Okay, not only am I a plant freak, but I'm a bird freak too. It snowed, I don't know, maybe 7 inches today in the Kansas City area, and I had a great time watching the birds eating at my feeders and digging in the mulch outside my sunroom. I'm embarrassed to say it was almost as much fun as being outside yesterday tilling up the garden.
I have no idea why everyone doesn't get as excited about seeing unusual birds as I do, but at least today I know I'm not alone. In the process of identifying a bird I'd never seen before, I found this very fun website called Greensboro Birds with a great article about and photo of the very bird I was seeking. Reading that author's description of the bird made me smile. You know, when you read someone's thoughts and you recognize the funny things you think, but maybe don't say, it makes you happy. At least, that's what it does for me. Thanks Greensboro Birds.
Well, one of the birds digging for worms in the mulch in front of my house was the one I had never seen before. Turns out it was a fox sparrow. I actually saw two of them. I learned today that the fox sparrow is a fairly common winter resident. I mistook it for a thrasher or thrush that was behaving strangely and spent a long time trying to match what I saw with the descriptions of thrushes in my 3 bird guides. The definitive identification was the funny little dance one of the birds performed while its companion looked on. I was watching a robin throw my mulch around and dig a hole I had previously blamed on my dog when I noticed these two slightly smaller birds with spotted chests nearby. One was also moving mulch in search of food. Only this bird, instead of throwing mulch with its beak, was doing a two-hop shuffle and moving the mulch with its feet. I'd never seen that before.
The bird guides didn't mention the little dance at all, so I was stuck with the "iffy" descriptions of a highly variable species. Fortunately, the Greensboro Birds site as well as Cornell University's All About Birds site both described the fox sparrow's distinctive back and forth hopping habit. I think it's very cute.
It isn't a coincidence that I saw this bird on a snowy day, either. Both sites also mentioned that these birds are often not noticed until a snowfall. Funny that it has snowed before and I haven't noticed them. But today the two in my garden really stood out.
Anyway, I am yet again thankful that I'm so easily entertained. Usually I'm pretty grumpy when I'm stuck inside. But today I was excitedly running from room to room carrying books and binoculars trying to get a better glimpse of a little brown bird. My husband thinks I'm nuts. . . Like I said, it's good to know I'm not alone :-)
That bird wasn't the only one that distracted me from my household chores. There were tons at the feeders. The male goldfinches are rapidly gaining their bright yellow colors. There were several at the feeder or waiting in the bur oak for their turn at the feeder all day. I consider them my very own nearly care-free pet canaries.
There were also pairs of titmice. It's hard to know how many. They all look alike - gray and very cute with their big black eyes and little crest. The one here doesn't have its crest up because it's busy working on the seed in its mouth. They are very fast, like the chickadees, and often pick up a seed and take it to the tree to eat. Then the other in the pair will take a seed. They just keep doing that until another bird butts in.
And, of course, there were several cardinals visiting often throughout the day. The females came much more often than the males today. This one sat on the rail while others pulled seeds from the feeder. Other birds enjoying the snow and my newly-filled feeders were white-breasted nuthatches, red-breasted woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, carolina wrens, lots of house finches or purple finches (I can't tell them apart), and the tiny chickadees. I think they must be carolina chickadees - just because they are so much smaller than the titmice.
If I have time I'll post again tomorrow. I found another good reference site for native plants and stumbled on what looks to be a really great plant!
Until then, happy first day of spring!
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