Our bluebird friends appeared - finally!

Bluebirds

8:00 a.m., it was 43 degrees and cloudy.

I toured around the lower gardens seeing chickadees, juncos, cardinals, white-throated sparrows, song sparrows, blue jays and robins. A carolina wren called from the golf course side.

Several house finches gathered together on a shrub. A mourning dove flew off from it's perch near the sumac. A towhee male appeared in that little triangle of scrub near the meadow where the seeds were attracting goldfinches and song sparrows in large numbers and American tree sparrows foraged nearby on the ground.

Ian appeared and I went around again with him. The large flock of cedar waxwings that Haynes saw yesterday flew from tree to tree and then back again. It's so nice to see birds in larger numbers than one or two. Ian spotted a bluebird in one of the trees of heaven and then we saw a second one on another branch. We were just saying a few weeks ago how no one has seen a bluebird this fall at the park and it was so strange, so better late than never! One bird was clearly a male, but we had some discussion as to whether the second bird was a young male or a female as it was grayish in color, but with more blue on it's back then I think the female normally has, but hard to say…

Cardinal

It seems at this time of year, the upper gardens are much quieter than the lower gardens and why that is, I have no idea. We did manage to see a white-throated sparrow, a flicker and a pair of cardinals.

The soccer field yielded some titmice and later a female towhee munching on some bright red, yummy looking berries. The pond has been waterless for some time now, thus living up to its reputation as an official vernal pool.

Looks like the kids from the Nature Center programs have filled up some of the bird feeders! The cardinal couldn't wait to get in there.

Still haven't seen the fox sparrows...