Birds on the block

It's been so long since I've blogged regularly, I've missed several of Angela's Tuesdays Show & Tails lately.  One little hobby I developed several years ago is bird feeding/watching.  I don't walk around wearing khaki shorts and binoculars around my neck, but it's fun when I see something out of the ordinary or maybe something that's not overly common.  That really doesn't happen too often but I thought I'd share some of the birds that are around my house all the time.

You know the expression that someone "eats like a bird"?  I think that's supposed to mean they don't eat a lot.  Well, if you've ever fed birds, you know they eat like elephants and you can quickly go broke keeping their little stomachs happy.  Plus finding just the right blend to keep out the grackles and squirrels that will empty a feeder in 2 seconds flat is a trick in and of itself.  However, it's still fun and gives us countless hours of free entertainment.

I feel like making the dogs a bowl of popcorn so they can kick back and watch the show out back:

I'm such a novice, even though I have a lot of bird books.  Many of them look the same to me, so after scouring the pages, I'm giving you my best guess as to what it is you're seeing.  I think these are mockingbirds.

This next one is some kind of blackbird or cowbird or something like that.  It's all black with a brown head.

This is a house finch.  I know it's not a purple finch because the man at Wild Birds Unltd. spent a long time telling me the difference.  Don't ask me to repeat it because that store is filled with soft music and trickling water so I think he hypnotized me while I was there, or I dozed off while he was talking:

This is one of my favorites because 9 times out of 10 you'll find the mom and dad cardinal either together or close to one another.  They're sharing the feeder with a little finch.

I think this is some kind of woodpecker - he was a little thing but had a long beak:

This is just a regular robin taking a bath (I took it through the screen door so it's a bit fuzzy):

In the front yard, I have a small sock finch feeder and we do get the yellow or gold finches pretty often and they're my favorite because they're so bright:

I wish I could say I like the mourning doves but they're just not a favorite, and yep they do sound like they're in mourning.  They're ground feeders and they're big and I think the dog thinks they're squirrels so basically they are kind of a pain in the neck for me, but it's nice to have a variety I guess:

Finally, here is the Bozo of the backyard.  The acrobats any squirrel will do to get at the feeder will just crack you up.

We also get some blue jays and little juncos in the wintertime, but the blue jays, even though they're beautiful, are kind of mean and will scare the little birds away.  I tend to put their food in the back part of the yard.  So that's it - nothing overly exciting, but it's fun to share part of my regular day with my blog friends.  

If you have any animal stories (even if you don't own any) and want to share, pop on over to Angela's at West Virginia Treasures for her Tuesday's Show & Tail.