Thank goodness for laptops! Fortunately, after waking up to almost 14" of snow I was able to stay at home and work vs. battling the traffic to get to a facility! What made the day even better was that I was able to do most of my work while looking out the window to a large number of birds that preferred my feeding stations over them making the attempt to scrounge up food in the deep snow that surrounded the area. Below were some of my guests!
Song Sparrow... a common - uncommon bird at my feeders. This species normally shows up on snowy days like today when food is a little harder to come by.
American Goldfinch... Even though these birds lose most of their striking color in winter, a few will retain patches of yellow, like this one did around his neck. Just enough yellow to make this a gorgeous bird!
House Finch... some consider this cute bird a pest. I don't, they are always welcome at my feeders. Unfortunately, this eastern variety is highly inbred and is very susceptible to disease. With this in mind, it is important to keep a close eye on these birds when they come to dine. If you notice several at your feeder with "sore eyes" - it is important to clean your feeders ASAP. The good news is that this disease affect mostly this one species any seldom spreads to other birds. Occasionally, you do see the disease in other finches.
House Finch (female)... a healthy female.
Dark-eyed Junco... a winter time favorite also called the "snowbird". These birds feed mostly on the ground, hopping around searching for small pieces of seed.
2 comments:
I had a snow day too yesterday. The two things I like most about the winter are snow days and back yard bird feeding. It looks as if your feeders were very full yesterday with the same birds I get.
BTW: My word verification was rednest!
Nice line-up! Song sparrows are some of my favorite sparrows. I don't get too many of them at my feeder either, but I do see them often this time of year.
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