I am proud to say that I have my own personal flock of doves. There are 10, maybe 12 and they are regular visitors to my back yard. They fly in about 7 in the morning, just after I have scattered assorted seeds in the back, and they are delighted to find and eat the millet that the others pass by. I think they eat some of the whole kernel corn that I also distribute, but mostly the crows … [Read more...]

Perhaps no outdoor scene in the world has been painted or photographed more often than a cardinal in the snow. That “cardinal red” framed with a back drop of pure white is simply stunning. Last week, during our surprise snow storm, I was treated to that scene and I couldn’t help but pause and admire the beauty of this special creature that graces our yard with his presence. Cardinals, Northern … [Read more...]

My two suet feeders have been getting more and more attention since the weather got cold. They were quite popular last week with 9 inches of snow on the ground and nothing much to eat except for my feeders and the seeds I scattered. I saw nuthatches, downy woodpeckers, red bellied woodpeckers, sparrows, chickadees, titmice and wrens squeezing in and out of the suet cages. They say cardinals, … [Read more...]

I have found through my years of backyard bird watching that my fine feathered friends have vocabularies all their own. Two of the most vocal birds, however, are my blue jays and crows. They are like widows on a party line. They love to yak it up. Blue jays seem to come and go in my yard. They just disappear, then return. I didn’t see much of them during nesting season this summer and that may … [Read more...]

They showed up a couple weeks ago. Four little snowbirds. I had not seen them since last March, but they finally came home where they belong. Snowbirds, really Dark-eyed Juncos, spend their summers in forests as far up as Canada and across the Appalachians, but in winter, they like to be closer to civilization and take up residence in fields and parks and especially backyards with feeders. They … [Read more...]

  Bird feeding and bird watching is big business in the United States. Three million households buy wild birdseed during the year. The annual market is $6.3 billion - that’s billion with a “B”. Bird watching, in fact, is second only to gardening as the nation’s most popular outdoor activity. I spend my share on my fine-feathered friends. They’re fun to watch and I enjoy having them … [Read more...]

  In last week’s CvilleBuzz, I commented that the “blonde finch” Jill Smith had seen at her feeder may have been an albino house finch. Another loyal CvilleBuzz reader, Marilyn Norford, then emailed her observation that it was not an albino, but a leucistic bird. Below she explains:   Leucistic and Albino Birds Albinism is another genetic condition that can turn a bird’s … [Read more...]

  I’ve got the blues again. Not the sad blues, the happy blues. Bluebirds. My resident pair raised two families last spring and summer. Only one baby survived the first nest. I’m not sure how many made it in the last nest because they split for parts unknown as soon as they fledged. I didn’t see hide nor hair (nor feather) of them for three months. Last week, they were back. Four … [Read more...]

He has been with us since we moved into our house in August 1973. He was most important tree in our yard, our main maple, guarding our home from a brutal afternoon sun for over four decades. But now he’s gone. Our faithful silver maple tree is now firewood. He was dying, almost completely dead, and an eyesore, and we had to chop him down. The builder of our home in Woodbrook, Claude Cotton, … [Read more...]

I’m not sure we had any Monarch butterflies this summer, though we have planted milkweed and have a towering butterfly bush. We have enjoyed seeing other butterflies, however, including lots of orange ones in recent weeks. I believe most of the orange butterflies visiting our yard are Viceroy butterflies. They are almost identical to Monarchs with similar orange-brown wings. A black line across … [Read more...]