Robin...

The highlight of my birding year :)

Red-winged Blackbirds. I LOVE these birds - they sing and chatter away soooooo beautifully!!! I could listen to them all day :) I love seeing them perched on their cat tails/ bullrushes! I've even started growing bullrushes in my pond especilly to attract them here (planted the seeds this year so it will take a while lol)

Yet THIS year all of a sudden ONE single male showed up and STAYED!!!! :) He has been here for a few weeks and then yesterday two females showed up :) YAY!!! We may get babies here :) I am sooooooo happy!! All day long until dusk I get to hear my favourite bird!!! He comes to the feeder all day :)

Mrs Red-wing!!!

One of the two female red-winged blackbirds that showed up yesterday!! The male shows up quite a while before the females and checks out the nesting area......then a few females can show up per male!!! Yesterday TWO females showed up for our male! They seem to fight each other over the feeder more than they fight over the male ;) The male plays chase with them both....it's funny to watch!!!

Purple Finches...

We have a pair of purple Finches nesting in our woods - they are feeding at our feeders regularly now....I don't know if they are using one of our nesting boxes or whether they are just nesting in the trees but they are beautiful in the sunlight. They are new to us this year!!! It is always WONDERFUL to see our 'regulars' - birds who return to us each year, like Mr and Mrs Robin, the Goldfinches, the Barn Swallows etc etc......Peep our Woodpecker etc etc who stays with us through the winter....but it's so lovely to see newcomers like these Finches!!!!

Tropical visitor...

Yesterday Lloyd spotted this stunning visitor to our yard....we didn't have the right lens on the camera so the pictures are not great, and cropped greatly....but at least he got some shots of the bird before it flew off!!!

It's a Baltimore Oriole and they are only here between late May and August - they breed here briefly but spend more than half the year in the Tropics!!! You can try and tempt them to your yard with orange halves on your bird feeders!!! Isn't it stunning in the trees????? What luck that Lloyd was walking about in the back yard when it was flying by!!

Clik on the pictures to see them bigger and see this bird in all it's colourful glory!!!