Wildflowers

Daily Variety

Today's visitors included the hairy woodpecker . . .







and the white-breasted nuthatch . . .





as well as the chipping sparrow . . .

Feed Me, Dad!

It's been family time -- and noisy -- lately in the trees, especially when the kids decide they're lazy and hungry.

Today it was father goldfinch's turn to keep up with the youngster. Dad would spend some time at the feeder while the youngster waited impatiently in the tree. And when dad came up to the branch, the begging and wing fluttering started. I watched this cycle several times, until the youngster finally joined dad down at the feeder. The juvie grabbed some seeds on his own, but still tried begging -- and was ignored, until he returned to the branch again.

Black and White All Over

I added another "first" to my bird list this evening. Just as I started to step out to our deck to check the bbq grill, I caught a flash in the tree. My husband slowly handed me the camera and I was able to get a few shots as two black-and-white warblers jumped from branch to branch. The pair came back again a little later -- both times they came from the woods across the street, along with the chickadees and nuthatches.

Evening Grosbeaks

The evening grosbeak is only an occasional visitor to my feeder, either early in the day or late. But I think I miss most of their visits. Recently, I had the male . . .

who was joined by the female.





And then a third one -- the youngster of the family -- came "crashing" into the scene. He spent a lot of time in the tree, just looking at the feeders as he went from branch to branch.

Mom and dad occasionally glanced up at him, but they didn't let that crazy kid distract them much from filling up with the seeds.



He made several attempts to get to one of the feeders, usually ending up back in the tree. But a couple times, he actually made it to the feeder next to the adults.

And I did end up with one image of all three of them.