Groundhog Day!
Well, not really... But we have a new resident in the habitat (read that back yard) and he was happily sitting on the North Stump eating sunflower seeds this morning. Then he went after the fruit bowl for apples, but knocked it over. By Scruffy's reaction, he's taken up residency under the shed.
Lately we've been seeing a lot of the woodpeckers. Some of them are Downies and some are Hairies. The Hairy Woodpecker family consists of a male, a female and a juvenile male, while the Downy family seems to be just one male and female, but since they're never in the yard at the same time and it's hard to tell the juveniles from the females, that is not a definite count.
The catbirds, grackles and starlings have all fledged. The juvenile starlings are comical, especially when the suet feeder is empty. I haven't seen any juvenile cardinals, and I wonder if their nest was disturbed when we cut down the mulberry and locust trees (they were saplings growing through the hedge and interfering with the overhead wires). Cardinals normally brood twice, so hopefully we'll see some fledglings in the fall.
So that's the backyard wildlife habitat update. Perhaps it will stop raining long enough to work in it this weekend!
Lately we've been seeing a lot of the woodpeckers. Some of them are Downies and some are Hairies. The Hairy Woodpecker family consists of a male, a female and a juvenile male, while the Downy family seems to be just one male and female, but since they're never in the yard at the same time and it's hard to tell the juveniles from the females, that is not a definite count.
The catbirds, grackles and starlings have all fledged. The juvenile starlings are comical, especially when the suet feeder is empty. I haven't seen any juvenile cardinals, and I wonder if their nest was disturbed when we cut down the mulberry and locust trees (they were saplings growing through the hedge and interfering with the overhead wires). Cardinals normally brood twice, so hopefully we'll see some fledglings in the fall.
So that's the backyard wildlife habitat update. Perhaps it will stop raining long enough to work in it this weekend!