Sadly, though, some of our little buddies are moving on to breeding grounds further north. The dark-eyed juncos are still moving through:

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And some new arrivals, who also are just moving through to parts further north, are making their presence known. This is a very bad pic of the very first yellow-rumped (myrtle) warbler I saw this year...madame hazel had one chance to get the pic and the camera auto-focused on the branches (:frustrated:) but it's still recognizable as a yellow-rumped. :cloud9:

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There are also some new arrivals that we [I]wish[/I] were just passing through, but unfortunately are not...

These are brown-headed cowbirds, notorious nest parasites. They lay their eggs in smaller birds' nests to be raised by the host birds.

Here's a female:
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A male:
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And the morning coffee group :p
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The broad-winged hawks have returned:

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There is a pair that nests just to the south of here, so I expect to see them all summer. They're hard to get pics of unless they're soaring, though.

The turkey vultures are soaring overhead again, too:

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And many of our nest-season residents are back again.

American robins, starting with Mama:

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Papa:

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hazel was surprised to find this little field sparrow sitting on the fence in the side yard one morning. They are normal nesters here, but they rarely come near the houses. They hang out in the little meadow-in-the-woods out back.

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This little guy seemed a little surprised, too! Or maybe it's just cuz his eyes are so big. :p

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The eastern phoebes are back. They're nesting under the in-laws' porch roof again this year. Last year we had a successful nest under our deck, but so far this year they're displaying no interest in nesting there. :(

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(Yes, that's a hornet! Way to go, Phoebe!!)

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One of our early-returning nesting warblers is the pine warbler. I see them so infrequently because they stay high in the pines, usually foraging inside the needle clusters. This one was extremely obliging and dropped to nearly eye level while I was photographing chipping sparrows one morning. :thumbs up

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Our nesting pair of eastern bluebirds has returned. I love the muted colors of the female:

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She's quite vigilant...

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...and doing a great job pulling grubs out of the lawn! :thumbs up Yum! :yuck:

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The male is a lot brighter.

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And I caught a little bit of their mating ritual at the top of the oaks...

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I'd been hearing a red-winged blackbird but only caught a split-second glimpse of him a few weeks ago. Today, he heard madame hazel had the camera out, so he came to ham it up for his 15 minutes of fame.

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The surprise was not so much that he showed himself, but that he spent so much time hanging out in the hemlocks!!! None of us had ever seen a red-winged blackbird in a large evergreen before. :o

And what was that noise up there?

Hmmmm...hard to tell...

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Oh, wait a minute! That's a yellow-bellied sapsucker drilling sap holes (so he can suck some down, don't ya know :D)

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What a lovely red cap :flirt:

And finally (yes...finally :p), some pics of our chipping sparrow. He's totally oblivious to madame hazel and her camera now that he's settled in his new territory.

Here he is showing off his beautiful feathers:

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And here he is singing his little heart out :flirt:

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Whew!! That was a lot of pics.

No wonder Ember and Macie were so tired when we were done! :o

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Wow Hazel, what a great selection of birds you have :cloud9:. Wonderful pictures :cloud9:. I think I might be getting envious of your blind :D.

Love that shot of Ember and Macie :lovestruck:.

[QUOTE=hazelrunpack;910312]Check this out: [URL="http://www.wbu.com/chipperwoods/photos/nflicker.htm"]flicker[/URL]

Are you seeing something like that? There are two 'flavors', the red-shafted and the yellow-shafted. The markings are the same, but the color pattern of the red and black patches differs.[/QUOTE]

thats it!!!!! I have been searching for a pic of him online, thank you!!!!

[QUOTE=TeriM;911202]Wow Hazel, what a great selection of birds you have :cloud9:. Wonderful pictures :cloud9:. I think I might be getting envious of your blind :D.
[/QUOTE]

The only shots taken from the blind were the hairy woodpeckers and the juncos this time, if I recall correctly. The sparrows, warblers, bluebirds, blackbird, robins...I was just meandering nonchalantly to get those shots. Most are cropped pretty close, but I could get within 40 or 50 feet that way. Go slow, take some pics, take a step forward, take some pics, take a step forward... madame hazel is in her glory because I let her take as many pics as she wants on the way to the birds in case the next step flushes them. :laughing: The soaring birds were a tad farther away, of course. :D Those are cropped pretty tightly.

