The Birds!

No not the Alfred Hitchcock movie, but real birds. We have bird feeders out behind the house, right at the edge of the woods, and this weekend it really paid off. The first was Saturday. My sister was down visiting from upstate New York. We had the windows open and we were enjoying the cool air while sitting in the Family room. we spotted this bird at the feeder.

Do you know what it is? We didn't at first, we ran for the binoculars and the bird book. After a couple of minutes we had our answer. Its a female Baltimore Oriole. I have never seen one before, I have seen males though. I am sure with a Female around there are males too. Very cool. You can find out more about Baltimore Orioles here:All About Birds

Return of the turkey. Also as we were sitting around we could hear a male Turkey in the woods gobbling. Generally males gobble to call in the harem, for various reasons. If the female doesn't come to him, he will go to her. This is how hunters try to hunt the male Turkey. They imitate the female call and get the males to come to them. This is difficult to do, and the wild turkey is a very smart, wily bird. My neighbor, who is a hunter explained that he has tried doing this for years, and he likes the challenge because in reality the hunter and the turkey switch roles. The male is actually hunting for the female. More about the Wild Turkey HERE


When we went to leave to go to lunch we spotted a female in our neighbors yard. The male was really gobbling up a storm back in the woods. He was probably trying to get her away from us. Cool stuff getting to see and hear that right in your own yard. So far in the house we have spotted the following animals in our yard:
Deer
Red Fox
Squirrels (duh)
Wild Turkey
Opposum
Raccoons

Maybe not the worlds most impressive list, but for my 5 year old it wonderful.

Finally on Sunday we looked out at the feeder and saw this guy:


At first we thought maybe he was a bluebird, but he is actually not. Its an Indigo Bunting. Here is a little interesting fact about them for you. Their feathers are not blue, they are actually black, but the refraction of the light hitting them makes them appear to be blue. Its the same for the Blue Jay.

You can read more about them here: Indigo Bunting




Thats the weekend. We did drive down to visit Mom at here medical facility which is part of her retirement community. She is looking great and doing well. We took games and we all played Care Bears Go Fish (I won!), Princess Monoply (Munchkin won), My Littlest Petshop Game (Munchkin won again!) and we helped Mom finish a puzzle that she had started with my sisters and brother in law. Fun stuff. Busy weekend, with lots of stuff, but thats OK.