I'm so glad it's finally spring

There are some really good reasons for living in Minnesota......winter isn't one of them!
However, once winter finally departs (this year after staying too long!) spring finally arrives and with it come the beautiful birds that we dream about all winter......like this Baltimore Oriole

And how about a pair of Indigo Buntings!

There's nothing like the intense colors of the spring and summer migrants arriving in the backyard to make us forget winter nightmares like this.......

.....and enjoy the beauty of male Rose-Breasted Grosbeak with the promise of crabapple blossoms in the background.

Here's a little visitor I usually expect during the winter, but he didn't show up in my backyard until just last week -- the Red-Breasted Nuthatch.

I heard an unusual bird call in the backyard last weekend and finally spotted this Eastern Towhee hanging out with some other ground feeding birds in the backyard. This was a marvelous sighting for me -- haven't seen an Eastern Towhee for at least 10 years and this is a FIRST for my backyard!

It even flew close to the house and perched in the crabapple tree for a few minutes so I was able to snap a photo of him from my patio too!

Last weekend's weather provided some sort of migration fall-out, because in addition to the towhee and red-breasted nuthatch, some Cap May Warblers also showed up and feasted at the suet log.

Did she say Cape May Warblers?? Yes I did! Another first for my backyard PLUS a life bird for me!

What gorgeous little birds! They hung around for several days, flitting in and out of the cage protecting the suet from starlings and then they were gone, no doubt heading to somewhere in northeastern Minnesota.

The brilliant yellow feathers of the goldfinch are always a welcome sign of spring around here too. I started seeing a few yellow feathers on these finches in March, and then it seems like all of a sudden they've all turned completely yellow.

The best surprise of last weekend also hung around for several days. See him in the background there? (hint: that ain't no cardinal!)

OHMIGOSH, IT'S A MALE SCARLET TANAGER! I'm surprised my yelling didn't scare him away!

He loved the grape jelly which the orioles grudgingly allowed him to share.

What a contrast to what I saw on this deck from December until March!

Once the orioles arrived, they were back to stay. Here are the male and female Baltimore Orioles.

The males are not very tolerant of each other's presence at the jelly dishes. Grape jelly has become one of the scarcest items on Rochester's grocery store shelves in the last couple weeks.

Here's a good example of tolerance with an Orchard Oriole enjoying some jelly while the Baltimore Oriole visits the nectar feeder.

I was surprised to see the Orchard Oriole visiting the suet log too. He didn't seem to have any problems getting through the starling-proof cage.

Such a beautiful bird. (I put dried mealworms on top of their grape jelly and that's what you see hanging out the tip of his beak.)

I even got to see the female Orchard Oriole perched in the backyard swamp white oak tree.

The Orchard Orioles usually don't hang around for very long, so last weekend was probably the only time I'll see them this spring also. But at least the Baltimore Orioles are still sticking around, feasting on grape jelly and singing their beautiful songs for me every morning. Hopefully they'll nest somewhere nearby and bring their little ones to visit before their departure again in August. But I'm not even going to think about that and simply enjoy the colors and sounds of spring in Minnesota.

Backyard Blooms

Spring has definitely (finally!) arrived here in southeastern Minnesota. Although we could still use a little more rain, I'm not complaining because the temps have been so warm and all these sunny days have encouraged lots of new, green growth on plants aroung the yard, plus the appearance of flowers! Here are some looks at the flowers I found out in the backyard this past Wednesday afternoon..........

Dutchman's Breeches

I dug these wildflowers up from the woods many years ago and planted them underneath the deck. Every year they spread out a little bit farther and I love their beautiful foliage and cute blossoms.

Daffodils

I planted probably about 10 of these bulbs in the side yard at least 15 years ago with visions of them naturalizing and filling the entire area with blooms every spring. Several of them have died over the years, and I'm down to only 4 blooming clumps each spring, but this year I think each clump has the most flowers I've ever seen. I always think I should cut a few and bring them in the house, but they look so much prettier out in the backyard.

