Father's Day weekend

Another look at the robin's nest shows there are now four eggs.


Dave checked in on the tree swallows (and was dive bombed by the parents) and it looks like all seven eggs hatched.

The house wren seems to have a nest completed (I think??). We're not sure if there are eggs stashed away down there or not.


We've also seen what we think are baby downy and hairy woodpeckers around. Still no sign of the red-bellied woodpecker at all. Here's a hairy enjoying some orange on Sunday:


Here is one of the many, many baby starlings around. These guys guard and fight over the suet. They are so noisy!! The only birds that don't back down from them are the mature hairy woodpeckers (they stretch out their wings and motion their beaks at the starlings to chase them away) and the grackles, who are bigger than the starlings and don't seem bothered by them at all.


Here's a downy getting a turn at the suet for a change:




We've also seen two male rose-breasted grosbeaks and a female on and off the last week or so. Not sure if they are babies or just still hanging around. We didn't see any for awhile, but we've seen just these few the last while.

Here's a Red Breasted Grosbeak in flight, taking some suet:
The gold finches continue to enjoy the niger seed. Our sack needs repairing in a few spots.



Here's a female cowbird we've been seeing for the last few weeks. Her head is strangely shaped. We haven't noticed a change in it, so I don't think it's just a loss of feathers. Sort of a helmet head and it gives her a mane.



And while weeding, Dave found a very large toad. We took a quick pic and then put it back. Nice work on keeping down the bugs, Mr Toad!