So you thought this site was just about birds? It's true, birds are the primary focus, but where you have birds - and especially food for birds - chances are you're going to have quite a few critters hanging around the yard as well. Normally it's squirrels, groundhogs, chipmunks, raccoons, and the occasional skunk, but as you can see in this photo, every so often you may get the totally unexpected. That was the case on June 15, 2010 when this hungry black bear showed up looking for an afternoon meal.

... black bear info and photos

	May 13, 2010 - Today we were very fortunate to see a wonderful bird. The Veery is named for its mysterious, sweet voice that spirals downward making a veeer sound. His odd name, of course, comes from an imitation of his sweet voice.  Mostly found on the forest floor, he is considered the secretive thrush.
	... veery info and photos

 April 25, 2010 - This was an outstanding day! We saw and photographed two new-to-us birds. I thought I was taking a picture of a chipping sparrow at one of the seed feeders. After viewing the day's photos, I realized this bird was something else. Research in our personal bird library indicated we had a field sparrow visitor.  He has a baby-like innocence to his coloring. Usually seen foraging on the ground, he managed to find a rare alone-moment on a feeder. This little sparrow is declining in its range, so we feel doubly lucky to have corrected our identification of this summer bird. We'll be keeping our eye out for more activity. More of his personal information to come.

April 25,2010 - The really astonishing visitor today was one who doesn't migrate and is not found (according to current reference material) north of Long Island, NY. But here was unmistakably a male northern bobwhite. He spent the afternoon and early evening grazing under our feeders.

Old bird books from the 1950's and 60's indicate that bobwhites could easily be found in this area and as far north as Maine.  More on that topic later.

April 22, 2010 - While waiting in the driveway for the plumber, we spotted several tree swallows making swooping inspection of the yard and the potential bird houses - no time to get the camera. We had better luck on April 30th for pictures, but a male swallow was not as fortunate in the luck department. After inspecting a birdhouse that was used two summers ago by tree swallows (maybe even this bird), he apparently was startled and flew into Food Guy's office door. He was stunned but didn't lose consciousness. After several of his friends came over to look and probably encourage him, he flew away, maybe to reconsider his  house hunting tactics.

...more photos and info

On April 23, 2010, we heard the unmistakable singing of a house wren. Last year after what Food Guy called William the Wren, had successfully had a wonderful little family in one of our close bird houses, we saw very little of him and them. Soon another male appeared. This one had white feathers on his right wing edge. Even though he too sang his little heart out and restuffed William's bird houses with new sticks, I don't think he ever found his true love. This year Mr. White Wing wren is back in full song and filling every box he can find with twigs large and small. By May1st he found a female who surveyed his crude nesting attempts and quickly picked the one with the best potential and started redecorating.

...more photos and info

Since the spring has been so warm, I was surprised that we still had juncos in our yard until April 24th. In looking over last year's records, it turns out the little gray guys were our guests until April 23, 2009. Juncos could stay in our area year-round and I know of some that do about 20 miles from here. I guess ours prefer to travel to the honeymoon capital of Niagara Falls and beyond.  See ya' in the fall.

more photos and info 

April 1, 2010 - We occasionally have seen two American tree sparrows at once, but often actually have only one come to a feeder at a time. In January we were excited to see four distinct birds. By April 1st we were visited by three American tree sparrows, while they ate at the feeders for what became a last fill-up before migration.  Back to the tundra of northern-North America to have babies.

On March 9, 2010 the red winged blackbirds arrived, or at least the males did. There was no displaying of their red and gold epaulets yet, as territory range and competition for a mate will occur later.  The next day brought us the grackles. They were soon raising their heads in the rivalry game. The last black birds to return came the following day on March 11th -  the cowbird. This bird, unlike the other black guys, has arrived in large numbers (Oh, joy!  Look out, little song birds! Guard your nests and eggs carefully.)