Nanking Cherry

I was surprised to see these Nanking Cherry shrubs covered with blossoms! A neighbor gave me these plants--they were some unclaimed leftovers from a Pheasants Forever wildlife plant giveaway. Even though these aren't native Minnesota plants, they've done pretty good in the crappy clay soil of my backyard (and when the bunnies don't get a chance to munch on the lower branches during the winter). I hope most of these blossoms turn into cherries because the birds absolutely LOVE them! Once the cherries ripen, the birds will completely strip the branches clean of fruit in less than a day.

The flowers are really pretty, but have no discernible fragrance (at least to my nose).

Little Blue Hyacinths

These pretty little blue flower are blooming in the perennial butterfly garden on the southeast side of my house. It's nice to see this spot of color in a garden where it will be several weeks before the rest of the flowers start blooming.

Sunday Afternoon Birding

Today was the first time in 95 days that our temperature topped 40 degrees. Even though it was mostly overcast, we decided to go for a drive and see if we could spot any good birds. Our first stop was the nearby reservoir to see if there was any open water yet maybe attracting some waterfowl. We got there only to find that the only open water was in the ice fishing holes drilled by these fishermen. I was amazed at the number of people fishing! We watched one guy drilling through the ice and it looked to be at least 16-18 inches thick yet! But the weatherman is predicting highs in the 40's all next week, so the end of the 2010 ice fishing season isn't far away.

I was keeping my eyes open for newly arrived spring migrants including grackles, red-winged blackbirds, or maybe even a bluebird. We didn't see any of those birds, but we did have to slow down for this early season possum trotting across the road.

There were horned larks everywhere! For me, these are the most difficult birds to photograph. They are so flighty and will take off if the car comes within 100 yards of them. I managed to photograph this one after Mr. Johnson stopped the car and we waited for the flock to land on the road behind us. (The birds were still quite a ways back, so this photo isn't the greatest, and even though you can't see the "horns" of this lark, you can still see its black facemask.)

We turned another corner next to a plowed cornfield where most of the snow had already melted. Something interesting caught my eye in this field. Can you see it?

"Stop, stop, stop the car!" I ordered my driver. My window was down and I was trying to get my camera ready to take a photo. I could tell this bird wasn't a pheasant, but I had no idea what it was. I took a couple quick photos and then got my binoculars on it again to see any other field marks to help in the ID. Fortunately, on this trip, I remembered to bring my big Sibley guide along and after seeing the orange face and throat, plus the rufous barring on the chest, I was able to ID this bird as a Gray Partridge. Way cool! There were actually 2 of these birds in the field here and although it wasn't a life bird for me, it's been years since we've seen them in SE Minnesota.

A lot of the streams and rivers are starting to melt and these Canada geese were enjoying the shallow water and the chance to pick at grass on the riverbank.

On our way home, we spotted a huge flock of turkeys walking up this driveway. These birds all looked pretty healthy after this long winter.

It appeared that all of these turkeys were hens, and since we can only take toms during the spring turkey hunting season, the size of this flock shouldn't be affected by the upcoming spring hunt. In fact, with this many hens around, the future of wild turkeys in SE Minnesota looks pretty good!

Meteorological Spring

According to my friends over at the KTTC Precision Forecast Center, yesterday (March 1st) marked the first day of Meteorological Spring here in Minnesota. And after the winter we've had so far, I'll take spring in any way I can get it! Here's a look at what's left of our woodpile (nothing!)Last fall we had a full cord delivered and there were 4 stacks of wood piled 5 and 1/2 feet high between these poles. I kept the thermostat set at about 65 all winter and with my getting home early in the day from work, was able to start the fireplace most days and keep our house pretty comfortable. I was happy that we never had any gas bills over $100 this past winter and that's the first time for many years. In the end it probably all comes out the same though, because if I remember correctly, that cord of wood delivered last October cost us around $185. Oh well, Sophie and I enjoyed quite a few nice naps on the couch in front of the toasty fireplace. :-)

Even though there's still a lot of snow in the backyard, we can really notice where it's melted quite a bit. However, in the spring, this isn't always a good thing, as you can see by what's starting to show up underneath my birdfeeders. Here's what below where my 2 thistle seed feeders hang on the deck. Yuck!

