Sunday (Wild) Bird Blogging

We've had two new visitors to our backyard birdfeeders recently. This morning we saw a brightly colored Western Meadowlark (above) making long visits to our flat feeder among the sparrows, house finches and white-winged doves.

We've spotted American goldfinches (above) a bunch of times lately, feeding on the drooping heads of our gone-to-seed sunflowers. Garden grown sunflower seeds are also quite popular with our sparrows and finches. It's funny to see the tall, leafy stalks of sunflowers shaking and quaking, signaling there's seed harvesting going on within the patch. The birds are often hanging upside down off the sunflower heads, bouncing away as they pick out the seeds. They also enjoy picking ants and other insects off the stalks, hopping along the stems in hot pursuit.

We haven't seen either of these species at our feeders in the past so pickings might be slim in the mountains and on the mesas due to the drought. Whatever the reason, we're happy to have them flitting around in our garden. (Images are generic photos -- we're not that quick with our camera!)