Birding Up

I’ve seen birds on our property of late, just the last week or so, which I’ve never seen IRL before, but know about, being a “birding” person.

In the front we have ‘wild’ things growing where we used to have planted things before. I then put “wild flower” seed there some years ago and we had a couple of years of nice flowers and since then we have had some, but less and less of those “wild flowers” and more and more of just “wild” stuff. The past few years we had blackberries growing wild and have left them there, and had little berries this past Summer, little, but packed with wonderful flavor … yum, yum,yum! There was something else growing that I let go and I do not know what it is, but had while little flowers, which turned to nice fluffy seed things for the birds this winter.

We’ve had birds in the past which have not been seen much the last few years. We’ve seen the House Finches more of late, but not in the numbers we used to see them year-round. A few Chipping Sparrows too, but in the past we used to see droves of them, but same as others, not much in the last few years.

A new bird showed up last week, Dark-eyed Junco. I saw at least 2 males, and have seen them in the front, looking out the window, and they have come back time and again, not every day do I see them, I might miss them (easily can miss their visit) and on rainy days they haven’t been noticed, which we had some of these past days. Today there were definitely 3 males, and 1 female. Joy! I had never seen a Junco IRL anywhere.

Today I also saw an Eastern Towhee, male, in the same place, at the same time. I had never seen one of these either. I knew it looked similar to what an Oriole looks like and know about Towhees, but not much, and it was a pleasure to see one up close. These birds are all right under our front window, the sidewalk is right there, with all those wild plants growing over it, making it a nice bird eating place. So that’s another “new” bird for me to see IRL anywhere, and of course, on this property.

Out back today we had a tree full of another new bird for us. I know about them, but hadn’t seen any ever IRL either, Cedar Waxwing. They were in the “something cherry” tree that is right behind our house. Not a people fruit tree, just an ornamental tree , good for birds.

This past Spring was the first time that tree bloomed all over. So it’s totally full of little berries. Birds of all sorts have been eating there the last couple of weeks.

We’ve also had a large share of Blue Jays in that tree, and all over our front yard, at times, this year. They are always visible across the street, where there is a long stretch of trees down the back of the yards there, mostly oak and pine. We see them flying in and out, and into the yards there, and making all there lovely wild noise. For some reason they are gracing us with there closer precence this Winter. Sometimes we’ve had a few in our yard, but not in the numbers they have been this Winter, nor the frequency.

There are my sweet Eastern Blue Birds flying around as well, visible often, also enjoying the “cherry” tree out back.

So … this Winter is turning out to be for the birds. A welcomed change here! 🙂