And here are a couple more feeders in the backyard. Double Yuck!!

I can already see that I've got lots of cleaning up to do this spring (as soon as I can get my wheelbarrow out of this snowbank!)

Melting snow is also revealing quite a large number of Sophie's "deposits" from the long winter. Definitely time to start watching where I'm walking again!

After my last disastrous knitting project, I decided to start a new hat pattern on Sunday afternoon. This is "Quincy" from Jared Flood's "Made in Brooklyn" pattern book.

I really love the way this hat turned out! (keepin' it for myself too!) The main part of the hat is knitted in a strip, then you give it one twist and graft the ends together (so it becomes a tube). Then you pick up stitches around the top edge of the tube and knit the top of the hat. I love the beautiful details of the top and the I-cord edging all the way around.

I really love all of Jared's designs in this pattern book.....the hardest thing is going to be deciding which pattern I want to knit next!

Happy Meteorological Spring Everyone!

Some Recent Bird Sightings

Well, after a couple of +90 degree days and some really fierce winds yesterday (with +50 mph gusts), our weather has returned to normal spring temps with much calmer breezes and a few intermittent rain showers today. The majority of our spring birds are back now and most of the warblers have moved on, as evidenced by my sightings last week in northern Minnesota.

I have a bunch of bird pictures on the compact flash card in my camera, so I figured tonight would be a good time to get them edited and in a blog post.

Here's a really bad picture of the Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher I saw a few weeks ago when I was birding with my Sissy at Forestville State Park. This was a lifer for me. It was quite the sassy little bird and responded nicely to my birdJam.

On May 10th, I was really surprised to see a couple of Pine Siskins at one of my thistle seed tube feeders. These guys must be the stragglers on this migration. Last night at Master Naturalist class, one of my classmates told of seeing a Common Redpoll at his thistle seed feeder last Saturday. His description of the bird and also the fact that it was on his thistle feeder eating convinced me that he had certainly seen a Redpoll. I know we've had a cold and late spring, so I hope these little migrants make it back to the north country in time to start a new family.


I've had Baltimore Orioles in the backyard for a couple of weeks now, but during supper the other night, I looked out and spotted this Orchard Oriole who sat still long enough for me to take his picture. He is Bird #42 on my backyard list for 2009.

The suet log has been seeing almost non-stop woodpecker activity this week--from both Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers. Sometimes the Hairy's seem to forget that they have to access the log from the bottom of the cage while the Downy can just fly right through. This was a lucky shot--the Hairy's almost always chase the Downy's away as soon as they spot them trying to get to the suet log.

Last night at Master Naturalist class one of my classmates spotted this Eastern Kingbird. It was my FOY kingbird and I'm sorry I couldn't get a better focused picture of such a handsome bird.

Last week, this was the view of the beautiful blooming crabapple tree outside my dining room window. I really love this tree and I'm glad it's so close to the house because the birds really love it too. Needless to say, after the winds of the past couple days, all the lovely pink blossoms have blown away.

Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks are such gorgeous birds anyway, but doesn't he look even more lovely with the green grass and crabapple blossoms in the background? Knowing we will have sights like this in May is what sustains us through the 6 months of a dark and cold Minnesota winter!

And, last but not least, here's an underappreciated Mourning Dove patiently waiting for the mistress of the household to "fill the darn birdfeeder, please!"

I hope you're all enjoying spring and the wonderful sights and sounds that go along with it!