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.

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.

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.

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!