Families

Yesterday, we saw numerous family groups in the yard.

There were a total of four white-breasted nuthatches. This is the most we've ever seen at one time. They were sticking close together and were near the orange feeder. Other than seeing them all together, we saw one (likely a parent) visiting the suet feeder, taking chunks of suet and flying off, likely to share it with the babies. We didn't see this last year at all, so it's exciting to see a family of nuthatches in our yard.


We also saw a total of four rose-breasted grosbeaks. We think some must be juveniles, but since they look like the females, we're not sure of the baby head count. There was one male and three females/juveniles together on the tree. I wasn't fast enough with the camera, so I missed the group shot. I did get some pics of two of the females/juveniles together and the male at the feeder as well. The rbgb were not around this late last year and since they are so pretty, it's wonderful to have them stick around this late into the summer. Success!!!


We also saw an adult grackle with two babies. The parent (it's not possible to determine male/female in the adults on just looking at them) was feeding the babies suet and seemed to be giving them water, but I'm not sure if that's what was happening or if they were just at the water and the parent was giving suet it had kept in it's mouth.



A juvenile baltimore oriole was also at the tray feeder at the orange. I don't think we saw orioles this late last year and we think they must have nested nearby this year.

The flycatchers decided not to use the nesting box (yet), but we keep seeing them around, on the fence or in the trees. It's nice to be able to see a new bird hanging around.