It's been an interesting summer so far regarding what's here and what's absent. Orioles didn't stay long, and we haven't yet seen our cedar waxwings. We also lost our red breasted nuthatch and our white crowned sparrows, which have been around for years. However, we have a couple new visitors--catbirds and eastern towhees. I'm really surprised on the latter as they've been showing up at our park by the pond. I believe them to be birds that occupy deep woods. I was unfamiliar with them, but my wife has observed them while deer hunting. Anyway, they are stunning and reminiscent of rose breasted grosbeaks. I think the catbirds are here to enjoy all our fruit. I put up the jelly feeders but haven't seen anything on them yet. We are enjoying our summer tanagers as well, and a flock of 13 geese spent the day on the pond. I enjoyed them for a day but was glad they moved on as they can be quite problematic for the pond.

I think we're missing out on a lot of woodland birds and am thinking of creating an area in our woods for observation. Any suggestions? I'm sure feeding is out of the question because of squirrels and other critters. I don't know that water would help either as there's a big creek and 3 ponds on our place as well.