April 27 - May 3

Common birds: red-wing blackbird, cardinal, junco, robin, crow, house finch, cormorant, goldfinch, grackle, starling, mourning dove, swan, Canada goose, house sparrow, chickadee, blue jay, Turkey vulture, mallard duck, tern

Spring visitors: song sparrow, ruby-crowned kinglet, white-throated sparrow, chipping sparrow, brown headed cowbird

April 6 - 12

Common birds: junco (7 days), mourning dove (7 days), house sparrow (4-5 days), robin (7 days), Canada goose, starling (6 days), red-breasted nuthatch (3 days), chickadee (1-2, 4 days), cardinal (male 2 days, pair +3 days), downy woodpecker (male 1 day, female 1 day), red-wing blackbird (2 days), goldfinch

Spring visitors: brown creeper, song sparrow, chipping sparrow

Not sure: turkey vulture (likely), cormorant?

The turkey vulture is likely, seen flying overhead, large and dark.  The cormorant, well, water-bird like, possibly duck, but the shape looked like a cormorant.  The chipping sparrow, I'm pretty sure that's what it was.  It was a sparrow, with a red-brown cap, unstreaked breast, and seemed to have a little eye bar.  It was too quick to be totally sure - American Tree (has dark spot on breast), is also possible. 

See next post for additional tags. 

November 24-30

A first this week - a fox sparrow!

Common birds: chickadee (2 days), house sparrow, cardinal (male)

Fall visitors: fox sparrow, junco

Not sure: chipping sparrow - looks a different in winter colouring, but I think that's what it was.

May 9

Common birds: robin, mourning dove, cardinal (pair), crow, chickadee, house sparrow

Spring visitors: brown creeper, yellow rumped warbler, black and white warbler, chipping sparrow, white crowned sparrow, magnolia warbler, redwing blackbird

Likely: yellow warbler, parula warbler, palm warbler, ruby-crowned kinglet

May 8 pt. 2

Separated into 3 parts so I can fit all the birds into the tags.

April 19

Common birds: house sparrow, starling, robin, red-wing blackbird (pair), cardinal (pair), downy woodpecker (pair), mourning dove

Spring visitors: chipping sparrow, junco, brown creeper

April 13

Common birds: starling, grackle, cardinal (pair), red-wing blackbird, robin, chickadee

Spring visitors: junco, white throated sparrow, brown creeper, golden crowned kinglet, thrush (veery?), chipping sparrow (?)

June 1 / the sprouts

Another warm day.  The snails have been liking the rain - I watched one crawl over my hand this afternoon.  I'm also seeing some sprouts where I recently planted some carrots and other things.

Common birds: starling, house sparrow, cardinal (pair), house finch (male), robin, grackle, blue jay, mourning dove

Spring visitors: red-wing blackbird, brown headed cowbird (male), chipping sparrow

Overhead: red-tailed hawk

Heard: gull

May 26 / the noise

It's been warmer, sunny, and breezy outside.  I planted some poppy seeds, and tended to things planted a few days ago.

Earlier this afternoon, there was a bit of a face-off between a crow on one side, and several grackles with two blue jays on the other.  Over the back fence, there is a tall evergreen tree.  I watched the crow get chased in that direction, and as it landed on the very top of the tree, it was flown at by the other birds in turn.  It flew off after a few minutes, and I have no idea what started it all, but it was quite entertaining.

Common birds seen today: crow, blue jays, sparrows, cardinals (pair), mourning dove, robin, starling, grackles, gull.

Spring visitors: red-wing blackbird, chipping sparrow.

Birds of the Day / May 23

We spent much of today outside, planting, pruning, moving, weeding and seeding.  Good thing many of the birds don't seem overly intimidated.  The weather today has been more humid, partly overcast, with short periods of rain. 

Common birds seen today: sparrows, grackle, robin, mourning doves, cardinals (pair), house finch, starling, downy woodpecker

Spring visitors seen today: red-wing blackbird, chipping sparrow, cowbird (female)

Heard: blue jay

Seen overhead: gull (I am unfamiliar with what types we get here), two red-tailed hawks