It's a Bird, It's a Plane...

It's a Bird, It's a Plane....Nope.  It's a Bird.

Birds! We have them all of the sudden.

This is our fifth Spring to own this house and the very first time we have had any birds besides the hummers.

Pretty much around here if you fill a hummingbird feeder, they will come.
But other birds?
Nope.

We have even commented on how it would seem this would be a lovely spot for birds- but there have NEVER been any besides a random crow or two.

One year I filled the bird feeder in June and in August ALL of the food was still there.

The next year I filled the bird feeder and ....

These aren't birds.

But they still ate all the birdseed. 

This year I decided to try again.  You know... Hope Springs Eternal and all.

And Voilá!  Birds.

First it was just the Robins and the Steller Jays with a Chickadee or two.

 Mr. Robin

 Mr. Chickadee

and a Steller Jay

But on Sunday I glanced outside and wow!  I thought somebody's parakeet had escaped. 

The brightest yellow bird was out there. And then it was joined by a black and red bird. 

And more yellow birds. And then a yellow bird with a red head. 

What was going on??

I'm not sure but we have Birds with a capital B.

 An Evening Grosbeak.

This is the guy that first caught my attention.

 Male and female Evening Grosbeak on the feeder and a female Black headed Grosbeak on the fence.

These guys travel in flocks which would explain why there were 6 or 8 at a time in the yard. 

Today they seemed to be everywhere. 

The male Black Headed Grosbeak.

Love must be in the air.

Couples everywhere.

This guy was a bit more elusive. 

It's a Spotted Towhee but I couldn't get him to pose for me.

And in the less flashy but still cute category we have these two:

 A Gray Headed Junco...

and a Chipping Sparrow.

But the one bird that I could not get a picture of was the Western Tanager. He flew by me twice but never settled.   You will have to settle for a picture from BirdwatchersDigest.com:

The Western Tanager.

A real show-stopper.

And of course the Hummingbirds are here.   They showed up a couple of weeks ago.

Turf wars have already begun. I'm going to need more feeders.   Last week when we had our (hopefully) last snow, I snapped this picture.  Poor guy.

 This was taken from inside. He had to come around to the window side to find a 

spot that wasn't snow covered.

This is probably the same bird, a male Broadtailed Hummingbird.

He has been guarding this feeder with a vengeance.

And this sweetie is a female Black-Chinned Hummingbird.

I can't wait to see what else will come. Even the neighbors who have lived in Colorado forever say they have never seen so many birds.  We are attributing all the visitors to the abundance of snow we have had compared to the past few years. Who knows!?

On a more entertaining note, while I have been typing the girlies went to McDonalds for a dinner of French Fries and McFlurries. (I know, I know. I am a fabulous mother that prepares healthy and tasty meals for her children.)  In the drive-through lane they had to wait a bit longer than usual.
I don't know if he was ordering a salad or just checking out the leaves surrounding the speaker.
But I can assure you we don't have this problem at home in Texas. At least not in the city. 

Deer in the drive-through.

Business as usual.

And on an even MORE entertaining note, Bunny looked out the window last week and asked me "Mom, does that lantern out there ever turn on?" 

Ummm.....Honey, that lantern is the bird feeder. 

I love how teenagers are so observant.  It's probably all of that health food I feed them.

Have a great week.