Even Cowbirds get the Blues

Not my favorite birds but in the sun, rare these days here, their feathers shine in the light. Now I have about 8 cowbirds. I am becoming pretty popular with the avian set

Storms, storms and more storms. The sirens blared last evening, even here in the middle of no where though all the Michigan tornadoes turned out to be just whirling blips on radar that didn't touch down. Not so in other states, notably Illinois. And around Missouri where by son-in-law went on a work assignment, more. When things looked a bit clear, they were about to board his plane when that was cancelled and everyone was urged to stay away from windows. So I don't know when he got back, if at all.

As storms kept popping up, I didn't want to be 3 miles from home trying to make friends with people behind gates, I ran around our neighborhood not more than a half mile away from shelter.

Steve was working at the old house; I helped Naomi with some project. Ms. Maya was here too as there was an Easter break. Then I visited Shanna briefly.

In a small break between storms, more birds came to visit. I now have titmice, juncos, and nut hatches. Also, finally we got some good shots of the purple finches. They are so twitchy. One strange thing I see between bird pairs is the males feeding the females by mouth. Is this because it is mating season? I saw it with a cardinal and a finch pair.

usually her hair is in a bun but she clearly is not bald anymore

Daniel spent a good part of his vacation ill but now he is on the mend

A nuthatch which is a small woodpecker. I had a better photo of him showing his pretty coloring

purple finch

He's so pretty

A titmouse

Better nuthatch. This park that I used to go to in the winter had 4 species of birds that flocked together, so much for that old racist adage bluebirds don't flock with red birds. The chickadees, titmice, nut hatches, and downy wood peckers. All except the nut hatches, were content to eat out of my hand.