I am always happy to wake to birdsong! Blessed.

I am much amused lately by the hummingbird feeder and the Rufous Hummingbirds. I have avoided hummingbird feeders in the past probably because they are usually quite garish but the other day while buying seed at Wild Birds Unlimited I found one that is like a box. They have the loveliest things in that store, it’s hazardous to my wallet to shop there. Anyway, this feeder is simple, sublime and pretty, really like a Jewel Box as it is called. Of course it requires more assembly than I thought so I just filled the *box* with sugar water-nectar, found a spot on the deck railing where the dogs couldn’t knock it over or interfere with the birds and waited. It only took a day before the Rufous hummingbirds I had seen going after some vine blossoms in the woods started coming around. The males have an iridescent band of russet red around their neck and I love that distinctive sound they make, can hear it from a mile away. I get to watch them sup up the sugar water, amazed that they hover then stop those rapidly beating wings to feed. We humans. We intervene so blithely. I have begun to notice that each time I hear the hummingbird approach the feeder, another bird, probably a songbird whose song I haven’t identified, calls out and I think it’s calling out and defending its territory. I suspect there is a nest in our eaves and it flies by so fast, I can’t even see it but it’s trying to bombard the hummingbird, scare it off. The hummingbird stands his ground though, keeps coming back and staying longer each time, the last time nearly two full minutes, a long time in hummingbird time. They are tough little birds, have me captivated, obviously. Better than YouTube.

Birds I have spotted on our property:

Bald headed Eagle
Mallard duck
American Kestrel
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Dark-eyed Junko
Red-Winged Blackbird
Common Raven
Stellar’s Jay
Band-tailed Pigeon
Spotted Towhee
Fox Sparrow
Rufous Hummingbird
Evening Grosbeak
House Sparrow
Brown-headed Cowbird
Purple Finch
American Robin
Varied Thrush
Yellow Warbler
Pileated Woodpecker
Turkey Vulture
Owls heard more than seen but I suspect they are Western Screech Owls. I saw one at the last place we lived on the island. There are probably more species but these are the ones I’ve been able to identify.

A gaggle of Evening Grosbeaks appeared only yesterday. They’re noisy, can’t miss them and their plumage is so bright, they remind me of parrots. Beaks are distinctive too and an odd olive clolour. Still chasing the pigeons off, they eat too much, too big, too many of them. Ravens have been coming around the feeder the first time, which I find intriguing. Found a robin egg on the ground the other day, entertained fantasies of it hatching. They are such a unique shade of blue!