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| Black-capped Chickadee? |
Yesterday was, if not the first day to hit 70 degrees, one of very few. After walking home from the pool in shorts & a tank top (woohoo!) and running a bunch of errands, I decided to take advantage of the lovely day and clean up the deck. I rearranged all the plants and swept up a whole winter's worth of dirt & debris. When I had nearly finished cleaning, I paused to answer the phone. I stood leaning on the railing, and suddenly a bright green Anna's hummingbird was hovering about a foot in front of me, right at eye level. I looked up and realized that there was a chaos of bird activity going on all around me. I didn't get any good shots of the hummers, but I did get decent pictures of a few of the common visitors to my neighbor's feeders.
I've assumed that the bird in the first picture here was a Black-capped Chickadee, but on closer inspection, all of my bird guides show them with black bills. Hmmm. When I leaned over the railing to watch a hummingbird, I noticed this little guy coming out of a hole in the corner of my deck railing. Later I saw his mate come out of the hole to take food from him. Whne they were both away, I saw a tiny white egg in the bottom of the hole. Later I looked down and saw his mate sitting on the nest. The white stripe in the hole in the second picture is a chickadee!
This little guy looks like a sparrow, but it's got a lemony yellow breast, which doesn't match any of my bird book photos either. Hmm. It's got a bright white stripe right down the middle of his head and behind each eye.
I'm guessing that the other birds below are either House Finches or Purple Finches.
I also spotted but did not photograph a Golden-Crowned Sparrow.
Hooray for spring!
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| Pair of finches |
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| House finch, or maybe a Purple Finch? |
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