I'll probably start using the blind again when the bluebirds start feeding babies (should be in a couple of weeks considering the behavior I saw a few days ago), and when the indigo buntings and rose-breasted grosbeaks return :thumbs up

[QUOTE=Melinda;911214]thats it!!!!! I have been searching for a pic of him online, thank you!!!![/QUOTE]

You're welcome! You gave a good description :thumbs up

Some more from me :).

Downy Woodpecker? Taken through the screen so not a great shot.
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Goldfinch (mid-molt) and his buddies
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Don't know what this guy is :shrug:. He seems new around here.
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and some more ...

I don't know what this guy is either :o.
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My regulars :).
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Better pic of the first unknown
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last ones :).

Hummingbird feeder has been very popular lately :thumbs up.
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A line up at the feeder.
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Fred helping fill up the feeder ... no worries, he was closely supervised :D.
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Great pics, Teri!!!

The woodpecker does look like a downy--short-billed (relatively) and some barring on the tail. Also small if that's a standard-sized suet feeder. :thumbs up

Your goldfinch is sharing the thistle feeder with two pine siskins--and your second-last shot is a great shot of one! They're very similar to goldfinches in size, but have streaked breasts and yellow on the wing. :D

I'm so envious of your hummers!!! :flirt: I've had the feeder out for a week now, but no takers. :D I know....I know...I'm jumpin' the gun a bit. :o Another week should do it, though!

The white-crowned mystery bird is a white-crowned sparrow. We have those here, as well, but they're pretty few and far between. I used to see more during the migration when I lived in Milwaukee. Either the populations are down, or they use a migration corridor that doesn't bring them here.

And your other mystery bird is a real treat for hazel--it's a golden-crowned sparrow, a species we don't get around here! :highfive:

Thanks for sharing, TeriM and Fred!!! Such a handsome helper! :cloud9:

Hehehe, I was thinking I should get out the book and see if I could figure them out but then I decided posting the pics was easier. I knew you could help :thumbs up.

Ya, I think madame hazel has a bit of avian OCD :o

You should post more. :D I'm sure there's lots you see that we never do!!

I love this time of year, there is soooo much singing in our back yard :cloud9:. I get a lot of the siskins, chickadees and various finches as well as some cool woodpeckers and a few regular flickers.

Sadly the main feeder will need to come down in the next few weeks as it is a real bear attractant :(. I'll still have the hummmers and the suet though :thumbs up.

So stake out the nectar and the suet :thumbs up :D

Our yard is getting pretty loud in the early hours, too! Soon the rose-breasted grosbeaks and the indigo buntings will arrive and it'll get even noisier! :cloud9: Magic... :flirt:

Whoa Hazel......my machine is smoking :laughing:....great pics as usual, took 30 mins to come in but well worth it :D

[QUOTE=hazelrunpack;911324]

Our yard is getting pretty loud in the early hours, too! Soon the rose-breasted grosbeaks and the indigo buntings will arrive and it'll get even noisier! :cloud9: Magic... :flirt:[/QUOTE]

Rose-breasted Grosbeaks I have only seen "1" and Indigo Buntings "0"...I would cherish seeing one :cloud9:

Teri - I'm still working on yours :frustrated:....man, dial-up is not for the birds.

I'm glad they finally downloaded, Chris :highfive:

Still haven't figured out why they're so wide and tall, but they seem pretty small as far as Kb's go :shrug:

That's strange Hazel, accoridng to the stats they are not huge, but they come in huge...another cyber-enigma :frustrated:

I'll work on Teri's photos tomorrow.......

Love the picture of Fred helping out TeriM. :thumbs up

Still no hummer sightings in my neck of the woods but I got 2 feeders out now--[I]waiting[/I] (toes tapping, arms crossed!) :whistle: