Birds Birds Birds

Yay me!  Without delay I've started stitching The Prairie Schooler's Bluebirds.

This should progress much faster than he poor Robins did.

Recently I've received a couple of very nice comments / notes through Blogger from folks who follow this blog.  There are now a number of you - including my aunts - who start your morning by reading my blog. Wow! Thank you all so much for making my daily cross stitching / gardening / birding observations part of your day.

So on to my recent bird observations.

I confess to being a bit disappointed that this year only three of my swallow nest boxes got used. That said, how can I sulk when looking at these three funny faces!  I think this bird house family is going to be the first to fledge.   

Notice how bright yellow the young birds' mouths are?  "The area where the bills join may also be called the gape flange, while the entire interior of the mouth may be considered the gape. In young birds, the gape is often brightly colored to attract parent birds' attention in order to encourage more feeding – pink, red, yellow and orange are the most common gape colors. The gape flange can remain fleshy and more brightly colored in many juvenile birds, which is useful after fledglings may leave the nest but are still dependent on their parents for additional care. Gradually the gape flange will shrink and turn dull and unnoticeable as birds age." Quoted info from The Spruce.

The second nest box may have more than one occupant...

...if so the others are not eating nearly as well as this fellow. 

I've always had Black-capped Chickadees come to my feeders, but only one or two at a time.  This year I placed a tray feeder right at the edge of the backyard hedgerow.  Now the chickadees flock 4 and 5 at a time.  I guess they feel safer than flitting to my exposed feeders in the yard.  

I am also getting Chestnut-back Chickadees regularly and sometimes mixed flocks as this photo shows.

For the past couple of weeks, I thought I had Purple Martins, though I never could see them.  Turns out I had Brown-headed Cowbirds.  The female is singing and the male is hunched down behind her.  

Here's the male singing.

And a female eating with a male Black-headed Grosbeak.

Red-breasted Nuthatches are common feeder birds for many backyard birds, but not for me. 

It was great to have one come check out a suet feeder.

This young Red-breasted Sapsucker never said a word - so glad he caught my eye!