Oooooh, I'm also having a great time watching birds. The cardinals, blue jays and red-bellied woodpeckers are so busy at the feeder. Lola and Carmelo had their brood of nine again and the ducklings used our pond for their maiden voyage. However, they all left after that, as they do every year. Not sure why, but we enjoy them while they're here. Now, the most fun is the pair of screech owls. Last year they nested in the owl box. This year I thought a red-bellied woodpecker was nesting in it since I'd see him pecking on the metal below the hole frequently, announcing his territory. However, more recently, I have seen the female owl inside the box and peeking out as it nears dusk, and flying out a couple of times. Her mate is poised on a nearby branch looking out over the box every single day, but does not go inside it. I'm sure soon we will see at least one baby. I love watching them all.

Anna

Owls and ducklings! You are so lucky! I've never seen owls in my area - but, I'm sure there must be some around.

Today, I watched the courting routine between a single female blue jay and two males competing for her love. I think she finally selected one just due to plain ol' exhaustion! They chased her from tree to tree to branch to branch for HOURS!

She finally accepted a food gift from one male who is now focused on chasing off the other guy!

It's fascinating! I just love blue jays.

This morning I came out the side door and beneath the bird feeder was a male Cardinal (Charlie) going up into the feeder and then feeding his two babies by mouth to mouth. It was truly a beautiful sight. Dad feeding his offspring, Charlie and his companion Rachel have been here for at least five years. Neither me or my wife frighten them and can get as little as 8 feet from them. Ooh what man could learn from nature if he only took the time to look.

We have Chickadees in one birdhouse and a House Wren with a nest in a tipped over ceramic flowerpot. Fun watching the parents but can't see the babies yet. Don't know where the Cardinals have there nests but they will be bring the little ones to the feeder.

I hardily agree with the sentiments above.

The Painted Buntings, the hummer, what a sight.

The cat bird pair, the mocking bird pairs, the cardinal pairs, the Carolina Wren pair, the Brown Thrasher pair, the Red-bellied Woodpecker with brood, teaching suet etiquette and the many Goldfinches that are nesting nearby just makes the late afternoon a joy.

The antics, the territorial singing contests in a.m. and p.m., the occasional stranger danger calls and squirrel tail-wagging when the resident black racer is out hunting lizards. The other day I was watching the mockingbird male jump across the back yard. I though he was after a bug, (grasshopper) but it turned out he had flushed the black racer out of his hiding place and he chased and pecked him from the garden to my back door. Luckily for the snake he found a clay pot to hide under. Safe to hunt another day.

The cedar waxwings are here, every evening before dark about two hundred of them perch in the Sycamore tree and chatter like their at the water cooler spreading the day's gossip. An interesting group and quite beautiful if you have a pair of good binoculars. Sadly I am just now placing a few new plants to try to provide for them. By next year I should be able to have enough fruit to interest them into hanging about more.

Thanks for the reminder that I'm not the only one that enjoys birds, as you said much better that TV.

Not sure what kind of birds they are but we have babies playing around our yard and they fly into the breezeway shed and chirp. It echos so pretty!

Kim

Excellent post StP! We have been enjoying the antics of our cardinal family as well.

Just as an FYI - a female grosbeak showed up yesterday and was still hanging around today. Last year, a male grosbeak showed up with the buntings, so they may be along yet! There was a "herd" of them down in Sarasota a couple weeks ago hanging out in a friend's yard, so maybe they aren't all north yet.

I installed a wood duck box in Lake Osceola at the Polasek Museum earlier this Spring. Within 4 days of installation a nesting pair took up residence. Just yesterday mama and daddy duck introduced their hatchlings. They appear to have 5 or 6 ducklings who just popped out and dropped into the water. I'm over the moon thrilled!

I am enjoying this thread tremendously.
The more mature that my garden gets the more birds
that I see each year that passes by. In the am and pm I find so many bathing in the bird baths and up and down the brook. The only birds that I see drinking from the pond are the mourning doves. There are so many cardinals and mourning dove. A few days ago two doves were chasing each other and one flew in and out of our back porch where I was sitting in a rocker. I was really surprised.
This morning I saw black cap chickadees going in and out of their birdhouse. Earlier in the season the same house was used by a family of bluebirds. This morning I also saw
a family of bluebirds using a birdhouse that is more of ornamental purpose for it is short distance from the ground than it should be. But it was a gift.
The big pileated woodpecker and a bald eagle fly above us
often.
I have been a bird watcher for decades and I never stop enjoying their sights and sounds.
Felix

I'm also enjoying all the bird antics this year. We again have an oriole, but I haven't seen his mate yet. For the past couple years, they've come by for a few weeks in the spring, always staying within sight of each other, flitting around the yard.

He's been finding big fat caterpillars on the sapodilla tree, so I'm especially happy to have him there.

And our male cardinal has been proclaiming, so I suspect he's got a brood somewhere. I also saw him chasing a blue jay nearly twice his size, protecting those eggs I suspect. I'm not sure where they nest anymore. They used to use the calamondin tree, but when we put the privacy fence up, I'm afraid it gave the possums reach in access to their nest. Something stole the eggs that year, so I was surprised that they came back to my yard the next year.

And the mocking birds are chasing each other, completely oblivious to us and the pets, who think it's rather audacious of a mere bird to fly so close to them.