Back Yard
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Grosbeak Season
There are 4 male grosbeaks and one female in this photo. Hopefully more females will arrive!
Our first customer arrived on May 5.
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Forest Charles
He’s back: the enormous woodchuck we named Forest Charles because his bulk suggested the need for a more distinguished handle.
We spotted him first a few years ago, when he fell from a tree he was climbing. The earth trembled.
He’s a canny fellow, munching watchfully in the early morning. I’m convinced he can see me through the window when I point the camera at him, because he’s over the bank on a flash. How he stayed this large while hibernating I don’t know, but he’s making up for lost time among the weeds at the back edge of the yard. He seems to prefer weeds to garden fare, and he’s more than welcome to them.
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Housekeeping
I happened to catch sight of Mrs. Flicker doing some housekeeping after excavating her nest. She began with a critical appraisal from the outside…
Then, she ducked in…
. . . all the way in . . .
. . . and then emerged with a mouthful of shavings in her beak. She released them, but it was a windy day, so I could see the shavings blow away over her left shoulder.
She worked at it for awhile, bringing out several loads of litter. I suppose the interior is all ready for some eggs now — and she’s ready for a cozy rest incubating them!
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Spring Construction
A pair of flickers is making a nest cavity in the brush behind our house.
It’s hot out, but the female is working steadily, pausing periodically to call for her mate. (The picture above shows the male. The female doesn’t have the black streaks — Anna Botsford Comstock calls them “mustaches” — under her beak on each side.)
She’s quite beautiful. It’s one of the upsides to having dead trees that the birds can use them like this… even though sometimes it’s easier not to know. That way we aren’t as aware of the many difficulties they face: red squirrels, blue jays, Cooper’s hawks, snakes.
I wish them well!
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Mrs P
We’ve had a pileated woodpecker visit the suet cake on our feeder a time or two before. Since they’re huge in comparison to the downy, hairy, and red-bellied woodpeckers that make up our usual customer base, they make a dramatic entrance and always bring an air of novelty.
This year, however, we have a suet addict. This female pileated has been coming several times a day. I’m not sure why. Has another food source become scarce? Or does she just adore the high-concentration yumminess of suet?
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Summer Afternoon
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A little piece of Paradise
The zinnias are blooming, so there’s always something to see.
A few mornings ago as I was checking on the container gardens, a sudden lurch and swaying of stems revealed a bunny leaping away. The zinnias are 4 feet tall now, and the little rabbit had apparently been chilling in the coolness at their roots, perhaps snacking on some of the pigweed (to which he’s welcome).
Butterflies and hummingbirds feast there too.
Giant Swallowtail 
Monarch (and bee) 
Monarch 
Monarch shooing a bee This morning when I looked out the window, I saw a bird on the picnic table I’d observed last night and thought it was a wren. It’s not.
Waterthrush I think it’s a Louisiana Waterthrush. There’s also a Northern Waterthrush, but it has more yellow than this one.
Waterthrush Our back yard isn’t very large or fancy, but it gives us a front row seat on so many of the other interesting inhabitants of the neighborhood. It’s become an important part of our lives and brings us a lot of joy.
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Mr. Carolina Wren Greets the Morning
When this little bird lets loose his exuberant song, what often comes to mind is E.E. Cummings’s poem:
i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes . . .
What he’s actually saying is, “TEA-kettle TEA-kettle TEA!” He shouts it out year-round in the morning with great exuberance, then looks around appreciatively.
He’s one of our favorite backyard neighbors.
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Playing It Cool on a Hot Day
While eating lunch today, I spotted a reddish lump in the leafy heights of the back yard. Sure enough, it was a red squirrel.
Eventually it adjusted for more comfortable power-lounging — or, to use the technical term, splooting:
I know just how he feels. What a perfect way to experience a hot day!
Meanwhile, in the grass, a gray squirrel we’ve dubbed Stefan Spendidtail was in full sploot as well:
I’m not sure what they call a robin that’s tipsy from the heat, but this one seemed to be savoring the mere idea of the bird bath. It perched with this quizzical expression for several minutes before taking the plunge.
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Red-Headed Woodpecker
Never in my life have I seen a red-headed woodpecker — till one day recently when this one showed up at our bird feeder and spent a day or two in the brush beyond our back yard. It was taking seeds and storing the in the bark of trees, so we hoped it might find this a hospitable place to stay for the summer. But it apparently moved on.
My father has spoken before of seeing one when he was 6-years old. It raised young in a dead tree in front of his house. The city cut down the tree the following year, and there were no more woodpeckers.
All About Birds lists them as in steep decline. I guess they are more common farther to the south, but I suspect this is a once-in-a-lifetime sighting. I felt very blessed.
