Sue's casa es su casa

This bird feeder model is called the 'squirrel buster' It will shut down if something the weight of a squirrel is on it. Didn't think I needed this feature but...

We have lots of these. Note green bud beneath his tiny foot

A pair of goldfinches

This guy seems to be missing some feathers at the back of his neck or maybe just his mating feathers are coming in. We have another male who is much brighter than him

Trouble in paradise. He first tried to climb the pole to the finch feeder (which is barely used by the way)
Then he noticed all the safflower seeds beneath the main feeder, which the finches tossed out. He is becoming harder and harder to scare off. He must live far away but I don't want him to make himself a constant visitor here. Soon he will discover the bulbs.

Robins are our most plentiful bird. With all the loose dirt in the many flower beds, worms are easy pickings, especially after the heavy rain the night before washing squirmy worms onto our patio. They ignore the feeder. So far, the blue jay has ignored the feeder too, which is good because they scare off the others. The lady at the store said that cardinals especially love safflower seeds (which cost 3x as much as thistle and sunflower seeds btw) so I got some for them. And the cardinal pair have visited several times only they are content to eat where the squirrel is eating. Also they are especially camera shy so no photos of them despite many attempts. But we have many gold finches and purple finches. We do have a pair of cowbirds. This is how they operate. Mama bird lays her eggs in another species nest. This is her sole mothering act. Her fledglings are usually bigger and older than their new nest mates, which are killed off. Foster mom usually can't tell her eggs apart from the other. Is this why robin eggs are blue instead of camouflage like others?  We've had a few birds I can't identify despite my book on hand. A phoebe? A wren? A junco? Female birds are very hard to identify. The only reason I know the bird in the first photo is a cowbird is because her mate was nearby.

As of yesterday, we've been here 2 months.  The house still is not decorated  to the degree I would like though I hung a few things yesterday in Steve's absence (he hates when I put things up..easier to do when he is gone) but the old house is the top priority even though dealing with it is not fun at all. Today the building inspector comes to inspect the windows put in almost 2 months ago. We were just informed this was necessary last week. Minor painting done yesterday. Potential outside painter comes Friday.

And again rain. My nice country route will be very slick. I waited awhile yesterday. I heard the peacocks and some cranes, along with the peepers, which I can hear the latter from our house, but could not see any of them.

finally he didn't fly away

The pair. The female tried to eat directly from the feeder but she is too big! The perch is too close to the feeding holes. She awkwardly tried to strain her neck. I wish the cardinal expert alerted me to this problem. The biggest bird in our yard is the blue jay. Guess I don't have to worry about him unless I get a bigger feeder