Steve

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steeve
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Steve
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Glendale, UT
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01/01
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Downwind

Sports & Recreation > Bird Watching
 

Bird Watching

From where I sit at my computer, four bird feeders hang from two piñion pines. Although I’d never want to have to stare at some poor, captive bird forced to exist in a cage, I love watching the outside birds come and go. For the past week or so, we have been visited by many beautiful western bluebirds, as pictured below.
image
I have a field guide that I use to identify the visitors. We see finches, flickers, and robins. We see three different types of blue jays. There are juncos and sparrows, as well as grosbeaks, as pictured below.
image
A couple of weeks ago, some western tanagers came through. We will see them on and off through the summer. Here’s one pictured below.
image
For the past week we have seen an onslaught of grackles. They never arrive in pairs or even families. They arrive as an army! They take over the feeding area and devour as much as they can. In fact, all I’ve got left right now is what’s on the ground under the feeders. Saturday I will go to Costco and purchase more bird seed.
Ooh, there’s two western bluebirds out there now!

posted on May 9, 2013 11:51 AM ()

Comments:

I really enjoy the birds. We have the Cardinal's wife building a nest in
the carport. She scolds me every time I get in the car.
comment by elderjane on May 9, 2013 5:26 PM ()
I miss the cardinal from Fla. We don't have 'em in Utah.
reply by steeve on May 9, 2013 6:25 PM ()
Those are great pix. I love all the birds. Sometimes we get tons of really small birds and they cover all the phone lines. I wonder what they are. They sort of look like wrens.
comment by tealstar on May 9, 2013 2:10 PM ()
They must be the famous phone line bird.
reply by steeve on May 9, 2013 6:24 PM ()
I wish we had those western bluebirds here. I think flickers are the clowns of the forest, also the Stellers jays. Recently I read that the influx of grackles in some parts of the country has reached epidemic proportions.
comment by troutbend on May 9, 2013 2:08 PM ()
I'm looking out right now at a pinion pine. Darkness is about 45 min away and I can see the shapes of grackles filling the branches of the tree. It is like a scene from Hitchcock's "The Birds." I hope they're not too pissed b/c I'm out of seed...
reply by steeve on May 9, 2013 6:31 PM ()
I love the Stellers jays; they are so magnificent looking. I believe it about the grackles. They descend upon my little bird-feeding area and take over the place.
reply by steeve on May 9, 2013 6:21 PM ()

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