feathered … [Read more...]

Our bird feeder filled with sunflower hears has been busier than the Kohrs Ice Cream Store on a “Nickel A Cone Day.” Birds of all shapes and sizes have been lined up, ready for their turn at the seeds. That’s because many of them have babies and the one seed baby birds can all eat and digest is a sunflower heart. Sunflower hearts as commercial bird seed are a fairly recent development, … [Read more...]

For the past month, my small flock of 10 goldfinches has been clutching at the thistle cage and jockeying for position at the feeder with the sunflower hearts. I have been able to watch as their Midas-like plumage intensifies. And then one day, when I thought the little golden beauties could not be more spectacular. They disappeared. Vamoosed. They do this to me each year - they tease me with … [Read more...]