Gosh! Just when the driveway had finally dried out it had to rain again! Grrr! It's just one long mud hole now. I have moved my walking from the back yard to the deck now. The back yard had a river running through it yesterday. But I must say, despite such setbacks, my walking is improving to the point that I'm now doing 3 miles or better each day! To say it's extremely tiring is an understatement!
On the weekend of February 12-15 the Great Backyard Bird Count took place. I was delighted to see many birds show up. My list includes: American Goldfinches, a brave Blackbird, Bluebirds, Bluejays, Black-capped Chickadees, Brown-headed Cowbird, Brown Thrasher, Cardinals, Carolina Wren, Downey Woodpecker, Grackle, Mockingbird, upside-down Nuthatches, Red-bellied Woodpecker, various kinds of Sparrows, Tufted Titmouse, and Yellow-rumped Warbler.
The Warbler was new to me or at least I'd never noticed before. He looks like an over-inflated sparrow at first glance, but then I noticed the bright yellow spot on his head; he also sported a shot of pale yellow just below his wing "elbows" and had white bands on either side of his tail fan. I find that he is rather mean like a territorial hummingbird and runs all the other birds off to sit on the top of the feeder station to keep watch. A couple of days ago he hit the glass window and addled himself. We ran outside and wrapped him in a cloth because it was so cold and after a few minutes he was able to fly off again. I haven't yet been able to determine if there is more than one around here; if so, they don't congregate.
On Sunday Danny stayed home from church and while home he saw a Red-tailed Hawk light in the back yard near the feeders. He tried to take pictures but wasn't sure if he got anything. When I looked to see what he got he had accidentally gotten a short video of the hawk flying back into the tree. What a great surprise!
