Our Other Page 1: The Birds and the Bees
Here are some of our bird friends from our feeder on the porch:
Male Cardinal. My all-time favorite bird, and our state bird. Cardinals are the state bird of most of the Midwest, but ironically not Missouri.They seem so friendly with their "birdie birdie birdie" call.
Female Cardinal. Don't tell the Pope! The cardinals usually appear at dusk, and they love sunflower seeds.
House Finch. In the summer of 2007, we had an explosion of House Finches - I counted three male-female pairs at the finch feeder at once. They've become one of my favorite birds, and they have an interesting call.
Purple Finch. Insert Sunshine Band bass-playing reference here. I don't get as many Purple Finches as I do House Finches.
Hey, Goldfeather! We started getting American Goldfinches at the finch feeder in the summer of 2002, just before the Austin Powers movie. They love thistle seeds and Fancy Finch mix and often share the feeder with the House Finches.
House Sparrow. We get tons of these. They're actually weaver finches.
Red-Wing Blackbird, singing in the dead of night, and all day too. They're LOUD! The blackbirds always take the most interest in the birdbath. The males dive right in and give themselves baths.
Mourning Dove. You certainly know their coo-AH-coo-coo-coo call - I've been hearing it for years. The doves, ironically, fight amongst themselves all the time, chasing each other around on the ground. So much for iconography!
Purple Grackle. The most despised birds at the feeder. I saw one beak a little finch in the back once in a fight over food. Unpleasant, noisy, messy, and useless! I hate them, but we saw many fewer grackles in 2006 than we have in recent years.
Downy Woodpecker. Our visitor looked a little less angry than this one.
Dark-Eyed Junco. A winter time favorite.
European Starling. A new visitor in the spring of 2002, attracted by the suet basket I got for Christmas. We've had up to three at a time on there.
"Ah yessss, my little Chickadee..." Actually, I hear more of W.C. Fields' favorite bird than I see of them. They do pay an occasional visit, but on the whole, they'd rather be in Philadelphia.
Duh nuh nuh nuh, nuh nuh nuh nuh, Duh nuh nuh, nuh nuh nuh nuh, Robin! I thought robins only ate worms, but these also eat seeds that have fallen from the feeder. Anybody seen Burt Ward lately?
There's a fog upon L.A., and this little friend seems to have lost his way. Actually, blue jays are enormous and loud, but very attractive with their blue feathers. Ours didn't "be very long" and has only visited a few times.
Brown-Headed Cowbirds began to come to the feeder in the spring of 2003. They're not the greatest of birds as they lay their eggs in other birds' nests.
Make way for mallards! I was just looking out at the porch one day and the next thing I know, there's a duck sticking her neck under the fence to eat seeds. Then the male came and sat down, making himself at home. Did they think my porch was the Boston Public Garden? I'm miles from any pond or lake! Where did they come from?
As if those mallards weren't bizarre enough, this yellow and green parakeet, "Frankie," visited the feeder almost every day from August to just before Thanksgiving of 2002, usually in tandem with a group of finches. He would fly right down and eat off the feeder, chirping all the way. I tried to catch him, but he wouldn't have anything to do with that. Frankie disappeared around Thanksgiving 2002, and I like to delude myself by thinking that Frankie flew south or west and is now singing away in Miami Beach, Palm Springs, or Las Vegas.
This little guy was a real oddball. He arrived in the Summer of 2003, and at first I thought he was a mutated Goldfinch (see above). His coloring, though, was closer to that of an egg yolk, he had a larger black cap on his head, and he had more black on his stomach. I visited a finch owner's bulletin board and asked if anyone knew. Someone passed this picture on to someone else at Stanford University and he said this guy is an Orange Bishop Finch. They are native to Africa, so obviously this was someone's escaped pet. The Lincoln Park Zoo has several Orange Bishops in their bird house - maybe that's where he came from?
Where there are birds, there must be bees, right? We get bumblebees every year. Maybe it has to do with the flower bags I hung up on the porch?  Or maybe they just like to dig holes in the wood?
The first time I saw seventeen-year cicadas, it was 1973, I was seven years old, and one of them jumped on my leg. I screamed! I only caught the end of the Chicago cicada invasion in 1990, but in 2007, they came back in droves. They buzzed and buzzed in the trees, singing a rare and different tune, for about four weeks in June 2007, but by the beginning of July, most had gone. One of them - a grandson of the 1973 bunch - jumped on my arm, but I didn't scream. I wonder where I'll be in 2024 when their children come out?
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