I love watching all the different birds come through my area. I'm on the southern tip of Lake Michigan, so we get a lot of different birds! My mom is one block from the lake, and I don't get the same variety of birds at my feeder (I'm a whole block further in!) I have a bird feeder that I can watch from my couch, and seeing who is the king of the hill is interesting (that's the woody woodpecker), and who is dominant but willing to let other birds up there (the cardinals). The bluejays just showed up in the area, and I think they beat the woodpecker for dominance. There are 3 kinds of woodpeckers around me nowadays, one of them I've never seen before. I need to go look those up. I saw my very first real-life Bluebird yesterday!(at Taltree Arboretum). That was really neat. I often get frustrated trying to identify birds, and my mom doesn't really care about proper names, so we talk about "the red-headed sparrows," "the wild canaries," and "the leaf-tossers." I think those are housefinches, goldfinches, and grackles, but I'm not sure on the first and last.

I am thinking that your picture is a fledging mainly because the beak is black. I haven't figured out if the cardinal I am seeing has a yellow beak or not. I did notice the male cardinal chasing it around, which would indicate that it's a male since I think cardinal only chase away only cardinal with the same gender. Paul

Hi Karen I see the same thing here and I agree with Bluebars that it is territorial. Interestingly enough, it is my adult female that does the chasing and she only does it to the young males. I am sure they are her offspring because Papa is very diligent in keeping other bluebirds outside the yard and away from the meal worm feeder. Here is an example, while a chipping sparrow looks on. It is also interesting that the one female from the last clutch is not chased. She pals around with Mama and in fact, often goes inside the nest box with Mama and they stay in there sometimes for several minutes. Here is a shot where they just came out of the box and are both stretching their necks, tying to decide if a bird they see is a hawk. In a similar vein, my adult male often chases the adult female, especially when they are defending the nest box and there are starlings, cowbirds or HOSP in the vicinity. When this happens Papa typically perches on the nest box and Mama on the shepherd's hook about 15 feet away. When he decides to move, he will fly to the shepherd's hook and she is expected to get out of the way. Usually she will fly to the nest box when she sees him coming, and they will pass each other on the way. If she fails to move before he gets there, he invariably attacks her. It happens every day. Here is a picture taken this morning. Dave

Mother Nature is in Southern California and she's having a field day! It's like summer here. We're having one of the worst droughts in recorded history. Farmers are having to sell their cows. Farm hands are being laid off, as there are no crops to tend. The weather is beautiful, but it's creating lots of problems. Yellow was my mother's favorite color. I remember her saying, "You must have a little touch of yellow in every room in your house." As a tribute to her, I have tried as best I can to do just that. An apothecary jar full of fake lemons sits in my living room. A little red vase with some twigs full of small yellow blossoms sits on the coffee table in my family room. A funny little yellow picture frame is on my nightstand. Yes, yellow is cheery, and your tablescape just shows how true that is. Nice job. I hope the worst of the winter storms are over soon.