Updates from the Yard

We saw three female Red-Winged Blackbirds yesterday, which we believe to be the highest count. The females are usually more elusive than the males and we don't see much of them at all.





Barn Swallows made their appearance for the first time this year. No pics as they were moving very quickly through the air.


The Chipping Sparrow with the missing head feathers is still around. I think his cap has started to come in a bit. He still has a small bald spot, but he looks better than he did when I first posted about him.


Male Cardinals were busy chasing each other through the yard the last few days. I don't think we normally see them this late into spring.



For the first time in weeks I heard the Red-bellied Male making lots of noise from up in the trees. I assume he's been busy nesting. We'll keep an eye out for the young, as we've seen in previous years. We are also seeing large numbers of Blue Jays (up to 10) each morning. The Tree Swallows are still active at the nesting boxes. They seem to keep moving around from one to another, so I don't think any actual nest building is occurring as of yet.



And finally we saw our first hawk (of any kind) in almost a month, which was was a juvenile Cooper's Hawk. We had the Cooper's vs Sharpie debate and had to turn to this FANTASTIC resource and then made our determination:


Tricky ID's- Cooper's and Sharp-shinned Hawks