Bird Watching Hour

The first few days of putting our bird feeder out, we didn't spot any birds.  Then one day, I noticed the feed was almost empty.  So upon going out to inspect it had spilled on the ground and we suspected a fat bird maybe? Then later, we saw this squirrel eating under the tree - so ya, he had a guilty look but so cute with his fuzzy white chest - Nate had to remind me he is rodent.  I was afraid that he would scare the birds away but actually they aren't bothered by him because we began to see tiny birds on the ground eating right along with him.  Since then, its like an all out bird sanctuary in our yard!  The birds are singing so pretty and we wake up hearing them in the morning!  The squirrel comes every evening just about for his 5-10 minute feeding on sunflower seeds. 

My desk is right at the window so I can look out at the feeder.  Today, we started our bird watching notations since there are so many different birds coming now - the first bird must have sent a tweet to the others. ;-)  So for one hour, looking with binoculars and the bird guide we have had these visitors:

A large robin, an obese-about-to-pop sparrow, blackbird, crow (which we banged on the window to go away) and loads of baby sparrows and robins!  Then a small to medium sized bird came and at first glance I thought it was a robin but upon closer inspection with the binoculars I was perplexed - he had a black head, whitish breast, brown/tan back and then white stripes alongside his wings to the back.  I went through the bird guide and then finally found him - an Oregon Junco.  I found a pic online of one and you can see that on the right.

We are going on a bird watching adventure soon and I will blog many pics of our trip sometime next week.  (hopefully if my camera doesn't die - its 7 years old)