Red-winged Blackbird	Common Grackle	Brown-headed Cowbird

March 12, 2010 brought out the robins.   We observed a female robin with wings down, who was ready for spring time action. Another arrival was the chipping sparrow. This is the first year we've seen several of these cuties at a time.

The woodchuck was a little late in making an appearance this year on March 17, 2010.  We were worried that our terrier dog who came to live with us late last summer might have been cause for possible relocation on their part.  But at least two distinct woodchucks have been spotted. Food Guy says three

One of these guys is a lot smaller than the others, although all are adults. Normally, they seem to live in different parts of our yard. This is a photo of the southern (same size) duo together.

We've been seeing lots of the song sparrow, since March 20th. Several times a day there has been lots of ground hopping  and shuffling.  Joining in the fun came several white throated sparrows on March 25th. Making a pass through appearance  on March 27th was the fox sparrow.  

Song Sparrow	White Crowned Sparrow	Fox Sparrow

Bluebirds were seen looking in several of our houses, even in the purple martin house (that is really the community nesting place for the house sparrows.)  We do have several bird houses around the yard that have never had any takers, even though the price is right and they are similar to the popular boxes (must be true about location, location, location).

Early March 2010 - A chart was created which will show bird sightings in our backyard for the year 2010.  Specific arrival and  departure dates will soon be posted on the individual bird pages.  Single sighting dates will be listed for those infrequent, elusive visitors.

...photos and chart

A similar chart for our critters is also available. 

..photos and chart

Raccoon page is new.

Indian tribes had many words for raccoons, based on various traits (agile forepaws, dog-like, bear-like; ringed tail, pelt usage, eater of crabs and crayfish, and other words with no real translation).  The present name for raccoon came from the North American tribal word aroughcun which is translated "he who scratches with his hands." While most of the raccoons' names tell us something about them, their dexterous use of their front paws is a trait we all know as both clever and sneaky. They are one of the cutest pests in our yards.

...more photos and info

February 24, 2010 - We were doing our usual visual scan of the outdoors, looking for night-time critters on the ground, around the feeders and in the main maple tree.  Clumps of snow were caught on the branches. An unusually large whitish clump caught our eye. The binoculars showed  it to be an owl, the first one we have actually seen since we moved here almost 3 years ago. Food guy says he's heard an owl on several occasions, but I never have. Out came the bird reference books, which identified our "lump of snow" as a barred owl.  I hadn't paid much attention to owl categories before.  It hasn't happened, if it hasn't been seen (and preferably photographed) tends to be my admittedly narrow-minded attitude. I think I may take listening to bird calls and songs more seriously now.

...more photos and info

February 9, 2010 - When my older grandgirl was a toddler and learning new words, we would look through a children's picture dictionary. One day I showed her a carousel, expecting her to say "Merry-go-round". She looked up with a big smile and said very proudly, "Horsey-go-round!"  One look at this photo and all I could think was "Goldy-go-round".

...more photos and info

February 8, 2010 - My Grandgirl, the kindergarten kid, received a Valentine  from her substitute teacher. Attached to a red construction paper heart with a poem typed and glued on, was a small snack plastic bag containing some black sunflower seeds. She was also given a paper with 10 heart outlines that had a number 10, 20 ,30, etc. typed in them. The idea was to count the seeds by 10's to see how many were in the bag. She actually counted 112. The poem was a good one that was timely for February bird feeding month:

I made a pretty valentine           Just one did I say?    I made a HUNDRED valentines          One cold and wintry day.    I didn't put my name on them          Or any other words    Because my valentines were seeds           For February birds.

What a great idea from someone with a thankless task of temporarily facing a room full of five year olds. Here's my thank you anyway for a thoughtful way of teaching counting, giving, and bird appreciation.

Don't forget the 2010 Great Backyard Bird Count from February 12th through the 15th. Visit www.birdcount.org for details.

It's fun!

The tufted titmouse in a heart is my early Valentine to everyone.